Araa Search 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 | Araa Search | Marginalia Search |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 54 · Fair | 68 · Good |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 334 | ★ 2,157 |
| First released | 2023 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search |
What are Araa Search and Marginalia Search?
Araa Search
Araa Search is a privacy-respecting, ad-free, self-hosted Google metasearch engine with full API support. It uses Qwant for images and DuckDuckGo for autocomplete, and runs as a small container.
- Privacy metasearch
- No ads or tracking
- Full API support
- Self-hostable
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
Araa Search vs Marginalia Search: key differences
Araa Search is written in Python, while Marginalia Search is built with Java. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Araa Search versus AGPL-3.0 for Marginalia Search. Araa Search is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Marginalia Search is the more established project (first released 2021), while Araa Search arrived in 2023. Marginalia Search has the considerably larger community, at 2,157 GitHub stars versus 334.
Why pick each one
Choose Araa Search if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
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 Araa Search or Marginalia Search better?
Neither is universally better. Marginalia Search has the larger community, while Araa Search is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Araa Search and Marginalia Search free and open-source?
Yes. Araa Search is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Marginalia Search under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Araa Search and Marginalia Search with Docker?
Araa Search: yes. Marginalia Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Araa Search or Marginalia Search?
Araa Search has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.