LibreY 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 | LibreY | Marginalia Search |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 63 · Good | 68 · Good |
| 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 | ★ 322 | ★ 2,157 |
| First released | 2023 | 2021 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search |
What are LibreY and Marginalia Search?
LibreY
LibreY is a free and open-source metasearch engine that aggregates results from multiple sources without tracking users or showing ads. It is a lightweight, self-hostable front end for private web searching.
- Aggregates multiple sources
- No tracking or ads
- Lightweight and fast
- Instance federation
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
LibreY vs Marginalia Search: key differences
LibreY is written in PHP, while Marginalia Search is built with Java. LibreY is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Marginalia Search is the more established project (first released 2021), while LibreY arrived in 2023. Marginalia Search has the considerably larger community, at 2,157 GitHub stars versus 322.
Why pick each one
Choose LibreY if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
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 LibreY or Marginalia Search better?
Neither is universally better. Marginalia Search has the larger community, while LibreY is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are LibreY and Marginalia Search free and open-source?
Yes. LibreY 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 LibreY and Marginalia Search with Docker?
LibreY: yes. Marginalia Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, LibreY or Marginalia Search?
LibreY 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.