DuckDuckGo vs Brave Search: Private Search Engine Comparison

Quick Verdict

Both are excellent private search engines. Choose DuckDuckGo for its mature feature set, excellent Bangs shortcuts, and reliable instant answers. Choose Brave Search for true independence from Big Tech and innovative features like Goggles and AI summaries.

Overview

DuckDuckGo

The OG of private search, DuckDuckGo has been protecting user privacy since 2008. It processes billions of searches using results primarily from Bing, enhanced with their own sources.

Brave Search

Launched in 2021, Brave Search is one of the few search engines with its own independent index—not relying on Google or Bing. It’s growing rapidly and adding innovative features.

Independence Comparison

This is a crucial difference:

DuckDuckGo: Uses Bing’s search index as its primary source, with additional results from other sources. While DuckDuckGo doesn’t share your data with Microsoft, they do rely on Microsoft’s infrastructure.

Brave Search: Built its own web crawler and index from scratch. Truly independent from Google and Microsoft, though they acknowledge using some Google results for less common queries.

Winner: Brave Search - True independence from Big Tech.

Privacy Comparison

DuckDuckGo:

• No user tracking
• No search history storage
• Based in USA
• Anonymous by default

Brave Search:

• No user tracking
• No search history storage
• Based in USA
• Anonymous by default
• No data sharing with third parties

Winner: Slight edge to Brave - True index independence adds privacy by not relying on Microsoft.

Search Quality

DuckDuckGo:

• Generally good results via Bing
• Excellent for common searches
• Sometimes struggles with niche queries
• Great instant answers

Brave Search:

• Growing index, improving rapidly
• Good for most searches
• May miss some niche results
• AI summaries for complex queries

Winner: Tie - Both deliver quality results for most searches.

Unique Features

DuckDuckGo Bangs: Type !w to search Wikipedia, !a for Amazon, !yt for YouTube. There are thousands of Bangs for directly searching other sites.

Brave Search Goggles: Community-created filters to customize search ranking. Want results only from small blogs? There’s a Goggle for that. Prefer academic sources? There’s one too.

Our Recommendation

Choose DuckDuckGo if:

• You want the most mature private search
• Bangs shortcuts appeal to your workflow
• You value instant answers for quick info
• You want the DuckDuckGo mobile browser

Choose Brave Search if:

• Independence from Big Tech is paramount
• You want AI-powered summaries
• Goggles customization appeals to you
• You already use Brave browser

Final Verdict

DuckDuckGo wins for most users due to its maturity and excellent features like Bangs. However, Brave Search is the more principled choice and is improving rapidly. Both are excellent Google replacements—try both and see which results you prefer.