Compare software

The Silver Searcher vs ack: catalog facts
The Silver Searcher	ack
Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.	Free Free and open source.
Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Searches code across project files Respects common repository ignore files	Built for searching source code rather than general text Full Perl regular expressions
Requires a terminal to use	Needs a Perl interpreter Newer tools such as ripgrep are typically faster on very large trees
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: Artistic-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 8, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.