Perplexica 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?
Perplexica
Open-source AI-powered search engine
VS
SearX
The original privacy-respecting metasearch engine
| Feature | Perplexica | SearX |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,045 | ★ 13,532 |
| First released | 2024 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Perplexica or SearX better?
Neither is universally better. Perplexica has the larger community, while SearX is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Perplexica and SearX free and open-source?
Yes. Perplexica is licensed under MIT and SearX under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Perplexica and SearX with Docker?
Perplexica: yes. SearX: yes.