PeARS vs YaCy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | PeARS | YaCy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 0 · At risk | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | HTML | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 38 | ★ 4,044 |
| First released | 2017 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
What are PeARS and YaCy?
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
YaCy
YaCy is a free, decentralized search engine built on peer-to-peer networking. Each installation crawls the web and shares its index with other peers, creating a search network with no central authority.
- Peer-to-peer decentralized index
- Built-in web crawler
- No central server or censorship
- Can run as a private intranet search
PeARS vs YaCy: key differences
PeARS is written in HTML, while YaCy is built with Java. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for PeARS versus GPL-2.0 for YaCy. PeARS is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for YaCy. YaCy is the more established project (first released 2003), while PeARS arrived in 2017. YaCy has the considerably larger community, at 4,044 GitHub stars versus 38.
Why pick each one
Choose PeARS if…
- Very lightweight
- Community oriented
Watch out for
- Small project and index
Choose YaCy if…
- Truly decentralized
- Censorship resistant
Watch out for
- Index quality varies
- Java resource use
Frequently asked questions
Is PeARS or YaCy better?
Neither is universally better. YaCy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are PeARS and YaCy free and open-source?
Yes. PeARS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and YaCy under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run PeARS and YaCy with Docker?
PeARS: yes. YaCy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, PeARS or YaCy?
PeARS has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for YaCy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.