Gigablast

Open-source search engine with its own index, built by a single developer – one of the oldest independent web crawlers still operating.

By Nathan KesslerUpdated May 8, 2026

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.

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Features

—JS Rendering

✓Structured Output

✓Open Source

✓Self-Hosted Option

Pricing:Free

Editorial assessment

A rare survivor – Matt Wells has been running Gigablast independently since 2000, making it one of the longest-lived independent search engines. Open-source and self-hostable. The index is small and aging. The one-person operation means inconsistent uptime and no SLA. More of a historical curiosity and educational resource than production infrastructure.

How Gigablast compares

Mojeek

Mojeek provides a more actively maintained independent index with API access.

Stract

Stract is the modern open-source search engine project building a fresh independent index.

Common Crawl

Common Crawl offers far larger open data if you want to build your own search.

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