Recoll vs Sonic
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?
Recoll
Full-text desktop and server search for your documents
VS
Sonic
Fast, lightweight schema-less search backend
| Feature | Recoll | Sonic |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | C++ | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 300 | ★ 21,299 |
| First released | 2005 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Google Desktop | Algolia, Elasticsearch |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is Recoll or Sonic better?
Neither is universally better. Sonic has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Recoll and Sonic free and open-source?
Yes. Recoll is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Sonic under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Recoll and Sonic with Docker?
Recoll: check the project docs for container support. Sonic: yes.