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SearXNG

SearXNG is a privacy-respecting, self-hosted metasearch engine and maintained fork of searx that aggregates results from many search services.

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SearXNG is a privacy-respecting, self-hosted metasearch engine and maintained fork of searx that aggregates results from many search services. It gives homelabbers a controllable web search front end that does not track or profile users, supports selecting engines, and can sit behind a reverse proxy. Use it when you want an open-source, locally managed search interface that preserves user autonomy and privacy.

Platform availability

Available on 5 of 9 platforms

Health score?A 0-100 score computed nightly from four factors: maintained (40%: recent commits and steady activity), popular (25%: GitHub stars, log scale), easy to install (20%: platforms, install notes, setup guides, Docker image) and light to run (15%: minimum RAM, ARM support). When the source code has been checked, a fifth factor, security check (20%: automated scan for committed secrets, unsafe desktop-app settings, known-vulnerable dependencies and project hygiene; any serious finding caps it at 20), is added. Factors without data are left out and the rest are rescaled.

87/100 Excellent

Maintained
100last commit 11 days ago
Popular
9238,034 GitHub stars
Easy to install
755 install platforms, install notes, Docker image
Light to run
602 GB minimum RAM, runs on ARM
Security check
88no serious findings, 2 minor, CI, tests

Availability: platform listings confirmed today, links checked 17 days ago

GitHub stars
38,034
Open issues
193
Last commit
2026-10-04
License
AGPL-3.0
Activity
steady

Checked 9 days ago - source: GitHub (searxng/searxng)

Resources & Compatibility

Minimum requirements: 2 GB RAM. ARM (e.g. Raspberry Pi) is supported.

Checked 17 days ago - source: Docker Hub image tags and published docs

First-install notes

  • Set hostname and Let's Encrypt email in .env In the .env file next to docker-compose.yaml, set SEARXNG_HOSTNAME to your SearXNG domain and LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL to your contact email. This lets Caddy request a valid certificate for encrypted web traffic; if you skip it, encrypted web access may fail or the site may use an internal certificate. source
  • Keep the SearXNG data volume persistent Keep the searxng-data volume mapped in your Docker Compose setup so it survives container rebuilds and reboots. It holds SearXNG configuration and related state; if it is deleted, SearXNG starts with defaults and you lose saved settings. source
  • Start the stack with docker compose up -d Run docker compose up -d to start the SearXNG, Caddy, and Valkey services in the background. This makes the search site available; if you do not start the stack, the containers do not run and the site is offline. source

Fetched 17 days ago - each note links to its source

Alternatives (12)

  • 4get - 4get is a lightweight, open-source proxy search engine that provides a private, ad-free search experience.
  • Araa - A privacy-respecting, ad-free, self-hosted Google metasearch engine with strong security that offers full API support and utilizes Qwant fo…
  • Brave Search - Brave Search MCP Server is an open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that gives AI agents and large language model (LLM) clients a…
  • DuckDuckGo - Privacy-focused search engine offering Zero-click Info, instant answers, and more, built from open-source software for a user-friendly expe…
  • Ecosia - Search engine donating over 80% of profits to global reforestation, supporting millions of trees planted, funded by ad revenue, with mobile…
  • Google Search - Dominant search engine offering personalized results, image, video, news search, and voice capabilities, used across multiple platforms.
  • Kagi Search - Subscription-based search engine focusing on privacy, ad-free experience, deep customization, unbiased results, user-controlled features, a…
  • MetaGer - Open source metasearch engine with no tracking, combining results from multiple search engines, offering private, non-censored searches, an…
  • Mojeek - Privacy-focused search engine delivering independent, unbiased web and image results from its own index without tracking or profiling, host…
  • Openverse - Openverse is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone.
  • Qwant - Privacy-first European search engine offering multi-platform web and image search, no tracking, no personalized results, and supports 13 la…
  • Startpage - Privacy-focused search engine using Google results without trackers, storing no personal data, and offering Anonymous View for private brow…

Checked 14 days ago - source: AlternativeTo

Common questions

What do I need to set in .env for SearXNG Docker Compose TLS?

Set SEARXNG_HOSTNAME to your SearXNG domain and LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL to your contact email in the .env file next to docker-compose.yaml. This lets Caddy request a valid certificate, while skipping it can make encrypted web access fail or use an internal certificate.

Which Docker volume should I persist for SearXNG?

Keep the searxng-data volume mapped so it survives container rebuilds and reboots. It holds SearXNG configuration and related state, and deleting it makes SearXNG start with defaults and lose saved settings.

Why can't I expose SearXNG on a low port?

Opening a port at 1024 or below may fail because of a permission problem. Map SearXNG to a higher host port, such as 8000, for example by changing a Docker port mapping from 80:8080 to 8000:8080.

Is the JSON API enabled by default in SearXNG?

JSON is off by default. A broken engine can 500 every query, and most engines may get CAPTCHA'd from one IP.

Can SearXNG be used in a self-hosted AI search API?

A community project exposes a self-hosted API that combines AI queries with SearXNG search results. It is useful for building a local AI search bridge.

Answers sourced from apiserpent.com, github.com, github.com, www.reddit.com, www.reddit.com

Community

Collected 17 days ago - public community threads