QGato Search Engine

A self-hosted private metasearch engine that aims to be more resource-efficient than its competition.

Bare in mind that this project is still WIP

Comparison to other 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 15-20MiB at idle, 17-22MiB when searching
Result caching	❌	❌	❓	❓	❓	✅
Dynamic Page Loading	❓ Not specified	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅
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 loger 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

• Self-hosted option - Run on your own server for even more privacy.
• Lightweight - Low memory footprint (15-22MiB) even during searches.
• Decentralized - No single point of failure.
• Results caching in RAM - Faster response times through caching.
• Configurable - Tweak features via config.ini.
• 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 1.18 or higher recommended)
• Git (unexpected)
• Access to the internet for fetching results (even more unexpected)

Running the QGato

Linux:

git clone https://weforge.xyz/Spitfire/Search.git
cd Search
chmod +x ./run.sh
./run.sh

Windows:

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

Its that easy!

Configuring

Configuration is done via the config.ini file. On first start, you will be guided through the basic setup. More advanced setup and all options will be listed here later, as this is still being updated.

License