What are the best internet search engines?

Question

22

Options
Considered

588

User
Recs.

Jun 5, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

The Best 1 of 19 OptionsWhy?

Best internet search engines	Price	Platforms	Category
92 Searx	-	-	-
86 DuckDuckGo	-	Web, Android, iOS	Search engine
73 Metager	-	-	-
-- Groot	Free	Android,iOS,Windows,Linux,ChromeOS	Web Search
-- Wiby	-	-	-

See Full List

18 Other Options Considered

DuckDuckGo

Top Pro

Privacy is important

DuckDuckGo does not keep your search results, nor does it collect or share any personal information. Their privacy page has a great rundown on why privacy is important. The most important repercussion of this is that DDG doesn't use the data collected to tailor results, avoiding exposure to the "Filter Bubble". See More

Top Con

Based in the US

So they have to follow the US laws like the Patriot Act, and even if they don't follow the law other companies like the data centers will do! See More

ReveredNunbarsegunu's Experience

A very good privacy and organic results duckduckgo uses bing for helping its seaches but also does not track you so it is privacy focused bing See More

Specs

Platforms:Web, Android, iOS

Category:Search engine

Top Pro

Ads are non-obstructive and don't track you

The ads are clearly labelled as ads and are non-obstructive. The ads are based on the searched keywords and there's no tracking involved on their visibility. You just need to remember that the site the ad links to might track you. See More

Top Con

No date information in search results

In search results, there are no dates when the pages were published, which doesn't allow you to immediately know if the page is outdated. See More

ModestIusaaset's Experience

DDG has established itself as a new member of a long line of iconic internet pioneers. DDG is part of the group of technology companies placing internet community and ethical values above corporate goals. so far so good. See More

Top Pro

Many customization options for appearance

DDG allows customizing almost any aspect of the search engine's appearance including fonts, page width, alignment, header behavior, site icons, etc and has a selection of premade themes available as well. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo and Yahoo Partnership

https://web.archive.org/web/20161003060630/https://duck.co/help/company/yahoo-partnership https://duck.co/blog/blog/post/311/yahoo-partnership See More

Buster Blue's Experience

It's slowly getting better. The instant answers are usually helpful, and bangs are an interesting feature. The option to use a dark theme is also good. See More

Top Pro

Can disable advertisements

The search engine allows freely disabling ads. See More

Top Con

Still not better than Google, technically

Results are quite often not as good. They just lack resources to do it, for now. See More

Rlogical Techsoft's Experience

I would like to recommend DuckDuckGo is good search engine as my point of view and experience. DuckDuckGo is an internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers' privacy and avoiding the filter bubble of personalized search results. See More

Top Pro

Has a wide spectrum of instant answers

For select queries DDG pops up a box that supplies the exact answer. For example, searching "stopwatch" will pop up a stopwatch, asking for "words like..." will show a list of related words, typing "password" will generate a password, etc. See More

Top Con

Focus on English

The search engine is too focused on English and US results. Search results are not as satisfying as with alternatives. See More

Slanter's Experience

1.Accurate search results .2.Privacy See More

Top Pro

Allows searching from specific sites using bangs

Bangs are commands that allow searching via a different website's local search engine, using keywords or abbreviations with an exclamation mark (!). For example searching "world war ii !wiki" will automatically redirect to Wikipedia.org and show results for the query "world war ii" there, instead of DuckDuckGo, using Wikipedia's search engine. The more common sites have shortened alternatives for these commands. Such as !g for Google, !i for images and !yt Youtube. The whole list of bangs can be found by typing "!bang" in DuckDuckGo. See More

Top Con

Owner would compromise his service/customer privacy

In a question to Weinberg, “if you were served an NSL or were commanded to compromise your service/customer privacy in any way, would you and could you just pull the plug like Lavabit did or would you run into opposition from shareholders/investors that would prevent you from doing so?” Gabriel Weinberg said: “No one is preventing me from doing that.” See More

Lokman Afandy's Experience

Useful information above the links, More Privacy, Instant answers, !bangs & settings, and remove sites with just ads. See More

Top Pro

Can function without JavaScript

Of course, it's nicer when enabled, but it's not required. Some browsers are too limited (mobile, terminal) or turn it off for security reasons (tor, etc.), and DDG still works. See More

Top Con

Referrers

A referrer is an HTTP header field that identifies the address of the webpage (i.e. the URI or IRI) that linked to the resource being requested. By checking the referrer, the new webpage can see where the request originated. Basically it tells a website where you came from. DDG does give this out. See More

Elias Van Ootegem's Experience

In an attempt to protect myself/my data from the big G as much as possible, I decided to switch to DuckDuckGo, and I have to say: I'm quite impressed. The search results are pretty good (not quite as good as G, but very close). The privacy-first approach they promise makes up more than enough for the slight differences. I think it's a perfectly valid alternative. Though search engines (from a UX stance) are fairly simple, there's always a bit of a learning curve involved ("search term" + some partial matching site:.co.uk)... I'll probably get more proficient with this engine as time goes on. Not switching back to G any time soon, that's for sure. Even if their maps feature isn't quite as good as I'd like... See More

Top Pro

Has a .onion site

Accessible with the TOR network. See More

Top Con

Does not allow to limit the search result to the past year

Only past month supported. See More

Tom Lawrence's Experience

Big Data effortlessly receives personal information about our daily lives an online habits. Other search engines use the marketing approach and ad revenue to continue the data collection cycle. DuckDuckGo is the first step to stop the cycle. See More

Top Pro

Infinite scroll of search results

DuckDuckGo results page is an infinite scrolling page, so you don't need to be clicking through pages. But if you prefer clicking through pages, you can turn scrolling off in the settings. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo has many 'Owners'

DuckDuckGo is owned by Gabriel Weinberg who is is the founder, current CEO and controlling shareholder. Investors/shareholders include Union Square Ventures and several others. DuckDuckGo generates its income from advertising (Bing Ads) and collects affiliate revenue (Amazon, eBay). See More

IngrownMink4's Experience

Much better than Google. See More

Top Pro

Good for Linux users

DuckDuckGo has an API with some websites. With the help of this API, if you search for a fix of a problem in Linux, you can easily find an answer to the problem. For example, if you search for "How to update linux", you will get a message like this: How to install updates via command line Try this: sudo apt-get update # Fetches the list of available updates sudo apt-get upgrade # Strictly upgrades the current packages sudo apt-get dist-upgrade # Installs updates (new ones) --SirCharlo See More

Top Con

Bangs do not protect user privacy and can be misleading

Redirecting to a third-party website and thus exposing to the risk of tracking and data collection. DuckDuckGo bangs, being submitted by users, do not follow a specific naming scheme. See More

Catmandom's Experience

DDGo allows many user settings that can be saved in their cloud and accessed with a password. This is an awesome experience that I use every time I clear my browser or when I'm on a new computer. See More

Top Pro

Pulls information from multiple search engines

DDG searches through not only its own database but pulls search results from multiple other search engines, including Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc for a total of 30+ search engines as well. See More

Top Con

No advanced search page

mcastillon's Experience

Poor search results See More

Top Pro

Sometimes results are better than Google

Sometimes the search results are better. Most of the times, they're at least as good as. See More

Top Con

Owner has a history of privacy abuse

Weinberg was the CEO of the spyware social network "Names Database". See More

ModestGlaucus's Experience

DuckDuckGo works great, out of the box, has reliable and exhaustive search results and doesn't pollute the results with adds. On top of that... privacy is important! See More

Top Pro

Sleek and beautiful

Many themes to choose from and customize. See More

Top Con

Violated their privacy policy in the past

GregariousArke's Experience

spyware search engine that advertises itself as "private". Don't waste your time. U shold use searx and educate yourself See More

Top Pro

No filter bubble

DuckDuckGo does not filter your searches with the data that they have. You get to see everything the Internet has to offer in a safe, private way. See More

Top Con

Time limit only a month

You can only limit the date of the search result up to a month old. Many need a year or a more flexible solution. See More

Yanis's Experience

Simple and efficient. See More

Top Pro

Keyboard shortcuts

DuckDuckGo has many useful keyboard shortcuts to navigate the search results. See More

Top Con

Slower than top search engines

It's slower than Google search. See More

Top Pro

Image search has direct link to image

In the image search finding the image itself is easier to find than on Google, which just includes the page. See More

Top Con

Doesn't do personalized searches

Since they don't track you the results are not tailored to your interests. See More

Top Pro

Lets you watch YouTube videos from the site

Duckduckgo lets you watch videos right from their site, so you can have more privacy than watching on youtube.com. See More

Top Con

They made a spyware network

Top Con

DuckDuckGo Maps feature is flawed

The maps search is quite clearly less good compared to Google Maps. See More

Top Con

Shows too few images

When searching for images only, it shows too few of them and only a handful are related to the search terms. See More

Top Con

Form over function (overall search experience is poor)

It's nice to adjust the settings and all but after a couple of days you will want to go back to a more functional search engine. Sure DDG looks shiny and !bangs are great but many wouldn't consider it as a viable alternative. Better results for search queries is more important than fancy looking CSS. See More

Top Con

Cloud saving still needs work

Cloud save and the ability to pull up your settings on any device is a nice idea but the implementation needs work. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo has no 3rd party certifications

Top Con

Horrible search results

They store no information about you (theoretically a pro) but this results in absolutely awful search results, and having to modify your search terms 4-5 times to get what you are looking for. See More

Top Con

Search results are often unrelated and limited

Common conversions do not work, i.e. searching for 15F to C does not give you the conversion but just a bunch of conversion websites. Very frustrating. It's a simple thing but makes a huge difference to the browsing/searching experience. Also location based only works for the country you're in. Searching for, say, McDonalds only gives country results for McDonalds and no local results such as where a local restaurant may be. Not very helpful. See More

Top Con

Bing = DuckDuckGo

It uses Bing for the query. See More

Top Con

Needs a clearer vision of the future

What's duck's goal or quest? See More

Top Con

Not good for precise research

Top Con

Hosted on Amazon servers (EC2)

Top Con

Search accesses your personal data

Quickly finding the answer to a question is only possible because of the data collected and used to personalize the results. Unfortunately, to get this we must submit ourselves to endless personal online data collection and with this data anything is possible See More

See All

Groot

Top Pro

Has custom web and image search with returning only pertinent results

So there is no unnecessary information clogging up your screen. See More

Top Con

Promotes Gab

Groot promotes sites which foster right-wing radicalism, like Gab, Parler, Bitchute, etc. right on the front page. See More

ReverentRaijin's Experience

Very clean and easy to use. Has custom web and image search with returning only pertinent results. So there is no unnecessary information clogging up your screen. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android,iOS,Windows,Linux,ChromeOS

Category:Web Search

Cross Platform:Yes

Multi Language Support:Yes

See All Specs

Top Pro

It is PWA enabled

Can be installed on any mobile and desktop device for easy use. See More

Top Pro

Is fully PWA enabled and can be installed on any device

Is fully PWA enabled and can be installed on any device e.g. Android, iOS, Linux, Windows, and Mac OS-X. See More

Top Pro

Clean and open interface without any clutter

Runs fast and on any device. See More

Top Pro

Custom Wallpaper selection for both light and dark mode

Custom wallpaper selection. See More

Top Pro

Full Light and Dark Mode

Perfect for all conditions. See More

See All

Wiby

Add Video or Image

Qwant

Top Pro

Based in Europe

Stricter data privacy protections as compared to the US. See More

Top Con

Requiers JavaScript

Without enabled JavaScript you can't even type your search request. See More

igor's Experience

Fast, relevant results. European, therefore no messing around by US government. See More

Top Pro

Respects privacy

Top Con

Does not allow to limit search result to last year

Max. limit is past month. See More

KnowledgeableLahmu's Experience

Usually good, relevant, representative results. No hording of personal data. Not subject to US government pressure or surveillance. See More

Top Pro

Offers full (links, news, etc.) and light interface

Top Con

Slow

It is slow. It loads like 5 images in 5 seconds whereas Searx and DuckDuckGo load almost everything in 5 seconds (10MB/s internet). See More

Top Pro

Modern and intuitive design

Top Con

They signed a censorship agreement in 2019

Top Pro

Cookie-free

Top Pro

Includes searching for: Images, News, Videos, Shopping, Social

Top Pro

Relevant results

Top Pro

Includes a time filter (past 24H, past week, past month)

Top Pro

Fast

See All

StartPage

Top Pro

StartPage does not collect or share any personal information

Top Con

Owned by advertising company (System1)

PerseveringInshushinak's Experience

Too many kid friendly video sources from smile and learn Youtube channel. Don't use it. See More

Top Pro

Based in Netherlands (Europe)

StartPage is based in The Netherlands, where privacy is protected by law, so it is not subject to the same mandates and laws which is one (BIG) less thing to worry about. They own and operate their own servers in colocated facilities both in the U.S. and internationally. See More

Top Con

SP's Instant answers are less accurate than DDG's

Top Pro

Allows to limit the search result to the last year (instead of only month)

This does not sound like much but strangely some other search engines only allow to limit the search result to a few month maximum. So, until this is a common feature, a limit of a year is a big pro. See More

Top Con

When you search in some videos for kids, there are too many video results from smile and learn Youtube channel

All google like search engines have this feature. See More

Top Pro

Anonymized web search results from Google

Top Con

Uses only Google Results

Top Pro

Recommended for its no-logging privacy

Your IP address, search query, what site you came from and what site you click on in the results, none of this is logged. That is, by the search engine operators themselves. Even Edward Snowden recommended StartPage for its no-logging privacy. See More

Top Pro

Certification

StartPage has been audited by a 3rd party; EuroPriSe. They look at the use of cookies (all kinds), logging, web hosting and content delivery networks, use of social plugins and much more. This certification is renewed every two years. Having a trusted and respected 3rd party verify your claims is a big plus. https://www.european-privacy-seal.eu/EPS-en/Ixquick-startpage See More

Top Pro

Privacy focused

Unlike Google, Startpage does not record user IP addresses and strips away any uniquely identifying user information before sending the search request to Google. For each search result, Startpage also provides users with the option of viewing them via Ixquick's proxy services known as Ixquick Proxy. See More

Top Pro

Referrers

A referrer is an HTTP header field that identifies the address of the webpage (i.e. the URI or IRI) that linked to the resource being requested. By checking the referrer, the new webpage can see where the request originated.” Basically it tells a website where you came from. Startpage does not give this out. See More

Top Pro

Pulls results from two search engines

Startpage is a hybrid search engine combining results from Ixquick and Google. See More

Top Pro

No Pariot Act or Freedom Act

Even the servers in the US does not need to follow the patriot or freedom act. See More

Top Pro

Offers a free proxy with every search results

The optional proxy allows you to visit linked sites anonymously too. While in the protection of the StartPage proxy, the third-party sites and its advertisers cannot "see" you. Plus, the site cannot download malware onto your computer. See More

Top Pro

Proxy

Built-in IP spoofing option. See More

Top Pro

Independent & Private

StartPage is owned by Surfboard Holding B.V., a privately held, independent Dutch company, run by Robert Beens, whose only activities are operating StartPage, Ixquick and StartMail. No 3rd party investors or venture capital behind it as far as I could find. StartPage (and Ixquick) generates income solely from advertising (Google Ads). See More

Top Pro

Filter by time like Google

See All

Yacy

Top Pro

Difficult to censor

CourageousRohe's Experience

no more cneosrhsip See More

Top Pro

Decentralized

Top Pro

Uses own index

See All

dropicon

Top Pro

Unique concept

Top Con

Very limited results

While it has a unique concept, you don't really have that much control as to what you want to search. See More

GenerousPhilomelus's Experience

The new filter icons on the result pages are cool See More

Specs

Platforms:Desktop, Mobile

Category:Search

Top Pro

Simple to use

CuriousLiberalitas's Experience

Really nice UI See More

See All

Google Search

Top Con

Potentially invasive of your privacy

Google records your searches. Use incognito mode. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Google makes it easy to quickly get your search results. See More

BraveEtugenEke's Experience

I tried using Qwant but never give me the best results compare to Google and the UI when you search a celebrity or a movie is something that I've miss. Despite the fact that you have, no privacy wich is not a great deal for me. See More

Top Con

Censors search results

Search "Was 9/11 an inside job" and compare the results to Bing's. See More

Top Pro

Most relevant results

IngeniousJuksakka's Experience

Relevant and most organized results. See More

Top Con

Google is becoming Big Brother

Google search, chrome, Gmail, analytics, streetview, android, YouTube. See More

Top Pro

Still many times comes up with the best results

ResponsibleFukurokuju's Experience

Although Google spies and collects data and manipulates political and historical events for political reason and also interferes in elections it does give the best results but at what cost? See More

Top Con

Google promotes AMP websites

Google favours web pages that use AMP web technology, a technology that claims to lighten the load of web pages, but in reality in many cases slows down and is difficult to implement. And the worst thing is that it makes Google host and display the web page in AMP format from its servers. See More

Top Pro

Most widely used

google.com is the most widely used search engine. See More

CalmIxpiyacoc's Experience

Very quick, great design and good overall See More

Top Con

Filters by who paid Google more

Ads always shown above organic results. See More

Top Pro

Fast

Alessaadam4's Experience

Google is best search engine . See More

Top Pro

Best UI

The Oracle PhD's Experience

There is no doubt that google search engine is number one I can find anything that I want, My master degree depend on google services at all See More

Top Pro

Many features

Stephen Frost's Experience

Google is my go to, hands down, largely due to how heavily they have invested in eliminating web spam! See More

Top Pro

Wikipedia at the top

Yanis's Experience

So far so good, but I will try others though See More

Top Pro

Can customize privacy

Has a site called privacy.google.com that you can use to make it more private See More

Lokman Afandy's Experience

offer relevant searches but collects your data, alters your search results, offers you its own websites in the results See More

Top Pro

SEO Friendly

igor's Experience

Google hoards personal data and facilitates censorship. by the Chinese government. Opaque and secret algorithm. See More

Buster Blue's Experience

Usually the most reliable search results, but it's simply not worth the cost. Not only does it invade your privacy in many ways, but it secretly and subtly censors the search results, even if you turned off safe search. Learning about this was the reason I stopped using Google Search. I now use DuckDuckGo and (occasionally) Searx. See More

See All

Ecosia

Top Pro

A noble cause

Plants trees with 80% of its total revenue. See More

Top Con

Partnership with Microsoft/Bing

PopularDalia's Experience

Straight forward, easy to use. See More

Top Pro

Simple to use.

If you can see this review, you can use Ecosia. See More

Top Con

Slow.

Slower than most popular search engines like Searx, duckduckgo, or google. See More

FerventStilbon's Experience

Works great and plants trees See More

Top Pro

Privacy friendly

Respects user privacy. See More

Aditya Thapa's Experience

Fast, lean engine with an awesome goal See More

See All

Million Short

Add Video or Image

Mojeek

ReverentNereus's Experience

Clean interface and quick results See More

Bing

Top Con

Microsoft product

Invades privacy. See More

Top Pro

Accurate and relevant results

Bing search results are often times more accurate and almost always more relevant than Google searches. See More

Kaleb McKinney's Experience

Bing is a very nice search engine. Bing provides search results of at least equal to, and often times better than Google. See More

Top Con

Microsoft rewards are region locked

Top Pro

Awesome image search results

It gives you the most visually appealing results without you needing to be precise, just search 'illustration' and compare the results. See More

Top Con

USA Based

USA based = no privacy. Don't trade ease of use over privacy! See More

Top Pro

Intelligent Search

Bing will find you answers to questions from multiple sources, all in one widget at the top of the search results. See More

Top Con

No advanced search page

Top Pro

Advanced image search

Top Con

Censors search results

Top Pro

Visual Search

Give Bing an image, and Bing will find where it came from and similar images and their sources. See More

Top Pro

Incentivizes use by offering rewards

You earn 10 Microsoft Rewards points per search, up to 150 or 300 points per day, depending on your rewards level. These points can be redeemed for gift cards, sweepstakes, and more. See More

Top Pro

Has image chops, and shows more video

See All

All-in-one Internet Search

Add Video or Image

CoRepo

See flagged products

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Searx

Top Pro

Multiple public instances

Pick one you like. See More

Top Con

Backed by github.com

Github is known for the libre, and hosting tech pros, and other tech users, which was made to "make a better search engine than DuckDuckGo. See More

ToughAnput's Experience

Backed by a source code company (Github.). Dont use it. See More

Top Pro

Meta engine

Indexes loads and it's all configurable. See More

Top Con

Sometimes shows unwanted results

It searches for a lot of stuff, even unwanted ones like porn; one keyword matched. See More

PerseveringInshushinak's Experience

Backed by a source code company (github). Don't use it. See More

Top Pro

Opensource and self-hostable

Top Con

Suffers from Google captcha

Some instances can’t fetch results from Google. See More

Buster Blue's Experience

Libre, customizable, and privacy respecting. See More

Top Pro

Very fast

Since it is a Python program with a web interface, it's very very fast even on a poor internet connections. See More

Top Con

No preference syncing

PatientPapatuanuku's Experience

It was the best search engine See More

Top Pro

Most Private Search engine

Since it can be hosted on your own server/computer, it's very private, nothing leaves your computer. There aren't cookies or ads too. See More

Top Con

Linux only

Top Pro

Lightweight, suitable for low-end machines

Top Con

Github users can track you

Top Pro

Can use a proxy

Using a proxy called Morty hides the IP address of the user. See More

Top Con

No detection of language

You need to specify the language you want to search in. See More

Top Con

A little slow sometimes

Top Con

Linux only

See All

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The Best 1 of 19 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for Searx

My Recommendation for Searx

Multiple public instances

Backed by github.com

Meta engine

Sometimes shows unwanted results

Opensource and self-hostable

Suffers from Google captcha

Very fast

No preference syncing

Most Private Search engine

Linux only

Lightweight, suitable for low-end machines

Github users can track you

Can use a proxy

No detection of language

A little slow sometimes

Linux only

18 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for DuckDuckGo

My Recommendation for DuckDuckGo

Privacy is important

Based in the US

Ads are non-obstructive and don't track you

No date information in search results

Many customization options for appearance

DuckDuckGo and Yahoo Partnership

Can disable advertisements

Still not better than Google, technically

Has a wide spectrum of instant answers

Focus on English

Allows searching from specific sites using bangs

Owner would compromise his service/customer privacy

Can function without JavaScript

Referrers

Has a .onion site

Does not allow to limit the search result to the past year

Infinite scroll of search results

DuckDuckGo has many 'Owners'

Good for Linux users

Bangs do not protect user privacy and can be misleading

Pulls information from multiple search engines

No advanced search page

Sometimes results are better than Google

Owner has a history of privacy abuse

Sleek and beautiful

Violated their privacy policy in the past

No filter bubble

Time limit only a month

Keyboard shortcuts

Slower than top search engines

Image search has direct link to image

Doesn't do personalized searches

Lets you watch YouTube videos from the site

They made a spyware network

DuckDuckGo Maps feature is flawed

Shows too few images

Form over function (overall search experience is poor)

Cloud saving still needs work

DuckDuckGo has no 3rd party certifications

Horrible search results

Search results are often unrelated and limited

Bing = DuckDuckGo

Needs a clearer vision of the future

Not good for precise research

Hosted on Amazon servers (EC2)

Search accesses your personal data

My Recommendation for Metager

My Recommendation for Metager

Allows to visit search results anonymously

Uses only Bing and Ecosia results

Really fast

Open source

Tor network service

Run by a non profit organisation dedicated to privacy and data protection

Supports easy search in open-street-map

My Recommendation for Groot

My Recommendation for Groot

Has custom web and image search with returning only pertinent results