Best self-hosted Search Engines software in 2026

A search engine) is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. This includes Web search engines.

We track 16 open-source, self-hosted Search Engines apps. 13 of them had commits in the last 90 days, 16 can run with Docker, and the most common licenses are AGPL-3.0 (5), Apache-2.0 (4), MIT (3). The most-used languages are Java, Rust, Python. Below are the top picks by GitHub stars, followed by every app ranked by stars weighted by maintenance health.

Alternatives to Google Search Alternatives to Algolia Alternatives to Elasticsearch

Top 5 by GitHub stars

#	App	Stars	Health	Last activity	License	Language	Docker
1	ElasticSearch	78.7k	Active	2026-11-10	SSPL-1.0	Java	✓
2	MeiliSearch	59.9k	Active	2026-11-09	MIT	Rust, Docker	✓
3	SearXNG	39.6k	Active	2026-11-09	AGPL-3.0	Python, Docker	✓
4	Typesense	27.1k	Active	2026-11-06	GPL-3.0	C++, Docker	✓
5	OpenSearch	14k	Active	2026-11-10	Apache-2.0	Java, Docker	✓

ElasticSearch — Distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine.
MeiliSearch — Ultra relevant, instant and typo-tolerant full-text search API.
SearXNG — Internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases (fork of Searx).
Typesense — Blazing fast, typo-tolerant search engine optimized for developer happiness and ease of use.
OpenSearch — Distributed and RESTful search engine.

Head-to-head comparisons

ElasticSearch vs MeiliSearch ElasticSearch vs SearXNG ElasticSearch vs Typesense MeiliSearch vs SearXNG MeiliSearch vs Typesense SearXNG vs Typesense

All 16 self-hosted Search Engines apps

Ranked by GitHub stars weighted by maintenance health.

ElasticSearch

Distributed, RESTful search and analytics engine.

Active ★ 78.7k SSPL-1.0 🐳 Docker~$20/mo

MeiliSearch

Ultra relevant, instant and typo-tolerant full-text search API.

Active ★ 59.9k MIT 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

SearXNG

Internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases (fork of Searx).

Active ★ 39.6k AGPL-3.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Typesense

Blazing fast, typo-tolerant search engine optimized for developer happiness and ease of use.

Active ★ 27.1k GPL-3.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

OpenSearch

Distributed and RESTful search engine.

Active ★ 14k Apache-2.0 🐳 Docker~$20/mo

Manticore Search

Full-text search and data analytics, with fast response time for small, medium and big data (alternative to Elasticsearch).

Active ★ 12.1k GPL-3.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Hister

Personal web search engine with automatic indexing of visited websites. Supports offline local result previews, local files, multi-user handling and optional semantic search.

Active ★ 6.3k AGPL-3.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Yacy

Peer based, decentralized search engine server.

Active ★ 4.1k GPL-2.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Apache Solr

Enterprise search platform featuring full-text search, hit highlighting, faceted search, real-time indexing, dynamic clustering, and rich document (e.g., Word, PDF) handling.

Active ★ 1.7k Apache-2.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Websurfx

Aggregate results from other search engines (metasearch engine) without ads while keeping privacy and security in mind. It is extremely fast and provides a high level of customization (alternative to SearX).

Active ★ 1.2k AGPL-3.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Fess

Powerful and easily deployable Enterprise Search Server.

Active ★ 1.1k Apache-2.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

bitmagnet

BitTorrent indexer, DHT crawler, content classifier and torrent search engine with web UI, GraphQL API and Servarr stack integration.

Maintained ★ 4.5k MIT 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Meme Search

AI-powered meme search engine. Automatically extracts descriptions from images using vision-language models, then indexes with vector embeddings for semantic and keyword search.

Active ★ 770 Apache-2.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Aleph

Tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case.

Maintained ★ 2.5k MIT 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Amgix

Hybrid search engine built for flexible deployment and real-world messy data.

Active ★ 11 AGPL-3.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Sosse

Selenium based search engine and crawler with offline archiving.

Maintained ★ 2 AGPL-3.0 🐳 Docker~$10/mo

Frequently asked questions

What is the best self-hosted Search Engines software in 2026?

By GitHub stars, the most popular self-hosted Search Engines apps are ElasticSearch (78,682 stars), MeiliSearch (59,858 stars), SearXNG (39,566 stars). Popularity is only one signal: also check maintenance health, license and whether it fits your setup.

How many self-hosted Search Engines apps are actively maintained?

13 of the 16 apps listed had commits in the last 90 days and 3 more in the last 12 months.

Which self-hosted Search Engines apps can I run with Docker?

16 of the 16 apps can run with Docker; 3 publish an image on Docker Hub, including ElasticSearch, Aleph and Fess.

Which licenses do self-hosted Search Engines apps use?

The most common licenses in this category are AGPL-3.0 (5 apps), Apache-2.0 (4 apps), MIT (3 apps).

How much does it cost to self-host Search Engines software?

The software itself is free to download. Based on our rough hardware estimates, the cheapest suitable VPS plan starts at about $10/month (median $10/month across apps in this category). Several light apps can share one server.

Figures from GitHub and Docker Hub as of 2026-11-15; hosting costs are rough estimates.