Meilisearch vs SearX
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Meilisearch
Fast, typo-tolerant search engine for applications
VS
SearX
The original privacy-respecting metasearch engine
| Feature | Meilisearch | SearX |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Rust | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 58,904 | ★ 13,532 |
| First released | 2018 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Elasticsearch | Google Search, Bing |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Meilisearch or SearX better?
Neither is universally better. Meilisearch has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Meilisearch and SearX free and open-source?
Yes. Meilisearch is licensed under MIT and SearX under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Meilisearch and SearX with Docker?
Meilisearch: yes. SearX: yes.