The best alternatives to Arc Search
Arc Search might not be the right fit: the price, a missing feature or a payment model you don't like. These are the closest alternatives in our catalog, ordered by rating, with the full review of each one.
Why look for a Arc Search alternative
First sweep of Arc Search. The app is still alive and updated (version 1.48.0, released 12 August 2026, four days before this sweep) even though The Browser Company has shifted its public focus to Dia, its desktop browser. It remains free with no in-app purchase, and its Browse for Me feature opens several real pages to cite the source behind an answer, which is exactly what this segment's question asks for. What costs it points is integration, limited to mobile, and the odd Browse for Me summary with figures that do not quite match the source it cites.
What its own users repeat in the August 16, 2026 sweep:
- The Browser Company has shifted active development to Dia, its new desktop browser, so Arc Search receives features at a slower pace than when it was the flagship product (strong theme)
- An independent review describes Browse for Me summaries with figures that do not match the cited source on complex queries, such as incomplete award-winner lists (strong theme)
- Mobile only: no desktop version, no iPad app and no sync with a desktop browser (present theme)
Best alternatives to Arc Search
The paid search engine with no ads and no tracking.
A free AI search engine with no ads and no account, attributing and linking the source of every answer.
What the internet says about each alternative
Kagi 4/5 · Free trial · from $5
Nothing has changed on price or usage limits this week: the entry plan is still $5 and the assistant has gained no new feature since the native app shipped on 30 July. What this sweep adds is the first sixteen reviews of that app on the App Store, averaging 5 out of 5, with people who used the mobile web version saying the native app is an upgrade. The docs also note that buying extra AI credits once the plan cap runs out is coming, though it is not live yet.
Where it wins: Results with no ads and no content-farm pages, and long-term subscribers say they hardly ever need the bang shortcut back to Google Where it slips: The index is not theirs for most queries: they pay third-party providers serving Google results, and the company itself writes it wants out as soon as direct licensing becomes possible
Andi 2.9/5 · Free
First sweep. Andi is the small project of this segment and it genuinely answers the segment's question: a free search engine with no advertising, no account and no search logging, with the source named and linked in every answer. Verification was run against its live API rather than only its marketing site, returning results dated in 2026 with attribution on all of them. There is real work underneath, with intent classification by query type, recency scoring and its own page extractor, so it is not a wrapper over somebody else's model. The problems are three and none of them is about price. The first is that the default answer is not what the home page promises: instead of a multi-source synthesis by language models, what arrives is an extract from a single page, and in three of nine test queries the chosen extract did not answer the question. The second is size and focus, because the declared team went from ten people in 2023 to two, the browser extension promoted on its home page has not been updated since April 2024, and most of its 2026 posts concern neighbouring products. The third is coherence: its policy states it never uses third-party analytics while the app loads a product analytics platform with a persistent per-visitor profile, served from its own domain, although it trims the query text before sending and the whole thing can be switched off.
Where it wins: It is genuinely free with no hidden trade: no card, no account, no ads and no search logging, which nobody else in this segment offers Where it slips: The default answer is a single-page extract rather than the multi-source synthesis the home page advertises, and selection misfires often: in three of nine test queries the extract did not answer the question
Comparison table
| Tool | Price | Free trial | Platforms | Rating | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arc Search | Free | No | iOS, Android | VisitArc Search (opens in a new tab) | |
| Kagi | Free trial · from $5 | Yes | Web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Chrome | VisitKagi (opens in a new tab) | |
| Andi | Free | No | Web, Chrome | VisitAndi (opens in a new tab) |
Still unsure? Read the full review of Arc Search?