Mwmbl 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 | Mwmbl | Vane |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 96 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,861 | ★ 36,903 |
| First released | 2021 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Google Search, Bing | Google Search |
What are Mwmbl and Vane?
Mwmbl
Mwmbl is a non-profit, ad-free and open-source web search engine with a community-curated index. Users can help crawl and rank pages, and the whole stack can be self-hosted.
- Community-curated search index
- Crowd-sourced crawling
- No ads or tracking
- Fully open and self-hostable
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
Mwmbl vs Vane: key differences
Mwmbl is written in Python, while Vane is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Mwmbl versus MIT for Vane. Mwmbl 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 1,861.
Why pick each one
Choose Mwmbl if…
- Transparent non-profit model
- Community driven
Watch out for
- Index still growing
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 Mwmbl 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 Mwmbl and Vane free and open-source?
Yes. Mwmbl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Vane under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mwmbl and Vane with Docker?
Mwmbl: yes. Vane: yes.