Vane vs Whoogle Search
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Vane | Whoogle Search |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 96 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,903 | ★ 11,570 |
| First released | 2024 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search |
What are Vane and Whoogle Search?
Vane
Perplexica is an open-source AI-powered answer engine that searches the web and uses language models to provide sourced answers. It can run fully self-hosted alongside SearXNG and local LLMs.
- AI answers with cited sources
- Works with local LLMs
- Multiple focus modes
- Uses SearXNG as a backend
Whoogle Search
Whoogle Search is a lightweight, self-hosted metasearch engine that returns Google results without ads, JavaScript, tracking or cookies. It offers a clean, minimal interface focused on privacy.
- Ad-free Google results
- No JavaScript or tracking
- Custom theming and config
- Works as a browser search engine
Vane vs Whoogle Search: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Whoogle Search's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Vane is actively maintained. Vane is written in TypeScript, while Whoogle Search is built with Python. Whoogle Search is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Vane. Whoogle Search is the more established project (first released 2020), while Vane arrived in 2024. Vane has the considerably larger community, at 36,903 GitHub stars versus 11,570.
Why pick each one
Choose Vane if…
- Self-hosted AI search
- Simple Docker deployment
- Free and open source
Watch out for
- LLM backend required
- Young project
Choose Whoogle Search if…
- Very lightweight
- Clean minimal results
Watch out for
- Depends on scraping Google
Frequently asked questions
Is Vane or Whoogle Search better?
Neither is universally better. Vane has the larger community, while Whoogle Search is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Vane and Whoogle Search free and open-source?
Yes. Vane is licensed under MIT and Whoogle Search under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Vane and Whoogle Search with Docker?
Vane: yes. Whoogle Search: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Vane or Whoogle Search?
Whoogle Search has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Vane. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.