Kagi Search

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Kagi Search

A curated collection of the 6 best self hosted alternatives to Kagi Search.

Kagi Search is a paid, ad-free web search service focused on user privacy and high-quality results. It offers customizable ranking, source-filtering “Lenses,” Quick Answers and AI-powered summarization to refine searches and accelerate research.

Alternatives List

#1
Perplexica

Perplexica

Self-hosted AI answering engine that combines web search with local or hosted LLMs to generate cited answers, with search history and file uploads.

Perplexica is a privacy-focused AI answering engine designed to run on your own hardware. It combines web search results with local or hosted LLMs to generate natural-language answers with cited sources.

Key Features

  • Web search integration powered by SearxNG to aggregate results from multiple engines
  • Supports local models via Ollama and multiple cloud LLM providers via API configuration
  • Answer generation with cited sources for traceability
  • Multiple search modes (speed/balanced/quality) to trade off latency vs depth
  • File uploads for document-based Q&A (such as PDFs, text files, and images)
  • Image and video search alongside standard web results
  • Domain-scoped search to focus results on specific websites
  • Smart query suggestions and a local search history
  • Built-in API for integrating search and answering into other applications

Use Cases

  • Private, self-hosted alternative to Perplexity-style web answering for individuals or teams
  • Research assistant that produces source-cited summaries from the open web
  • Internal tool that combines uploaded documents with web search for faster troubleshooting

Limitations and Considerations

  • Answer quality and latency depend heavily on the chosen model/provider and the availability/quality of web search results
  • Some functionality requires external provider API keys when not using a local model

Perplexica is well-suited for users who want a Perplexity-like experience while keeping searches and data under their control. With SearxNG-based search, configurable LLM backends, and citations, it aims to balance privacy, usability, and answer reliability.

28.3kstars
3kforks
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#2
SearXNG

SearXNG

SearXNG is a privacy-respecting metasearch engine that aggregates results from many search services without tracking or profiling users.

SearXNG screenshot

SearXNG is a free, privacy-focused metasearch engine that aggregates results from many search services and data sources into a single interface. It is designed to avoid user tracking and profiling, and can be operated as a private instance for stronger privacy guarantees.

Key Features

  • Aggregates results from a large set of configurable search engines and sources
  • Privacy protections that minimize tracking, profiling, and data leakage
  • Multiple UI themes and result formats, including a lightweight “simple” interface
  • Search API for programmatic queries and integrations
  • Extensible architecture with plugins/answerers and engine implementations
  • Optional caching and rate limiting features to improve performance and reduce abuse

Use Cases

  • Running a private search frontend for a household, team, or organization
  • Providing a privacy-friendly search experience on internal networks or privacy-centric services
  • Integrating metasearch into tools via the built-in search API

Limitations and Considerations

  • Result quality and availability depend on the upstream engines selected and their rate limits
  • Operating a public instance may require additional anti-abuse measures (for example bot detection and request limiting)

SearXNG is a strong choice when you want a customizable, privacy-respecting search experience while still benefiting from the breadth of multiple search providers. Its modular engine and plugin system makes it adaptable for both personal and organizational deployments.

24.2kstars
2.4kforks
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#3
Whoogle Search

Whoogle Search

Whoogle Search is a self-hosted, ad-free and privacy-respecting search frontend that removes tracking, ads, AMP links, and other clutter from Google results.

Whoogle Search screenshot

Whoogle Search is a self-hosted web application that fetches Google Search results on your behalf and presents them in a cleaner, privacy-respecting interface. It removes ads and many tracking mechanisms while proxying external content to reduce exposure of your IP address.

Key Features

  • Ad-free results with reduced tracking elements (including AMP links and common URL tracking parameters)
  • Works without third-party JavaScript and can be used with JavaScript disabled
  • Proxies result links and external content to help protect client identity
  • Optional Tor and HTTP/SOCKS proxy support for upstream requests
  • Autocomplete/search suggestions and optional location-based searching
  • Customizable UI (light/dark/system themes and custom CSS support)
  • DuckDuckGo-style bangs plus user-defined custom bangs
  • Basic authentication option and configurable security headers (CSP)
  • Optional JSON output for results via content negotiation

Use Cases

  • Running a private search portal for a household, team, or small organization
  • Using a privacy-friendly default search engine on desktop and mobile
  • Searching while routing requests through Tor or a proxy for additional anonymity

Limitations and Considerations

  • Upstream changes by Google can break or degrade functionality, especially around JavaScript requirements and anti-bot measures

Whoogle Search is a lightweight way to access Google results with fewer distractions and less tracking. It is easy to deploy and configure, but its reliability depends on how well it can keep up with changes to Google’s public search interfaces.

11.3kstars
1kforks
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#4
YaCy

YaCy

YaCy is a self-hostable search engine with crawler and indexing, supporting decentralized P2P search, standalone search portals, and intranet/file search.

YaCy is a self-hosted search engine stack combining a web crawler, an index, and a web UI for searching and managing content. It can run as a standalone search portal, an intranet search appliance, or as part of a decentralized peer-to-peer network that exchanges index data for web search.

Key Features

  • Built-in web crawler with scheduling to keep indexes fresh
  • Search UI plus administration interface for configuring crawls, indexes, and peers
  • Peer-to-peer mode for sharing index data without relying on a central operator
  • Standalone mode for private, local-only search results from your own index
  • Intranet search use case with network scanning to discover HTTP, FTP, and SMB servers
  • HTTP-based interfaces with XML/JSON outputs for many pages and functions

Use Cases

  • Run a private search portal for a curated set of websites you crawl
  • Provide intranet search across internal web services and shared resources
  • Participate in a community-operated decentralized web search network

Limitations and Considerations

  • Precompiled packages may be less frequent; building from source is commonly recommended
  • Requires Java (11+) and can be resource-intensive depending on crawl and index size

YaCy is suited to organizations and individuals who want control over crawling and indexing, and who prefer privacy-aware search without dependence on a centralized search provider. Its flexible modes make it useful both for private indexing and for distributed web search participation.

3.8kstars
472forks
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#5
Websurfx

Websurfx

Websurfx is a self-hostable meta search engine in Rust that aggregates results from multiple sources with a modern UI, caching, filtering, and privacy-focused defaults.

Websurfx is a self-hostable meta search engine that aggregates results from multiple search backends and presents them in a modern, fast interface. It is built in Rust with an emphasis on privacy, security, and performance.

Key Features

  • Meta search aggregation with a clean, ad-free results interface
  • Search filtering with multiple levels for controlling result quality
  • Built-in reranking to improve “organic” result ordering
  • Configurable caching backed by Redis to improve speed and reliability
  • Multiple theming options, including custom themes via CSS
  • Optional performance-oriented features for Linux (experimental io_uring)

Use Cases

  • Run a private search frontend for a home lab or organization
  • Provide a privacy-respecting search portal for users on a shared network
  • Deploy a lightweight, fast alternative interface for meta search

Limitations and Considerations

  • Some features are still missing or in progress (for example image search and additional categories)
  • Architecture support is currently focused on x86_64

Websurfx is a strong option for users who want a modern meta search experience while keeping control of privacy and deployment. Its Rust-based implementation and Redis-backed caching make it well-suited for fast, self-managed search frontends.

1kstars
114forks
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#6
Sosse

Sosse

Sosse is a Selenium-powered open-source web crawler and search engine for archiving, indexing, and monitoring dynamic websites.

Sosse screenshot

Sosse is an open-source search engine and web crawler designed to index, archive, and monitor web pages — including JavaScript-heavy sites — using browser-based rendering. It combines full-page archiving with flexible crawling policies and search capabilities for private or organizational use.

Key Features

  • Index and search web page content, including dynamically rendered pages via browser automation
  • Recurring and scheduled crawling with adaptive policies and queue management
  • Pixel-perfect archiving: preserve HTML and assets, rewrite links for local/offline viewing
  • Tagging and metadata support for organizing and filtering archived content
  • Batch file downloads and content deduplication for large-scale collection
  • Webhooks and RESTful API for integrations, automated processing, and AI-driven workflows
  • Atom feed generation and change detection for pages without feeds
  • Authentication and permission controls for accessing and searching private resources

Use Cases

  • Institutional web archiving and long-term preservation of web pages and assets
  • Internal site and document indexing for enterprise search and knowledge discovery
  • Continuous monitoring and competitive analysis with automated alerts and exports

Limitations and Considerations

  • Browser-based crawling (Selenium + headless browsers) increases resource usage and operational complexity compared to pure HTTP crawlers
  • Requires browser binaries and drivers plus a production database (PostgreSQL) for scalable deployments
  • Designed as a general-purpose crawler/search stack; very large-scale deployments may require additional tuning, infrastructure, and queue scaling strategies

Sosse is well suited for teams needing accurate rendering and archival fidelity for dynamic sites, combined with search and automation capabilities. It is distributed under a strong copyleft license and is commonly deployed using containerized images for evaluation and production.

386stars
21forks
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Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running