Websurfx vs YaCy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted search engines options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Websurfx | YaCy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Search Engines | Search Engines |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,200 | ★ 4,044 |
| First released | 2023 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Google Search | Google Search, Bing |
What are Websurfx and YaCy?
Websurfx
Websurfx is an open-source, privacy-respecting, fast metasearch engine written in Rust that aggregates results from multiple search engines. It is self-hosted with a hot-reloadable theming engine.
- Rust metasearch engine
- Privacy-respecting
- Hot-reloadable themes
- Lightweight
YaCy
YaCy is a free, decentralized search engine built on peer-to-peer networking. Each installation crawls the web and shares its index with other peers, creating a search network with no central authority.
- Peer-to-peer decentralized index
- Built-in web crawler
- No central server or censorship
- Can run as a private intranet search
Websurfx vs YaCy: key differences
Websurfx is written in Rust, while YaCy is built with Java. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Websurfx versus GPL-2.0 for YaCy. Websurfx is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for YaCy. YaCy is the more established project (first released 2003), while Websurfx arrived in 2023. YaCy has the considerably larger community, at 4,044 GitHub stars versus 1,200.
Why pick each one
Choose Websurfx if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.2k GitHub stars)
Choose YaCy if…
- Truly decentralized
- Censorship resistant
Watch out for
- Index quality varies
- Java resource use
Frequently asked questions
Is Websurfx or YaCy better?
Neither is universally better. YaCy has the larger community, while Websurfx is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Websurfx and YaCy free and open-source?
Yes. Websurfx is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and YaCy under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Websurfx and YaCy with Docker?
Websurfx: yes. YaCy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Websurfx or YaCy?
Websurfx has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for YaCy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.