Alternatives to DuckDuckGo Search
A web search engine that does not track or profile its users. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
DuckDuckGo Search
A web search engine that does not track or profile its users.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as DuckDuckGo Search.
Brave Search
A private web search engine built on its own independent index, with optional AI answers.
Brave Search uses its own independent index instead of proxying another engine, adds Goggles for custom ranking and optional AI answers, though the index can have gaps.
Startpage
A web search engine that does not keep search histories and lets you view results anonymously.
Startpage keeps no search histories and offers anonymous viewing of result pages, but may show a bot-check page before loading.
Qwant
A French web search engine hosted in Europe that says it does not keep search data.
Qwant is hosted in Europe under EU rules with iOS and Android apps, but it is closed source and results vary outside European content.
Kagi
A paid, ad-free web search engine with anti-tracking, result customization and an AI assistant.
Kagi removes ads entirely and adds per-site blocking, Lenses and an AI assistant, but requires a paid subscription and an account.
Mojeek
An independent UK search engine with its own crawler and index that does not track users.
Mojeek uses its own independent UK index with a no-tracking policy and an API, but its smaller index returns fewer results for some queries.
SearXNG
Self-hosted metasearch engine that aggregates results without profiling you.
SearXNG is open source and self-hosted, aggregating dozens of engines under your control, though public instances can be rate limited and self-hosting needs maintenance.
Swisscows
A Swiss private search engine with no tracking and results filtered to be family-friendly.
Swisscows is a Swiss no-tracking engine with built-in filtering of violent and adult content, plus Android and iOS apps.
MetaGer
A privacy-focused metasearch engine and anonymous browsing service paid for with a prepaid key.
MetaGer is an open-source metasearch engine from a non-profit that requires a prepaid key, with no account, plus anonymous browsing through a server-side browser.
Also worth comparing
These listings name DuckDuckGo Search as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
4get
A proxying metasearch engine you can use through public instances or host yourself.
DuckDuckGo Search is a hosted engine with no profiling and easy browser setup, but it is closed source, shows ads and cannot be self-hosted.
LibreY
A self-hostable privacy-respecting metasearch engine built without frameworks or JavaScript.
DuckDuckGo Search is a free hosted engine with no profiling and no setup, but the service is closed source and shows ads alongside results.
Perplexity
An AI answer engine that searches the web and replies with cited sources.
DuckDuckGo Search is a free, non-tracking search engine with Duck.ai chat on the same site, showing ads rather than cited AI answers by default.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
DuckDuckGo Email Protection
A free email forwarding service that gives you a @duck.com address and removes trackers.
