Morphic 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 | Morphic | Vane |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 96 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,140 | ★ 36,903 |
| First released | 2024 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search |
What are Morphic and Vane?
Morphic
Morphic is an open-source AI-powered answer engine featuring a generative interface. It searches the web and composes interactive, sourced answers and can be self-hosted with various model providers.
- Generative answer interface
- Web search with citations
- Multiple model provider support
- Self-hostable with Docker
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
Morphic vs Vane: key differences
Both projects are written in TypeScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Morphic versus MIT for Vane. Vane has the considerably larger community, at 36,903 GitHub stars versus 9,140.
Why pick each one
Choose Morphic if…
- Modern interactive UI
- Flexible model backends
Watch out for
- Requires external search API keys
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 Morphic or Vane better?
Neither is universally better. Vane has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Morphic and Vane free and open-source?
Yes. Morphic is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Vane under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Morphic and Vane with Docker?
Morphic: yes. Vane: yes.