Marginalia Search vs Vane
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 | Vane |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 96 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Java | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,157 | ★ 36,903 |
| First released | 2021 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search |
What are Marginalia Search and Vane?
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
Vane
Perplexica is an open-source AI-powered answer engine that searches the web and uses language models to provide sourced answers. It can run fully self-hosted alongside SearXNG and local LLMs.
- AI answers with cited sources
- Works with local LLMs
- Multiple focus modes
- Uses SearXNG as a backend
Marginalia Search vs Vane: key differences
Marginalia Search is written in Java, while Vane is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Marginalia Search versus MIT for Vane. Vane is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Marginalia Search is the more established project (first released 2021), while Vane arrived in 2024. Vane has the considerably larger community, at 36,903 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 Vane if…
- Self-hosted AI search
- Simple Docker deployment
- Free and open source
Watch out for
- LLM backend required
- Young project
Frequently asked questions
Is Marginalia Search or Vane better?
Vane is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Marginalia Search if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Marginalia Search and Vane free and open-source?
Yes. Marginalia Search is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Vane under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Marginalia Search and Vane with Docker?
Marginalia Search: yes. Vane: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Marginalia Search or Vane?
Vane has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.