head to head · open source
Meilisearch vs SearXNG
Meilisearch has 59,758 GitHub stars, 2,786 forks, 321 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SearXNG has 39,138 stars, 3,572 forks, 215 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Meilisearch leads on adoption by 53% (59,758 vs 39,138 stars). Meilisearch is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; SearXNG is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Meilisearch has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, SearXNG 9%. SearXNG was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (search), 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
| Meilisearch | SearXNG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 60K | ★ 39K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 3.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Meilisearch if
- You weight community size — 60K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- 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 Meilisearch
Website Roadmap Meilisearch Cloud Blog Documentation FAQ Discord ⚡ A lightning fast search engine that fits effortlessly into your apps, websites, and workflow 🔍 Meilisearch helps you shape a delightful search experience in a snap, offering features that work out of the box to speed up your workflow. 🖥 Examples Movies — An application to help you find streaming platforms to watch movies using hybrid search. Flickr — Search and explore one hundred million Flickr images with semantic search. Ecommerce — Ecommerce website using disjunctive facets, range and rating filtering, and pagination. Home Booking A…
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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 Meilisearch or SearXNG more popular?
Meilisearch has 59,758 GitHub stars and SearXNG has 39,138. Meilisearch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Meilisearch and SearXNG free?
Both are open source. Meilisearch 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 Meilisearch and SearXNG?
Meilisearch is written in Rust 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, Meilisearch or SearXNG?
Choose Meilisearch if you want the larger community (59,758 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.