Orama vs SearX
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Orama
Fast full-text and vector search engine for any runtime
VS
SearX
The original privacy-respecting metasearch engine
| Feature | Orama | SearX |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | source, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 10,519 | ★ 13,532 |
| First released | 2022 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Algolia, Elasticsearch | Google Search, Bing |
Why pick each one
Choose Orama if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 10.5k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Orama or SearX better?
Neither is universally better. SearX has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Orama and SearX free and open-source?
Yes. Orama is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SearX under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Orama and SearX with Docker?
Orama: check the project docs for container support. SearX: yes.