DISCOVERIES / PERPLEXITY / ALTERNATIVES
Perplexity alternatives
8 tools that do the same job as Perplexity, indexed against read something long and search the web. Every row shows the date it was last checked, and says so plainly where it has not been.
SHOWING AI ALTERNATIVES · SWITCH TO NO AI IN THE HEADERSHOWING NO AI ALTERNATIVES · SWITCH TO AI IN THE HEADER
AI alternatives
Tools where a model does the work. Faster, usually paid, and your input generally leaves your machine.
| Tool | Price | Free tier | Open source | Checked | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT OpenAI's assistant and the default entry point to AI for most people. | not checked | yes | no | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
| Kagi Paid search with no ads, where the AI parts are opt in rather than default. | $5/month | yes | unknown | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
| DuckDuckGo Search without a profile following you around. | not checked | unknown | unknown | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
Alternatives without AI
Conventional software and hand-built websites. Slower to learn, usually free, and most run entirely on your own machine.
| Tool | Price | Free tier | Open source | Checked | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marginalia Search An index that deliberately favours small, text-heavy, non-commercial pages. | not checked | yes | yes | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
| Project Gutenberg Seventy thousand public domain books, transcribed by volunteers since 1971. | not checked | yes | unknown | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
| Wiby Search engine for the old, hand-made web. Surfaces pages nothing else does. | not checked | unknown | unknown | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
| Wayback Machine Archive of the web going back to 1996, useful for proving what a page used to say. | not checked | yes | unknown | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
| OpenStreetMap A world map built and owned by the people who edit it. | not checked | yes | yes | 2026-09-08 | VISIT ↗ |
Ordering is editorial and is never sold. Rows marked never checked have not been verified against the vendor's own pages yet, and we would rather show you that than a plausible guess. Some outbound links earn a commission, which does not affect the ordering.