LibreY vs YaCy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | LibreY | YaCy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 63 · Good | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 322 | ★ 4,044 |
| First released | 2023 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
What are LibreY and YaCy?
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
YaCy
YaCy is a free, decentralized search engine built on peer-to-peer networking. Each installation crawls the web and shares its index with other peers, creating a search network with no central authority.
- Peer-to-peer decentralized index
- Built-in web crawler
- No central server or censorship
- Can run as a private intranet search
LibreY vs YaCy: key differences
LibreY is written in PHP, while YaCy is built with Java. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for LibreY versus GPL-2.0 for YaCy. LibreY is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for YaCy. YaCy is the more established project (first released 2003), while LibreY arrived in 2023. YaCy has the considerably larger community, at 4,044 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 YaCy if…
- Truly decentralized
- Censorship resistant
Watch out for
- Index quality varies
- Java resource use
Frequently asked questions
Is LibreY or YaCy better?
Neither is universally better. YaCy 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 YaCy free and open-source?
Yes. LibreY is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and YaCy under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run LibreY and YaCy with Docker?
LibreY: yes. YaCy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, LibreY or YaCy?
LibreY has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for YaCy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.