Perplexica

A self-hosted AI answer engine that searches the web with citations.

Editorially reviewedChecked Oct 2026How we review·11 visited this week

research#practical-oss#open-source#self-hosted#search

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Free plan API Self-hosted

Toolglade’s take

Perplexica (now rebranded by its maintainer as 'Vane') is a great self-hosted answer engine for people who want cited, Perplexity-style answers without handing their searches to a third party, and it shines when paired with local models via Ollama. It is best for privacy-minded and technical users comfortable with Docker and SearxNG; casual users wanting zero setup are better served by a hosted product, and answer quality still depends on the LLM you connect.

Should you use Perplexica?

Biggest strength: Gives direct answers with cited sources rather than just a list of links
Biggest weakness: Requires self-hosting with Docker and a working SearxNG setup, which is more effort than a hosted service
Pricing: Free plan
Top alternative: Andi · see all

Facts & pricing last checked October 2026. How we review

About Perplexica

Perplexica is an open-source alternative to Perplexity that searches the web and writes cited answers. You run it yourself, so your searches stay private.

Perplexica is an open-source, self-hosted AI answer engine, a privacy-focused alternative to Perplexity that you run on your own hardware. Instead of just returning links, it searches the web (using a bundled SearxNG metasearch engine) and uses an LLM to read the results and write a direct answer with cited sources, so you can check where information came from. It works with local models through Ollama as well as cloud providers like OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini and Groq, letting you keep queries private while choosing the model that fits. It offers different modes that trade speed for depth, can search the web, discussions or academic papers, supports image and video results, and lets you upload files (PDFs, text, images) to ask questions about them. Everything runs behind one web UI, typically via Docker. It is used by people who want private research and a self-hosted answer engine. Note: the maintainer has rebranded the project to 'Vane', so current releases and documentation use that name while the underlying tool and MIT license are the same.

Weighing your options?See how Perplexica compares to the alternatives.

Pros & cons

Pros

Gives direct answers with cited sources rather than just a list of links
Self-hosted and privacy-focused, with web search handled by a bundled SearxNG instance
Works with local models (Ollama) and major cloud providers (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq)
Multiple search modes plus focused sources (web, academic, discussions) and image/video results
File uploads for asking questions about your own documents, under a permissive MIT license

Cons

Requires self-hosting with Docker and a working SearxNG setup, which is more effort than a hosted service
Answer quality and cost depend on the LLM you connect; good results often mean paying a cloud provider or running capable local hardware
The project was recently renamed to 'Vane', so docs, image names and URLs are in flux and can be confusing
Authentication and some advanced features are still listed as upcoming rather than finished