DuckDuckGo
Free Our pickThe two-day habit change. Results are good enough that you'll stop noticing, and !bangs are genuinely better.
Search: replace Google Search
6 private options, our pick first. Every download link goes straight to the source — F-Droid, the developer's GitHub releases (one tap into Obtainium), the Play listing you can install anonymously through Aurora Store, or the official site. None of these are affiliate links. Updated October 2026.
These Google Search alternatives are for anyone who wants answers without building a search profile tied to their name. On Android you can switch your browser's default engine to DuckDuckGo, Startpage, Brave Search or Mojeek, pay for Kagi, or run your own SearXNG.
The trade-off is result quality on local and very fresh queries, where Google's index is still the largest. For everyday questions the difference is small. Switching is a setting, not a new phone, which makes search the easiest Google service to replace in 2026. Give the new private engine a week before you judge it.
Kagi
PaidPaid search with no ads at all — the best results of the bunch.
Startpage
FreeGoogle's results without Google's profile.
SearXNG
Self-hostYour own meta-search engine, if you want the full sovereignty badge.
Brave Search
FreeBrave's own independent index, not a Google or Bing reseller.
Mojeek
FreeSmall UK engine with its own crawler and no tracking. Results are thinner, the principle is solid.
How to switch from Google Search
- Open your browser's settings, find the search engine option, and make the new engine the default. In most Android browsers it sits in a section called Search. The DuckDuckGo Browser already uses its own engine.
- Remove the Google search bar widget from the home screen and add the new engine's widget or a browser shortcut instead. Then disable the Google app if your phone allows it.
- Learn a few DuckDuckGo bangs, such as !w for Wikipedia or !g for a one-off Google search. They send the query straight to that site from the search box, which keeps you in one habit.
- In your Google account, review Web & App Activity, turn it off, and delete the stored search history. Takeout can export a copy first if you want to keep one.
- Sign out of Google in the browser. Even with a new default engine, a signed-in session lets Google tie the occasional search you still run there to your account.
- Set the same default engine on your computer and any tablets. Searches you run there count toward the same profile, so the change works best when it happens everywhere at once.
Search questions
Is DuckDuckGo just Bing with a different logo?
Partly. DuckDuckGo's help pages say its traditional links come largely from Bing, combined with its own crawler and other sources for instant answers. The difference is what happens around the query: DuckDuckGo says it doesn't build a search history profile on you. If you want an independent index instead, Brave Search and Mojeek run their own. Mojeek's results are thinner, so try it for general research first.
Why would anyone pay for Kagi?
Kagi charges a subscription instead of showing ads, so its business doesn't depend on profiling you. It also lets you raise, lower or block specific websites in your results, which many users value as much as privacy. It does need an account and a payment, so it is private by policy rather than anonymous. Try a few weeks of normal searching before deciding if it is worth paying for.
Does Startpage really show Google results?
Yes. Startpage passes your query to Google without your IP address or cookies and shows Google's results back to you. That makes it the gentlest switch for people who like Google's results and nothing else about it. Its Anonymous View option can also open result pages through a proxy, so the site you visit doesn't see your IP address.