# Alternatives to Kagi

Paid, ad-free search you can customize.

Kagi ranks #2 of 7 in Search engines, with an Alt Score of 86. It is proprietary, sold by subscription from $5/mo and available on the web. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/kagi/
Category: Search engines

## Where Kagi stands out

- **Customizable ranking** — 2 of 6 apps with a verified answer have this
- **Paid tier value** — 2 of 7 apps with a verified answer have this
- **Ad-free option** — 3 of 7 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: People frustrated with ad-cluttered, tracking-heavy search results who are willing to pay a subscription for better search quality and privacy—individuals, families, and teams/organizations can all subscribe.
- **What you get**: An ad-free search engine with no ad-based tracking, plus per-domain result boosting/blocking and personalized ranking so you can tune result quality over time. Includes built-in tools like Kagi Assistant (AI chat), and Summarize/Translate. Paid tiers range from a limited free trial to unlimited searches with premium AI access.
- **How it works**: You sign up and choose a plan (limited free trial, or paid tiers with unlimited search), then search normally through Kagi's web interface or by setting it as your browser's default search engine. Special operators (like ? for quick answers or @ for site-specific search) and settings let you customize and filter results directly.

## Profile

- **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Pricing model**: Subscription (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Starts at**: $5/mo (verified 2026-07-10)
- **Platforms**: Web
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-10)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Brave Search](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/brave-search.md) | 86 | Proprietary | Web |
| 2 | [DuckDuckGo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/duckduckgo.md) | 73 | Proprietary | Web |
| 3 | [Ecosia](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/ecosia.md) | 60 | ? | Web |
| 4 | [Google](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/google.md) | 50 | Proprietary | Web |
| 5 | [Mojeek](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mojeek.md) | 46 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 6 | [Startpage](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/startpage.md) | 24 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Search engines checklist | Kagi | Brave Search | DuckDuckGo | Ecosia | Google | Mojeek |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Subscription | Freemium | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| Starts at | $5/mo | $3.00/month | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | ? | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web | Web | Web | Web | Web | Web, iOS, Android |
| Independent index | Partial | Yes | Partial | No | Yes | Yes |
| No tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bangs / shortcuts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| AI answers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ad-free option | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| Customizable ranking | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Maps & local results | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
| Image & video search | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Paid tier value | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |

## Sources

Sources for Kagi. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: Proprietary — <https://kagi.com/privacy> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Kagi does not grant you any intellectual property rights in the Services that are not specifically stated in these Terms.”
- **Starts at**: $5/mo — <https://kagi.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Starter 300 searches $5 /mo (+ Sales Tax)”
- **Pricing model**: Subscription — <https://kagi.com/privacy> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Auto-renewing subscriptions may be canceled online in your account settings at any time prior to the renewal date.”
- **Platforms**: Web — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/products.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Kagi Search is a fast, user-centric and private web search engine with great results.”
- **Status**: active — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/products.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Kagi Inc. is currently a maker of two user-centric, privacy-respecting, common-sense obliging products.”
- **Independent index**: Partial — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-sources.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Teclis") and news index (internally named "TinyGem")" — Own index blended with anonymized API calls to major providers.
  - Quote: “sourced from our own web index (internally named ”
- **No tracking**: Yes — <https://kagi.com/privacy> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Unlike most search engines, we do not track which search result you choose to click.”
- **Bangs / shortcuts**: Yes — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/bangs.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Bangs are shortcuts starting with exclamation points (!) that quickly take you to search results on other sites.”
- **AI answers**: Yes — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/quick-answer.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Kagi's Quick Answer quickly produces a summary of the results across the pages returned and provides references to the pages that are used.”
- **Ad-free option**: Yes — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/why-kagi/noads.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Kagi Search is an ad-free search engine that will actively down-rank sites with lots of ads and trackers in the results and promote sites with little or no advertising.”
- **Customizable ranking**: Yes — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/settings/personalized-results.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Personalized Results allows you to boost the ranking of your favorite domains or hide results from domains you don't prefer.”
- **Self-hostable**: No — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/products.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Note: Hosted subscription service only; no self-hosting.
  - Quote: “Kagi Search is a fast, user-centric and private web search engine with great results.”
- **Maps & local results**: Yes — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/maps/> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “Kagi Maps is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of finding businesses, points of interest, and addresses.”
- **Image & video search**: Yes — <https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/bangs.html> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “!i <query> for Kagi Images | !v <query> for Kagi Videos”
- **Paid tier value**: Yes — <https://kagi.com/privacy> (verified 2026-07-10)
  - Quote: “At Kagi, you are our customer, not the product being sold”

---
Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/