# Brave Search 67 Hacker News commenters recommended Brave Search and 19 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1.5 years (3 owners). It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** People recommend it as a private search engine with its own independent index, optional AI answers, and no forced AI. Critics say its results are sometimes weaker than Google's. ## Why people recommend it - Useful AI answers (6 comments): "Brave search is decent. Moat of the time the ai bubble at the top juat has the answer too" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49160763)) "the AI answers are way more accurate and actually don't push the content down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47217792)) "Been a happy user for at least 1-2 years now. Its AI summaries are great" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49007431)) - Own independent search index (6 comments): "Thankfully Brave indexing is pretty good so it's had a measurable impact on the amount of search I actually put through Google." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46052483)) "Brave wins because of the lack of slop from yahoo as well as the primary source results." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48215726)) "Brave Search has its own index which is fine, 10 blue links and no forced AI" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266470)) - Private, no account needed (4 comments): "seems to sastify my search requirements while keeping my payment info private" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49388928)) "more anonymity-focused, because your searches aren't tied to an account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006698)) "quite good for private browsing and supposedly private AI answers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50105224)) - Filters out SEO spam and slop (3 comments): "Brave wins because of the lack of slop from yahoo as well as the primary source results." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48215726)) "Fantastic to block sites that game SEO but don’t actually find what you want" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47125698)) "allow to block off crappy searches like pinterest all the time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48267541)) ## What people warn about - Results weaker than Google's (3 comments): "albeit Brave Search is slower to Google, you get used to it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49669293)) "Brave search has maybe worse results and I miss the bangs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006689)) "Haven't been able to replicate that kind of accuracy with the likes of ddg or brave search." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006582)) - Brand trust and scraping concerns (4 comments): "Brave is such a horrible brand. I don't think they'll succeed, but they're definitely trying to do MS-style EEE." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48266899)) "Brave scrapes the web via their users, cannot be individually disallowed in robots.txt" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49254712)) "fiddling with advertising-linked cryptocurrency and content injection" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49260535)) - Captchas and IP blocks (2 comments): "From time to time you get blocked on the duckduckgo, brave or whatever search and you must solve some captures" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48780922)) "My home IP is apparently permanently banned from using Brave Search through SearXNG." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50140598)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Kagi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kagi.md): 732 recommend - [DuckDuckGo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/duckduckgo.md): 286 recommend - [SearXNG](https://hackerapproved.com/p/searxng.md): 76 recommend - [Startpage](https://hackerapproved.com/p/startpage.md): 25 recommend - [Qwant](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qwant.md): 22 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://search.brave.com/) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Brave Search", https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-search/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).