A search engine is chosen on three things the homepage hides: who owns the index, how the operator earns its money, and what leaves the browser with each query.
This guide ranks twelve engines on those points, from small subscription and independent-crawler services to the ad-funded giants, and says where each one depends on another company's results.
Vendors can pay for visibility on this page. It never changes what an entry
says about a product, including the criticism, and we earn nothing when you click through to a
vendor. How that works.
In short
What search engines software does
A search engine crawls or licenses an index of web pages and returns ranked links for a typed query, funded by subscriptions, advertising or paid access for developers.
In this order: setup effort, what it really costs, how your data comes back out, whether
you can leave, and who each search engines tool is built for. One rule sits on top of those tests:
Places 1 to 3 go to challengers, vendors outside the best-known brands in a category, wherever the category has them; the established names follow from place 4 in their ranked order. Why those five, and why there is no
score out of ten, is on the how we work page.
People who accept personalised, ad-funded search in exchange for the broadest default
Buyers who want to control AI features or avoid ad personalisation
Country is where the vendor is headquartered or contracts from, which is a
different question from where your data is hosted. Where the two tell different stories, the
entry says so.
Subscription search with no ads and monthly search allowances by tier
Ranked #1 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Kagi answers the first ninety days with a trial of 100 searches and a credit for any month you do not use the service, so a wrong purchase costs little.
The real price follows volume: Starter allows 300 searches, Professional is unlimited, Ultimate adds premium AI models, and annual billing takes ten per cent off. Exit is simple because it is only a subscription, but your personalised settings do not travel to another engine.
What stands out
Paid search
No ads
AI assistant add-on
Where it costs you
Search is metered on the cheapest paid tier, so a heavy user has to move up
Part of the results come from third-party search providers through anonymised calls, so the index is not wholly Kagi's own
Right for
People who will pay monthly for ad-free results and personal ranking settings
Wrong for
Households that want a search engine with no account or payment
United StatesMonthly subscription with published tiers; limited trial before paying
UK crawler with its own index, no tracking and a metered API
Ranked #2 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Published pricingEurope
Setup takes minutes because web search needs no account. For developers the cost is published in pounds: the Startup tier is priced per thousand queries with a daily ceiling, and the Business tier raises both the rate and the ceiling.
The page states no minimum commitment, no automatic payments and cancellation at any time, so leaving is clean. Storage rights and AI usage appear as plan columns, which a buyer should read before building a product on the results.
What stands out
Own index
UK company
Search API
Where it costs you
Its own reported count is nine billion pages, so niche queries may return fewer useful results
The Startup API plan is capped at five queries a second and 100,000 a day
Right for
Privacy-minded users and developers who want an independent index from a UK company
Wrong for
Buyers needing deep coverage of rare or foreign-language queries
United KingdomNo user price shown; paid API at published pay-as-you-go rates
Independent index from the Brave browser company, with a paid API
Ranked #3 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
The consumer site needs no account, so setup costs minutes. The developer side is priced per thousand calls: Search carries a monthly credit and a stated rate of fifty queries a second, while the Answers product adds token charges and a lower rate of two a second.
Enterprise terms are agreed individually. Prepaid credits with no subscription make exit easy; claims about index coverage are Brave's own.
What stands out
Own index
Ad-free Premium
Search API
Where it costs you
The price of the ad-free Premium option was not visible on the pages read, so it cannot be compared
The consumer site is funded by search ads, which the Shields setting can reduce but the page does not say remove
Right for
Developers and users who want an independent index and an optional ad-free paid tier
Wrong for
Buyers who need a stated Premium price before committing
United StatesAd-supported; ad-free Premium option; API sold per thousand calls with monthly credits
Dutch-run private search with anonymous page viewing and sponsored links
Ranked #4 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Setup is a browser default plus an optional account. An account and subscription now exist under a supplemental privacy policy dated 13 August 2026, but we found no price, so the cost of the paid tier cannot be stated.
The policy says government requests must come from Dutch judicial authorities and are met only if legally required. Exit is trivial because searching needs no login. Video results come through YouTube API Services.
What stands out
Dutch company
Anonymous View
Sponsored links
Where it costs you
Sponsored links are retrieved from platforms such as Google AdSense
The pages read do not say which index supplies the organic results
Right for
Users who want private search from a Dutch company, with anonymous visiting of results
Wrong for
Buyers who must know whose index ranks their results
NetherlandsAd-supported with sponsored links; account and subscription exist, price not shown
Paris-based engine with its own crawler, partner results and optional AI summaries
Ranked #5 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Qwant's own text is the strongest part of its case: the ranking notice says no commercial agreement affects relevance and that ads carry the word Annonce or Partenariat.
Setup needs no account, but the AI answers and Summary are unlocked only by one, and consent to personalised advertising is requested there. The notice also says its coverage does not claim to be exhaustive. Exit is easy, as the default engine can be switched in the browser.
What stands out
French company
Own crawler
Optional AI
Where it costs you
Part of the results come through third-party interfaces such as Microsoft Bing
AI answers and the Summary feature require creating an account
Right for
French and European users who want a Paris-based engine with optional AI answers
Wrong for
Buyers who want every result from one operator's own index
FranceFree, funded by labelled ads; an account is needed for AI features
Climate-funded engine using Bing, Google and a new European index
Ranked #6 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Ecosia publishes monthly financial reports, which makes the funding claim checkable. Its AI Overviews run on Staan through EUSP with a Mistral small model, and an AI-free option exists.
For IT teams the help centre carries Microsoft Intune and Windows group policy guides and a safe-search enforcement article, which shortens a rollout. The cost is dependence: the help page says the mix of Bing, Google and EUSP can change over time.
What stands out
Social business
Tree planting
AI Overviews
Where it costs you
Results mix three providers, so which one serves you varies by country, device and consent
AI Overviews are on by default and need a settings change to switch off
Right for
Organisations and users who want ad-funded search with published financial reports
Wrong for
Buyers who need a single index with one set of terms
Not stated by the vendorAd-funded; profits go to tree planting
Ad-funded private search relying largely on Bing for its links
Ranked #7 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Setup is a browser default with no account. The company says it does not save or share search history and does not log IP addresses alongside searches.
The help pages list Plus and Pro subscription plans and a note on subscribing outside the United States, though the plan page we reached gave no prices or contents. AI features are optional and can be opted out of. The independence claim concerns the company, not the link supply.
What stands out
Bing-sourced links
Private by default
Optional AI
Where it costs you
Traditional links and images are largely sourced from Bing
The pages read show no price for the subscription and no company address
Right for
Users who want a no-account private default with optional AI features
Wrong for
Buyers who want results from an index independent of Microsoft
Not stated by the vendorFree with ads; optional subscription with Plus and Pro plans
Russian engine with image, maps and AI search, bound by Russian law
Ranked #8 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Yandex offers a normal first ninety days for a searcher, since the English site works directly, and its help section for site owners covers indexing and how a site is displayed.
The weighing happens at the legal level: the privacy policy names YANDEX LLC and lists a representative in the EEA, EU Digital Partners SRL, for GDPR Article 27 purposes. No price is shown to users. Exit is only a default change, but a compliance review comes before any rollout.
What stands out
Russian law
Site-owner tools
AI search
Where it costs you
The user agreement is governed by Russian law and the Russian version prevails over the English one
Personal data may be collected by YANDEX LLC or affiliates, which a European buyer must assess
Right for
Teams researching Russian-language results and site visibility in that market
Wrong for
Organisations that cannot send user data to a Russian company
Beijing-based engine with a Chinese-language site and an AI assistant
Ranked #9 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Pricing on requestAsia-Pacific
The Baidu home page lists maps, video, images, cloud storage, translation, encyclopedia and academic search beside the search box, so the first ninety days involve a whole product family in Chinese.
The contact page gives a Beijing campus address in both Chinese and English. We saw no price for users. Exit is a default change, but understanding the privacy policy needs a translator, and this guide's reading of the Chinese text is our own.
What stands out
Chinese-language
Beijing company
AI assistant
Where it costs you
The interface and privacy policy we read were in Chinese only
The privacy policy has a section on cross-border transfer of personal information that a foreign organisation must review
Right for
Marketers and researchers studying Chinese-language search behaviour and its products
Wrong for
Readers without Chinese who want a general-purpose default
Ad-funded portal search whose help page does not name its result supplier
Ranked #10 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Yahoo Search is easy to start, since the page loads without sign-in and the help centre explains filters for news, images, video, local, shopping and date.
The cost is clarity: the ads page says the company is paid to place some content and that other partner content may not be labelled, and it names no index supplier. Terms are long and cover a family of services.
What stands out
Ad-funded
Portal
US terms
Where it costs you
The help page does not say whose index supplies the algorithmic results
Content from partners the company has a financial relationship with might not be labelled
Right for
Existing Yahoo account holders who want search beside their mail and finance pages
Wrong for
Buyers who need to know who supplies the results
United StatesAdvertising funded; no price shown to users
Microsoft's web search, and a named source for other engines here
Ranked #11 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Bing needs no setup for a searcher, and site owners reach it through the Bing Webmaster tools. For a developer the position changed: the lifecycle notice says existing Search API instances were decommissioned and new sign-ups ended, with Grounding with Bing Search offered inside Azure AI Agents instead.
The services agreement names Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, as the contracting party for consumer services and covers Bing materials for personal, noncommercial use. Independence here means none from Microsoft.
What stands out
Microsoft
Result supplier
API retired
Where it costs you
The standalone Bing Search APIs were retired on 11 August 2025
Developers are redirected to Grounding with Bing Search, which is tied to Azure AI Agents
Right for
Users and site owners who want Microsoft's search and its webmaster tools
Wrong for
Developers wanting a plain search API without Azure
United StatesNo user price stated; the standalone Search APIs were retired
Ad-funded default search whose AI Overviews cannot be switched off
Ranked #12 of 12 in Best Search Engines in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Google needs no setup, and that is also its limit: the buyer has no commercial relationship that could change the product. The privacy policy covers Google LLC and its affiliates and lets you change or turn off ad personalisation in Ads Settings.
Help says AI Overviews are a core feature that cannot be turned off and offers the Web filter instead. Exit is a default change, but a signed-in user's activity stays in the account until deleted.
What stands out
Google LLC
AI Overviews
Ad settings
Where it costs you
AI Overviews cannot be turned off; only the Web filter hides them per search
Signed-in searches can be saved in the account when Web and App Activity is on
Right for
People who accept personalised, ad-funded search in exchange for the broadest default
Wrong for
Buyers who want to control AI features or avoid ad personalisation
A search engine crawls or licenses an index of web pages and returns ranked links for a typed query, funded by subscriptions, advertising or paid access for developers. The differences that matter are rarely in the feature list, so this is
the order we would work through them.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
5 of the 12 tools here publish what they cost; the other 7 quote per organisation. The ones you can compare without a sales call: Kagi, Mojeek, Brave Search, Qwant, DuckDuckGo.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
These 12 vendors are established in 7 countries across 4 regions (North America 5, Europe 3, Elsewhere 3, Asia-Pacific 1). That decides whose disclosure law applies to what the vendor holds, wherever the servers are.
Whose index answers: Mojeek and Brave Search against the Bing resellers
Two engines in this list say they run their own index. Mojeek crawls with MojeekBot and reports over nine billion pages, and Brave Search says every result comes from its own index with no fallback to another engine. The rest borrow. DuckDuckGo says its traditional links and images are largely sourced from Bing, Qwant names Microsoft Bing among its partner interfaces, and Ecosia mixes Bing, Google and EUSP depending on country and device.
Kagi blends its own indexes with anonymised calls to other providers. Because Microsoft retired the standalone Bing Search APIs in August 2025, a reseller's supply is a business arrangement outside your contract. Read each vendor's source page before you treat a brand as a separate engine.
Find the vendor's own page on where results come from and read the wording on fallbacks.
Run ten rare queries from your own market on each shortlisted engine and compare the depth.
Note which engines share a supplier, so two choices do not become one dependency.
What you pay with: subscription, advertising or a paid tier
Every engine here is paid for somehow. Kagi charges a monthly subscription with a trial of 100 searches, and its Starter tier caps searches at 300. Ecosia, Startpage, DuckDuckGo and Qwant are funded by advertising, with Ecosia naming Google AdSense and Microsoft Advertising and Startpage naming platforms such as Google AdSense for its sponsored links.
Brave Search shows ads on its consumer site and offers an ad-free Premium, though we found no price for it. Qwant offers personalised ads only if you consent when creating an account. Compare the first ninety days and the cost after the trial, because a metered allowance and an ad-funded default fail in different ways.
Write down which tier removes the ads or the search cap for your usage.
Check whether personalised advertising is on by default or needs consent.
Ask what happens to your settings and history if you cancel.
Developer access: search APIs, storage rights and AI answers
A search engine is also a data supply, and the commercial rules differ widely. Brave Search sells Search at a stated rate per thousand calls with monthly credits and a separate Answers product. Mojeek sells Startup and Business tiers in pounds per thousand queries with daily limits and lists storage rights and AI usage as plan columns.
Microsoft ended the standalone Bing Search APIs on 11 August 2025 and offers Grounding with Bing Search inside Azure AI Agents. On the consumer side, Ecosia and DuckDuckGo let you opt out of AI features while Google says AI Overviews cannot be turned off, and Kagi limits its Assistant's Research mode and flagship models to the Ultimate tier.
Read the plan columns for storage rights and AI usage before building on any API.
Check the rate limit in queries per second against your peak load.
Confirm how to switch off AI features for staff who must not see them.
Rolling a search engine out to a team
Changing the default for an organisation is a different job from changing it for yourself. Ecosia's help centre carries guides for Microsoft Intune, Windows group policy and enforcing safe search at a company, which shortens the work. Kagi lists a Teams plan and a Libraries plan beside its personal tiers. Qwant offers a Junior search and a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari.
Startpage offers a browser extension and a private browser app for iOS and Android. For engines whose operator sits under a particular legal regime, such as Yandex under Russian law or Baidu with a Chinese-language policy, involve your privacy officer before any rollout, and check each vendor's help centre before assuming that a managed deployment is documented.
Check whether the vendor documents managed deployment for your device management system.
Confirm that safe-search enforcement exists if the users are students or minors.
Have your privacy officer read the data policy of any engine you cannot read in full.
What goes wrong most often when buying search engines software
Treating DuckDuckGo, Ecosia and Qwant as separate indexes without reading that each names Bing as a source for part of its results.
Buying Kagi's cheapest tier for a heavy searcher and discovering the 300-search cap in the second week.
Building a product on a search API without reading the storage-rights and AI-usage terms, or relying on an interface Microsoft has already retired.
Making Yandex or Baidu a team default without a privacy review, since the first is governed by Russian law and the second publishes its policy in Chinese.
07
Frequently asked questions
6 answers
What is the best search engines in 2026?
Kagi leads our ranking of 12. Kagi sells search to its users instead of to advertisers, so its ranking has no sponsored slots to protect.
The cheapest paid tier caps searches at 300, unlimited search starts one tier up, and the premium AI models sit in the top tier. It is a Delaware public benefit corporation, and its results blend its own index with calls to other providers.
Which search engines tools publish their pricing?
5 of the 12, with the pricing model each one publishes:
Kagi: Monthly subscription with published tiers; limited trial before paying.
Mojeek: No user price shown; paid API at published pay-as-you-go rates.
Brave Search: Ad-supported; ad-free Premium option; API sold per thousand calls with monthly credits.
Qwant: Free, funded by labelled ads; an account is needed for AI features.
DuckDuckGo: Free with ads; optional subscription with Plus and Pro plans.
The other 7 quote per organisation.
Is there a free search engines tool?
Qwant, DuckDuckGo offer a free tier or a free self-hosted edition.
Where are these search engines vendors established?
In 7 countries across 4 regions: North America 5, Europe 3, Elsewhere 3, Asia-Pacific 1.
Kagi: United States.
Mojeek: United Kingdom.
Brave Search: United States.
Startpage: Netherlands.
Qwant: France.
Ecosia: Not stated by the vendor.
DuckDuckGo: Not stated by the vendor.
Yandex: Russia.
Baidu: China.
Yahoo Search: United States.
Microsoft Bing: United States.
Google Search: United States.
What should you use instead of Kagi?
Mojeek and Brave Search are the next two on this page. Mojeek is for Privacy-minded users and developers who want an independent index from a UK company; Brave Search is for Developers and users who want an independent index and an optional ad-free paid tier.
Who should not buy Kagi?
Households that want a search engine with no account or payment. Search is metered on the cheapest paid tier, so a heavy user has to move up.
If your search engines product belongs among these 12, tell us what it does and who it is for. Inclusion is an editorial call; what a listing is and is not is set out under software advice.
