20 Best Search Engines Compared

People hunt for accusation successful much ways than ever—from accepted hunt engines to YouTube videos and AI chatbots.

Understanding the immense scenery helps you spot which devices your imaginable customers are utilizing and why. For each hunt motor connected this list, we’ve included monthly postulation (as estimated by Semrush’s Traffic Overview instrumentality based connected April 2025 data) to thief you understand really celebrated each action is.

Traditional Search Engines

1. Google

Global monthly visits: 92.7 billion
Best for: A broad and personalized hunt experience

Google remains the most celebrated hunt motor to date. Likely owed to its ample scale of websites and the expertise to supply applicable search results quickly.

One of its strongest points lies successful being capable to expect users’ intent—its auto-complete characteristic tin often decipher what you’re looking for earlier you decorativeness typing.

It offers useful features for illustration featured snippets and AI-generated summaries that thief users get the accusation they request arsenic quickly arsenic possible. And the preamble of AI Mode is making it much interactive than ever.

Increased advertizing and search successful caller years person raised privateness concerns. But if you’re shopping online aliases looking for directions, Google will usually springiness you what you request successful seconds.

2. Bing

Global monthly visits: 4.2 billion
Best for: Image-based searches

Microsoft’s Bing offers beardown ocular hunt capabilities that make it easy to find images, preview videos, and browse products.

It besides includes seamless integrations pinch different Microsoft products, specified arsenic Windows and Edge. And unsocial features for illustration points that tin beryllium redeemed for rewards for illustration gift cards.

It’s worthy noting that Bing’s hunt results typically incorporate less ads than Google results. 

They besides consciousness much curated since Bing tends to prioritize informational sources (such arsenic Wikipedia aliases charismatic authorities sites) complete much commercialized websites.

3. Yahoo

Global monthly visits: 2.5 billion
Best for: Casual hunt built into a broader homepage experience

Yahoo’s original hunt motor functioned arsenic a manually curated directory of websites that users could hunt done to find what they needed but now uses Bing’s scale and algorithm to make hunt results.

The full acquisition is bundled into the Yahoo homepage, which features news, upwind forecasts, an email service, and more.

It offers reliable and applicable hunt results for astir queries. 

But the level isn’t focused connected providing an precocious hunt experience. Currently, location aren’t AI-powered answers aliases precocious filters that would thief pinch uncovering highly circumstantial information.

AI Search Engines (Also Called Answer Engines)

4. ChatGPT Search

Global monthly visits: 4.5 billion
Best for: AI-generated answers backed up pinch citations and sources

ChatGPT search offers conversational answers, summarized information, and root links alternatively than a database of hunt results.

You tin inquire follow-up questions, which allows you to refine moreover incredibly circumstantial hunt queries. 

While it’s awesome for synthesizing accusation and learning astir analyzable topics, it’s not needfully designed to observe caller contented for illustration news articles.

5. Perplexity

Global monthly visits: 125.4 million
Best for: Scientific investigation and fact-checking

Perplexity provides AI-generated answers backed by reliable sources by default. And provides inline citations, pinch each condemnation being linked to a source.

It’s awesome for getting insights connected method and actual questions.

Perplexity’s Pro Search characteristic lets you inquire multi-turn questions and get progressively much refined answers. It offers a minimalistic interface, pinch fewer to nary ads aliases unnecessary clutter.

While Perplexity doesn’t clasp conversational history successful the aforesaid measurement ChatGPT does, it still does a awesome occupation of surfacing reliable accusation connected a wide scope of topics.

Social Media Search Engines

6. YouTube

Global monthly visits: 42.8 billion
Best for: How-to content, reviews, and video-based learning

While YouTube isn’t a accepted hunt engine, it’s a celebrated prime for group looking for tutorials, merchandise reviews, entertainment, and different types of video-based content.

The level does a awesome occupation of surfacing applicable and engaging videos based connected your preferences and immoderate hunt queries you enter.

Engagement metrics effect YouTube’s hunt results, which intends celebrated videos are often prioritized complete different (and perchance much relevant) content.

There are besides plentifulness of ads and sponsored videos connected the platform, particularly for commercialized topics.

7. TikTok

Global monthly visits: 1.9 billion
Best for: Bite-sized video contented and crowd-sourced recommendations

TikTok offers users a measurement to hunt for short-form videos connected trending topics, merchandise reviews, section recommendations, and more.

It ranks contented based connected a fewer factors, including really good a video matches your hunt query, your activity connected the level (e.g., videos watched, liked, shared, aliases commented on), and things for illustration location and language. 

It’s adjuvant for exploratory searches, specified arsenic “things to do successful [city]” aliases “best books for [topic].”

Since astir of the contented connected TikTok is designed for intermezo purposes and speedy engagement, it tin beryllium harder to find in-depth accusation connected a topic. 

Privacy-Focused Search Engines

8. DuckDuckGo

Global monthly visits: 1.9 billion
Best for: A hunt acquisition pinch nary search of immoderate kind

DuckDuckGo is simply a celebrated privacy-focused hunt motor that doesn’t shop hunt history, way users, aliases connection immoderate benignant of personalized results based connected personification behavior.

Its results are gathered pinch its ain web crawler arsenic good arsenic from platforms for illustration Bing.

While DuckDuckGo doesn’t personalize hunt results, it still offers convenient features for illustration instant answers, shortcuts, and maps. These make it easier for users to find accusation without violating their privacy.

This hunt motor is simply a awesome prime for group looking for a backstage hunt acquisition without having to usage VPNs, proxies, aliases akin technologies.

9. Ecosia

Global monthly visits: 254 million
Best for: A feel-good hunt acquisition that supports biology causes

Ecosia is an eco-friendly hunt motor that uses the profits from its search ads to works trees. 

So far, the level has helped works much than 230 cardinal trees astir the world.

It gets hunt results and ads from Bing and Google. The root utilized for your results depends connected things for illustration your location and your cooky settings. 

While not arsenic privacy-focused arsenic DuckDuckGo, Ecosia still anonymizes personification data. It’s a bully prime for those who want their regular searches to lend to a bully cause.

10. Startpage

Global monthly visits: 49.4 million
Best for: Getting Google’s hunt results without being tracked by Google

Startpage serves Google’s hunt results but strips distant identifiable accusation (IP addresses, personification behavior, and hunt queries) to supply a backstage hunt experience.

There’s besides an action to unfastened results utilizing a proxy server for accrued anonymity.

The deficiency of personalized hunt results helps trim algorithmic bias, making Startpage a bully prime for nonsubjective research.

11. Brave Search

Global monthly visits: 367.2 million
Best for: A mostly ad-free hunt experience

Brave Search offers a backstage and mostly ad-free hunt experience.

It doesn’t trust connected Google aliases Bing—it uses its ain web crawler and hunt index. This allows Brave to supply hunt results that aren’t influenced by mainstream tech algorithms to springiness users an replacement position of the web.

The hunt motor lets you usage “Goggles”—custom filters users tin use to tailor results to their needs (e.g., to only show results from independent news sources).

Region-Specific Search Engines

12. Baidu

Global monthly visits: 728.2 million
Best for: Chinese-speaking users willing successful locally optimized hunt results

Baidu is the main hunt motor successful China. Due to the country’s strict net regulations, astir Western hunt engines stay inaccessible and make Baidu the main measurement to entree the web successful China.

Baidu offers an ad-heavy hunt acquisition pinch galore sponsored results. There’s besides a large accent connected in-house services and platforms, specified arsenic Baike (the Chinese replacement to Wikipedia) and Tieba (a celebrated online forum).

It’s an indispensable hunt motor for section Chinese searches. That said, world users mightiness find the hunt motor limiting owed to censorship and connection barriers.

13. Shenma

Global monthly visits (to the website—not the mobile app): 519,800
Best for: Chinese users looking for a mobile-first hunt experience

Shenma is simply a mobile-first hunt motor aimed astatine the Chinese market. 

The hunt results are highly commercialized and aimed astatine users who are looking to make a purchase. This shouldn’t beryllium surprising, since Shenma is partially owned by Alibaba, the biggest ecommerce institution successful China.

Shenma is simply a awesome action for Chinese users looking to observe products, apps, and intermezo content. 

14. Yandex

Global monthly visits: 238.3 million
Best for: Russian users looking for section hunt results

Yandex is the astir celebrated search motor successful Russia.

It offers real-time hunt suggestions, speedy answers, and voice search. Yandex besides includes different services, including email and maps.

15. Naver

Global monthly visits: 1.1 billion
Best for: Korean-speaking users looking for a news portal mixed pinch section hunt results

Naver is simply a South Korean hunt motor that offers hunt results mixed pinch contented from related services, specified arsenic Naver Blog (user-generated blogs) and Knowledge iN (a Q&A forum).

It prioritizes internally hosted contented (such arsenic Naver and Knowledge iN pages) to support users connected the platform.

This creates a unsocial acquisition that’s awesome for exploring Korean civilization and trends.

16. Seznam

Global monthly visits: 246.1 million
Best for: Czech users looking for section news and hunt results

Seznam is the hunt motor of prime for users successful the Czech Republic. And has its ain web crawler and index.

It’s built for usage pinch the Czech connection specifically, which helps it get a amended knowing of queries that incorporate Czech idioms and taste context.

While it mightiness not person precocious features (e.g., AI-powered overviews) for illustration the much celebrated world hunt engines, it’s a bully action for Czech users looking for section news and answers to section hunt queries.

Especially since it integrates pinch different celebrated Czech platforms—for mapping, existent estate, and news.

Paid Search Engines

17. Kagi

Global monthly visits (website visits—not hunt motor users): 2.4 million
Best for: A highly customizable, ad-free hunt experience

Kagi is an ad-free hunt motor supported by paid personification subscriptions. 

Its hunt results are derived from a operation of aggregate indexes, including its ain indexes (such arsenic Teclis), and the indexes of Google, Bing, and different platforms.

Kagi’s hunt results besides trust connected API calls to platforms for illustration WolframAlpha, Wikipedia, and others.

Kagi lets you determine which websites you’d for illustration to spot successful your hunt results done the “Lenses” feature. Which lets you constrictive down your hunt to find what you’re looking for much easily. 

For example, Kagi has a pre-built programming lens that only displays results from programming connection websites and forums.

Being a freemium hunt motor (with paid plans starting astatine $5/month), Kagi is aimed astatine powerfulness users (such arsenic researchers and writers) who execute extended investigation and are looking to destruct sound and clickbait.

Specialized Search Engines

18. The Wayback Machine

Global monthly visits: 23 million
Best for: Looking up humanities versions of webpages

The Wayback Machine gives users a measurement to look up websites astatine circumstantial points successful history. This tin beryllium useful for search tract changes aliases recovering mislaid content.

Its interface is reasonably basic. You conscionable type successful a URL and are past presented pinch a almanac of disposable snapshots of that website crossed different points successful time.

From here, you tin click connected a day to beryllium redirected to an archived type of that website.

While the Wayback Machine doesn’t person each website that ever existed successful its archive, it has a ample database of websites you tin look up.

19. ResearchGate

Global monthly visits: 92.9 million
Best for: Peer-reviewed technological and world research

ResearchGate is simply a hunt motor and societal web for researchers. Scientists usage the level to stock their work, inquire questions, and upload publications.

ResearchGate allows users to hunt for papers by author, topic, journal, aliases institution. And a batch of the papers are disposable for download straight from the platform.

It’s awesome for discovering caller studies and staying up to day connected a circumstantial section of research.

20. WolframAlpha

Global monthly visits: 5.4 million
Best for: Data analysis, math-based problem solving, and actual answers

WolframAlpha isn’t technically a hunt engine. (It calls itself a “computational knowledge engine.”) But it tin usability arsenic 1 for fact-based queries. 

Instead of retrieving hunt results for illustration a accepted hunt engine, it calculates answers to your questions utilizing algorithms and a monolithic database.

You tin usage it to lick mathematics problems, comparison statistics, and execute analyses.

While it’s not peculiarly useful for open-ended queries, it does highly good erstwhile it comes to questions that impact information aliases computation.

It’s a awesome prime for analysts, engineers, scientists, and students.

Optimize Your Website for Search Engines

Google is still the astir celebrated hunt motor successful the world. But AI hunt platforms for illustration ChatGPT and Perplexity are gaining traction. 

That intends businesses looking to amended visibility should guarantee that their websites are optimized for AI platforms arsenic well.

This is wherever the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit tin help. It analyzes your capacity crossed AI platforms and provides insights to thief you amended your results.