PeARS vs Stract
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | PeARS | Stract |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 0 · At risk | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | HTML | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 38 | ★ 2,371 |
| First released | 2017 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
What are PeARS and Stract?
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
Stract
Stract is an open-source web search engine built from scratch in Rust. It includes its own crawler and index and aims to give users more transparency and control over ranking.
- Independent web crawler and index
- Customizable ranking signals
- Optic-based result filtering
- Modern Rust implementation
PeARS vs Stract: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Stract's repository is archived and no longer developed, while PeARS is actively maintained. PeARS is written in HTML, while Stract is built with Rust. PeARS is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Stract. PeARS is the more established project (first released 2017), while Stract arrived in 2023. Stract has the considerably larger community, at 2,371 GitHub stars versus 38.
Why pick each one
Choose PeARS if…
- Very lightweight
- Community oriented
Watch out for
- Small project and index
Choose Stract if…
- Transparent ranking
- Independent index
Watch out for
- Large hardware requirements for full crawl
Frequently asked questions
Is PeARS or Stract better?
Neither is universally better. Stract has the larger community, while PeARS is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are PeARS and Stract free and open-source?
Yes. PeARS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Stract under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run PeARS and Stract with Docker?
PeARS: yes. Stract: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, PeARS or Stract?
PeARS has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Stract. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.