SHSelfHostIndex

PeARS vs MetaGer

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?
PE PeARS Lightweight distributed web search you can host yourself VS ME MetaGer Privacy-respecting metasearch engine you can host
FeaturePeARSMetaGer
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
CategorySearch EnginesSearch Engines
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageHTMLPHP
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 38★ 200
First released20171996
ReplacesGoogle SearchGoogle Search, Bing

What are PeARS and MetaGer?

PeARS

PeARS is a lightweight, distributed web search engine designed to run on modest hardware. It lets communities index and share parts of the web without a central server.

  • Runs on low-power hardware
  • Community-shared indexes
  • Decentralized search
  • Privacy preserving

MetaGer

MetaGer is an open-source metasearch engine that aggregates results from multiple sources while protecting user privacy. Its core software can be deployed to run a self-hosted private search portal.

  • Aggregated metasearch
  • Privacy protection
  • Result anonymization
  • Configurable sources

PeARS vs MetaGer: key differences

PeARS is written in HTML, while MetaGer is built with PHP. MetaGer is the more established project (first released 1996), while PeARS arrived in 2017. MetaGer has the considerably larger community, at 200 GitHub stars versus 38.

Why pick each one

Choose PeARS if…

  • Very lightweight
  • Community oriented

Watch out for

  • Small project and index
PeARS details

Choose MetaGer if…

  • Strong privacy stance
  • Long-running project

Watch out for

  • Heavier than minimal metasearch
  • PHP stack
MetaGer details

Frequently asked questions

Is PeARS or MetaGer better?

Neither is universally better. MetaGer has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are PeARS and MetaGer free and open-source?

Yes. PeARS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MetaGer under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run PeARS and MetaGer with Docker?

PeARS: yes. MetaGer: yes.

Related comparisons