after a similar path that you took, I now use Metager.org, a privacy respecting meta search engine. You pay for your search requests, but it's very, very cheap since it is run by a nonprofit (around a eurocent/search depending on settings). They integrate a lot of smaller search indexes, and you can choose to integrate braves and googles index if you wish. You can blacklist webpages too, and the source is FOSS.
this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2026
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I have a Kagi subscription and very happy with it.
You can try Kagi for free, no CC required.
Isn't there a new European thing?
Duck Duck works for me. I use the "Disable Ai" addon (libreoffice) to remove most of the useless stuff. I've also tried Ecosia, but the lack of option for chronological results is a big No for me.
I've use it, but sometime it goes offline. The main DuckDuck with the addon is good enough for now.
I've been uaing my own selfhosted searxng instance. Absolutely love it.
Startpage has never been down for me, so idrk what the problem on ur end is.
You are doing business with google when using it though, and it's results have severely enshitified along with the rest since 2021. (They pay google.)
*you're supporting Google
StartPage or rather the companies behind it do business with Google, not yourself.
Which amounts to the same thing. I use startpage too for lack of an alternative, but it's not ideal. I want to do zero business with these silicon valley parasites.
Consider Brave Search. It is the only search engine with useful results I'm aware of that doesn't use the search index of Bing (Microsoft) or Google, but it is sadly also by an US-based company and not as privacy-friendly as StartPage afaik.
Thanks for the tip. We should make an open source search engine, and index.
Same. Been using for two years or more. Never had an issue except the settings cookie seems to expire monthly.
I get this page all the time idk why. I thought it was startpage's issue.
I get my connection blocked a lot by that search engine saying to many requests despite using it very little.
Are you sharing your IP address with other people? CGNAT or university network or something?
If you aren't paying for it, you are the product. I pay for Kagi and I am very happy with the results and tools they develop.
Lots of times you pay, but you are still the product.
I also use kagi when I need it, and have managed to stay on the free tier. DDG for everything else.
And even sometimes you don't pay and still aren't the product. See most FOSS stuff. The statement is just false.
I have a hard time justifying paying for it. it's a good search engine but I don't agree with their AI stance.
Can you elaborate?
searXNG
with a lot of "backends". I like how it aggregates the results from multiple engines, at least for my searches they turn out consistently more relevant when using any single search.
I'm using Kagi. I've also tried out Uruky to see if that would be a viable non-US alternative.
I know you mentioned having tried it but my experience with DDG has been pretty good and it's what I use (edit to add that I'm not doubting your experience with it has been poor and this isn't intended to sound flippant).
I see Kagi come up a lot. I don't trust engines like Kagi not to link my payment data with my search history, personally. They're a US company, so consider what that means in the current state of the world and privacy. I haven't deeply investigated the validity of it, but the Kagi CEO allegedly harassed a journalist (minor edit, a blogger) who had a critical take on their service, and supposedly they were founded as - you guessed it - an AI company.
And sure, DDG is a US company, too. But they don't really have anything personally identifying to link my searches back to me. I can accept the ads (though I have uBlock), which are only contextually targeted based on search keywords. I don't think I'd use their browser or extensions, which would have a much more privileged place in my "tech stack", but for search it does well enough.
You can completely decouple your payment data from your search history with Kagi, something no other search engine allows. https://help.kagi.com/kagi/privacy/privacy-pass.html
Ah, that's good information - thanks!
Opera (with it's free VPN, I know, I'm the product, but it gets around porn restrictions since I live in a shithole state/country)
Firefox for regular browsing
You can easily get around your country's restrictions using private DNS. Go to your browser, search for secure DNS and choose any provider, preferably anything that's privacy-focused.
And btw move away from every Opera product.