> For example, DuckDuckGo requires running non-free JavaScript in your web browser

I thought https://html.duckduckgo.com/html/ doesn't require Js

Still a happy Kagi user. Paying for search aligns the incentives cleanly IMHO

I use self-hosted SearXNG as part of my low-budget, privacy-oriented home AI stack with Open WebUI. It's a pretty useful tool!

I'm a bit hesitant to post this because I'm not really here for self-promotion, but at some point I did have an LLM help me write up a guide on how I implemented it. It's here if anyone is curious: https://optimoss.ai/resources/searxng.html

I wish they'd make it easier to adjust individual engine's weight, ideally right from the UI instead of a config file. Personally, after bumping up Google/Wiby and bumping down DDG/Presearch/Startpage (and disabling Bing altogether), results became much better. It still displays some results that only the latter engines turn up, but IMO there's noticeably less cruft.

I like Brave search a lot. I don’t use the Brave browser though.

SearXNG or serious, pick one.