Duckduckgo -> selfhosted searxng… startpage has also not yet been involved in any controversy for a non selfhosted option.

Copy paste of why duck duck go is a problem:

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/duckduckgo-browser-allows-microsoft-trackers-due-to-search-agreement/

Now I little after this came out they do claim they removed them (odd how that suddenly changes after it was no longer secret) But then much more recent as listed on wikipedia, verifying they still have some long term deals with microsoft in **2025**… microsoft is not going to make a deal with a perceived competitor for nothing in return.

By August 2025, Bing planned to cut off access to its search APIs in a push to sell more AI-related APIs, though **DuckDuckGo believed that larger companies like it with long-term deals would not be affected** 62 Bing had dramatically raised rates for its search API in 2022 after ChatGPT debuted. 62

There is also more general proof that while duck may technically use other sources also. It really is mostly bing:

During a Bing API outage in 2024, DuckDuckGo stopped showing results, indicating that Bing provided a substantial portion of DuckDuckGo's results.69 70

I literally do not understand how they managed to take such foothold in real privacy communities. I used to love brave till the i was repeatedly pointed to the scandals that many people are aware of and informing others about… but considering ddg i rarely see anyone pointing this out. It actually smells like a huge successful marketing adventure to sell bing to privacy enthusiasts, but for that i obvio do not have proof. I often imagine this meme with bing instead of google and a cute duck go as mr incognito