# Searx

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Searx and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free metasearch engine useful for hard-to-find things and as a search tool for local models. Critics say results are mixed and slower than Google.

## Why people recommend it

- Works as a tool for AI and scripts (2 comments): "I use it as the web search tool MCP for local models and it works very well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48267282)) "Searx exists and can provide JSON." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942475))

## What people warn about

- Results weaker than Google (3 comments): "It didn't give the same result as Google, and it also have 10k request rate limit" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46731678)) "Decentralized search engines like Searx have middling results" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50129995)) "Searx and the like are slow and results are mixed." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47409796))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Kagi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kagi.md): 732 recommend
- [DuckDuckGo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/duckduckgo.md): 286 recommend
- [SearXNG](https://hackerapproved.com/p/searxng.md): 76 recommend
- [Brave Search](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-search.md): 67 recommend
- [Startpage](https://hackerapproved.com/p/startpage.md): 25 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Searx", https://hackerapproved.com/p/searx/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).