LibreY 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 | LibreY | Stract |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 63 · Good | 15 · At risk |
| 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 | ★ 322 | ★ 2,371 |
| First released | 2023 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
What are LibreY and Stract?
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
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
LibreY vs Stract: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Stract's repository is archived and no longer developed, while LibreY is actively maintained. LibreY is written in PHP, while Stract is built with Rust. LibreY 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 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 Stract if…
- Transparent ranking
- Independent index
Watch out for
- Large hardware requirements for full crawl
Frequently asked questions
Is LibreY or Stract better?
Neither is universally better. Stract 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 Stract free and open-source?
Yes. LibreY is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Stract under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run LibreY and Stract with Docker?
LibreY: yes. Stract: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, LibreY or Stract?
LibreY 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.