DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine with a companion mobile browser, both built to block trackers and search without profiling you. Its search results come mainly from Bing, layered with DuckDuckGo’s own instant answers and tracker blocking. Part of the code is open source, though the core is proprietary. Launched in 2008 and based in the United States.
Reviewed by Marcus Holmberg
DuckDuckGo
duckduckgo.com 4.5 (6)
Rate DuckDuckGo: No account needed
Threat level
Covered
A covered pick. Anyone can use it as a private drop-in, with no setup or know-how. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
DuckDuckGo is the realistic on-ramp for most people leaving Google, because it works out of the box, with no account to create and apps that block trackers for you. On the safety question it is a sound default: it keeps no profile of you and sells none, and search runs over an encrypted connection. The honest catches are worth knowing. Results lean heavily on Bing, the company is US-based, and only part of the code is open to inspection. None of that disqualifies it as a private default. Recommend it to friends who want a real privacy upgrade with no learning curve, and point purists toward an independent index when Bing-derived results are not enough. If you are escaping Google specifically, our Google Search alternatives page shows where it ranks.
Website at a glance
duckduckgo.com
B score 75
Solid website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 3d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
DuckDuckGo alternatives
Brave Search Blog post about the new Brave Search beta . Based in the US. Launched in June 2021.
Mojeek A crawler-based search engine that provides independent search results using its own index of web pages, rather than using results from other search engines. Based in the UK.…
Startpage Obtains Google search results while protecting users' privacy. Based in the Netherlands. Launched in 1998.
Qwant French private search engine, EU-hosted, no personal data stored, blending its own index with Bing results.
Kagi Paid, ad-free search engine with no tracking, customizable result ranking, and a small free trial.
SearXNG The actively maintained successor to Searx. Self-hostable, open source metasearch engine. Users can access existing public instances.
Frequently asked
- Is DuckDuckGo safe to use?
- Yes, for everyday privacy. It blocks trackers and forces an encrypted connection where it can, and it builds no advertising profile of you. It cannot stop you from clicking a malicious link or downloading a bad file, and a site you open from the results can still try to track you, so pairing it with a private browser gives you the full benefit.
- Is DuckDuckGo actually private?
- Its search does not tie your queries to your identity or sell a profile, which is the core promise and it holds up. The limits are honest: most results come from Bing, the company is based in the United States, and only part of its code is open to inspection. For day-to-day searching it is a genuine upgrade over Google.
- Where do DuckDuckGo's search results come from?
- Mainly Bing, combined with DuckDuckGo's own instant answers and tracker blocking. Result quality is therefore close to Bing's, which is solid for common searches. If you would rather use an engine that runs its own independent index, Brave Search and Mojeek are the alternatives to look at.
- Does DuckDuckGo hide my searches from my internet provider?
- Your searches travel over an encrypted connection, so your provider cannot read what you type, though it can still see that you connected to DuckDuckGo. Encrypted DNS closes most of the rest. A VPN or Tor hides the connection itself if that is part of your threat model.