SearXNG vs Stract
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
SearXNG
Privacy-respecting metasearch engine aggregating many sources
VS
Stract
Archived
Open-source web search engine you can self-host
| Feature | SearXNG | Stract |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 4,096 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 37,570 | ★ 2,371 |
| First released | 2021 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Google Search, Bing | Google Search, Bing |
What are SearXNG and Stract?
SearXNG
SearXNG is a free, open-source metasearch engine that aggregates results from more than 70 search services without tracking or profiling users. It is the actively maintained fork of the original SearX project.
- Aggregates 70+ search engines
- No tracking or user profiling
- Customizable engines and categories
- Optional result proxying
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
SearXNG vs Stract: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Stract's repository is archived and no longer developed, while SearXNG is actively maintained. SearXNG is written in Python, while Stract is built with Rust. SearXNG is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 4,096 MB for Stract. SearXNG is the more established project (first released 2021), while Stract arrived in 2023. SearXNG has the considerably larger community, at 37,570 GitHub stars versus 2,371.
Why pick each one
Choose SearXNG if…
- Strong privacy guarantees
- Highly configurable
Watch out for
- Public instances can be rate limited
Choose Stract if…
- Transparent ranking
- Independent index
Watch out for
- Large hardware requirements for full crawl
Frequently asked questions
Is SearXNG or Stract better?
SearXNG is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Stract if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are SearXNG and Stract free and open-source?
Yes. SearXNG is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Stract under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SearXNG and Stract with Docker?
SearXNG: yes. Stract: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, SearXNG or Stract?
SearXNG has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 4,096 MB for Stract. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.