SearXNG vs Tantivy

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?
FeatureSearXNGTantivy
CategorySearch EnginesSearch Engines
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePythonRust
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, bare-metalsource, binary
GitHub stars★ 35,091★ 15,656
First released20212016
ReplacesGoogle Search, BingElasticsearch

Why pick each one

Choose SearXNG if…

  • Strong privacy guarantees
  • Highly configurable
SearXNG details

Choose Tantivy if…

  • Very fast
  • Embeddable in apps
Tantivy details

Frequently asked questions

Is SearXNG or Tantivy better?

SearXNG is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Tantivy if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are SearXNG and Tantivy free and open-source?

Yes. SearXNG is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Tantivy under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run SearXNG and Tantivy with Docker?

SearXNG: yes. Tantivy: check the project docs for container support.

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