Marginalia Search 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 | Marginalia Search | Stract |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Java | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,157 | ★ 2,371 |
| First released | 2021 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
What are Marginalia Search and Stract?
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
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
Marginalia Search vs Stract: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Stract's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Marginalia Search is actively maintained. Marginalia Search is written in Java, while Stract is built with Rust. Marginalia Search is the more established project (first released 2021), while Stract arrived in 2023.
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 Stract if…
- Transparent ranking
- Independent index
Watch out for
- Large hardware requirements for full crawl
Frequently asked questions
Is Marginalia Search or Stract better?
Neither is universally better. Stract has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Marginalia Search and Stract free and open-source?
Yes. Marginalia Search is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Stract under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Marginalia Search and Stract with Docker?
Marginalia Search: yes. Stract: yes.