Best self-hosted search engines
A [search engine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_(computing)) is an [information retrieval system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_retrieval) designed to help find information stored on a computer system. This includes [Web search engines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_search_engine).
We track 16 self-hosted search engines projects. The median health score in this category is 67, against 7 projects rated healthy or better and 2 showing little recent activity. The table below is ordered by health score, not popularity — the most starred project in a category is frequently not the best maintained one.
| # | Project | Health | Activity | Stars | Built with | Last release |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ElasticSearch Distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine. | Thriving · 97 | 78k | Java | 23 Sept 2026 | |
| 2 | MeiliSearch Ultra relevant, instant and typo-tolerant full-text search API. | Thriving · 88 | 59k | Rust, Docker | 21 Sept 2026 | |
| 3 | OpenSearch Distributed and RESTful search engine. | Thriving · 88 | 14k | Java, Docker | 5 Aug 2026 | |
| 4 | Manticore Search Full-text search and data analytics, with fast response time for small, medium and big data (alternative to Elasticsearc | Thriving · 86 | 12k | Docker, deb | 11 Sept 2026 | |
| 5 | SearXNG Internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases (Fork of Searx). | Healthy · 73 | 38k | Python, Docker | — | |
| 6 | Hister Personal web search engine with automatic indexing of visited websites. Supports offline local result previews, local fi | Healthy · 73 | 5.8k | Go, Docker | 23 Feb 2026 | |
| 7 | Fess Powerful and easily deployable Enterprise Search Server. | Healthy · 71 | 1.1k | Java, Docker | 20 Aug 2026 | |
| 8 | Apache Solr Enterprise search platform featuring full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, real-time indexing, dynamic clu | Steady · 67 | 1.7k | Java, Docker | — | |
| 9 | Meme Search AI-powered meme search engine. Automatically extracts descriptions from images using vision-language models, then indexe | Steady · 62 | 752 | Docker | 5 Aug 2026 | |
| 10 | Yacy Peer based, decentralized search engine server. | Steady · 58 | 4k | Java, Docker | — | |
| 11 | Typesense Blazing fast, typo-tolerant open source search engine optimized for developer happiness and ease of use. | Steady · 55 | 27k | C++, Docker | 19 Apr 2026 | |
| 12 | Amgix Hybrid search engine built for flexible deployment and real-world messy data. | Slowing · 47 | 8 | Docker, K8S | 15 Aug 2026 | |
| 13 | Websurfx Aggregate results from other search engines (metasearch engine) without ads while keeping privacy and security in mind. | Slowing · 37 | 1.2k | Rust, Docker | 13 May 2026 | |
| 14 | bitmagnet BitTorrent indexer, DHT crawler, content classifier and torrent search engine with web UI, GraphQL API and Servarr stack | At risk · 34 | 4.4k | Go, Docker | 21 May 2026 | |
| 15 | Aleph Tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsin | At risk · 24 | 2.4k | Docker, K8S | 27 Oct 2025 | |
| 16 | Sosse Selenium based search engine and crawler with offline archiving. | Unrated | — | Python, Docker | — |
Which one should you run?
If you want the safest bet on longevity, ElasticSearch is the best-maintained project in this category right now at 97/100. MeiliSearch is the closest runner-up (88/100) — see the side-by-side comparison.
A health score measures whether a project is alive and shipping. It does not measure whether it has the feature you need. Use it to rule options out, then compare on features.