Product / UX / UI & API

Perplexica

Open-source, privacy-focused AI answer engine - a self-hostable alternative to Perplexity. It pairs a bundled SearXNG metasearch layer with local or cloud LLMs to return AI-generated answers with cited sources, all runnable on your own machine so searches stay local. Supports multiple model providers (Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint), web/academic/discussion/image/video search modes, speed/balanced/quality tiers, and file-upload RAG. The differentiator is full self-hosting and privacy for the Perplexity-style answer-with-sources experience.

MIT-licensed; ~35k GitHub stars and 100k+ Docker pulls by mid-2026. NOTE the project was renamed Perplexica -> Vane (~Mar 2026) to avoid name proximity to Perplexity AI; the github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Perplexica URL now redirects to .../Vane. Still widely known and listed as "Perplexica". Self-host via a single bundled Docker image (Next.js frontend + API + private SearXNG).

Openness

5 high confidence

5.0

license: MIT(OSI)
source: public(github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Vane)
self-host: primary(single bundled Docker image)
core-gated: ungated

Fully OSI-licensed (MIT), complete source public, self-hosting is the primary distribution via a bundled Docker image - a true open answer engine. No premium tier or gated functionality identified.

https://github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Vane recorded 2026-06-17
MIT license; ~35k stars; open Perplexity-alternative answer engine (formerly Perplexica)

Adoption

3 medium confidence

3.0

~35k GitHub stars plus 100k+ Docker pulls on the current itzcrazykns1337/vane image by mid-2026 - genuine install volume (usage_volume, not stars-only), but well below the 1M+ band, so mid-tier.

https://hub.docker.com/r/itzcrazykns1337/vane recorded 2026-06-17
100K+ Docker pulls for the self-host image

Capability

4 medium confidence

4.0

Strong provider breadth, bundled metasearch, search modes, and file-upload RAG; loses a point for no built-in multi-user/auth and limited multimodal generation. Scoped to search-and-answer.

https://github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Vane recorded 2026-06-17
feature set: multi-provider, bundled SearXNG, search modes, file-upload RAG

Unchanged since 2026-07-30 (last edited, not re-checked)