OpenGrok vs Zoekt
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted developer tools & git options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | OpenGrok | Zoekt |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 82 · Excellent |
| Category | Developer Tools & Git | Developer Tools & Git |
| License | CDDL-1.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,958 | ★ 1,925 |
| First released | 2005 | 2016 |
| Replaces | GitHub Code Search | GitHub Code Search |
What are OpenGrok and Zoekt?
OpenGrok
OpenGrok is a source code search and cross-reference engine that indexes large codebases for fast navigation and history exploration. It understands many languages and integrates with version control systems.
- Cross-reference navigation
- Many language analyzers
- Version control integration
- History search
Zoekt
Zoekt is a fast text search engine optimized specifically for source code, using trigram indexing for rapid regular expression search. It powers code search in several developer platforms.
- Trigram-indexed search
- Fast regex queries
- Compact index format
- Web and gRPC interfaces
OpenGrok vs Zoekt: key differences
OpenGrok is written in Java, while Zoekt is built with Go. Licensing differs — CDDL-1.0 for OpenGrok versus Apache-2.0 for Zoekt. Zoekt is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for OpenGrok. OpenGrok is the more established project (first released 2005), while Zoekt arrived in 2016. OpenGrok has the considerably larger community, at 4,958 GitHub stars versus 1,925.
Why pick each one
Choose OpenGrok if…
- Released under the CDDL-1.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (5k GitHub stars)
- Written in Java
Choose Zoekt if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenGrok or Zoekt better?
Neither is universally better. OpenGrok has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are OpenGrok and Zoekt free and open-source?
Yes. OpenGrok is licensed under CDDL-1.0 and Zoekt under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenGrok and Zoekt with Docker?
OpenGrok: yes. Zoekt: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, OpenGrok or Zoekt?
Zoekt has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for OpenGrok. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.