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SearXNG SearXNG

Container

OtherTools

Open-Source Privacy-respecting metasearch engine

Image details

Pulls: 72.2M
Architecture: amd64, arm64, arm/v7
Image size: 93 MB
Latest: 2026.8.14-094c33d40
User: dalf
Created: Apr 22, 2021
Updated: 1 day ago
Status: active

Source details

Repo: searxng/searxng
Stars: 35.5k
Forks: 3k
Language: Python
License: AGPL-3.0
Updated: 1 day ago
Website: docs.searxng.org/

Configuration

Type
Container
Platform
linux
Image
searxng/searxng:latest
Ports
9017:8080/tcp
Volumes
/etc/searxng : /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/searxng
Env vars
BASE_URL=http://localhost:9017INSTANCE_NAME=my-instance
Restart
unless-stopped

Template by novaspirit

Notes

Template created by Pi-Hosted Series
Check our Github page: https://github.com/pi-hosted/pi-hosted

Official Webpage: https://docs.searxng.org/
Official Docker Documentation: https://docs.searxng.org/admin/installation-docker.html

Pi-Hosted dedicated documentation: searxng.md




Standalone Install

Select an install method, to see config/commands for deploying SearXNG

Installation method

Install on Portainer

Import all app templates into your Portainer instance, for easy 1-click deploys

  1. Ensure both Docker and Portainer are installed, and up-to-date
  2. Log into your Portainer web UI
  3. Under Settings → App Templates, paste the below URL
  4. Head to Home → App Templates, and the list of apps will show up
  5. Select SearXNG, fill in any config options, and hit Deploy

Template Import URL

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lissy93/portainer-templates/main/templates.json
Show Me demo

More install options in our documentation, or see searxng/searxng for app-specific guidance.

SearXNG
SearXNG is a metasearch engine. Users are neither tracked nor profiled.
Organization Documentation
License Commits Translated
Image Version Image Size Image Pulls

Connect

If you have questions or want to connect with others in the community:

Serve SearXNG on your own domain behind Caddy, Nginx or Traefik. Fill in your domain and copy the result. It's a starting point, some apps need their own base URL or extra headers set too.

Proxying searxng.example.com to http://SearXNG:8080

Add this to your Caddyfile

searxng.example.com {
	reverse_proxy http://SearXNG:8080
}

Check the logs first

Nine times out of ten the logs tell you exactly what went wrong.

  • In Portainer, go to Containers, click the container, then Logs. Or run docker logs SearXNG
  • Exit codes help too: 137 means killed, usually out of memory. 126 or 127 means the command inside the image is broken.

Port already in use

If deployment fails with "Bind for 0.0.0.0:9017 failed: port is already allocated", something else on your server is using that port.

  • Find what's using it: sudo ss -tlnp | grep :9017
  • Stop the other service, or pick a different host port. In 9017:8080 only the left number is yours to change, the right one belongs to the app.

Running but the page won't load

The container is up but nothing appears in your browser.

  • Use your server's real IP: http://your-server-ip:9017. The 0.0.0.0 link Portainer shows isn't a real address.
  • Give it a minute after first deploy, SearXNG can take a while to initialise.
  • Make sure your firewall allows the port, e.g. sudo ufw allow 9017

Permission denied on volumes

If the logs show "permission denied", the app can't write to its data folder on the host.

  • Fix the ownership: sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/searxng

Image won't pull

Test the pull directly on the host: docker pull searxng/searxng:latest

  • "manifest unknown" means the tag no longer exists. This template uses latest, so try pinning a specific version instead.
  • "toomanyrequests" is the Docker Hub rate limit. Log in with docker login to raise it.
  • "no space left on device" means a full disk. Reclaim space with docker system prune

"exec format error"

This means the image was built for a different CPU architecture than your server.

  • This image supports: amd64, arm64, arm/v7
  • Check yours with uname -m: x86_64 is amd64, aarch64 is arm64. Raspberry Pi and other ARM boards are the usual culprits.

Container keeps restarting

The unless-stopped restart policy relaunches the app after every crash, so the real error can scroll past.

  • Check the logs right after a restart, the last few lines before it died are the useful ones.
  • Get the exit code with docker inspect SearXNG --format '{{.State.ExitCode}}'
  • Still stuck? Redeploy once with the restart policy set to no so the failure stays visible.

Raise an issue

Found something which isn't working as it should? Here's how to report it.

A single container

SearXNG runs as one container, the simplest kind of app here. Just the one image to pull and nothing else wired up alongside it.

The app image

An image is the app packed up ready to go, everything SearXNG needs bundled into one download. This template pulls searxng/searxng:latest, which Docker fetches once (about 93 MB) and then starts your own copy from.

Where the image comes from

Docker pulls its images from registries, public libraries of ready-built apps. SearXNG's comes from Docker Hub, published by searxng.

Version tags

The bit after the colon in the image name is the version tag. Here it's latest, which always points at the newest build, so a redeploy can bump you to a newer release without you asking. Newest right now is 2026.8.14-094c33d40. Pin a specific tag if you would rather stay on one version.

Which machines it runs on

Every image is built for particular CPU types. This one ships for amd64, arm64, arm/v7, so it runs on both regular x86 servers and ARM boards like a Raspberry Pi.

Ports

A port is the door the app answers on. A mapping like 9017:8080 means it's reachable on port 9017 of your server, where the left number is yours to change and the right one belongs to the app. Once it's running, open http://your-server-ip:9017 in a browser. It opens:

  • 9017:8080, likely the web interface

Volumes

A volume is where SearXNG keeps its files so they survive an update or a restart. Without one, anything it saves would sit inside the container and vanish the moment it's recreated. This template mounts:

  • /etc/searxng from /portainer/Files/AppData/Config/searxng on the host

Environment variables

Environment variables are the settings you hand over when you deploy, things like a password or a timezone. SearXNG takes 2 of them, all with defaults you can leave alone or tweak:

  • BASE_URL, defaults to http://localhost:9017
  • INSTANCE_NAME, defaults to my-instance

Restart policy

The restart policy here is unless-stopped, so Docker restarts SearXNG after a crash or reboot, but leaves it off when you stop it on purpose. You can change this on the deploy screen. The choices are no (never restart), on-failure (only after a crash), unless-stopped (restart unless you stop it), and always (bring it back no matter what).

Networking

Nothing custom is set, so SearXNG sits on Docker's default bridge network: its own private space that reaches the outside world only through the ports it publishes.

Container name

Once it's deployed, Portainer names the container SearXNG. That's what you'll spot in the containers list and use in commands like docker logs SearXNG.

Platform

The platform is linux, the kind of system the container is built to run on. Docker and Portainer handle this on a normal Linux server.

Open source license

SearXNG is open source, released under the AGPL-3.0 license. In plain terms the code is out in the open, so you're free to run it and change it to fit what you need.

Portainer app templates

Zooming out, this whole page comes from a Portainer app template: a short recipe telling Portainer how to set SearXNG up. Add the template list to Portainer once, then deploying SearXNG is a click rather than a wall of config.