Replit is a great service, they have a free plan that allows users to self host. Of course, there are drawbacks. The REPLs are publicly visible, so if you want something to stay private, you have to upgrade. Server usage is monitored for abuse:

Replit has the right but not the obligation to monitor, edit, remove, or share User Content provided by users where it believes in good faith that it is necessary to comply with applicable law or to ensure the consistency, security, and stability of our Service.

However, using Replit has the advantage of the user hosting searxng for themselves and making modifications to their liking, respecting the license. Plus, the project is going to basically be a one-click installation process, check out Libreddit's example, they have three buttons for Replit, Heroku, and Glitch, and users clicking these buttons are taken instantly to a clone of Libreddit waiting to be self hosted.

I tried getting it to work, but I haven't been successful. I tried choosing Python 3 as the default language and running make install, but that did nothing. I also tried choosing Node.js as the language and running npm start (that's what Replit gives you as the default choices), but that didn't do much. Also, I attempted deploying the Docker image, but Replit struggled to install Docker.

Your help is greatly appreciated! Keep searxng :)