Perplexica
Open-source AI search engine, self-hosted
FreeAIOpen Source4 impressions
Perplexica is a free alternative to Perplexity.
Vane is a self-hosted, privacy-focused AI answering engine that combines web search with local or cloud LLMs and cites sources.
- for
- Developers and teams needing private AI-powered search and Q&A on their own infrastructure
- pricing
- open source
- license
- MIT
Key features
- Multi-model support — Connect to local Ollama models or cloud providers like OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and Groq.
- Smart search modes — Choose Speed, Balanced or Quality mode to trade off response time and depth.
- SearxNG web search — Aggregates results from many search engines while keeping the user’s identity private.
- Widgets & quick lookups — UI cards provide weather, calculations, stock prices and other on-the-fly data.
- File uploads — Ask questions about PDFs, text files or images after uploading them.
- Domain-specific search — Limit queries to selected websites or documentation sources.
- Search history — All queries are stored locally for later review.
- Image & video search — Retrieve visual content alongside text results.
Use cases
- Researching technical documentation within a private intranet
- Answering questions from uploaded PDFs or code files
- Getting quick data like weather or stock prices without leaving the UI
- Performing private web searches for competitive analysis
- Running AI-assisted queries on internal knowledge bases
Perplexica vs alternatives
 Perplexica |  Cline |  Gemini CLI |  LangChain |  LlamaIndex | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | Self-hosted AI search with source citations | AI-assisted coding inside editors | Command-line AI interactions | LLM app development framework | Data indexing for LLM applications |
| Pricing | Open source | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| DevHunt upvotes | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Launched | — | — | — | — | — |
- Perplexica vs Cline: Cline is an autonomous coding agent for IDEs, not a self-hosted search engine.
- Perplexica vs Gemini CLI: Gemini CLI provides a terminal AI agent, whereas Vane focuses on web-search-augmented answers.
- Perplexica vs LangChain: LangChain is a framework for building LLM apps, while Vane is a ready-to-run search-answer product.
- Perplexica vs LlamaIndex: LlamaIndex helps index custom data for LLMs; Vane already includes indexing, web search and UI widgets.
Perplexica FAQ
How do I install Vane?+
Vane can be run via Docker with a single command, or built from source using npm if you prefer a non-Docker setup.
Can I use my own search engine instead of SearxNG?+
Yes, you can run the slim Docker image and point it to your own SearxNG instance via the SEARXNG_API_URL environment variable.
What LLM providers are supported?+
Vane supports local models through Ollama and cloud APIs from OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, Groq and others.
Is my search data private?+
All searches and history are stored locally; no data is sent to external services unless you configure a remote provider.
How do I fix Ollama connection errors?+
Ensure the Ollama API URL is correct (e.g., http://host.docker.internal:11434) and that Ollama is listening on 0.0.0.0 with the proper port open.
Can I limit searches to specific domains?+
Yes, Vane lets you restrict queries to chosen websites, useful for targeting documentation or research sites.
Summarized by DevHunt from github.com · Oct 7, 2026. Details may change; check the official site.
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