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45 Best Search Engine Alternatives to Google

Welcome to the definitive source for comparing search engine alternatives to Google.

Why would anyone want an alternative to the Google search engine? Some concerns that people have with Google include: user privacy, manipulation and misuse of search results, tax avoidance, use of others’ intellectual property, and business concerns such as having a monopoly (more than 90% of searches are done on Google). Because people and businesses use the internet in so many different ways, it is important to find the search engine that fits each use case best.

We've performed a comprehensive research study to identify Google-alternative search engines that search the entire public internet. To be included in our study, the tool must require users to input text and give a list of matching results as an output. This list includes both paid and free search engines, and meta-search engines (if they search the entire web).

The following search engines have not been included, for a number of reasons (e.g. broken site, incomplete search results or non-English language): Boardreader, Wolframalpha, Chacha, Blekko, Blog Search Engine, Wiki.com, Baidu, Disconnect Search, Kartoo, and Surfwax. We’ve also left out search engines that only search the dark web or ones that only search for specific information (e.g. http://www.blog searchengine.org/).

If you are also interested in finding an effective web browser, check out: Top 50 Web Browser Alternatives.

We reached out to a cohort of industry experts to get some initial feedback on what features are most important in search engine tools. We’ve ranked the top ten tools in our research according to their responses. This top ten list is continually updated as we get more feedback. But we highly suggest you participate in our custom search engine survey so you can layer in your own importance prioritization for each feature:


Top Ten
Google Search Engine Alternatives
as of April 2021

  1. Internet Archive
  2. DuckDuckGo
  3. Yahoo
  4. Ecosia
  5. Bing
  6. Startpage
  7. Yandex
  8. Goodsearch
  9. Qwant
  10. Aol

Note: If we mark a specific solution as not having a particular feature, that only means we did not see that feature advertised in their public marketing content. We focus almost exclusively on publicly verifiable facts in our research.

Our researchers have looked at 368 data points and more than 1800 analysis points. They have studied 39 integrations, 32 features, 46 search engine tools and over 1400 feature points.

Search Engine Feature Strength is a number that was calculated by looking at how many features each search engine had, and the relative, subjective importance of each feature. You can reach out to us to layer in your own feature importance scoring before deciding on a solution.

Likewise, Search Engine Business Strength is a number that was derived from certain business-related qualities of each company, and our own (subjective) scoring of the importance of those qualities. There too, you’ll want to give your own importance rating to derive your own, custom scatter plot:

We've used the Likert Scale to calculate a score for software features and business attributes. Our list also includes many other considerations such as which features each search engine provides, age or launch date, pricing and Domain Authority score. You can click here to jump to a list of all the features we've uncovered.

We trust that this publication will save you many hours of research.  To make this research report  mobile-friendly, we’ve nested five different methods of ranking these search engine tools. Click on each of these to expand the ordered list:

ToolAge
Lycos24.7 Yrs
Search24.7 Yrs
Excite24.7 Yrs
WebCrawler24.7 Yrs
InfoSpace24.7 Yrs
MetaCrawler24.7 Yrs
Dogpile24.5 Yrs
Internet Archive24.4 Yrs
Yippy24.3 Yrs
Info24.2 Yrs
Aol23.5 Yrs
Ask22.6 Yrs
Startpage22.6 Yrs
Entireweb22.4 Yrs
Gigablast21.6 Yrs
Lukol21.3 Yrs
SearchEngineZ21.2 Yrs
MetaGer20.3 Yrs
Exactseek20.3 Yrs
Bing19.4 Yrs
Yandex18.9 Yrs
Qwant18.9 Yrs
giveWater17.8 Yrs
SearchScene17.1 Yrs
YaCy16.8 Yrs
Mojeek16.6 Yrs
Yahoo15.7 Yrs
Lemmefind15.5 Yrs
Goodsearch14.8 Yrs
Sputtr14.2 Yrs
BabyLon14.1 Yrs
Symbaloo14.0 Yrs
DuckDuckGo12.8 Yrs
Ecosia11.6 Yrs
CuteStat11.5 Yrs
Gibiru10.4 Yrs
Ekoru9.8 Yrs
Million Short9.2 Yrs
ZOO7.7 Yrs
Kiddle7.5 Yrs
Givero7.5 Yrs
Swisscows6.5 Yrs
Searx6.4 Yrs
Search Encrypt4.1 Yrs
Oscobo4.1 Yrs
OneSearch1.4 Yrs





This publication is dynamic and will be updated as search engine tools change. Bookmark this page, and be sure to share it with your colleagues and friends. What elements do you find important when deciding on a search engine? Engage with us in the comments below.

You can click on the images below to see an introduction video for the tool, if one is available!


Search Engines are listed below in no particular order:

Bing

Bing


Bing

Bing Comparison Details

Age of Software/Company: 19.6 Yrs

Distinctive features:

Best Bing Alternatives



Yandex

Yandex


Yandex

Yandex Comparison Details

Age of Software/Company: 19.0 Yrs

Distinctive features:

Best Yandex Alternatives

  • BluditCMS
  • Convert
  • Django
  • Drupal
  • Ecwid
  • GetResponse
  • Google Chrome
  • Google Data Studio
  • Google Tag Manager
  • Hybrid.ai
  • ImpressPages
  • Improvado
  • Joomia
  • Landingi
  • Magento
  • MotoCMS
  • Octoboard
  • Omniconvert
  • OneBox
  • RDocumentation
  • Redash
  • Renta
  • Segment
  • Segmentstream
  • Shopify
  • SpringBuilder
  • T-Soft
  • Tealium
  • Ucraft
  • Venew
  • Wix
  • WordPress
  • XenForo
  • Yandex Browser



  • Swisscows

    Swisscows


    Swisscows

    Swisscows Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 6.7 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Swisscows Alternatives

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • MS Edge
  • MS Internet Explorer



  • DuckDuckGo

    DuckDuckGo


    DuckDuckGo

    DuckDuckGo Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 12.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best DuckDuckGo Alternatives



    Startpage

    Startpage


    Startpage

    Startpage Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 22.7 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Startpage Alternatives



    Ekoru

    Ekoru


    Ekoru

    Ekoru Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 9.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Ekoru Alternatives



    Ecosia

    Ecosia


    Ecosia

    Ecosia Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 11.7 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Ecosia Alternatives

  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox



  • Internet Archive

    Internet Archive


    Internet Archive

    Internet Archive Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Internet Archive Alternatives



    Dogpile

    Dogpile


    Dogpile

    Dogpile Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.7 Yrs

    Best Dogpile Alternatives



    Gigablast

    Gigablast


    Gigablast

    Gigablast Comparison Details

    Feature summary: The last search engine.

    Age of Software/Company: 21.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Gigablast Alternatives



    Ask

    Ask


    Ask

    Ask Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 22.7 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Ask Alternatives



    WebCrawler

    WebCrawler


    WebCrawler

    WebCrawler Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.8 Yrs

    Best WebCrawler Alternatives



    Lycos

    Lycos


    Lycos

    Lycos Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Lycos Alternatives



    InfoSpace

    InfoSpace


    InfoSpace

    InfoSpace Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best InfoSpace Alternatives



    Yahoo

    Yahoo


    Yahoo

    Yahoo Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 15.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Yahoo Alternatives



    Search


    Search

    Search Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.8 Yrs

    Best Search Alternatives



    MetaGer

    MetaGer


    MetaGer

    MetaGer Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 20.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best MetaGer Alternatives



    Qwant

    Qwant


    Qwant

    Qwant Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 19.0 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Qwant Alternatives



    Search Encrypt

    Search Encrypt


    Search Encrypt

    Search Encrypt Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 4.3 Yrs

    Best Search Encrypt Alternatives



    Gibiru

    Gibiru


    Gibiru

    Gibiru Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 10.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Gibiru Alternatives



    Yippy

    Yippy


    Yippy

    Yippy Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.5 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Yippy Alternatives



    Oscobo

    Oscobo


    Oscobo

    Oscobo Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 4.2 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Oscobo Alternatives



    Lukol

    Lukol


    Lukol

    Lukol Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 21.4 Yrs

    Best Lukol Alternatives



    Aol

    Aol


    Aol

    Aol Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 23.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Aol Alternatives



    OneSearch

    OneSearch


    OneSearch

    OneSearch Comparison Details

    Feature summary: Privacy-Focused Features

    Age of Software/Company: 1.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best OneSearch Alternatives



    giveWater

    giveWater


    giveWater

    giveWater Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 17.9 Yrs

    Best giveWater Alternatives



    Excite

    Excite


    Excite

    Excite Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Excite Alternatives



    BabyLon

    BabyLon


    BabyLon

    BabyLon Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 14.2 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best BabyLon Alternatives



    Info

    Info


    Info

    Info Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.3 Yrs

    Best Info Alternatives



    Kiddle

    Kiddle


    Kiddle

    Kiddle Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 7.6 Yrs

    Best Kiddle Alternatives



    Entireweb

    Entireweb


    Entireweb

    Entireweb Comparison Details

    Feature summary: Entireweb SEO Service

    Age of Software/Company: 22.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Entireweb Alternatives

  • Shopify
  • Squarespace
  • WordPress
  • Zapier



  • Exactseek

    Exactseek


    Exactseek

    Exactseek Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 20.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Exactseek Alternatives



    Lemmefind

    Lemmefind


    Lemmefind

    Lemmefind Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 15.6 Yrs

    Best Lemmefind Alternatives



    Searx

    Searx


    Searx

    Searx Comparison Details

    Feature summary: Searx, a metasearch engine which collects results from over 70 search services, allows users to avoid tracking. For online privacy, Searx can be used over Tor.

    Age of Software/Company: 6.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Searx Alternatives



    Mojeek

    Mojeek


    Mojeek

    Mojeek Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 16.8 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Mojeek Alternatives



    YaCy

    YaCy


    YaCy

    YaCy Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 16.9 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best YaCy Alternatives



    Givero

    Givero


    Givero

    Givero Comparison Details

    Feature summary: Say hello to open source bangs.

    Age of Software/Company: 7.6 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Givero Alternatives



    MetaCrawler

    MetaCrawler


    MetaCrawler

    MetaCrawler Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 24.8 Yrs

    Best MetaCrawler Alternatives



    ZOO

    ZOO


    ZOO

    ZOO Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 7.8 Yrs

    Best ZOO Alternatives



    Sputtr

    Sputtr


    Sputtr

    Sputtr Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 14.3 Yrs

    Best Sputtr Alternatives



    Symbaloo

    Symbaloo


    Symbaloo

    Symbaloo Comparison Details

    Feature summary: Enjoy the many things that can be done within Symbaloo webmixes. See various widgets and embedding choices from popular websites.

    Age of Software/Company: 14.1 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Best Symbaloo Alternatives



    CuteStat

    CuteStat


    CuteStat

    CuteStat Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 11.7 Yrs

    Best CuteStat Alternatives



    SearchEngineZ

    SearchEngineZ


    SearchEngineZ

    SearchEngineZ Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 21.3 Yrs

    Best SearchEngineZ Alternatives



    Million Short

    Million Short


    Million Short

    Million Short Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 9.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Million Short Alternatives



    Goodsearch

    Goodsearch


    Goodsearch

    Goodsearch Comparison Details

    Age of Software/Company: 15.0 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best Goodsearch Alternatives



    SearchScene

    SearchScene


    SearchScene

    SearchScene Comparison Details

    Feature summary: SearchScene is a charitable search engine that donates 95% of its profits to charity, focusing on charities that help fight climate change and alleviate the suffering caused by climate change.

    Age of Software/Company: 17.3 Yrs

    Distinctive features:

    Industry thought leadership blog: Click to visit blog.

    Best SearchScene Alternatives






    FEATURE DESCRIPTIONS

    Searches the Internet systematically, for specific info, in response to a text search query.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 44

    Exact Search (in quotes)

    Provides searching for an exact phrase, when the user encloses the phrase in quotes.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 42

    Shows only images in the web search results.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 36

    Incremental Auto-Complete

    Autocomplete is a feature within the search engine, designed to make it faster to complete searches that you're beginning to type.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 35

    Keyword search across thousands of news sources found on the web. Users have the ability to browse categories of news where headlines are listed.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 32

    Boolean Search (AND, OR, NOT)

    A structured search that allows the user to insert words such as AND, OR, NOT to broaden or limit the search results.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 29

    Allows users to search just one domain — not the entire internet. For example: a search for “horse training:bloodhorse.com” will give results about horse training from the site bloodhorse.com.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 29

    Provides web search results that only include video content.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 28

    See a list of closely related, popular searches along with the results of your search.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 25

    Search Within Results

    Provides the option to search within your previous search results, to search for a more specific topic within your original results.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 23

    Filter by Date

    Limits the search results by allowing users to filter results from the past day, week or month.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 21

    Anonymous search is for privacy-conscious web users, who don't want their search or browser related data harvested.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 19

    Provides an automated filter of pornography and other offensive content that’s built into the search engine. This feature makes the search engine more family-friendly.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 18

    Metasearch Engine Info Retrieval

    A Metasearch Engine takes input from a user and immediately gathers info from search engines for results. After gathering and ranking data, it is presented to the user.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 18

    Provides detailed info about geographical areas around the world, also gives directions to a particular destination.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 13

    Filter by Region

    Ability to customize search results to a specific country or region. Other countries or regions may appear with a lower rank.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 13

    Ad-Free Results

    The search engine does not show any ads in the results.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 12

    Filter by Language

    Provides ability to filter searches to only show results in the language chosen.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 11

    A filter system that determines the risk of copyright infringement, and possible infringement, by analyzing and filtering user-generated content uploaded to the platform.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 11

    Email Service

    Provides a free or paid email service.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 10

    Allows user to search for specific products for sale from online merchants or nearby stores.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 7

    Finds info about songs and music. Some services allow users to find digital files, or to identify songs by sound, like humming or singing.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 5

    Allows users to search within the category of entertainment.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 5

    Open Source Code

    A computer program in which the source code is available for people to use for any purpose. Also allows its original design to be modified.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 5

    Record of Search History

    A record of the web pages that were recently visited by a computer user. Also provides recommendations based on recent browsing history.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 5

    Provides quick access to search for only sports-related results.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 4

    Provides the user with search results, specifically related to financial topics.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 3

    Language Translation Support

    Translate/convert your search to another language, also has a built-in translator.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 3

    Aids the user in searching subjects such as horoscopes, destiny, palmistry, numerology and fortune telling.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 2

    Truth Censorship

    Also known as Internet censorship, it's the suppression or control of what can be viewed, accessed or published on the Internet. This includes political censorship, or censoring out information that's deemed to be false by regulators or others. This does not include adult-related content filters.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 2

    Cloud Storage

    Provides off-site storage, maintained by a third party. Allows you to save files, data, etc.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 2

    Searches for magazine, book, ebook or document titles or by the text inside.

    Number of Search Engine that have this feature: 1

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