YaCy
by YaCy · Self-hosted search engine software with a peer-to-peer index
33.5 — BenchRank score out of 100
Screenshots of YaCy
Homepage
Overview
YaCy is free search engine software that you install and run yourself. It can search a local or shared file system and an intranet, act as a self-defined crawler and search portal for an organisation, or join a peer-to-peer network in which many independently run devices contribute to a shared index. It collects no personalised data and has no phone-home.
- Best for
- Organisations and individuals wanting to run their own search index instead of using a hosted engine.
- Pricing
- The captured page describes YaCy as free software and shows no prices; it asks for donations and links to Patreon and GitHub Sponsors, and mentions paid-unstated consulting.
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- Free software you install and run on your own machines
- Covers local, intranet and organisation-wide search portals
- P2P mode shares an index across independently run peers
- No personalised data collection and no phone-home
Trade-offs
- You must host the software and run your own crawl to build an index
- The project depends on donations and community contributions
- Captured pages give no detail on setup effort or hardware requirements
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
- MCP support
- 0 out of 100
- Documentation
- 60 out of 100
- Agent friendliness
- 65 out of 100
- Changelog
- 0 out of 100
- Marketing site structure
- 60 out of 100
- Operational trust
- 15 out of 100
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
- Openness
- 30 out of 100
- Maintenance
- 85 out of 100
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