25 What Are the Best Alternative Search Engines to Google? 

Google has been the search engine most commonly used by people for everyday searches, product research and the latest news for more than 20 years.

As a result, Google has been the primary search engine that SEO and marketing professionals have focused on.

But once ChatGPT and Bing Chat were launched, the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, apparently took a new active part in Google’s plans to introduce chatbot capabilities to Google Search.

Soon after, Google launched its chatbot Bard (renamed to “Gemini”) around May 2023, and a year later, added “AI Overviews” to searchers in the United States on May 14, 2024.

In late 2024, OpenAI followed suit with ChatGPT search, which made the once-prototype search feature a fully fledged search function within ChatGPT.

While Google still commands the lion’s share of search market, there are some other search engines that have their own strengths over Google, including improved privacy, specialized content, different algorithms, and user-centric experiences.

Here are 25 Alternative Search Engines Worth Trying

AI-Powered Search Engines

The AI chatbots functioned on a large language model are vulnerable to errors and hallucinations when search engines add these AI-powered tools.

When receiving information from AI-powered search engines, always check essential details on reliable sources, including medical, financial, legal, safety, etc., information.

1. ChatGPT Search

The ChatGPT search was launched as a prototype in October 2024 and has since evolved into OpenAI’s new search functionality.

This feature uses real-time web information and artificial intelligence for accurate responses and proper citations.

This was originally a paid service but has now been made accessible to everyone.

Key Features

• Skill to pose follow-up questions.
• Real-time information: Fetches the latest information from the web.
• Content attributions and links back to the original content sources.
• Tools for publishers to control the way their content is displayed in ChatGPT Search.
• OpenAI has continued to develop the feature since its launch, including enhancements to context handling and more robust ways to cite, to resolve early concerns about inaccuracies in attribution.

2. Google AI Mode

This capability will be available from early 2025, and it will enhance Google’s AI Overviews by incorporating more sophisticated reasoning abilities and interactive dialogue.

The experience is tailored to questions that call for further exploration, reasoning, and comparisons.

AI Mode is a feature of Google search that allows users to:

• Ask further questions about a topic.
• Research topics with information from several websites.
• Keep conversation history for future reference.
• Communicate via text or voice.

AI Mode is an opt-in feature in Google Search for users who are eligible and in supported regions for Google Search in multiple languages and countries.

3. Perplexity.ai

Perplexity.ai is a chatbot that can answer a question by citing sources that it draws information from, unlike traditional search engines that just connect to a webpage.Perplexity.ai can be a chat bot that directly answers a question by citing the source from where it has read information, with the possibility to ask a follow-up question.

This enables users to explore further their first question by posing subsequent related questions. This interactive method takes a conversational tone, helping the user to narrow and better focus their search and receive more accurate answers.

The new search functionality is also collaborative and conversational, making Perplexity.ai a promising option for those looking for a more intuitive and responsive search experience.

But it relies on LLMs to extract answers, which can cause hallucinations and thus provide inaccurate or misleading answers.

4. You.com

Two modes are available at the site: a personal mode and the private mode.

In personal mode, users can set their preferences for the source.  In private mode, they have full anonymity – no telemetry data is collected.

The company also has a Chrome extension and AI image creation.

The open search platform is designed to open up to developers and to enable a more open and collaborative internet.

This is a Revenue-Sharing Search Engine.

5. Yep.com

It tracks the frequency of particular word searches and popular links and numbers of clicks. However, it is not able to create a person profile for personalized advertisements.

It is designed to directly reward and compensate content creators by using a 90/10 revenue share business model.

This would mean that 90% of advertising revenues are directed to the content creators, who are able to make money from their content.

Besides that, this business model enables users to directly support their favourite content creator and ensures that content creator is being compensated fairly.

A Copyright-Free Search Engine

6. Openverse

Google offers a wider selection of search results, but Openverse is exceptional because it has a large, searchable collection of open source media such as images, audio and videos.

It is the ideal search engine for anyone who wants to find music for a video, image for a blog post or anything else without getting angry artists to hunt them down and report them for ripping off their music.

Mainstream Search Engines

Google Alternative Search Engines that have been holding their own for a few years – they are called mainstream search engines.

7. Bing.com

Satya Nadella, the chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft, says that there are 10 billion times people search each day, but some half of them don’t get answered. Bing is looking to fill that void.

This section contains a number of tips on how to obtain performance data.

Use Bing Webmaster Tools to view performance metrics from Bing.

Register at webmaster.bing.com, confirm ownership of your site, and learn the rankings of your keywords, crawl statistics, and SEO hints.

8. Yahoo.com

The power of Yahoo is diversification: They provide services such as e-mail, news, finance, etc. as well as search.

For over 20 years, Yahoo has been innovative and evolving.

It did tweet a cryptic statement on Jan. 20 that “Search is getting cool again” but hasn’t responded to my request to clarify what it means.

9. Ecosia

Ecosia is powered by Bing’s search technology, so Bing Webmaster Tools are the main tools to track the performance of your site in Ecosia search results.

Privacy-Focused Search Engines

Internet users are more concerned about their privacy.

Privacy search engines are search engines that focus on privacy, which means that they do not track users’ actions or collect personal data.

There are a few of the most popular:

10. KARMA Search

A search engine that saves rhinos or helps to replant coral reefs for each query entered. KARMA – a privacy-friendly ad browser that donates 100% of all ad revenue to wildlife non-profits such as Re:wild. It’s DuckDuckGo with anti-tracking capabilities from Brave, which is similar to National Geographic. You’ll find tidy, Bing-powered results and links to lesser-known utilities such as Wolfram Alpha.

Why It Stands Out

No greenwashers: Profits support conservation in reality – such as anti-poaching drones in Kenya.

Vertical search shortcuts: Math, archived pages? If you click, you’ll be whisked off to Wolfram/Internet Archive.

Creepy tracking-free ethical ads: No tracking, just uses Bing’s network.

Behind The Scenes

KARMA’s advocacy is well received by users. Karma is built on Brave Search, the search engine by the U.S.-based company, more independent from big tech and more privacy friendly, as explained by one user called wgbtj. Also Karma will be donating money to help nonprofits protect animals!

Steps to Pull Performance Data

Track karmasearch.org referrals in Google Analytics. Bing Webmaster Tools displays queries that generate revenue for their nonprofit partners for ad insight.

11. DuckDuckGo

This implies that you can search in peace and do not need to be concerned about the boogeyman sneaking around your computer display.

For individuals who want to maintain their internet browsing and personal information, DuckDuckGo is the best option.

The mobile version is called DuckDuckGo Lite.

How to use the performance graphs.

Because DuckDuckGo prioritizes privacy, they don’t have any of the typical webmaster tools.

One way to measure performance is to visit your website analytics and see which of your traffic sources is attributed to “duckduckgo.com” and then inspect the metrics of how everyone interacted with your website.

DuckDuckGo fetches results from a variety of sources such as Bing, which means that some performance data in Bing Webmaster Tools may also indirectly be related to your presence on DuckDuckGo.

12. Startpage

It’s an excellent option for people who are fond of Google’s search pages, but don’t care about Google tracking and saving their search history.

It also features a URL generator, a proxy service and HTTPS support.

The URL generator is particularly nice because it doesn’t require cookies to be collected. Instead, it does remember your settings in a privacy-friendly manner.

Get data on performance

Startpage doesn’t provide conventional webmaster tools as it prioritizes user privacy.

If you want to check your performance, look at your website analytics to see where the “startpage.com” visitors are coming from and check how they have engaged with your website.

13. Swisscows

Swisscows is an interesting addition to this list, and states that it is a family-oriented semantic search engine.

• Uses Bing to form web search, and has also built a search index for the German language version.
• It also boasts about its respect for users’ privacy, never collecting, storing or tracking data.
• It uses artificial intelligence to determine the context of a user’s query.
• Swisscows will get answers to your questions in the most surprising manner over time.

This is how to pull performance data from the data store.

It is a Swisscows philosophy that no specific webmaster tools are offered because that would breach privacy.

Measure your performance by looking at the traffic to your website that is coming from a source of “swisscows.com”, and then examining user engagement metrics of those visitors.

14. Brave

It includes customizable news feed, offline playlists, as well as free video calls.

They also have advanced security options such as the ability to integrate with IPFS, use Tor (Onion Routing), and manage a crypto wallet.

Brave has a rewards program that rewards users who choose to use ads that don’t track their privacy. It states that more than 100 million people are using its browser on a monthly basis for a faster and safer browsing experience.

How To Pull Performance Data

Because of its privacy-focused approach, Brave Search doesn’t include traditional webmaster tools.

You can evaluate your website’s performance by reviewing your website’s traffic sources, which should include a significant amount of traffic from “search.brave.com.” You can also review other metrics related to your website’s user engagement, such as bounce rates, page views, and page rank.

15. Kagi

What’s the point of paying $10/month for a search engine? Have the academics and news reporters who abandoned Google for Kagi tell you. No advertising and no trackers, just pure results with this ad-free rebel running its own index. With its “Lenses” option, it allows you to filter out SEO junk and highlight forums, blogs or studies that have been peer-reviewed.

Standout Perks

• No ads, ever: Good for research purposes for sensitive topics (for example: search for “vaccine side effects” without any ads from Big Pharma).
• Use custom “Lenses”: You can choose threads from Reddit, academic papers, or any indie blog.
• Individual plans: $5/month is the Starter Plan that includes 300 searches per month, standard AI, and individual plans range up to $25/month for more advanced features, such as unlimited searches and Research mode.

The Catch

With a small team, Kagi will have bugs from time to time. One problem that I’m having (I don’t know if its a bug or not, but it is definitely lacking) is Kagi showing me the date of Reddit posts in the results,” wrote a user named erSajo.

If you want to pull performance data, follow these instructions:

No fancy dashboards anywhere. Watch for kagi.com referrals in the Analytics.

16. Mojeek

Mojeek is the underdog hero of search engines – the scrappy and hardworking little search engine who doesn’t depend on Google or Bing. Looking for some weird and wonderful Geocities from the 90s? Mojeek’s stripped down index sometimes uncovers gems algorithms bury.

• Independent without the big tech training data: Runs MojeekBot, its own crawler (no Big Tech training data).
• Anti-bias: If personalised = same results for everyone.
• Indie friendly: Focuses on blogs and forums smaller than corporate sites.

The Trade-Off

It is slower than ChatGPT and less nice looking than You.com,” User, TheJackah said.

“It is a search engine based in the UK that focuses on privacy – not that it is amazing from what I’ve used, but if you adapt the way you search, you can get what you need out of it, and the more people that use it, the better I’m sure it will get.”

How To Pull Performance Data

• When it comes to real-time search engines, there’s no real contender for X.
• It’s the perfect place to go for minute-by-minute updates in case of an emergency.
• Google will catch up over time, but there’s nothing like a tweet in the moment.
• Using the Functions in the Data tab to obtain performance information.

View impressions, engagement rates, profile visits, and follower growth to measure your performance by accessing X Analytics from your account.

Furthermore, monitor traffic sources on your website for the terms “t.co” or “x.com” to monitor traffic coming in from X links.

18. SlideShare

It is also the place to find ebooks and PDFs, and it’s a great option for creating a business presentation.

You can also save slides and even download the entire slideshow to be used on your local computer from SlideShare too.

How To Pull Performance Data

SlideShare offers simple analytics via the creator dashboard. To compare your performance, check your SlideShare account statistics to see the statistics for your uploaded presentations.

See where traffic is coming from to your site in your website analytics and look for visitors coming from SlideShare with the “slideshare.net” label.

19. Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine (also known as the Internet Archive) is excellent for looking at old websites, but it’s so much more!

This search engine, as the name suggests, searches a huge amount of documented material, such as millions of free videos, books, music and software.

Basically, the Internet Archive is an enormous, web-based library with access to practically anything.

Performances data can be pulled in a number of ways.

As Wayback Machine isn’t a search engine, it doesn’t include webmaster tools.

Use the Wayback Machine’s URL search to see how many times your pages have been archived and preserved over time, to gain insight into your site’s archival presence.

Specialized Search Engines

There are some search engines that are specific to a particular need and will give results based on that. For example:

20. WolframAlpha

WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge system that lets you solve problems and uncover answers to queries ranging from algebra to words and linguistics on a variety of topics at expert level.

It also includes Pro features for those who require professional level computation and analysis of imported data, such as students and educators.

The price begins at $9.99/month.

How To Pull Performance Data

The possibilities for visibility are mainly limited to citation sources, data providers and specific domain knowledge references, since WolframAlpha does not display links to external websites.

21. LinkedIn

For example, a firm called “Innovative Tech Solutions” would be more likely to be higher in the ranking than a firm called “Professional Technology Services” because of the uniqueness of the name.

But the problem is when the profile contains too many keywords, it can have a negative effect on search visibility and also get the profile caught by spam detection algorithms.

Other inputs to the algorithm include the number of followers on the Page, connections between the Page and searcher, activity on the Page and the ratio of relevant terms for the organization in its name.

To retrieve performance data:

Check out LinkedIn Analytics on your company page or profile, which provides you with statistics like views of your profile, growth in followers, post impressions, engagement rate, and more.

If you’re interested in knowing which LinkedIn posts or profile links have led to your website visits, you should look at the traffic sources that are labeled “linkedin.com” on the site analytics.

International Search Engines

There are international search engines that serve a particular region and give out results according to the local language and culture.

The following are some of the popular international search engines:

22. Baidu

The biggest search engine in China is Baidu, which owns a 57.48% market share in China.

• It, too, provides a wide variety of services, including maps, music, videos and an app store, just like Google.
• Baidu also offers a mobile browser and a mobile app.
• The procedure for extracting performance data.
• For sites aimed at the Chinese market, Baidu Webmaster Tools (Baidu Zhanzhang) is a must-have.

Sign up at ziyuan.baidu.com and confirm ownership of your website to use tools for adding URLs, viewing search queries and monitoring your site’s indexing status.

23. Yandex

Yandex is used by more than 73.15% of Russian internet users. It also has a use in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine. Search market share in U.S. is 0.33%.

Yandex search engine is an all-in-all convenient search engine.

Oh, and it has a set of some pretty neat tools as an added bonus.

In January 2023 it suffered a data leak and many were wondering how much relevance was there to what was leaked?

The procedure for obtaining performance data.

Yandex Webmaster Tools offers in-depth analytics on performance of sites that appear in Yandex search results.

It’s located at webmaster.yandex.com, you should confirm the ownership of your site and get statistics about the search queries, impressions, clicks, and crawl.

The Takeaway

Google may be the most popular choice in search engines, but it may not always be the best choice, depending on your needs and priorities.

There are numerous benefits of using alternative search engines, such as a more user-friendly search experience and increased privacy.

However, make an effort and try out some of these.

FAQ