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.
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.
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.
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.
Where Kagi stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave Kagi
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.
Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Search engines checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Search engines checklist | Kagi | Brave Search | DuckDuckGo | Ecosia | Mojeek | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Independent index | ||||||
| No tracking | ||||||
| Bangs / shortcuts | ||||||
| AI answers | ||||||
| Ad-free option | ||||||
| Customizable ranking | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| Maps & local results | ||||||
| Image & video search | ||||||
| Paid tier value |
Every fact and feature listed for Kagi is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License Proprietary verified 2026-07-10
Kagi does not grant you any intellectual property rights in the Services that are not specifically stated in these Terms.
https://kagi.com/privacy -
Starts at $5/mo verified 2026-07-10
Starter 300 searches $5 /mo (+ Sales Tax)
https://kagi.com/pricing -
Pricing model Subscription verified 2026-07-10
Auto-renewing subscriptions may be canceled online in your account settings at any time prior to the renewal date.
https://kagi.com/privacy -
Platforms Web verified 2026-07-10
Kagi Search is a fast, user-centric and private web search engine with great results.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/products.html -
Status active verified 2026-07-10
Kagi Inc. is currently a maker of two user-centric, privacy-respecting, common-sense obliging products.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/products.html -
Independent index Partial verified 2026-07-10
Teclis") and news index (internally named "TinyGem")" — Own index blended with anonymized API calls to major providers.
sourced from our own web index (internally named
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/search-details/search-sources.html -
No tracking Yes verified 2026-07-10
Unlike most search engines, we do not track which search result you choose to click.
https://kagi.com/privacy -
Bangs / shortcuts Yes verified 2026-07-10
Bangs are shortcuts starting with exclamation points (!) that quickly take you to search results on other sites.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/bangs.html -
AI answers Yes verified 2026-07-10
Kagi's Quick Answer quickly produces a summary of the results across the pages returned and provides references to the pages that are used.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/ai/quick-answer.html -
Ad-free option Yes verified 2026-07-10
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.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/why-kagi/noads.html -
Customizable ranking Yes verified 2026-07-10
Personalized Results allows you to boost the ranking of your favorite domains or hide results from domains you don't prefer.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/settings/personalized-results.html -
Self-hostable No verified 2026-07-10
Hosted subscription service only; no self-hosting.
Kagi Search is a fast, user-centric and private web search engine with great results.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/company/products.html -
Maps & local results Yes verified 2026-07-10
Kagi Maps is a powerful tool that simplifies the process of finding businesses, points of interest, and addresses.
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/maps/ -
Image & video search Yes verified 2026-07-10
!i <query> for Kagi Images | !v <query> for Kagi Videos
https://help.kagi.com/kagi/features/bangs.html -
Paid tier value Yes verified 2026-07-10
At Kagi, you are our customer, not the product being sold
https://kagi.com/privacy
FAQ
Yes. Brave Search, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.