serp.fast

Alexandria

Open, decentralized search index project aiming to build a community-owned alternative to Google and Bing.

Nathan Kessler
By Nathan KesslerUpdated

Each tool is evaluated against our methodology using public docs, vendor demos, and hands-on testing.

Independent web indexes maintain their own crawl of the web, separate from Google or Bing. This independence is valuable for AI applications that need unbiased search results, want to avoid rate limits on commercial search engines, or need specialized coverage. Several of these indexes are open source, allowing full transparency into how results are ranked.

Visit Alexandria →

Features

–JS Rendering
✓Structured Output
✓Open Source
✓Self-Hosted Option
Pricing:Free

Editorial assessment

The decentralized search vision – community-owned indexing to prevent any single entity from controlling web search. Philosophically important as Google and Bing consolidate. Very early-stage with limited index coverage. The decentralized model faces real scalability challenges. Worth supporting ideologically, but not ready for production use.

How Alexandria compares

Common Crawl

Common Crawl provides a proven open archive today rather than a theoretical decentralized future.

Stract

Stract is another open-source search project but with a more focused, centralized approach.

Brave Search API

Brave Search API delivers independent search results at production scale today.

See full Alexandria alternatives comparison →

Frequently asked questions

Is Alexandria open source?

Yes. Alexandria is an open source project, not a commercial product. The code and the index are meant to be community-owned, which is the point of the effort: building a search index that no single company controls. That openness is also its current limitation. Coverage depends on volunteer and community participation rather than a funded crawling operation. Treat it as a project to follow rather than a vendor to buy from.

How much does Alexandria cost?

Alexandria is free. It is a decentralized, community-owned search index rather than a paid API or hosted service, so there is no pricing tier, per-request charge, or subscription. There is no published pricing page because the model is participation rather than payment. If you need predictable commercial terms, an SLA, or billing support, this is not that kind of offering, and you would look at a commercial index API instead.

Can Alexandria be self-hosted?

Yes. Because it is open source and built around a decentralized index, you can run your own node rather than relying on a central provider. That suits teams who want full control over their search infrastructure and who are comfortable operating it themselves. The tradeoff is real. The index is early-stage with limited coverage, so self-hosting gets you the architecture and the ideology before it gets you results comparable to an established crawl.

Does Alexandria render JavaScript when crawling pages?

No. Alexandria does not do JavaScript rendering, so content that only appears after client-side scripts run will not be captured the way a headless-browser crawler would capture it. It does produce structured output, which helps when you consume index data programmatically. If your targets are JavaScript-heavy single-page apps and you need the fully rendered DOM, pair it with a rendering layer or pick a tool built for that, since Alexandria focuses on the open index itself.

What is the best alternative to Alexandria and when should I choose it?

Common Crawl is the most practical alternative. It offers a large, well-documented open web crawl that production teams already build on, whereas Alexandria's index is still early and thin. Choose Common Crawl when you need real coverage today for training data or large-scale analysis. Stract is another open option if you want a working search engine. Pick Alexandria only when the decentralized, community-owned model is the specific thing you are evaluating.

How does Alexandria compare to Brave Search API?

They sit at opposite ends. Brave Search API is a commercial, hosted search API with its own independent index, query-based pricing, and documentation aimed at shipping features now. Alexandria is a free, open source, decentralized index you can self-host, but with limited coverage and no commercial support. Use Brave Search API for production query needs and reliability. Consider Alexandria when the goal is supporting or experimenting with community-owned search rather than serving end users.

Weekly briefing – tool launches, legal shifts, market data.

Visit

Alexandria

Visit →