Brave Search and DuckDuckGo are the two names most people land on when they decide to ditch Google. They are both genuinely private. The difference comes down to one big technical choice and how busy you like your page.

The scorecard

featurebraveduckduckgobare
no behavioral profile
no search history
independent index
no ai answers by defaultoptional off
minimalist page
both keep no profile. 'optional off' means ai is on by default and removed only via a setting.

The big difference: the index

DuckDuckGo leans heavily on Bing's index, so Microsoft's infrastructure is part of the request path. Brave runs its own independent index, which means it does not depend on Google or Bing to answer you. If full independence from the big two matters to you, that is Brave's strongest card.

Privacy: effectively a tie

Both keep no behavioral profile and no search history tied to you. Neither builds a file you have to worry about. On the core promise that made you leave Google, they are close enough that you can pick on other grounds.

the honest part
You are not choosing between private and not private here. Both are private. You are choosing between an independent index and a familiar page, and there is no wrong answer.

If you want barer than both

Brave and DuckDuckGo both keep adding modules, instant answers and AI summaries to the page. If that is the part that wears you out, Bare goes the other way: just links and a single quick fact when it is confident, with no AI block on top. No account, no history, no profile, and your query reaches the index through our server rather than straight from your device.

Pick Brave for index independence, DuckDuckGo for the easiest switch, and Bare when you want the quietest possible page that still forgets you completely.