Fess
Powerful and easily deployable Enterprise Search Server.
- Search Engines
- Java
- Apache-2.0
- Docker
- Actively maintained
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 1,139
- Forks
- 175
- Open issues
- 15
- Commits, last 12 months
- 572
- Last commit
- Oct 5, 2026
- Latest release
- fess-15.8.0Aug 20, 2026
- Created
- Sep 13, 2013
Data from the GitHub API, refreshed daily.
About Fess
Powerful and easily deployable Enterprise Search Server. Fess is open source under the Apache-2.0 license and written mainly in Java, so you can read the code, run it on your own hardware and keep full control of your data.
The project has 1,139 stars and 175 forks on GitHub, with 572 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
- java
- elasticsearch
- full-text-search
- lucene
- crawler
- enterprise-search
- search-engine
- search
- ai-search
- docker
Repository preview
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What is Fess?
Fess is a free, open-source app you can host on your own server, listed in our Search Engines category. Powerful and easily deployable Enterprise Search Server. The source code lives at github.com/codelibs/fess, where it has 1,139 stars.
Is Fess free and open source?
Yes. Fess is open-source software released under the Apache-2.0 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 Fess with Docker?
Yes. Fess 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 Fess?
Popular open-source alternatives to Fess include ElasticSearch, MeiliSearch and SearXNG.
Is Fess actively maintained?
The most recent commit to Fess was on Oct 5, 2026 with 572 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is fess-15.8.0, published Aug 20, 2026. Check the open issues on GitHub to gauge how quickly maintainers respond.