One of the biggest issues with modern search engines is that they’re a huge privacy concern, hoovering up your data, tracking you across the web, and building a unique profile of you. It’s the same with the advent of AI tools such as ChatGPT and Perplexity; you can ask and search for what you want, but it’s all being logged.
That’s where this independent search engine comes in, and makes it so rare in 2025. Mojeek crawls and runs its own search index, doesn’t track you for advertising, and offers a rare sliver of peaceful privacy in an online world swimming in trackers, fingerprinting, profiling, and more.
Now, this privacy is obviously wonderful, comes with significant benefits, and helps us claw back some privacy. But it doesn’t come without losing many of the conveniences we’ve become incredibly accustomed to over the years in modern search tools.
Finding an independent search engine in 2026 is rare
The default options are always there
Credit: Gavin Phillips / MakeUseOf
Running a search engine in 2026 isn’t an easy task. We’ve come to expect so much more from our search engines outside of just receiving responses related to our queries. And that’s without thinking about the size of the internet these days and the need to constantly crawl the web for its ever-expanding and changing content.
Search requires a huge amount of expensive data center capacity and power, too. Infrastructure wasn’t exactly cheap in 2025, and prices are only set to rise further in 2026. That’s why most “alternative” or “privacy-focused” search engines don’t build their own indexes at all. Instead, they license Bing results, apply their own ranking tweaks, and add a privacy layer. It’s a pragmatic solution, but it also means they’re still ultimately dependent on big-tech pipelines.
That’s part of why I found Mojeek so surprising. Instead of slapping a shiny sticker on some Bing results, it actually crawls the web using its own systems, storing and ranking pages in a unique index called Gravity.
Mojeek is definitely different from the rest
Finding independent tools in 2026 isn’t easy
According to a Reddit AMA with Mojeek CEO Colin Hayhurst, Gravity “is similar to PageRank” but with some important differences. For example, the Mojeek blog explains that it uses slightly different signals from Google’s PageRank to differentiate between good and bad, driven by the company’s focus on privacy.
One major difference between Mojeek and other search engines is that we do not use personalisation or click data as ranking signals; in fact, part of our philosophy is to not collect these data at all. This means that two users performing the same search query, at the same time and in the same country, will receive the same results, regardless of their browsing history or any kind of ‘clickstream’ data collected from others.
This is something that sounds “normal,” but makes you realize how personalized your search results are when using Google, Bing, and so on, through tracking and profiling. It’s a big difference and is actually difficult to get accustomed to—but more on this in a moment.
The result for you, though, is that you don’t see a list of sponsored and paid product placements for each search, which can make it easier for companies with larger budgets to constantly present themselves as the best option. In that, it leans towards a different, potentially more democratized version of search ranking than we’re used to.
Put succinctly, at Mojeek, we believe in the principle of information neutrality.
But Mojeek isn’t a free-for-all where dangerous malware-ridden phishing sites can prosper. There is still oversight and analysis, and Mojeek takes manual actions to remove illegal content. But outside of specifically illegal content, malware, and spam, the company relies on its algorithm to accurately determine the search results you see.
Where Mojeek’s independent search engine shines
Reduce the clutter, focus on the search results
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll have noticed Google’s search results have become cluttered, filled with sponsored links, its divisive AI mode and AI Overviews, sidebar suggestions, and so on.
That’s one of the first positives of switching to Mojeek. The results pages are clearer with less visual bombardment. There are no ads or sponsored links waiting to push you into buying something. It feels like the less advertising-focused model could be more useful for focused research, and that it will give smaller sites a better chance to thrive based on content.
It also doesn’t try to provide a specific answer to every search query. The various AI modes force an answer on, whether you want one or not, and while the quality of the AI responses has definitely improved, they can and will hallucinate and provide misleading answers.
Another small feature I like is Mojeek’s less intrusive knowledge panels. They’re similar in function to Google and other search tools, but they’re smaller and cover less of the page.
Mojeek doesn’t always deliver the goods
I can’t shake the feeling that Mojeek is missing features
The thing is, like me, you’re probably very accustomed to the modern search experience and the mod-cons that it comes with.
I live in a village on a bus route, so I frequently end up searching for “bus times [bus stop name].” On Google, I get a list of upcoming buses and the options to adjust dates, times, etc. On Mojeek, the same search returns a website for a cottage that lets you bring dogs to stay. Those quick, basic searches that only take a moment on Google take a few extra clicks on Mojeek.
Similarly, there are no instant translations, built-in shopping comparison modes, local discovery tools, and so on. That’s the unavoidable issue with being smaller and having limited resources versus search giant Google and its enormous infrastructure. Independence comes at the cost of convenience.
Its image search tool is also under par and can only search from two sources: Openverse and Pixabay. This delivers a much smaller range of images overall, and if you’re looking for something niche, you’re unlikely to find what you’re looking for.
Some searches I make frequently don’t work at all. For example, I play Fantasy Premier League, and on Google, I just type “FPL,” and it takes me straight to the correct website. Whereas on Mojeek, it returns results for the Florida Power & Light company (FPL). In itself, this isn’t a problem and is Mojeek surfacing what it considers the most relevant term, but it means I have to fully type out “Fantasy Premier League” to find the website I want.
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Can you switch to Mojeek full-time?
I must say that, for all I’ve enjoyed using Mojeek, and I firmly believe it’s vital to use and support such independent services, it’s not always the most convenient. I spend upwards of eight hours a day writing, editing, and researching, and at times, I just want the results I’m expecting rather than having to sift through different pages and so on.
However, that’s also one of Mojeek’s strongest features. You’ll still find the information you need, but you may also stumble across some different sources and new websites along the way. And that’s something we’ve increasingly lost over the years as Google, Bing, and other companies have homogenized our search results and turned them into profit-focused tools rather than data discovery tools.
So, even if you don’t switch to Mojeek full-time, it’s important to realise that independent engines are a key part in protecting privacy and are pushing back on the idea that search should be centralized into the hands of just a few companies. Unfortunately, we’ve already allowed that to happen, but Mojeek is preserving diversity in how the web is crawled, understood, and surfaced, especially given the enormous lurch into AI.
In other words, Mojeek is for people who choose it — not people who simply want another Google-style experience.
