SearXNG

What hackers pick instead

• KagiA paid search engine people choose for cleaner results without ads or tracking, with domain blocking, customization and opt-in AI answers; critics object to its Yandex data and pricing.732recommend
• DuckDuckGoA free, privacy-focused search engine that many find good enough now that Google has declined, with options to turn off AI; critics find results weaker than Google's.286recommend
• Brave SearchPeople 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.67recommend
• StartpagePrivate search that gives anonymous access to Google results and is a popular fallback. Critics say results trail Google and it is owned by an advertising company.25recommend
• QwantRecommended as a European alternative to Google that sometimes gives better results, though critics say it omits results Google finds and copies Google's interface.22recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 108 comments. Each links to the original.

1. I have been using SearXNG as my main search engine for a while (not for AI stuff), and it's been great up until 2-3 months ago when it started being rate limite/captcha'd frequently.

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests”

2. it also helps really well against search engine enshittification by raising search results higher when they're received from multiple engines

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “Web Browsers have stopped blocking pop-ups”

3. I run a searXNG and Crawl4AI (and few ancillaries like jina rerank etc) in my homelab so I can tell my AI to perform live internet searches

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “How I protect my Forgejo instance from AI web crawlers”

4. I highly recommend self-hosting a meta-search engine to get away from any single provider without losing the benefits of either.

   Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Leaving Google has actively improved my life”

5. I've since given my agent access to Exa, Tavily, and SearXNG so it can filter through today's low quality search results for me

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “When did Google get so weird?”

6. having the ability to search and avoid things like yk, small AI models being installed on my PC without my consent, is awesome

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

7. Easy to run in docker and helps both get better search results and keeps your search history local and in your control.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

8. I'm of two minds regarding the privacy gained by sending my searches to 280 companies instead of just one.

   Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

9. SearXNG is different though, because it still relies on a data-harvesting, ad-driven online economy.

   Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Kagi Changelog (July 2): Heads, tails, and an AI toggle”

10. searx results are way more relevant to what I’m actually looking for than a single engine

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

11. speaks to my SearXNG server which in turn uses different search engines as a backend

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “No AI* Here – A Response to Mozilla's Next Chapter”

12. no AI in results and I don't see things I search for in ads on other platforms now

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “I Don't Want My Search Engine to Think for Me”

13. issues with engines constantly failing or being slow since day 1 of using SearXNG

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

14. if you try searxng, you can at least get rid of things like ai reviews in no time

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

15. I run a searXNG server so it searches multiple engines for me anonymously!

    Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “Leaving Google has actively improved my life”

16. You'll get more representative results, no tracking and no captchas.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Google Cloud fraud defense, the next evolution of reCAPTCHA”

17. Hook this in as a tool and the agent can answer a lot of questions.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “google.com/goto: Google's anti-scraping update”

18. has been great even before I started using it as an agent tool

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

19. Works very well, until you get rate limited by the providers

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

20. searxng gets rate limited fast and the results are inconsistent depending on what providers it can reach at any given time

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests”

21. Even from a residential IP, you might get a handful of Google searches before getting backed off.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests”

22. Often have to go through the preferences to deselect search engines that don't work

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

23. most public searxng instances seem to have nowadays, which is that they don't work

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “Mullvad: Shutting down our search proxy Leta”

24. I ran into the rate limiting very fast.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests”

25. I set up a self-hosted instance and been using it exclusively for months. It's better than DDG and i don't miss Google whatsoever.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

26. I have recently started using searXNG, which is ok, and somehow better than mpst for image searches, but not quite as good as Kagi

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Back to Kagi”

27. it's trivial to run a perfectly working metasearch engine with the same sources as Uruky, it's called Searxng.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

28. Turning on Google/DDG etc results in hackingwithswift, avanderlee, developer.apple.com docs and SO at the top.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “You've tried DuckDuckGo and Brave Search, now get serious with SearXNG”

29. It works well if you connect it the Brave Search API, but using it a scraper is fairly unreliable.

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

30. The latter replaced the former for me, and I've enjoyed primarily searching through a local model.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Kagi Changelog (July 2): Heads, tails, and an AI toggle”

31. it's as simple as any search engine, just write your query into the input and look at the results

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Show HN: My not-for-profit search engine with no ads, no AI, & all DDG bangs”

32. after bumping up Google/Wiby and bumping down DDG/Presearch/Startpage, results became much better

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “You've tried DuckDuckGo and Brave Search, now get serious with SearXNG”

33. I've been self hosting this as my default engine across all of my searches for a few years now.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

34. I'd be happy with a re-branded SearX/SearXNG, with a paid cloud hosted instance from Mozilla

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo”

35. i've been using it regularly lately with a custom agent, and i've never had a blocked search

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “SearXNG in Rust”

36. I do share many of the values and benefits with searxng (and really love their work!)

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Show HN: My not-for-profit search engine with no ads, no AI, & all DDG bangs”

37. It's got many options for things like Wikipedia and it is being properly maintained.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Some surprising things about DuckDuckGo”

38. the results weren't significantly different from those on my self-hosted SearXNG

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows”

39. my SearXNG instance is making ~100 searches a day from a known good IP address

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “SearXNG in Rust”

40. You can self host searxng and block domains - increase priority on some etc.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Kagi Bloopers – Search Results Gone Wrong”