Marginalia Search vs SearX
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Marginalia Search | SearX |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 65 · Good |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Java | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,157 | ★ 13,553 |
| First released | 2021 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
What are Marginalia Search and SearX?
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
SearX
SearX is the original open-source metasearch engine that aggregates results from multiple search engines while protecting user privacy. It paved the way for the modern SearXNG fork.
- Privacy-respecting metasearch
- No tracking of queries
- Configurable engine list
- JSON API output
Marginalia Search vs SearX: key differences
Marginalia Search is written in Java, while SearX is built with Python. SearX is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. SearX is the more established project (first released 2014), while Marginalia Search arrived in 2021. SearX has the considerably larger community, at 13,553 GitHub stars versus 2,157.
Why pick each one
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
Choose SearX if…
- Lightweight
- Foundational privacy search
Watch out for
- Largely superseded by SearXNG
Frequently asked questions
Is Marginalia Search or SearX better?
SearX is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Marginalia Search if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Marginalia Search and SearX free and open-source?
Yes. Marginalia Search is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SearX under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Marginalia Search and SearX with Docker?
Marginalia Search: yes. SearX: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Marginalia Search or SearX?
SearX 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.