Hound vs OpenGrok
Hound
github.comOpenGrok
oracle.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Hound | OpenGrok |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Code Search Tools | 7.7 (#16) | 7.8 (#11) |
| Deployment | Hound can be built from source or run from the project's GitHub Container Registry Docker image. | Setup requires creating an index and deploying the web application; the guide is primarily for Unix-like systems and says Windows setup is similar with adjusted commands and paths. |
| Purpose | Hound is an extremely fast source code search engine with a React frontend and Go backend that maintains an index for each repository. | OpenGrok is a Java source code search and cross-reference engine for searching, cross-referencing, and navigating source trees. |
| Release | The latest release listed on the project's Releases page is v0.7.1, dated May 3, 2023. | The releases page lists version 1.14.19 as the latest release and describes it as allowing Java 25. |
| Support | The README describes platform support and setup guidance but does not specify a support service. | The project directs users to discussions and mailing lists, and asks users to report bugs or feature requests through GitHub Issues. |
Plans
In their own words
Hound
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.
OpenGrok
OpenGrok is a Java source code search and cross-reference engine for searching and navigating source trees. It searches full text, definitions, symbols, paths and revision history, with subtree searches, wildcards and date-range filters. Its read-only web interface provides syntax-highlighted cross-references, file and directory history, and revision diffs. Supported revision control systems include Git, Mercurial, Subversion, CVS, Perforce, ClearCase, Bazaar, Monotone, Razor, RCS, SCCS, Teamware and AccuRev. Plugins can add support for programming languages or revision control systems. The web application provides a REST API under `/api/v1/` and a granular authorization framework; authentication is handled by the application server or a reverse proxy. Setup requires creating an index and deploying the web application. The guide lists Java 21 through 25, Universal Ctags and a servlet container such as Tomcat 10.x. OpenGrok is free and open source under the CDDL license, and is maintained by volunteers. Support and project requests go through discussions, mailing lists and GitHub Issues.