SurfSense vs Verba
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted self-hosted ai options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | SurfSense | Verba |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 95 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Self-Hosted AI | Self-Hosted AI |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 16,255 | ★ 7,704 |
| First released | 2024 | 2023 |
| Replaces | NotebookLM, Perplexity | NotebookLM |
What are SurfSense and Verba?
SurfSense
SurfSense is a self-hosted AI research assistant that connects to your documents, browser history, and external sources to answer questions with citations. It functions as a private alternative to NotebookLM and Perplexity.
- Cited research answers
- Connectors for many sources
- Local and cloud LLM support
- Podcast generation
Verba
Verba is an open-source retrieval-augmented generation application that lets you query and chat with your data. Built around Weaviate, it offers a customizable interface and supports many model providers.
- End-to-end RAG app
- Weaviate integration
- Many model providers
- Customizable UI
SurfSense vs Verba: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Verba's repository is archived and no longer developed, while SurfSense is actively maintained. Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for SurfSense versus BSD-3-Clause for Verba. SurfSense has the considerably larger community, at 16,255 GitHub stars versus 7,704.
Why pick each one
Choose SurfSense if…
- Answers with citations
- Many source connectors
- Private NotebookLM alternative
Watch out for
- Young project
- Multi-service stack
Choose Verba if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is SurfSense or Verba better?
Neither is universally better. SurfSense has the larger community, while Verba is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are SurfSense and Verba free and open-source?
Yes. SurfSense is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Verba under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run SurfSense and Verba with Docker?
SurfSense: yes. Verba: yes.