The Best Open Source Google Search AlternativesTop Web Search & Image Search Engines like Google Search

The best open source alternative to Google Search is Searx. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 100 alternatives to Google Search and many of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to Google Search are SearXNG, YaCy, MetaGer and Stract.

filter to find the best alternatives

Google Search alternatives are mainly Web Search Engines, but if you're looking for Image Search Engines or Privacy Tools you can filter on that. You can also filter by region, for example EU-based alternatives if you prefer software developed in the European Union. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Google Search.
Google Search iconGoogle Search
  972
  • ...

Dominant search engine offering personalized results, image, video, news search, and voice capabilities, used across multiple platforms.

More about Google Search
More about Google Search
Google Search alternatives page was last updated May 21, 2025
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  1. Searx icon

    Searx

     285 likes
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    Searx is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from more than 70 search services. Users are neither tracked nor profiled. Additionally, searx can be used over Tor for online anonymity.

    99 Searx alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • DE flagGermany
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Online
    • Android
    • Self-Hosted
    • Cloudron
    Searx screenshot 1
    Discontinued

    Searx is no longer maintained. The GitHub repository has been archived on September 7, 2023. Users should probably take a look at SearXNG icon SearXNG.

    Properties

    1.  Customizable
    2.  Privacy focused

    Features

    1.  Meta-Search
    2.  Decentralized
    3.  Self-hosted search
    4.  No Tracking
    5.  Ad-free
    6.  Dark Mode
    7.  No registration required
    8.  Video search
    9.  Reverse Image Search
    10.  REST API

    Searx VS Google Search

     
    Comments about Searx as an Alternative to Google Search
    Top Positive Comment
    Guest
    Jan 15, 2017
    11

    Once properly customized able to provide results from all search engines in one place with benefits of privacy and anonymity

    Most Recent Comment
    Guest
    Positive Feb 12, 2019
    4

    Customizable, protect you from tracking and still provide good search result.

    Guest
    Positive Oct 13, 2017
    3

    Multiple search engines, including ones you run yourself (like YaCy or Solr) can be plugged into it. The API also makes it possible to carry out your own linguistic analyses of search results to improve accuracy.

    Show more comments
    3 of 5 comments
    Google Search Icon
    Searx icon

    • Most users think Searx is a great Google Search alternative.

    • Searx is the most popular Linux & Self-Hosted alternative to Google Search.

    • Searx is the most popular Open Source alternative to Google Search.

    • Searx is Free and Open SourceGoogle Search is Free and Proprietary
    • Searx is Customizable, Decentralized and Privacy focusedGoogle Search is not according to our users
  2. SearXNG icon

    SearXNG

     99 likes
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    SearXNG is a free internet metasearch engine which aggregates results from various search services and databases. Users are neither tracked nor profiled.

    103 SearXNG alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • International

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Online
    • Arch Linux
    • Fedora
    • Ubuntu
    • Debian
    • Docker
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
    • Self-Hosted
    SearXNG screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight
    3.  Support for Themes

    Features

    1.  Meta-Search
    2.  Ad-free
    3.  No Tracking
    4.  Dark Mode
    5.  Self-hosted search
    6.  Decentralized
    7.  No registration required
    8.  No Logs

    SearXNG VS Google Search

     
    Comments about SearXNG as an Alternative to Google Search
    Third Opinion
    Positive Mar 8, 2025
    0

    Works without javascript. One just have to find a good instance and tune it a bit. All instances have occasional outages but then you can blame google (again!)...

    Google Search Icon
    SearXNG icon

    • Almost everyone thinks SearXNG is a great Google Search alternative.

    • SearXNG is Free and Open SourceGoogle Search is Free and Proprietary
    • SearXNG is Decentralized, Privacy focused and LightweightGoogle Search is not according to our users
  4. YaCy icon

    YaCy

     141 likes
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    YaCy is a free search engine that anyone can use to build a search portal for their intranet or to help search the public internet. When contributing to the world-wide peer network, the scale of YaCy is limited only by the number of users in the world and can index billions of...

    91 YaCy alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • DE flagGermany
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    YaCy screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Decentralized
    2.  Peer-To-Peer
    3.  No Tracking
    4.  Ad-free
    5.  No registration required
    6.  No Logs
    7.  Dark Mode

    YaCy VS Google Search

     
    Comments about YaCy as an Alternative to Google Search
    paulodelgado
    Negative Aug 18, 2017
    3

    Doesn't work out of the box.

    Google Search Icon
    YaCy icon

    • Most users think YaCy is a great Google Search alternative.

    • YaCy is Free and Open SourceGoogle Search is Free and Proprietary
    • YaCy is Decentralized, Privacy focused and LightweightGoogle Search is not according to our users
  5. MetaGer icon

    MetaGer

     56 likes
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    MetaGer is an open source metasearch engine focused on protecting users' privacy. Based in Germany, and hosted as a cooperation between the German NGO 'SUMA-EV - Association for Free Access to Knowledge' and the University of Hannover, the system is built on 24...

    88 MetaGer alternatives

    License model

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • DE flagGermany
    • European Union flagEU

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Android
    • F-Droid
    • Tor
    Homepage. With dark mode.

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Customizable

    Features

    1.  Meta-Search
    2.  Dark Mode
    3.  Work without JavaScript
    4.  No Tracking
    5.  No registration required
    6.  Built-In Proxy
    7.  Anonymous Proxy
    8.  Tor

    MetaGer VS Google Search

     
    Comments about MetaGer as an Alternative to Google Search
    Adder
    Positive May 8, 2021
    0

    As per there policy. Only cookies that would be used are those for any setting changes user makes (language, family setting's, etc.) Being Germany based can refuse authority info request but why. MetGer has no data to give you anyway. ??

    Google Search Icon
    MetaGer icon

    • Almost everyone thinks MetaGer is a great Google Search alternative.

    • MetaGer is Paid and Open SourceGoogle Search is Free and Proprietary
    • MetaGer is Privacy focusedGoogle Search is not according to our users
  6. Stract icon

    Stract

     28 likes
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    Stract is an open source search engine where the user has the ability to see exactly what is going on and customize almost everything about their search results. It's a search engine made for hackers and tinkerers just like ourselves.

    66 Stract alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Online
    Stract screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight
    3.  Support for Themes

    Features

    1.  No registration required
    2.  Dark Mode
    3.  Bangs
    4.  Indexed search
    5.  No Logs
    6.  Ad-free
    7.  No Tracking
    8. Wikipedia icon  Wikipedia integration

    Stract VS Google Search

     
  7. 4get icon

    4get

     18 likes
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    This is a metasearch engine that gets results from other engines, and strips away all of the tracking parameters and Microsoft bullshit they add. Most of the other alternatives to Google jack themselves off about being ""privacy respecting"" or whatever the...

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • CA flagCanada

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Tor
    Search settings retrieved from main instance.

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Lightweight
    3.  Support for Themes

    Features

    1.  No registration required
    2.  Dark Mode
    3.  Ad-free
    4.  No Tracking
    5.  Anonymous Proxy
    6.  No Logs
    7.  Block Trackers
    8.  No Coding Required

    4get VS Google Search

     
  9. Whoogle Search icon

    Whoogle Search

     29 likes
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    Get Google search results, but without any ads, javascript, AMP links, cookies, or IP address tracking. Easily deployable in one click as a Docker app, and customizable with a single config file. Quick and simple to implement as a primary search engine replacement on both...

    89 Whoogle Search alternatives

    License model

    • Free • Open Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Self-Hosted
    Whoogle Search screenshot 1

    Properties

    1.  Privacy focused
    2.  Support for Themes

    Features

    1.  Self-hosted search
    2.  No registration required
    3.  Ad-free
    4.  No Logs
    5.  No Tracking
    6.  Dark Mode
    7.  Decentralized
    8.  Block Trackers
    9.  Meta-Search

    Whoogle Search VS Google Search

     
7 of 28 Google Search alternatives