When I think back to my school days when we were asked to write research papers using good old-fashioned library books, I really don’t think I could do that today.
I have become so accustomed to the widespread accessibility of information on the Internet that I am willing to do anything to maintain that access, including risking inaccurate information or an inefficient experience.
And I’m not the only one who feels this way.
At HubSpot Consumer trends In a study that surveyed more than 700 consumers in January 2024, 78% of consumers said they search for brands online using a search engine like Google, and 79% use search engines like Google to search for answers to questions , as opposed to AI chatbots or social media.
However, only 51% find search engines like Google very effective at answering their questions.
This means that many of us use Google blindly because it’s what we know best, rather than because we think it’s good at what we need it to do. But we don’t have to suffer any longer – there are tons of great search engine options that aren’t Google.
Table of contents
What to look for in an alternative to Google
1. Ad-free experience
Google has become a pretty oversaturated advertising platform, and it makes sense why. The platform can increase brand awareness by up to 80%, so that’s not shocking 96% of brands use Google Pay Per Click ads.
While it’s great for a business owner or marketer to use this strategy, and it can also be useful for consumers to discover new brands, I can also understand the frustration that comes with finding the best and quickest answer to a question because I am bombarded with very few relevant links.
Therefore, looking for search engine alternatives that limit the ad experience or do not support ads can be ideal for increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of your search journey.
2. Quality answers
It’s very interesting to me that we as a society have developed such a habit of making searches on Google. Because in my experience, I rarely get a direct answer to my questions with this search engine.
Yes, Google can point me to tons of resources that probably have the answers I’m looking for, but when using its AI model Gemini, the best answer only occasionally appears.
I’ve found that Gemini doesn’t always automatically appear in my search results, so I then have to go through various links and select random websites to reach conclusions.
Top search engines should do this work for me by analyzing all available online resources and providing quality answers to my questions.
3. Data protection
Data protection is a real concern for many consumers. 75% of consumers agree that privacy is a human right and that they should have complete control over how a company uses their data.
While 85% of adults worldwide 62% want to do more to protect their online privacy using services like Google and believe it is impossible to go about their daily lives without companies like Google collecting their private data.
However, there is a way to gain more control over your privacy: by using a search engine that focuses on and specializes in privacy. This is an important consideration when looking for Google alternatives.
4. Special features
While the primary purpose of a search engine is to search for answers and information, many other features can set a platform apart from the competition.
For example, some search engines focus on the environment and use their advertising revenue to support environmentally friendly causes. The same applies to all types of charitable causes.
There are also family-friendly search engines, AI search engines, news-oriented search engines, and many more options that may suit your interests and needs.
Once you’ve assessed which of these considerations are most important when evaluating new search engines, take a look at my list of the best Google alternatives.
What are the best alternatives to Google?
Best ad-free or low-ad search engines
1. Kagi
Kagi values high-quality, accurate search results without ads. To maintain its ad-free status, the platform charges a subscription fee of $5 per month, which replaces the revenue required to operate the platform that would otherwise come from advertising.
I set up my account and opted for the free trial, which allows for 100 search results. I was then able to customize the appearance of the search engine in a variety of ways.
After updating some of these settings, I searched for my first test question.
What I like
- The ability to customize my search experience on Kagi is unique. I never realized how much of a difference it makes when I can update whether or not I see the site’s icon or full URL in search results. This makes Kagi feel very personalized and user-centric.
- The interface is very similar to Google’s, so it should be easy for users to get used to this new search engine.
- Instead of clicking through multiple pages of search results, I just kept scrolling down to see more and more URLs. This was fun for me because I realized that I’m often discouraged from looking beyond the first page of search results on Google, which limits my results.
- Kagi lists the website’s publication date, which quickly helps me decide whether it’s appropriate to click on it.
Which I don’t like
- Having to pay for a subscription isn’t ideal, and I’m not sure many people will be inclined to do so when there are so many free alternatives. However, it makes sense why they have this model so they can avoid advertising – which many other companies like streaming services do.
Prices
- Starter plan: $5/month (300 searches per month)
- Professional Plan: $10/month (unlimited searches per month)
- Ultimate Plan: $25/month (Unlimited Searches + Kagi Assistant)
2. Mojeek
Mojeek is not completely ad-free as some text ads appear in search results. However, the ads on this platform are based only on search terms and location and not on data obtained from the user search engine.
Mojeek is also much less advertising intensive than other search engines like Google. It has its own web crawler and information index. Unlike Google, Mojeek has an independent ad platform that allows brands to place ads directly and separately from major search engines.
What I like
- Mojeek is very straightforward and matter-of-fact. As soon as I accessed this search engine, I was able to start searching immediately, so I learned quickly.
- The user interface is also very similar to Google and is therefore easy to recognize.
- The “Summarize these results” feature, which appears on the right side of the screen next to the search results, uses large language models to create a summary of the search results. This is a great way to integrate AI for those like me who are looking for it, while also providing a direct search engine experience for others.
Which I don’t like
- Mojeek offers options to search the same query using other search engines like Brave or Startpage. I found this quite strange as it encourages users to leave Mojeek and move on to the competition.
- Since Mojeek isn’t completely ad-free, I don’t think it’s as impressive an option as Kagi.
Prices
Best search engines for quality answers
3. confusion
Perplexity is an AI search engine that collects, analyzes and deconstructs information from various sources to provide a high-quality, human-like answer to any question or query. It is more than a regular search engine as the AI power means you don’t have to scroll and skim through various links to the answers.
Perplexity combines the communication and synthesis capabilities of a chatbot ChatGPT with the web crawling and information gathering capabilities of a search engine to provide precise and detailed answers to any question.
What makes it a strong Google alternative is that it also doesn’t rely on an innate knowledge base, but can quickly search the internet for relevant, related sources to aggregate its results.
What I like
- The interface is reminiscent of ChatGPT, which is a plus for users like me who have already mastered ChatGPT.
- Although Perplexity is an AI search engine, unlike some of the other Google alternatives on this list, it promises accurate answers. Sources are cited at the beginning of each answer and throughout the copy, allowing me to verify the source material myself.
- Compared to traditional search engines, Perplexity saves me so much time. It’s much more efficient to get a direct answer than to click through several potentially useful links on Google.
- Because Perplexity is powered by AI, it understands my questions and prompts – even if they are misspelled or grammatically incorrect – much more easily than Google, which regularly has to ask me, “Did you mean…?”
- Perplexity is currently ad-free. While there are plans to introduce ads in the future, The intention is to integrate native ads in the Related Questions section in a way that does not interfere with the natural user experience.
Which I don’t like
- Some of the smarter AI features are only available to Perplexity Pro users.
Prices
- Standard plan: Free
- Professional plan: $20/month
4. Wolfram Alpha
Wolfram Alpha is a search engine specializing in computer knowledge. It can provide very detailed answers to questions about data, math, science, and other non-fiction topics. For example, I chose the topic “Food & Nutrition” as shown below.
As you can see, this powerful engine can access very specific and detailed information on a wide variety of topics. There is information in this search engine that I never thought to look for.
Since this search engine is so smart, I tried searching through some basic questions to figure out how it would handle it. First, I looked at the average rent in New York City.
Next I tried a niche question that I thought was still computational:
Most recently, I tried something that I search for most often on a search engine like Google, but came up empty-handed:
What I like
- Wolfram Alpha certainly offers high quality answers and a wide range of answer types. For example, for “Transportation,” I was able to find out the total road length in a given country, gas price data, various calculations about airlines, data about each region’s rail systems, and much more.
- If I wasn’t sure what to look for, I could choose from a set list of topics. This helped me focus on a topic and use the pre-selected examples to guide my search.
- This search engine would be particularly helpful for students, professors, and researchers who need a lot of information on a very specific topic.
Which I don’t like
- As a regular consumer, this search engine doesn’t provide the answers I need on a daily basis. Most of my basic search queries, which are the kind of thought process questions I would normally search for in any other search engine, could not be understood.
- It looks dated and has some blurry images.
Prices
- Basic plan: Free
- Pro Plan: $5/month (Includes step-by-step solutions, extended calculation time, and calculator web apps)
- Pro Premium Plan: $8.25/month (All features including priority customer support)
Best search engines for data protection
5. Home page
Startpage is unique because it does not have its own index of websites or web crawler. Instead, it acts as an intermediary between users and other search engines like Google.
The way it works is that your question is submitted to other search engines on your behalf, allowing them to protect your anonymity. Therefore, you get search results from Google and Bing while maintaining your privacy from the data tracking practices that these search engines benefit from.
It’s basically the equivalent of searching in “Incognito Mode,” but without the hassle of having to remember to turn that mode on.
What I like
- Startpage has a very clever privacy model that guarantees no cookies, trackers, website fingerprinting, price tracking or optimization, or social media tracking.
- For users who find it difficult to let go of Google but want more privacy, this is the perfect option. You still get the same search results as Google or Bing, while Startpage does the searching for you as a helpful assistant.
- The interface is modern, elegant, and more attractive than other search engines I have tested.
Which I don’t like
- If you want to leave Google for reasons other than privacy concerns, this may not be the right option for you as it is essentially the same platform and search results as Google.
Prices
6. Brave search
Brave Search provides security and privacy while browsing the Internet, achieved by not tracking users or their searches. Brave Search cannot share or sell personal information because it does not collect it at all.
This is helpful for those who work from public computers or networks. It could also be attractive to those interested in both privacy and AI, as the platform introduced Answer with AI Earlier this year. This feature has quickly become one of the largest AI solutions.
What I like
- Brave Search has a standard look and feel similar to the other search engine options on this list and major search engines like Google.
- It prioritizes data protection with a fail-safe strategy that enables complete user protection while using its own independent web crawler and index.
- The AI assistant, when it can be used, is very intelligent and good at combining the many search results into a coherent answer.
- Although Brave Search supports paid ads, it guarantees that the ads are anonymous and that the platform does not report user data when users see or click on the ads.
Which I don’t like
- Reply with AI is not available for all requests, which was a bit disappointing for me. For example, I searched for “best large leak-proof water bottles” and was told that AI was “not available for this search.” This could also discourage others who expect an AI assistant to always be effective.
Prices
- Standard plan: Free
- Premium Plan: $3/month (ad-free search results)
Best search engines with special features
7. OceanHero
OceanHero is an incredible search engine with an environmental purpose. It generates revenue through search ads and donates the proceeds to organizations like PlasticBank that work to collect plastic to clean up the oceans.
OceanHero makes the search a challenge. You can work towards earning as many shells as possible. Once you collect 100 seashells, your bottle counter will increase by one to show how many plastic bottles in the sea you have saved.
On average, five searches or 17 new tabs in the browser extension help recover a plastic bottle.
First I had to add OceanHero as a Google Chrome extension.
Then I followed the instructions to use OceanHero as my primary search engine.
What I like
- Since OceanHero is added as a Google Chrome extension, it is the most natural Google alternative. I can search for queries directly in my Chrome search bar and my browsing experience doesn’t change at all. My searches are simply entered through OceanHero rather than Google, making for a seamless transition.
- OceanHero has such an important goal that it is a joy to be a part of it. I’ll be looking for different questions and suggestions every day anyway, so I might as well contribute to positive change in the process!
- The idea of turning ocean plastic reduction into a game by having users collect shells and bottles gives this search engine a fun competitive edge.
Which I don’t like
- Adding OceanHero as a browser extension may discourage some people from adopting it.
- Aside from its strong environmental mission, OceanHero is almost exactly similar to the Google search experience, for better or worse.
Prices
8. Swiss cows
Swisscows is unique in that it has family-friendly content, so users can be confident in allowing their children to use the search engine freely. In addition, this search engine has a charitable benefit.
The heart icon at the top of the browser tracks the number of searches a user makes. The search engine says that on average 50 searches help fund a meal for a child. Find out more about Swisscows’ social projects, impact and donation options Here.
What I like
- I originally expected Swisscows to have a childish look due to its family-friendliness, but it looks like every other search engine on this list. This makes it more attractive for both adults who want to use this platform and their children.
- The social influence of Swisscows makes it a breeze to use. I can search through my many searches every day and know that these random searches contribute to important social causes that benefit children.
- The search results are clearly organized, with an icon photo to the left of the headline, a few lines of description and below that a shortened URL, the publication date and the ability to open an anonymous preview with an AI. based description. This format is unlike any other I’ve seen and gives you as much information as possible upfront.
Which I don’t like
- I’ve found this to be one of the slower page load times of the search engines I tested.
- If you also want an ad-free experience, unfortunately this search engine contains advertisements.
- I also noticed that the “ad” labels are small and at the bottom of each link rather than at the top like Google, which can be misleading.
Prices
6 Tips for Google Search Brand Success
While I’ve gone through the pros and cons of using these eight search engines as a consumer, it’s equally important to know how best to operate them as a brand.
Read on for some of my tips on successfully optimizing for these Google alternatives.
1. Produce high-quality, engaging content.
It may seem obvious, but it should be the most important part of your search engine strategy Creating content worth searching for. In such a crowded market where users have to choose between dozens of sources with nearly identical information, it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd without quality content.
Use search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure you are creating content on topics that users are interested in. And while it’s important to include these keywords, make sure the language on your websites, blog posts, or other platforms comes across as authentic and natural.
For example, when I write my HubSpot blog posts, I integrate my opinions and experiences while hitting keywords, resulting in personalized and useful content. I also always write in my natural tone to sound like myself and not like a robot.
2. Diversify your keyword strategy.
Speaking of keywords, it’s important to expand the types of keywords referenced in your content. While it’s easier to insert individual keywords into any piece of content, it can be more profitable to include longer phrases.
Long-tail keywords typically consist of three or more words and have a lower search volume. However, when combined, they account for a larger percentage of searches and are more likely to result in conversions because the keywords are so specific.
3. Improve your search rankings with backlinks.
Backlinks are created when another website links to your website. As an example: The is now a backlink for Backlinko.
Backlinks are important because they can show users that your content is reputable. The best way to get backlinks is to return them to other trusted sources. Build key partnerships with brands to create a mutually beneficial relationship.
4. Upgrade your web experience.
As seen in this post, each search engine has a different look and format. This affects how your content appears in users’ search results. Therefore, when targeting a new search engine, you need to update the web experience of your content.
For example, some search engines like Kagi show the publication date in advance in search results, which encourages me to update my content regularly to keep it fresh and reliable.
Other search engines such as Swisscows include a photo icon in the search results, so I would like to confirm that I have selected a high quality, clear and relevant photo alongside the URL.
5. Consider relevant niche search engines.
I mentioned that there are search engines with special functions and purposes, such as OceanHero and Swisscows. It may be beneficial for you to include search engines in your strategy if their niches match your brand’s niche.
I work at Nickelodeon, so I assume our team has optimized our content for family-friendly search engines like Swisscows. If I worked at a non-profit organization or an AI company, I would also want to include search engines in these niches in my strategy.
6. Stay up to date on search engine changes.
Although Google was not the first search engine, it was an early contender and unique because its founders, two Stanford University graduate students, PageRank developedan algorithm that lists websites in order of the number of links to them.
Since then, dozens of new search engines have emerged with different focuses, algorithms and problem solutions. As a brand owner, it is essential to stay on top of this ever-changing landscape and update your SEO strategy accordingly.
Finally, Google introduced its first AI systemRankBrain, in 2015. Less than ten years later, there are countless AI search engines and standard search engines with AI features. Keeping an eye on trends and improving user experience will always be a necessity.
The search for a new search engine
Going into this post, I was aware of some of these non-Google search engines, but I’m really blown away by how many options there are.
While Google still has over 90% market share, other search engines can offer unique, customized experiences to those willing to give them a chance.
My favorites from this list in particular are Perplexity, which I have already integrated into my routine, and OceanHero.
I think both show how search engines can take the common human action of searching queries to the next level to improve users’ lives or the world at large.
Google may seem like the easy and obvious choice, but there is great value in incorporating some of these other search engines to better optimize your content for search.