Kagi and Orion

Jump to section titled: Search

I switched from Google to Kagi for search back in May and I'm a complete convert. Yes, it's a paid service but there are some big advantages:

That last one might take a bit of explaining. Google make more money the more you search. They're not motivated to give you a concise answer quickly, they are motivated to make you search more, to spend more time on their website.

Kagi, on the other hand, are motivated to give you the answer you want as quickly as possible. That is a satisfying experience and satisfied users are happy to pay for a service.

You can even do anonymous searches using the Kagi Privacy Pass so not even Kagi know what you're searching for.

Browser

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I've used all sorts of browsers: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Arc. I loved Arc and the story from The Browser Company. About a year ago, they started working on Dia which is a browser based AI app that does everything. I've had early access to it and found it interesting but, ultimately, I don't want AI in my browser. I want to browse websites. They say they want to keep Arc around but their focus is definitely on Dia.

Then, early this month, The Browser Company was bought by Atlassian and despite the enthusiastic press releases I don't see this as a step in the right direction and it was the last straw that got me to switch.

I'm now running Orion on my Mac and iPhone and have no regets. They are a few browsers out there that are focused on privacy (including Brave, Firefox, and Tor) but Orion ticks all the boxes for me.

As a reminder, privacy isn't just handy if you've got something to hide from the government, it's also handy if you don't want to give your data to Big Tech so they can sell you stuff.

I've got two profiles set up: one for work and one for personal. I'm using the 1Password extension on both of them but logged in to different 1Password accounts. Don't forget to make Orion a trusted browser in 1Password's settings.

The verdict

Jump to section titled: The verdict

If you can afford it, switch to Kagi for search. You won't regret it. If you don't use it for a month then you don't pay for the month, a policy I'd like to see more services adopt. You get 100 searches a month on their free plan. I've upgraded to the professional plan for unlimited searches ($10/month).

Yes, switch to Orion too, if you like WebKit. And if you like privacy.

Update 26 September 2026

Jump to section titled: Update 26 September 2026

Maybe Orion is not quite mature enough. I get strange, incomplete results in the web inspector and there are some sites I can't login to (Humaans) even if I switch off all blocking. I notice its version is 0.99.136-beta so maybe I just have to come back to it at a later date.

In the meantime, I've switched to Firefox.