PeARS vs Whoogle Search
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | PeARS | Whoogle Search |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | MIT |
| Language | HTML | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 38 | ★ 11,570 |
| First released | 2017 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search |
What are PeARS and Whoogle Search?
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
Whoogle Search
Whoogle Search is a lightweight, self-hosted metasearch engine that returns Google results without ads, JavaScript, tracking or cookies. It offers a clean, minimal interface focused on privacy.
- Ad-free Google results
- No JavaScript or tracking
- Custom theming and config
- Works as a browser search engine
PeARS vs Whoogle Search: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Whoogle Search's repository is archived and no longer developed, while PeARS is actively maintained. PeARS is written in HTML, while Whoogle Search is built with Python. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for PeARS versus MIT for Whoogle Search. Whoogle Search is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for PeARS. PeARS is the more established project (first released 2017), while Whoogle Search arrived in 2020. Whoogle Search has the considerably larger community, at 11,570 GitHub stars versus 38.
Why pick each one
Choose PeARS if…
- Very lightweight
- Community oriented
Watch out for
- Small project and index
Choose Whoogle Search if…
- Very lightweight
- Clean minimal results
Watch out for
- Depends on scraping Google
Frequently asked questions
Is PeARS or Whoogle Search better?
Whoogle Search is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Whoogle Search if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are PeARS and Whoogle Search free and open-source?
Yes. PeARS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Whoogle Search under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run PeARS and Whoogle Search with Docker?
PeARS: yes. Whoogle Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, PeARS or Whoogle Search?
Whoogle Search has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for PeARS. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.