Alternatives to LibreY
A self-hostable privacy-respecting metasearch engine built without frameworks or JavaScript. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
LibreY
A self-hostable privacy-respecting metasearch engine built without frameworks or JavaScript.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as LibreY.
SearXNG
Self-hosted metasearch engine that aggregates results without profiling you.
SearXNG aggregates dozens of engines under the AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted, though running an instance needs ongoing maintenance and public instances may be rate limited.
4get
A proxying metasearch engine you can use through public instances or host yourself.
4get proxies searches through public instances or your own server, is reachable over Tor and has an API, but is not open source.
MetaGer
A privacy-focused metasearch engine and anonymous browsing service paid for with a prepaid key.
MetaGer is a hosted open-source metasearch engine run by a non-profit that requires a prepaid key instead of self-hosting, and adds anonymous browsing.
DuckDuckGo Search
A web search engine that does not track or profile its users.
DuckDuckGo Search is a free hosted engine with no profiling and no setup, but the service is closed source and shows ads alongside results.
Startpage
A web search engine that does not keep search histories and lets you view results anonymously.
Startpage is a hosted search engine with anonymous viewing of result pages, relying on the operator's stated policy instead of a server you control.
Brave Search
A private web search engine built on its own independent index, with optional AI answers.
Brave Search uses its own independent index rather than querying upstream engines, adds optional AI answers, and cannot be self-hosted.
Mojeek
An independent UK search engine with its own crawler and index that does not track users.
Mojeek is a UK engine with its own crawler and index and an API, though its smaller index can return fewer results and it is closed source.
Qwant
A French web search engine hosted in Europe that says it does not keep search data.
Qwant is a closed-source search engine hosted in Europe with apps for iOS and Android, and result quality varies outside French and European content.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Kagi
A paid, ad-free web search engine with anti-tracking, result customization and an AI assistant.
Swisscows
A Swiss private search engine with no tracking and results filtered to be family-friendly.
Sepia Search
A search engine for videos, channels and playlists hosted across many PeerTube instances.
Mozhi
A self-hostable alternative front end for Google Translate, DeepL and other translation engines.
