4get vs Marginalia Search
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | 4get | Marginalia Search |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 800 | ★ 2,154 |
| First released | 2022 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Google Search, Bing | Google Search |
What are 4get and Marginalia Search?
4get
4get is a free and open-source metasearch engine that proxies results from many providers with a focus on privacy and a clean, minimal interface. It requires no JavaScript and stores no user data.
- JavaScript-free metasearch
- Image, video and news search
- No tracking or logging
- Clean minimal interface
Marginalia Search
Marginalia Search is an open-source independent web search engine with its own crawler and index, designed to surface text-focused, non-commercial websites. It can be self-hosted to run a private instance.
- Independent web crawler and index
- Text-focused results
- Self-hostable
- Non-commercial bias
4get vs Marginalia Search: key differences
4get is written in PHP, while Marginalia Search is built with Java. 4get is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Marginalia Search has the considerably larger community, at 2,154 GitHub stars versus 800.
Why pick each one
Choose 4get if…
- Very lightweight
- No JavaScript needed
Watch out for
- Less known, fewer public instances
Choose Marginalia Search if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.2k GitHub stars)
- Written in Java
Frequently asked questions
Is 4get or Marginalia Search better?
Neither is universally better. Marginalia Search has the larger community, while 4get is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are 4get and Marginalia Search free and open-source?
Yes. 4get is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Marginalia Search under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run 4get and Marginalia Search with Docker?
4get: yes. Marginalia Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, 4get or Marginalia Search?
4get has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.