4get vs Stract
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | 4get | Stract |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 800 | ★ 2,371 |
| First released | 2022 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Google Search, Bing | Google Search, Bing |
What are 4get and Stract?
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
Stract
Stract is an open-source web search engine built from scratch in Rust. It includes its own crawler and index and aims to give users more transparency and control over ranking.
- Independent web crawler and index
- Customizable ranking signals
- Optic-based result filtering
- Modern Rust implementation
4get vs Stract: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Stract's repository is archived and no longer developed, while 4get is actively maintained. 4get is written in PHP, while Stract is built with Rust. 4get is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Stract. Stract has the considerably larger community, at 2,371 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 Stract if…
- Transparent ranking
- Independent index
Watch out for
- Large hardware requirements for full crawl
Frequently asked questions
Is 4get or Stract better?
Neither is universally better. Stract 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 Stract free and open-source?
Yes. 4get is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Stract under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run 4get and Stract with Docker?
4get: yes. Stract: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, 4get or Stract?
4get has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Stract. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.