my girlfriend and i both share a disdain for google search results. i was wondering what the community is using for search. both paid and free options are something we’re considering so please let me know what you love to use to find info on the web
i have experience with alternatives like duckduckgo and self-hosted ones like SearxNG. i’m not really satisfied with either. it feels like there’s probably someone doing it better out there in regards to search
thanks 
After shopping around for a while, I settled on Marginalia for research or Mojeek for general searches. Both have their own indexes and give good vibes in addition to useful results.
I’m using Kagi and have been building a nice block list to make a wonderful search experience.
If I get 1000 likes I’ll post about my block list!
i freaking LOVE KAGIIIII.
my bf and i ended up splitting the family cost per month and think it’s super worth it. the results have been amazing compared to the google slop. sometimes we compare the two for fun (seriously - it’s dumb).
also! some of my ethical concerns around AI centers around privacy and data. kagi allows you to play with all the LLMs without sacrificing your data. it’s a private instance, every time. if you’re trying to learn more about AI for work or something and you don’t want to contribute to the current landscape, kagi’s assistant tool is a good replacement for any of the current public models (outside of self-hosting).
I loved how they linked to this, never thought about it like that.
https://stephango.com/quality-software
I keep hearing about how great Kagi is! I think once I start my new job we will sign up for it. I’ve seen some subshare links on the fediverse where people are splitting the cost with other people online for subscriptions, but I have no idea how that works. I wish I could afford all the paid services that line up with my ethics.
I personally use Qwant for my searches, it was recc’d as a small search service with privacy focus though I just noticed they’re also trying the whole ‘AI summary’ thing if you log in with an account so uh … might have to peep at some of the ones in this thread (I’ve had Mojeek recc’d as well on ‘de-google’ posts)
I’m a tree hugger and more concerned about disenfranchising big tech (particularly US based) than I am about strict privacy, so I’ve been using Ecosia for a while now. It’s basic but gets the job done. I’m happy with it.
They use Bing results right now but are in the process of building their own index together with Qwant.
Another Ecosia user here. 
It has been my default search engine for a long time now.
Another alternate search engine I also use occasionally is Mullvad Leta, a privacy-focused search engine that acts as a proxy to Brave and Google search results.
Unfortunately my primary association with Kagi is the blogpost Why I Lost Faith in Kagi, so I’m not very hopeful about it as a step up from DuckDuckGo.
May start trying out some of the others in this thread.
Fair enough, but kinda sick of seeing this linked every time kagi is mentioned 
I use Ecosia. There are a few ads, nothing intrusive. And they plant seeds and trees. I’m a level 3 planet pal!
I’ve been really liking searXNG so far. Self hostable on a little vps, and works like a search aggregator so it pulls results from google, duckduckgo, etc.
just also wanna call out that the writer essentially boils their complaints down to differences of opinion:
“I talked to a ton of people who specifically went to Kagi under the impression they didn’t do anything AI, and were upset to learn otherwise. That’s what this post was for.”
not trying to dismiss your concerns, but also seconding flamed’s sentiment here about this post being brought up every time kagi is mentioned.
i can launch into how trying to avoid every and all companies that do any semblance of AI/ML is almost impossible in 2025 but i’ll spare the thread there’s always going to be pros and cons to every service, you just have to decide for yourself which is important—expecting CEOs and companies to be both altruistic and agree with you on everything you believe in often means you won’t even switch from the actual harmful big tech services.
This! I mean, Mojeek has AI too: each page of search results has a link in the sidebar that says “summarize these for me”. But they don’t try to force it on you or anything. Can live with that.
It’s neat for a while, until the big search engines find out there’s a new instance out there and block it.
Using Kagi is like buying the most beautiful fresh produce you’ve ever seen from a greengrocer who also keeps trying to sell you a little crack with every purchase - but for now I’ll tolerate it.
As a certified card-carrying AI hater, I do give my money to Kagi. I do not like how especially lately, they’ve been emphasising their horrible ‘assistant’ functionality - I’ve been emailing back and forth with them and I get these culty replies about them being ‘aware that not everyone embraces AI’. I really don’t like it, if I leave it’ll be because of this crap.
But to my great chagrin, most daily-driver level search engines seem to be wasting their time and resources on this evil shit, so for now, I am sticking with this one. The fine-grained customisation, some (Kagi-provided) custom CSS to hide all AI bells and whistles, and the high quality results are enough to keep me coming back for now.
I’ve used Startpage in the past, and SearXNG recently.
I don’t honestly remember why I moved from Startpage, but I don’t think it was a functionality issue – rather a bad publicity one?
SearXNG, on the other hand, has begun to annoy me just because of the instances dropping connections from time to time.. It rarely happens, but I search a lot – so it feels too often.
Reading through this thread I decided to give Qwant and Mojeek a go and see what they’re like! :)
I will share my Kagi block list and small web lenses that I’ve put together over the next couple days between travel.
I really can’t go back to search where I cannot actively block shitty domains from my results!
A feature that should be fundamental to every search engine but isn’t due to the horrors of capitalism*. There is great joy in being able to ban certain sites from my results forever - and in pinning Wikipedia to the top! Difficult to go back to the way things were after having all that.
*
