SearXNG: Private Metasearch Without the Google Profile

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🛠️ SearXNG

What it isPrivacy-focused metasearch: one query, many backends, no user profile
PlatformWeb (any browser); self-host on Linux, Docker, or a VPS
PriceFree, open source (AGPL-3.0)
LinkGitHub · Docs · Public instances

Google and Bing are fine until you remember they remember you. Every query feeds a profile; every profile feeds ads. SearXNG sits in the middle instead: you type once, it fans the query out to many search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Brave, Wikipedia, and dozens more), then shows you a merged result page. The instance you use sees your IP, but SearXNG itself does not build a search history or sell attention. For most people the fastest path is not installing anything—open searx.space, pick an online instance, and search.

  1. Start in under a minute. searx.space lists public SearXNG instances with uptime, country, TLS grade, and response time. Click a green row, bookmark it, set it as your browser’s default search engine. No account, no extension required.
  2. One box, many engines. SearXNG is a metasearch engine: backends are configurable per instance. Images, news, science papers, and map tiles can each route to different providers. You get breadth without opening six tabs.
  3. Privacy is architectural, not marketing. Queries go through the instance operator’s server, not Google’s ad stack. SearXNG does not profile users; you can also run it over Tor. The tradeoff: you trust whoever runs the instance you pick.
  4. Public instances are a convenience, not a guarantee. Heavy shared instances get rate-limited or CAPTCHA-blocked by upstream engines more often. searx.space warns about this openly. For daily driver quality, self-host or use a small private instance.
  5. Self-host when you care about consistency. Official Docker setup or the install guide gets you a URL only you use. Configuration lives in YAML; you choose which engines stay enabled.

Use searx.space to hop on now

You do not need a repo clone to try SearXNG today.

  1. Open searx.space — maintained by the SearXNG project, refreshed daily (response times every few hours).
  2. Scan the online instances table. Useful columns: TLS and CSP grades, country, uptime, search response time. Toggle Hide networks with privacy issue if you want to skip Cloudflare-proxied or analytics-heavy hosts.
  3. Click an instance URL. You land on a normal search page—type a query and hit enter.
  4. Bookmark the instance or add it as a custom search engine in Firefox (Settings → Search → Add). In Chrome: Settings → Search engine → Manage → Add.

Cannot pick one instance? searx.space lists meta-instances that redirect to a random healthy server (e.g. Neocities or Gimmeasearx). Handy for a first look; less ideal as a permanent default because the backend changes.

For programmatic use, searx.space exposes instances.json (format may change—check the site).

Self-host (optional)

If a public instance feels slow or returns empty Google rows, run your own:

git clone https://github.com/searxng/searxng-docker.git
cd searxng-docker
docker compose up -d

Default install docs and engine tuning: docs.searxng.org. Expect to babysit engine blocks and the limiter if your instance is open to the world.

Worth your time if: you want web search without building a Google-shaped dossier of your interests, and you are willing to trade a slightly rougher result page for that. Skip it if you need Google’s one-box answers, signed-in Gmail integration, or flawless image search every time—metasearch will frustrate you on those edges.

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