Top Three Notable Search Options Besides Google
In the ever-evolving digital landscape, privacy-conscious individuals are increasingly seeking alternatives to Google's search engine. Three notable contenders have emerged as frontrunners in 2025: DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, and Mojeek. These search engines distinguish themselves from Google by prioritising user privacy, unbiased search results, and eschewing extensive tracking and personalised profiling.
- DuckDuckGo
- Privacy: DuckDuckGo prides itself on not tracking users, storing personal data, or creating profiles.
- Search Results: The platform uses a mix of its own web crawler and trusted sources like Bing and Wikipedia.
- User Experience: DuckDuckGo offers a clean, minimalist interface free from filter bubbles and supports anonymous search with browser and mobile apps.
- Difference from Google: Unlike Google, which tracks user behaviour extensively and personalises search results and ads based on profiles, DuckDuckGo offers fully anonymous, non-personalised search without targeted ads.
- Brave Search
- Privacy: Brave Search offers an ad-free, tracker-free search experience with no reliance on Google or Bing indices.
- Search Results: The platform uses its own independent search index combined with AI-generated summaries and a conversational assistant (Leo).
- User Experience: Brave Search is integrated into the Brave Browser, focusing on unbiased results with added AI features for direct answers.
- Difference from Google: Unlike Google’s data-driven ranking and personalization, Brave maintains user anonymity and produces independent, less biased results without tracking.
- Mojeek
- Privacy: Mojeek does not track users, store search history, or build profiles.
- Search Results: Mojeek operates its own independent web crawler and ranking algorithm without relying on Google or Bing results.
- User Experience: Mojeek focuses on pure privacy and fairness, providing the same search experience for all users.
- Difference from Google: Google creates personalised, profile-based results using extensive tracking, while Mojeek delivers a fully independent and uniform search experience with strong privacy guarantees.
An additional notable mention is Swisscows, which emphasises privacy combined with family-friendly content filtering and strong Swiss data protection laws but uses Bing ads without personal tracking.
In addition to their privacy-focused features, Ecosia, while less privacy-focused, stands out for its environmental commitment. The search engine powers 200% of its search queries with solar energy and has planted 150 million trees through search revenue in 2025.
The global search market in 2025 sees Microsoft's Bing holding a 4.6% share, with Bing's integration of advanced AI technologies such as ChatGPT-4 and the introduction of "Copilot Pro" features. Bing's Neural Search understands context and user intent, and its Visual Search has 45% more accurate image recognition compared to 2024.
DuckDuckGo, with a 2.23% U.S. market share in 2025, offers an Email Protection Service with built-in email tracker blocking, and has extended App Tracking Protection to iOS devices.
In Q1 2025, major corporations like IBM and Toyota switched their enterprise search to Bing, citing 30% improved productivity. Bing allows multimodal search using text, images, and voice simultaneously.
Ecosia, with 15 million active monthly users, has a B Corp Certification with the highest impact score in the search category and operates carbon negatively.
The top three privacy-focused search engines in 2025, DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, and Mojeek, offer a compelling alternative to Google for those prioritising privacy and unbiased search results.
- DuckDuckGo's primary emphasis is on user privacy, eschewing user tracking, data storage, and profiling, setting it apart from competitors.
- Brave Search stands out for its ad-free, tracker-free search experience, relying on its own independent search index and AI-generated summaries.
- Mojeek operates its own independent web crawler and ranking algorithm, delivering a uniform search experience with strong privacy guarantees and a focus on fairness.
- Swisscows emphasizes privacy and family-friendly content filtering, using Bing ads without personal tracking, serving as an additional notable mention.
- Ecosia, while less privacy-focused, demonstrates its commitment to the environment, powering 200% of its search queries with solar energy and planting 150 million trees with revenue in 2025.
- In the general-news, Microsoft's Bing is making strides with advanced AI technologies like ChatGPT-4 and Copilot Pro, offering improved productivity and multimodal search capabilities for corporations like IBM and Toyota.
