# Open source Perplexica alternatives, and the system you can own

> If you are choosing an open source Perplexica alternative, the real choice is between another self-hosted answering engine and a system your team can own end to end. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System for the second case: your agents, skills, memory, and connectors in one git repo you own, with one isolated sandbox per session.

URL: https://perplexicaalternative.com/open-source-perplexica-alternatives

## Self-hosted answering engines, side by side

The self-hosted options beside the system you own.

| | Kortix (recommended) | Perplexica (Vane) | Open WebUI | Khoj |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | Yes. Read it, fork it, audit it. | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| What it is | An AI Operating System where agents do finished work, reviewed by people | A self-hosted answering engine over live web results | A self-hosted chat interface for many models | A personal AI over the web and your documents |
| Where it runs | Kortix Cloud, your VPC, or on-prem | Your machine or server, usually Docker | Your machine or cluster, Docker or Kubernetes | Your machine, on-prem, or its cloud app |
| Model choice | Any model provider with your own keys | Ollama locally, or cloud providers | Ollama and any OpenAI-compatible API | Any local or online LLM |
| What you own | Your agents, skills, memory, and connectors in one repo you own | The search app, its settings, and history | The chat app, its accounts, and data | The assistant, your documents, and its index |
| Best for | Teams that want agents doing work in a system they own | Private web Q&A on hardware you control | A shared self-hosted chat across many models | One person’s searchable second brain |

Each column is described from that project’s own repository, checked October 2026.

## What an open source Perplexica alternative means

Perplexica is an open-source answering engine: it searches the live web, reranks the results, and answers with cited sources, and it runs entirely on your own hardware. The project now ships as **Vane**, and its repository and Docker image carry the Vane name, while most people still search for it as Perplexica ([the Vane repository](https://github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Vane)). A self-hosted answering engine sends a question to a model you picked and a search backend you run, so the query and the results stay on your side.

An "open source Perplexica alternative" can be one of two things. It can be another self-hosted answering engine that swaps the search box or the model. Or it can be a larger open-source system you own, where answering is one small part of the work. [Kortix](https://kortix.com) is the second kind, and it is open source.

## The self-hosted answering engines, and what each one needs

Every self-hosted answering engine is three parts: a model, a search backend, and the app that ties them together. Perplexica ships as one Docker image with a private SearXNG bundled inside; you point it at local models through Ollama or at cloud providers and start searching ([Vane](https://github.com/ItzCrazyKns/Vane)). Open WebUI is a self-hosted chat interface that runs on Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible API and reaches the web through many providers, SearXNG among them ([Open WebUI](https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui)). Khoj answers from the web and from your own documents, and runs self-hosted or as a cloud app ([Khoj](https://github.com/khoj-ai/khoj)).

The same shape repeats across smaller projects. Farfalle and Morphic are search-and-answer interfaces over a model, with SearXNG or Tavily behind them ([Farfalle](https://github.com/rashadphz/farfalle), [Morphic](https://github.com/miurla/morphic)). SearXNG itself is the metasearch engine several of these tools build on: it aggregates results from other search services and does not track or profile the people who use it ([SearXNG](https://github.com/searxng/searxng)). Running any of them well means running a model server and a search instance beside the app.

## When one answering engine is not enough

An answering engine answers questions and stops there. It does not take the next step in your tools: pull the account, send the reply, reconcile the ledger, or open the fix. Perplexica is built around one machine and one search box; Open WebUI and Khoj add seats and admin features, and both still center on chat. When a team needs agents that act across the tools it already runs, shared memory, and a review step before anything ships, a search app is the wrong shape for the job.

## What owning the whole system looks like

Kortix keeps the whole system as files. Your agents, their skills, your company memory, and every connector live in one git repo you own. One isolated sandbox per session. Each session has its own isolated machine and branch. Session work reaches `main` through a change request, and merge is default-deny for agents. Run it on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network. Any model provider with your own keys. The comparison table on this page sets the search-and-answer tools beside that system.

## One repo is the whole system

`README.md`

```
project (git repo + kortix.yaml)
└─ session ──> cloud computer: an isolated sandbox on a branch named after the session
   └─ the OpenCode agent works
   └─ change request ──> you review & merge ──> main
```

Source: https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna

The project tree, quoted from the Kortix repository README.