Stork vs tinysearch
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Stork | tinysearch |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 18 · At risk | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Rust | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,760 | ★ 2,972 |
| First released | 2019 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Algolia | Algolia |
What are Stork and tinysearch?
Stork
Stork is an open-source tool that builds a search index from your content and serves instant search on static sites using WebAssembly. It is small, fast, and requires no server-side component.
- WebAssembly search
- Static index files
- No backend
- Accessible UI
tinysearch
tinysearch is a lightweight full-text search engine that compiles a static site's content into a small WebAssembly module for client-side search. It is designed for blogs and documentation where a search server would be overkill.
- WebAssembly search module
- No backend required
- Tiny index size
- Client-side full-text search
Stork vs tinysearch: key differences
Both projects are written in Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Stork versus MIT for tinysearch.
Why pick each one
Choose Stork if…
- Instant client-side results
- Easy integration
Watch out for
- Best for smaller sites
- Manual index builds
Choose tinysearch if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Stork or tinysearch better?
Neither is universally better. tinysearch has the larger community, while Stork is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Stork and tinysearch free and open-source?
Yes. Stork is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tinysearch under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Stork and tinysearch with Docker?
Stork: check the project docs for container support. tinysearch: check the project docs for container support.