Mwmbl vs YaCy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Mwmbl | YaCy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,861 | ★ 4,044 |
| First released | 2021 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Google Search, Bing | Google Search, Bing |
What are Mwmbl and YaCy?
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
YaCy
YaCy is a free, decentralized search engine built on peer-to-peer networking. Each installation crawls the web and shares its index with other peers, creating a search network with no central authority.
- Peer-to-peer decentralized index
- Built-in web crawler
- No central server or censorship
- Can run as a private intranet search
Mwmbl vs YaCy: key differences
Mwmbl is written in Python, while YaCy is built with Java. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Mwmbl versus GPL-2.0 for YaCy. YaCy is the more established project (first released 2003), while Mwmbl arrived in 2021. YaCy has the considerably larger community, at 4,044 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 YaCy if…
- Truly decentralized
- Censorship resistant
Watch out for
- Index quality varies
- Java resource use
Frequently asked questions
Is Mwmbl or YaCy better?
Neither is universally better. YaCy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Mwmbl and YaCy free and open-source?
Yes. Mwmbl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and YaCy under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Mwmbl and YaCy with Docker?
Mwmbl: yes. YaCy: yes.