QGato Search Engine

A self-hosted private search engine designed to be scalable and more resource-efficient than its competitors.

Bear in mind that this project is still WIP

Comparison to other open-source search engines

Feature	Whoogle [1]	Araa-Search	LibreY	4get	SearchXNG	QGato
Works without JavaScript	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Music search	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
Torrent search	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
API	❌	❌ [2]	✅	✅	✅	✅
Scalable	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅
Not Resource Hungry	❓ Moderate	❌ Very resource hungry	❌ Moderate 200-400mb~	❌ Moderate 200-400mb~	❌ Moderate 200-300MiB~	✅ about 15-30MiB even when searching
Result caching	❓	❓	❓	❓	❓	✅
Dynamic Page Loading	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
User themable	❌	✅	❌	❌	❓[3]	✅
Unusual logo choice	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌

[1]: I was not able to check this since their site does not work, same for the community instances.

[2]: In the project repo they specify that it has API, but It looks like they are no longer supporting it. Or just removed "API" button and documentation, since I was not able to find it anymore.

[3]: It is called 'User Themable' because you want to give the user freedom of choice for their theme, not by hard-setting one theme in the backend and calling it themable.

Features

For Casual Users

• Works out of the box - No configuration required, just works by default.
• No tracking or ads - Fully private, ad-free experience.
• Custom themes - Personalize the look and feel.
• Search suggestions - Get faster results with helpful suggestions.
• Privacy-first - Open-source and transparent (unlike DuckDuckGo).
• Annoyance-free - No pop-ups, crypto, or clutter (I'm looking at you, Brave).

For Self-Hosting

• Easy to Set Up - Quick and straightforward setup process for anyone.
• Lightweight - Low memory footprint (15-30MiB) even during searches.
• Decentralized - No single point of failure.
• Results caching in RAM - Faster response times through caching.
• Configurable - Fully customizable via the config.ini file.
• Flexible media support - Images optionally stored on HDD/SSD for caching and improved response time.

Results Sources

• Search suggestions - Sources include Yahoo, Startpage, Qwant, Ecosia, Brave, Edge, and DuckDuckGo.
• Text search - Google, Brave, DuckDuckGo, LibreX/Y.
• Image search - Sources include Qwant, Bing, and Imgur.
• Video search - Utilizes the Piped API.
• Maps - Integrated OpenStreetMap.
• File downloads - Access via torrent sources.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go version 1.24.9 or newer
• C build tools
• Git (unexpected)
• Access to the internet for fetching results (even more unexpected)

Running the QGato

git clone https://weforge.xyz/Spitfire/Search.git
cd Search
go run .

Its that easy!

Configuring

• Configuration is done via the config.ini file.
• On first start, you will be guided through the basic setup.
• For more advanced configuration options, visit the Wiki Configuration Page.

License