head to head · open source
Elasticsearch vs SearXNG
Elasticsearch has 78,462 GitHub stars, 26,239 forks, 6,059 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SearXNG has 39,138 stars, 3,572 forks, 215 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Elasticsearch leads on adoption by 100% (78,462 vs 39,138 stars). Elasticsearch is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; SearXNG is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Elasticsearch has attracted 33% as many forks as stars, SearXNG 9%. Elasticsearch was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (search-engine), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Elasticsearch | SearXNG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 39K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 26K | ⑂ 3.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Elasticsearch if
- You weight community size — 78K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick SearXNG if
- You want the SearXNG feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and SearXNG fits your workflow better
About Elasticsearch
= Elasticsearch Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine, scalable data store and vector database optimized for speed and relevance on production scale workloads. Elasticsearch is the foundation of Elastic's open Stack platform. Search in near real time over massive datasets, perform vector searches, integrate with generative AI applications, and much more. Use cases enabled by Elasticsearch include: Augmented Generation (RAG)] search] Full text search Logs Metrics Application performance monitoring (APM) Security logs \... and more! To learn more about Elasticsearch's features and…
read the full Elasticsearch overview →
About SearXNG
.. SPDX License Identifier: AGPL 3.0 or later .. metasearch engine: .. Installation guide: .. Configuration guide: .. CONTRIBUTING: .. LICENSE: .. figure:: :target: :alt: SearXNG :width: 512px SearXNG is a metasearch engine . Users are neither tracked nor profiled. .. image:: :target: :alt: Organization .. image:: :target: :alt: Documentation .. image:: :target: :alt: License .. image:: :target: :alt: Commits .. image:: :target: :alt: Translated Setup ===== To install SearXNG, see Installation guide . To fine tune SearXNG, see Configuration guide . Further information on how to can be found here . Connect…
read the full SearXNG overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Elasticsearch or SearXNG more popular?
Elasticsearch has 78,462 GitHub stars and SearXNG has 39,138. Elasticsearch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Elasticsearch and SearXNG free?
Both are open source. Elasticsearch has no licence declared in this registry, and SearXNG is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Elasticsearch and SearXNG?
Elasticsearch is written in Java and SearXNG in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Elasticsearch or SearXNG?
Choose Elasticsearch if you want the larger community (78,462 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose SearXNG if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.