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Searx VS Apache Solr

Compare Searx VS Apache Solr and see what are their differences

Searx logo Searx

Open source metasearch engine

Apache Solr logo Apache Solr

Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on Lucene search library, with XML/HTTP and...
  • Searx Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-25
  • Apache Solr Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-28

Searx features and specs

  • Privacy
    Searx does not track your searches or log any user information, safeguarding privacy.
  • Customizable
    The platform allows users to configure their own instances and adjust the settings according to their preferences.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, Searx encourages transparency and community contributions, improving security and innovation.
  • Multiple Sources
    Searx aggregates results from various search engines and databases, providing a more comprehensive search result.
  • Ad-Free
    Searx does not display ads in its search results, offering a cleaner user experience.

Possible disadvantages of Searx

  • Performance
    Aggregating searches from multiple sources can result in slower performance compared to dedicated search engines.
  • Reliability
    Searx instances can suffer from downtime or availability issues, especially those run by volunteers or smaller providers.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Searx might not offer some of the advanced features and functionalities available in proprietary search engines like Google.
  • Quality Variability
    Search result quality can vary depending on the sources selected and the instance configuration.
  • User Interface
    The interface may not be as polished or user-friendly as some of the major search engines.

Apache Solr features and specs

  • Scalability
    Apache Solr is highly scalable, capable of handling large amounts of data and numerous queries per second. It supports distributed search and indexing, which allows for horizontal scaling by adding more nodes.
  • Flexibility
    Solr provides flexible schema management, allowing for dynamic field definitions and easy handling of various data types. It supports a variety of search query types and can be customized to meet specific search requirements.
  • Rich Feature Set
    Solr comes with a wealth of features out-of-the-box, including faceted search, result highlighting, multi-index search, and advanced filtering capabilities. It also offers robust analytics and joins support.
  • Community and Documentation
    Being an open-source project, Apache Solr has a strong community and comprehensive documentation, which ensures continuous improvements, updates, and extensive support resources for developers.
  • Integrations
    Solr integrates well with a variety of databases and data sources, and it provides REST-like APIs for ease of integration with other applications. It also has strong support for popular programming languages like Java, Python, and Ruby.
  • Performance
    Solr is built on top of Apache Lucene, which provides high performance for searching and indexing. It is optimized for speed and can handle rapid data ingestion and real-time indexing.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Solr

  • Complexity
    The initial setup and configuration of Apache Solr can be complex, particularly for those not already familiar with search engines and indexing concepts. Managing a distributed Solr installation also requires considerable expertise.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Solr, especially for large datasets, can be resource-intensive in terms of both memory and CPU. It requires careful tuning and adequate hardware to maintain performance.
  • Learning Curve
    The learning curve for Apache Solr can be steep due to its extensive feature set and the complexity of its configuration options. New users may find it challenging to get up to speed quickly.
  • Consistency Issues
    In distributed setups, ensuring data consistency can be challenging, particularly for users unfamiliar with managing clustered environments. There may be delays or issues with synchronizing indexes across multiple nodes.
  • Maintenance
    Ongoing maintenance of a Solr instance, including monitoring, tuning, and scaling, can be labor-intensive. This requires dedicated effort to keep the system running efficiently over time.
  • Limited Real-time Capabilities
    Although Solr provides near real-time indexing, it may not be as effective as some specialized real-time search engines. For applications requiring truly real-time capabilities, additional solutions might be necessary.

Searx videos

Searx.me: an open source, privacy respecting alternative to Google Search

More videos:

  • Review - DeGoogleing // Duck Duck Go amd Searx
  • Review - TOP 5 privacy search engines - Best Google Search Alternatives - DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Qwant, Searx

Apache Solr videos

Solr Index - Learn about Inverted Indexes and Apache Solr Indexing

More videos:

  • Review - Solr Web Crawl - Crawl Websites and Search in Apache Solr

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Searx and Apache Solr)
Search Engine
69 69%
31% 31
Custom Search Engine
0 0%
100% 100
Internet Search
100 100%
0% 0
Custom Search
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Searx and Apache Solr

Searx Reviews

The best private search engines for secure browsing
Searx is a free, privacy-focused metasearch engine. It doesn’t share users’ IP addresses and search history with the search engines it uses. Searx also blocks cookies and protects against tracking HTTPS headers, pixels, and malicious scripts. Moreover, it prevents search result filtering according to your search habits, so it is very handy if you want to minimize third-party...
Source: nordvpn.com
12 Google Alternatives: Best Search Engines To Use In 2019
It retrieves search results from numerous sources that include famous ones like Google, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, etc. SearX is an open-source Google alternative and available to everyone for a source code review as well as contributions on GitHub. You can even customize it as your own metasearch engine and host it on your server.
Source: fossbytes.com
8 Privacy Oriented Alternative Search Engines To Google in 2018
If you are fond of utilizing Torrent clients to download stuff, this search engine will help you find the magnet links to the exact files when you try searching for a file through searX. When you access the settings (preferences) for searX, you would find a lot of advanced things to tweak from your end.
Source: itsfoss.com

Apache Solr Reviews

Top 10 Site Search Software Tools & Plugins for 2022
Apache Solr is optimized to handle high-volume traffic and is easy to scale up or down depending on your changing needs. The near real-time indexing capabilities ensure that your content remains fresh and search results are always relevant and updated. For more advanced customization, Apache Solr boasts extensible plug-in architecture so you can easily plug in index and...
5 Open-Source Search Engines For your Website
Apache Solr is the popular, blazing-fast, open-source enterprise search platform built on Apache Lucene. Solr is a standalone search server with a REST-like API. You can put documents in it (called "indexing") via JSON, XML, CSV, or binary over HTTP. You query it via HTTP GET and receive JSON, XML, CSV, or binary results.
Source: vishnuch.tech
Elasticsearch vs. Solr vs. Sphinx: Best Open Source Search Platform Comparison
Solr is not as quick as Elasticsearch and works best for static data (that does not require frequent changing). The reason is due to caches. In Solr, the caches are global, which means that, when even the slightest change happens in the cache, all indexing demands a refresh. This is usually a time-consuming process. In Elastic, on the other hand, the refreshing is made by...
Source: greenice.net
Algolia Review – A Hosted Search API Reviewed
If you’re not 100% satisfied with Algolia, there are always alternative methods to accomplish similar results, such as Solr (open-source & self-hosted) or ElasticSearch (open-source or hosted). Both of these are built on Apache Lucene, and their search syntax is very similar. Amazon Elasticsearch Service provides a fully managed Elasticsearch service which makes it easy to...
Source: getstream.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Searx should be more popular than Apache Solr. It has been mentiond 40 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Searx mentions (40)

  • Just a reminder that WhatsApp is also owned by Facebook
    Meaning, you can go to public instances like searx.me,. Here's the documentation on how to start it up. But , you dont have to trust Searx that they are good people nor do you have to trust their data habits like DDG. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Instead of lashing out at duckduckgo for doing what they think is best, ask the deeper question of why we’re all still using centralized services and being disappointed when they behave in a predictably centralized way.
    Consider a future where something like https://searx.me/ is as ubiquitous as Tor. Source: about 3 years ago
  • DDG, once a hero has now fallen.
    For those looking for a replacement for Duckduckgo; I would highly recommend using Searx. It's an open source privacy respecting search engine with many decentralized private instances you can swap between. The link I sent is the primary instance, but here is a link with dozens more, and my own private instance. Source: about 3 years ago
  • DuckDuckGo is out. I guess I'll try Brave Search.
    The most based solution: Https://searx.me. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Uh oh.. What will the vaccinated think of this news?
    Searx.me and Startpage.com are the best search engines right now that are anti-censorship and anti-bias. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

Apache Solr mentions (19)

  • List of 45 databases in the world
    Solr — Open-source search platform built on Apache Lucene. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Considerations for Unicode and Searching
    I want to spend the brunt of this article talking about how to do this in Postgres, partly because it's a little more difficult there. But let me start in Apache Solr, which is where I first worked on these issues. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Swirl: An open-source search engine with LLMs and ChatGPT to provide all the answers you need 🌌
    Using the Galaxy UI, knowledge workers can systematically review the best results from all configured services including Apache Solr, ChatGPT, Elastic, OpenSearch, PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery, plus generic HTTP/GET/POST with configurations for premium services like Google's Programmable Search Engine, Miro and Northern Light Research. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Looking for software
    Apache Solr can be used to index and search text-based documents. It supports a wide range of file formats including PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and plain text files. https://solr.apache.org/. Source: about 2 years ago
  • 'google-like' search engine for files on my NAS
    If so, then https://solr.apache.org/ can be a solution, though there's a bit of setup involved. Oh yea, you get to write your own "search interface" too which would end up calling solr's api to find stuff. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Searx and Apache Solr, you can also consider the following products

DuckDuckGo - The Internet privacy company that empowers you to seamlessly take control of your personal information online, without any tradeoffs.

ElasticSearch - Elasticsearch is an open source, distributed, RESTful search engine.

Google - Google Search, also referred to as Google Web Search or simply Google, is a web search engine developed by Google. It is the most used search engine on the World Wide Web

Algolia - Algolia's Search API makes it easy to deliver a great search experience in your apps & websites. Algolia Search provides hosted full-text, numerical, faceted and geolocalized search.

StartPage - Startpage search engine, the new private way to search Google. Protect your Privacy with Startpage!

Typesense - Typo tolerant, delightfully simple, open source search 🔍