TL;DR
In 2025, searching differently is possible:
🦆 DuckDuckGo – no tracking, no compromise 🇪🇺 Qwant – European sovereignty & GDPR 🦁 Brave Search – fast & independent 🛡️ Startpage – the Google results, without the surveillance ⚙️ SearXNG / 💎 Kagi – the most open or the most premium
In this article
- 🌍 Google still dominates, but...: nearly 90% market share in France, and alternatives gaining maturity and ethics.
- 🛡️ Privacy: who really protects your data?: DuckDuckGo, Qwant, Startpage, Brave, Kagi and SearXNG compared on index, tracking and source code.
- ⚙️ Performance: getting better!: DuckDuckGo and Startpage a bit slower, Brave Search, Kagi and SearXNG as smooth as Google.
- 💸 Business models: transparency first: contextual ads with no profiling, a $10 a month subscription at Kagi, zero advertising with self-hosted SearXNG.
- 💬 A word from Blue Fox: switching engines means rethinking your relationship with the web, and Blue Fox helps those reducing commercial surveillance.
🌍 Google still dominates, but...
With nearly 90% market share in France, Google remains the gateway to the web for most people. Yet awareness is growing: our queries are personal data. And our data is fuel for targeted advertising.
Fortunately, alternative search engines are gaining relevance, maturity, and above all ethics. Some focus on privacy, others on technological independence, or even both.
🛡️ Privacy: who really protects your data?
⚙️ Performance: getting better!
It’s true that some engines, like DuckDuckGo or Startpage, are a bit slower because they refuse to use your personal data to “optimize” the results12.
But Brave Search, Kagi and some well‑managed instances of SearXNG offer a smooth experience, even compared to Google.
💸 Business models: transparency first
- Google: targeted advertising, profiling.
- DuckDuckGo / Qwant: contextual advertising, no profiling.
- Startpage: anonymized ads.
- Kagi: subscription ($10/month), no ads or tracking.
- SearXNG: free, zero advertising, self‑hosted.
💬 A word from Blue Fox
👉 Switching to an ethical search engine isn’t just changing a habit. It’s rethinking your relationship with the web and digital sovereignty.
At Blue Fox, we support individuals, organizations and nonprofits who want to reduce their reliance on commercial surveillance.
Together, we can build a digital world that is freer, leaner and fairer.
Need a helping hand? We’re here.
#EthicalSearch #Privacy #BlueFox #GDPR #DigitalSovereignty #SearXNG #Kagi #BraveSearch #AltGoogle #EthicalTech
📚 Sources
- StatCounter – Search engine market share in France ↩
- DuckDuckGo – Privacy policy ↩
- DuckDuckGo Blog – Microsoft Tracking fix (2022) ↩
- Qwant – Privacy policy ↩
- CNIL – Formal notice to Qwant (2025) (publication to be confirmed) ↩
- Startpage – Privacy policy ↩
- System1 controversy – RestorePrivacy ↩
- Brave Search – How it works and independence ↩
- Brave Transparency Report ↩
- Kagi – How it works & pricing ↩
- SearXNG – Official documentation ↩
- Tool-Advisor.fr – Alternative search engines ↩