Comparison: can free SearXNG rival paid Kagi?

In recent years, the search engine landscape has expanded with alternatives to giants like Google and Bing. Among them, Kagi, a subscription-based search engine praised for its clean, ad-free results, and SearXNG, a free, open-source metasearch engine focused on privacy and customization.

But the question remains: is it worth paying for Kagi, or can a well-configured SearXNG deliver a similar experience?

Kagi: A Premium Search Engine Focused on Quality

A unique approach

Unlike Google or Bing, Kagi Search doesn’t rely on ads. It operates on a subscription model (starting at $5 per month according to Kagi.com), offering ad-free search results and advanced source filtering.

The “Leaderboard”: Community-driven results

One of Kagi’s most distinctive features is its Leaderboard system, a collaborative ranking of websites. Users can “boost” trusted sources (like Reddit, Wikipedia, or Stack Overflow) while downgrading low-quality sites (spam or content farms).

This weighting model creates cleaner and more relevant SERPs (search engine results pages) than Google, where low-quality sites often dominate the top spots.

Kagi’s limitations

Paid subscription, which discourages some users.
Closed infrastructure with little transparency about filtering methods.
No self-hosting option, unlike SearXNG.

SearXNG: Free, Open Source, Privacy-First

How SearXNG works

SearXNG doesn’t maintain its own index. Instead, it queries multiple sources (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc.) and aggregates the results in real time. It scrapes results pages or uses available public APIs.

Unlike traditional search engines, SearXNG stores nothing: no history, no tracking, no advertising profiles.

Key strengths of SearXNG

Free and open source (code available on GitHub).
Self-hostable: install it on your server or PC with Docker.
Customizable: tweak the settings.yml file to enable/disable engines, set language preferences, or boost/block specific sites (similar to Kagi’s Leaderboard).
Privacy-friendly: no user tracking, no logs, no data collection.

Limitations of SearXNG

Result quality depends heavily on enabled sources and fine-tuning.
Heavy queries can trigger blocks from some providers (notably Google).
Default experience feels more raw compared to Kagi’s polished interface.

Can SearXNG Really Match Kagi?

This question has been debated on Reddit, where users showed that with some adjustments, SearXNG can deliver results nearly identical to Kagi.

By prioritizing trusted sites (Reddit, Wikipedia, Stack Overflow) and blocking undesirable ones (TikTok, content farms, clickbait), users recreated a Kagi-like experience for free.

Example of a simplified configuration

result_filters:
  - name: boost_reddit
    action: boost
    pattern: reddit.com
    weight: 2.0
  - name: block_tiktok
    action: block
    pattern: tiktok.com

With these filters, search relevance improves dramatically, making SearXNG a strong alternative.

SearXNG vs Kagi: Head-to-Head Comparison

Criteria	Kagi (Paid)	SearXNG (Free)
Business model	Subscription (~$5/month)	Open source, free
Indexing	Multiple sources + filtering	Metasearch (scraping + APIs)
Customization	Built-in community Leaderboard	Manual config via settings.yml
Privacy	Ad-free, but centralized	No logs, self-hosting available
Result quality	High (thanks to community filters)	Variable, depends on tuning
Ease of use	Ready-to-use, premium UX	Requires setup & tweaks

Verdict

Kagi offers a ready-to-use, premium experience with polished results—at a cost.
SearXNG, while more hands-on, can reach similar quality for free if properly configured.

The real difference comes down to:

Kagi = simplicity + convenience + paid model
SearXNG = freedom + privacy + free, with some DIY tuning

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Comparison: can free SearXNG rival paid Kagi?