Aleph
Tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case.
- Search Engines
- JavaScript
- MIT
- Docker
- Maintained
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 2,441
- Forks
- 365
- Open issues
- 266
- Commits, last 12 months
- 4
- Last commit
- Feb 20, 2026
- Latest release
- 4.1.7Oct 27, 2025
- Created
- Aug 27, 2014
Data from the GitHub API, refreshed daily.
About Aleph
Tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case. Aleph is open source under the MIT license and written mainly in JavaScript, so you can read the code, run it on your own hardware and keep full control of your data.
The project has 2,441 stars and 365 forks on GitHub, with 4 commits over the last year. It ships a Docker image, which makes it a good fit for a small VPS or a home server running Docker Compose.
Topics
- python
- data-search
- graph-database
- journalism
- osint
- investigative-journalism
Repository preview
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What is Aleph?
Aleph is a free, open-source app you can host on your own server, listed in our Search Engines category. Tool for indexing large amounts of both documents (PDF, Word, HTML) and structured (CSV, XLS, SQL) data for easy browsing and search. It is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case. The source code lives at github.com/alephdata/aleph, where it has 2,441 stars.
Is Aleph free and open source?
Yes. Aleph is open-source software released under the MIT license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run Aleph with Docker?
Yes. Aleph provides a Docker image, so you can run it on any Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose installed. The project README lists the image name and the environment variables to set.
What are the best alternatives to Aleph?
Popular open-source alternatives to Aleph include ElasticSearch, MeiliSearch and SearXNG.
Is Aleph actively maintained?
The most recent commit to Aleph was on Feb 20, 2026 with 4 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is 4.1.7, published Oct 27, 2025. Check the open issues on GitHub to gauge how quickly maintainers respond.