Marginalia Search vs Whoogle Search
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 | Whoogle Search |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | MIT |
| Language | Java | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 4,096 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,157 | ★ 11,570 |
| First released | 2021 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search |
What are Marginalia Search and Whoogle Search?
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
Whoogle Search
Whoogle Search is a lightweight, self-hosted metasearch engine that returns Google results without ads, JavaScript, tracking or cookies. It offers a clean, minimal interface focused on privacy.
- Ad-free Google results
- No JavaScript or tracking
- Custom theming and config
- Works as a browser search engine
Marginalia Search vs Whoogle Search: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Whoogle Search's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Marginalia Search is actively maintained. Marginalia Search is written in Java, while Whoogle Search is built with Python. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Marginalia Search versus MIT for Whoogle Search. Whoogle Search is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Whoogle Search has the considerably larger community, at 11,570 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 Whoogle Search if…
- Very lightweight
- Clean minimal results
Watch out for
- Depends on scraping Google
Frequently asked questions
Is Marginalia Search or Whoogle Search better?
Whoogle Search is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Whoogle Search if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Marginalia Search and Whoogle Search free and open-source?
Yes. Marginalia Search is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Whoogle Search under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Marginalia Search and Whoogle Search with Docker?
Marginalia Search: yes. Whoogle Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Marginalia Search or Whoogle Search?
Whoogle Search has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Marginalia Search. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.