Mwmbl 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 | Mwmbl | Whoogle Search |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,861 | ★ 11,570 |
| First released | 2021 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Google Search, Bing | Google Search |
What are Mwmbl and Whoogle Search?
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
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
Mwmbl vs Whoogle Search: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Whoogle Search's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Mwmbl is actively maintained. Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Mwmbl versus MIT for Whoogle Search. Whoogle Search is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Mwmbl. Whoogle Search has the considerably larger community, at 11,570 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 Whoogle Search if…
- Very lightweight
- Clean minimal results
Watch out for
- Depends on scraping Google
Frequently asked questions
Is Mwmbl 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 Mwmbl and Whoogle Search free and open-source?
Yes. Mwmbl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Whoogle Search under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mwmbl and Whoogle Search with Docker?
Mwmbl: yes. Whoogle Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Mwmbl or Whoogle Search?
Whoogle Search has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Mwmbl. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.