Code Search vs Hound

Code Search is a self-hosted platform for searching and changing code across repositories, with CLI support for batch work. Zoekt provides sub-second repository search; SCIP features support go-to-definition, find-references and symbol search. Teams can make replacements across multiple repositories and have the platform create branches and merge requests. A built-in MCP server connects assistants such as Claude and Cursor for code search, browsing and navigation. Supported code hosts include GitHub, GitHub Enterprise Server, GitLab, self-hosted GitLab, Gitea, and Bitbucket Cloud and Server. Deployment choices include Docker, source builds, Kubernetes and Helm. The maker says code and data stay on customer servers and the application sends no telemetry or usage data back. Community is free and includes unlimited users. Enterprise adds OIDC single sign-on, role-based repository permissions, audit logging and priority support; pricing is on request. Community support is available through GitHub Issues, and the project is licensed under Apache License 2.0.

Hound is a free source code search engine that indexes repositories and offers a web interface and a minimal API. Its Go backend maintains a current index for each repository, while its static React frontend provides the web UI. Search uses regular-expression matching with a trigram index. Hound supports Git, Mercurial, SVN, Bazaar, and local repositories; private repositories can be indexed from local directories or reached through file or SSH-style URLs. By default, it checks configured repository URLs for updates every 30 seconds, with an interval that can be changed per repository. It can be built from source or run from the project's Docker image, and the web UI defaults to localhost:6080. Plugins are available for Sublime Text, Vim, Emacs, and Visual Studio Code. Hound is tested on macOS and CentOS and is expected to work on Unix-like systems, but Windows is not supported. It does not support TLS itself; the README suggests running it behind Apache or nginx. Hound uses the MIT license, and the latest listed release is v0.7.1, published May 3, 2023.