# Sphinx

Full-text search server, written in C++, that indexes files and SQL databases and answers queries over SphinxQL.


Source: https://findsoftware.frbit.cloud/sphinx-search/
Last reviewed: 2026-10-28
Listed since: 2026-10-28

## Record

### Links

- home: https://sphinxsearch.com
- repository: https://github.com/sphinxsearch/sphinx
- docs: https://sphinxsearch.com/docs/sphinx3.html
- plugins: https://sphinxsearch.com/wiki/doku.php?id=third_party
- x: https://twitter.com/sphinxsearch
- forum: https://sphinxsearch.com/forum/
- facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SphinxSearchServer

### Identity

- status: active
- maintainer: Sphinx Technologies Inc.
- maintainerType: company
- parent: unknown
- firstRelease: 2006
- hqCountry: US

### Kind

- category: search
- hosting: binary
- language: cpp
- runtime: binary
- runtimeMin: unknown
- basedOn: unknown

### Content

- contentStore: not applicable
- databases: mysql, postgres
- adminUi: not applicable
- headlessApi: not applicable
- templating: not applicable
- i18n: not applicable

### Rendering and deploy

- runsAs: always-on
- renderingModes: not applicable
- installMethod: precompiled binary download

### License

- licenseModel: unknown
- license: dual-licensed (free and commercial), per the Sphinx 3 documentation, not open source since 3.0; sources available to commercial clients

### Releases

- currentMajor: 3
- latestReleaseDate: 2025-12-18

### Adoption

- githubStargazers: 1826
- packagistDownloads: not applicable
- npmWeeklyDownloads: not applicable
- contributors: 6
- pluginCount: unknown
- packagistMonthlyDownloads: unknown
- ecosystemsMonthlyDownloads: unknown
- httpArchiveSites: unknown
- wordpressActiveInstalls: unknown
- dependentRepos: unknown
- dependentPackages: unknown

### Sources

- urls: https://sphinxsearch.com/ (read 2026-10-28)
- urls: https://api.github.com/repos/sphinxsearch/sphinx (read 2026-10-28)
- urls: https://sphinxsearch.com/docs/sphinx3.html (read 2026-10-28)
- maintainer: https://sphinxsearch.com/about/company/ (read 2026-10-28)
- maintainerType: https://sphinxsearch.com/about/company/ (read 2026-10-28)
- hqCountry: https://sphinxsearch.com/about/company/ (read 2026-10-28)
- language: https://sphinxsearch.com/docs/sphinx3.html (read 2026-10-28)
- runtime: https://sphinxsearch.com/downloads/current/ (read 2026-10-28)
- category: https://sphinxsearch.com/docs/sphinx3.html (read 2026-10-28)
- installMethod: https://sphinxsearch.com/downloads/current/ (read 2026-10-28)
- license: https://sphinxsearch.com/docs/sphinx3.html (read 2026-10-28)
- license: https://sphinxsearch.com/downloads/ (read 2026-10-28)
- runsAs: https://sphinxsearch.com/docs/sphinx3.html (read 2026-10-28)
- databases: https://sphinxsearch.com/docs/sphinx3.html (read 2026-10-28)
- currentMajor: https://sphinxsearch.com/downloads/current/ (read 2026-10-28)
- latestReleaseDate: https://sphinxsearch.com/downloads/current/ (read 2026-10-28)
- firstRelease: https://sphinxsearch.com/downloads/archive/ (read 2026-10-28)
- githubStargazers: https://api.github.com/repos/sphinxsearch/sphinx (read 2026-10-28)
- contributors: https://api.github.com/repos/sphinxsearch/sphinx/contributors (read 2026-10-28)
- urls: https://sphinxsearch.com/ (read 2026-10-28)

## Notes

Sphinx is a full-text search server written in C++. It indexes data from files and SQL databases, and clients query it through SphinxQL. The searchd process runs continuously and accepts connections, so a host has to keep it running. The project distributes prebuilt binaries, and its SQL data sources use native drivers for MySQL and PostgreSQL.

The company behind Sphinx is Sphinx Technologies Inc., which the project's about page describes as a private company based in the United States.

## Worth knowing

The project no longer publishes Sphinx under an open-source license, and says the sources are available to commercial clients. The GitHub repository holds the older sources, which carry a GPL license.

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Data licensed CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attributes are recorded, never scored; absent means unknown.
Credit, in full: FindSoftware, CC BY 4.0