Our grade: 4 checks
Based on public data, not a full audit. See how we grade. Something changed? Request a re-grade.
Community rating
- 5 1
- 4 5
- 3 4
- 2 1
- 1 0
Trust in production
- Trust it - 45%
- With caveats - 27%
- Wouldn't - 27%
55% would recommend this server
How reviewers scored it
- Setup & docs 3.4
- Auth experience 3.3
- Reliability 3.6
- Maintainer responsiveness 3.8
Why it got a B
A community server (about 1.35K stars, MIT) that connects your AI client to a SearXNG search instance, so there is no paid search API, but you must run SearXNG yourself or trust a public instance that sees your queries. Releases come weekly. It has nine published advisories, all fixed: most were SSRF holes in the web_url_read tool, one leaked SearXNG passwords into logs, and the private-address guard was off by default until 1.2.1. Use 2.8.1 or later; the guard now blocks private URLs by default and pins DNS. Biggest deduction: its optional HTTP mode has no login unless you turn on hardened mode or OAuth, and nearly all commits come from one developer.
How to connect
// claude_desktop_config.json (replace the URL with your SearXNG instance)
{
"mcpServers": {
"searxng": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "mcp-searxng"],
"env": { "SEARXNG_URL": "https://search.example.com" }
}
}
}Is SearXNG MCP Server safe?
Is SearXNG MCP Server safe to use?
SearXNG MCP Server grades B (solid, with minor gaps). Login is optional, so check that it is turned on in your setup. Upkeep is hard to verify (closed source or a single maintainer), so pin the version you tested.
Does SearXNG MCP Server have known vulnerabilities?
Not in our current data: it has no open CVEs or advisories. We re-check as new ones are published.
Does SearXNG MCP Server support authentication?
Optionally. It can run with a login, but it does not require one, so turn it on.
Alternatives in Search & Retrieval
- A Exa MCPOfficial hosted Exa server for web search, page fetching, and multi-step research.
- A Perplexity MCP ServerOfficial Perplexity server for web search, quick answers, reasoning, and deep research through the Perplexity API.
- A Tavily MCPOfficial Tavily server for web search, page extraction, site mapping, crawling, and research.
- B Firecrawl MCP ServerOfficial Firecrawl server to search the web, scrape and crawl sites, parse documents, and interact with pages in a cloud browser.
- B LawDB MCP ServerHosted server to search German and EU legislation and German, European and international case law, and fetch full texts and single provisions with stable citations.
Embed this badge
[](https://trustedmcp.io/servers/mcp-searxng)<a href="https://trustedmcp.io/servers/mcp-searxng"><img src="https://trustedmcp.io/badge/mcp-searxng.svg" alt="TrustedMCP grade B" height="80"></a>Community reviews
Better than the DIY script it replaced
Clear tool names, sensible outputs, very few surprises. I run it with auth enabled. Without it I would not let it near anything shared. Releases come often and the changelog is clear.
Used for Collecting references for reports
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 3/5
Does what it says, no drama
Set this up for our team after comparing a few options. Nice that it supports both stdio and HTTP, I use stdio locally and HTTP for the shared agent.
Used for Grounding answers with live results
- Setup & docs 5/5
- Auth experience 5/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 3/5
Good, but read the permissions first
Good for experimenting, still deciding about production. Auth is optional, which is convenient locally. I turned it on before sharing it with the team. I would use it in prod, but only with a human approving writes.
Used for Fact-checking drafts
- Setup & docs 3/5
- Auth experience 4/5
- Reliability 3/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
Earned a permanent spot in my config
Of the SearXNG integrations I tried, this one is the most predictable. I run it with auth enabled. Without it I would not let it near anything shared.
Used for Research agent for market questions
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 5/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Capable but needs guardrails
It does the job, but it took some tweaking. Auth is optional, which is convenient locally. I turned it on before sharing it with the team. You can tell it is actively maintained, the rough edges keep getting fixed. Keeping it to local experiments for now.
Used for Competitive research
- Setup & docs 3/5
- Auth experience 2/5
- Reliability 2/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 5/5
Solid and well behaved
Tried it on a side project first, then rolled it out at work. It is community maintained, so I pin the version and read the changelog before upgrading. Out of the box it runs without sign-in, so remember to enable auth before exposing it anywhere. Easy recommendation.
Used for Finding recent sources for articles
- Setup & docs 3/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 4/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
The SearXNG integration I wanted
Simple to set up in Cursor, simple to reason about. You can tell it is actively maintained, the rough edges keep getting fixed. Keep permissions tight and it is a good tool.
Used for Competitive research
- Setup & docs 3/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 3/5
Decent, not set-and-forget
Some tools are great, a couple feel half finished. I run it with auth enabled. Without it I would not let it near anything shared. Updates land regularly, and nothing broke when I upgraded. Worth it, just do not skip the hardening steps.
Used for Finding recent sources for articles
- Setup & docs 3/5
- Auth experience 2/5
- Reliability 3/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Handy for dev, careful in prod
Useful tool, though I would not hand it to a junior unsupervised. Nice that it supports both stdio and HTTP, I use stdio locally and HTTP for the shared agent. Out of the box it runs without sign-in, so remember to enable auth before exposing it anywhere. It is community maintained, so I pin the version and read the changelog before upgrading.
Used for Technical research while coding
- Setup & docs 3/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 3/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
Too much access for my comfort
I wanted to like this one. Nice that it supports both stdio and HTTP, I use stdio locally and HTTP for the shared agent.
Used for Collecting references for reports
- Setup & docs 2/5
- Auth experience 2/5
- Reliability 2/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 3/5
Our team uses it every day
Hooked SearXNG MCP Server into Claude Code and it worked on the first try. Out of the box it runs without sign-in, so remember to enable auth before exposing it anywhere. Nice that it supports both stdio and HTTP, I use stdio locally and HTTP for the shared agent. Would recommend without hesitation.
Used for Fact-checking drafts
- Setup & docs 4/5
- Auth experience 3/5
- Reliability 5/5
- Maintainer responsiveness 4/5
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