• StartPage

StartPage

Overview

StartPage has a rating of 3.61 stars from 41 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. StartPage ranks 9th among Search sites.

  • Service
    4
  • Value
    4
  • Quality
    3

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 50%
Positive
1
Neutral
0
Negative
1

What reviewers want you to know

Positive highlights

No positive highlights yet

Critical highlights

  • I agree with other reviewers that the search results yielded by Startpage are vastly inferior to other search engines.
How would you rate StartPage?
Top Positive Review

“Private and Solid”

Andromeda g.
6/4/23

Startpage is almost perfect! It's just as advertised—all the quality search results of Google and none of the invasive tracking. My one quibble as that, personally, I find the format for image search results rather unpleasant, and this is a central feature. However, given all its other advantages, I'm willing to trade infinite image scroll and easy viewing for privacy.

Top Critical Review

“Frustrating search block”

j. t.
7/10/22

When doing an extensive search, I always get blocked with this message; We apologize for the inconvenience: to prevent possible abuse of our service, your ability to connect to Startpage has been suspended at this time. This happens when a large number of search requests are received from a particular internet connection during a short period of time. Screen scraping software may trigger this, as would a connection shared by many people at the same time, for example a VPN server or through Tor. Often, this can be resolved by connecting through a different server through your VPN provider or by connecting through a different Tor exit node. It sucks.

Reviews (41)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Reviews that mention popular keywords

search results (9)
Thumbnail of user rickyp104
1 review
0 helpful votes
May 20th, 2021

I love how a search engine can help us with our privacy, reducing the chances of spreading our data and information online. Hopefully more people will start using Startpage.
Thanks!

Tip for consumers:
Use this! Give it a try, will not regret it and gain a lot of privacy.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user bobr67
2 reviews
10 helpful votes
March 27th, 2023

StartPage banned me from their search engine due to "unusual traffic similar to bots". They also mentioned use of a VPN & Tor privacy browser as contributing factors - and I was using both. It seems strange that they call themselves a privacy browser, and yet they disallow privacy tools that might hide personal data from THEM. If Startpage doesn't collect and sell data as they claim, how are they paying salaries & bills? Does Startpage offer proof of their altruistic claims? Do they have verification from the privacy police? After they banned me, I deleted Startpage from all my browsers and replaced it with DuckDuckGo.

Thumbnail of user yourek
1 review
1 helpful vote
January 25th, 2022

1-fast
2-Similar to Google for search results
3-Still had to weed through Amazon, and advertiser ads before I got a real result.
4-Started having printer and text font issues--not respecting size to fit-like crosswords-1page didn't fit. That's on 5 PC's, 5 Users--all different types. Probably their updates-that I wasn't told about.
5 -Switched back to Google.

Thumbnail of user adamm883
1 review
1 helpful vote
May 14th, 2021

Started using this a year ago and have not looked back to Google. Highly recommend it to people who used shared or family devices.

Tip for consumers:
Browse with Anonymous View - find it with the purple mask.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user j.t8
1 review
3 helpful votes
July 10th, 2022
Verified purchase

When doing an extensive search, I always get blocked with this message; We apologize for the inconvenience: to prevent possible abuse of our service, your ability to connect to Startpage has been suspended at this time.

This happens when a large number of search requests are received from a particular internet connection during a short period of time. Screen scraping software may trigger this, as would a connection shared by many people at the same time, for example a VPN server or through Tor. Often, this can be resolved by connecting through a different server through your VPN provider or by connecting through a different Tor exit node.

It sucks.

Thumbnail of user horacej16
4 reviews
0 helpful votes
July 27th, 2022

Such a great ordering experience. Design team was super quick with responses and created a product just like I had envisioned. Delivery was sooner than quoted.

Thumbnail of user jonasw23
1 review
0 helpful votes
May 18th, 2021

Gives me the performance of google with the privacy of an non profit organization. Well done. Keep up the good work.

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user rohitc25
1 review
8 helpful votes
August 16th, 2020

I agree with other reviewers that the search results yielded by Startpage are vastly inferior to other search engines. Misplaced a letter from your query? Sorry, no results found! Looking for exact phrases? Startpage is more likely to fail than other search engines, or return blatantly incorrect results, and actually relevant results either don't show up or are further down the search results, often in 3rd and 4th pages. Sometimes, I get some sort of IP blocks for no reason while browsing, and I have to reset my router for it to work again.

Thumbnail of user startpages
StartPage S. – StartPage Rep

Hi Rohit and thank you for taking the time to review.
The comments about the quality of our results is surprising and makes me think that you may have been using the app - our website provides a far superior search experience including better results and more features. We've recently delisted the app and have added dozens of new features (news, shopping, calculator, currency converter and so much more.) We also have a better handle on abuse, so legitimate users aren't blocked,

More information can be found here - https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/en/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1354/0/why-were-delisting-our-mobile-app

We'd really appreciate if you gave us another try and let us know what you think about the experience!

Thumbnail of user eddiej35
1 review
24 helpful votes
August 8th, 2018

I started using startpage a few weeks ago becuase I am sick to death of the never ending "Read google privacy policiy, which means either you let them know everything about you or dont use google.
I am just an average guy who searches the net for things that interest me, history, photography, news, and delving into things I dont know much about.
I have found Startpage pretty good, it may be a bit slower but then you are asking Startpage to ask google so thats not a surprise, anyway it is only a matter of seconds if that. The results are to me very satisfying.
One thing I missed was google maps so I have to go to google if I want them but other than that I cannot fault Startpage. I am not a nerd just someone who users a seach engine reasonably regularly. I run it with Firefox and both give me pleasing results. It is nice not to forever having google want me to agree to yet another privacy update before I can continue what I am doing.
I think more and more people need to start reviewing their on line presence, the old saying if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear is way out of date.

Thumbnail of user startpages
StartPage S. – StartPage Rep

Thanks, Eddie! Welcome to the Startpage.com family!

Soon we will be launching a new look and updated features, like an even better privacy proxy. Stay tuned.:-)

Thumbnail of user dawns812
1 review
5 helpful votes
August 29th, 2020

After minor adjustments in settings the browser is very quick and super private, I use "StartPage" in Firefox and Microsoft Edge as my homepage. I also use "StartPage" with my VPN to increase security. Great browser!

Thumbnail of user startpages
StartPage S. – StartPage Rep

Thanks Dawn!

We appreciate your feedback. We went through a brand refresh this week (more info here -https://startpage.com/privacy-please/press-releases/announcing-startpages-refreshed-brand) and have added dozens of new features (news, shopping, calculator, currency converter...) since you wrote this review. As always, if you have comments or questions, we will provide personalized support if you write to us at support@startpage.com. Thanks again!

Thumbnail of user jeroend10
1 review
1 helpful vote
May 18th, 2021

I have been a fun of Startpage since it used to be Ixquick. It helps me to get high quality search results while avoiding pervasive surveillance.

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user andrewc18
6 reviews
49 helpful votes
June 3rd, 2015

I personally use DuckDuckGo as my default browser, mainly because it includes shortcuts to directly search a website (for example, typing "! Sp ducks" into DuckDuckGo gives you Startpage search results for ducks).

But because DuckDuckGo is sometimes lacking in normal searches, I often use the aforementioned Startpage shortcut to get more relevant results.

Thumbnail of user waldih
1 review
8 helpful votes
April 11th, 2018

I tested 15 best search engines by http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/search-engines. StartPage seems to me the best. Second place - Duckduckgo, I used before for several months. Google is good, but spy. Bing is even bigger spy.
One of advantages of StartPage is correct localization, it gave me first line results in Ukrainian, not in Russian as do all the rest search engines. For the rest I need every time to add in search line -ru and -russian, etc. It's very annoying.

Thumbnail of user sherd3
1 review
4 helpful votes
March 10th, 2021

I did a search on stimulus checks and numerous sites with baseless claims about election fraud came up. WTF?!?! I've never experienced this from ANY search engine.
If they do this, how can they be trusted?

Thumbnail of user startpages
StartPage S. – StartPage Rep

Hi Sher,

Thank you for taking the time to provide a review.

Your comment about the quality of results leads me to believe that you may have been using the mobile app. Our website provides a far superior search experience including better results and more features. We've recently delisted the app and have added dozens of new features (news, shopping, calculator, currency converter and so much more.) We also have a better handle on abuse, so legitimate users aren't blocked,

More information can be found here - https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/en/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1354/0/why-were-delisting-our-mobile-app

We'd really appreciate if you gave us another try and let us know what you think about the experience. We hope we can earn your trust back!

Thumbnail of user colk
1 review
11 helpful votes
December 6th, 2018

Works really well, always has the time frame pop up. Takes a bit of extra study to make it more discrete.

Thumbnail of user lizzyc11
1 review
7 helpful votes
August 10th, 2020

Bugs and so many ads. Its buggy and its inaccurate with my results. Search results don't give back anything good. Would not recommend.

Thumbnail of user nayad1
1 review
8 helpful votes
March 6th, 2015

Ixquick high credibility and fast and quick searches with high security level searches are relevant to my questions and then reduces, restricts data mining.

Thumbnail of user luettal
1 review
9 helpful votes
March 2nd, 2014

I am looking for a 'Safe Search Engine and because I saw this in an article I was reading -->- > [So I Ixquicked " (Ixquick, that's my favorite search engine ("the world's most private search engine")), <-- I searched ixquick and@ this point I rated this Site JABBER Website 5 Star & want to tell the entire world!
I will come back to this Website and report my experience and pray my experience will confirm Ixquick, is the answers to my prayers. And I will tell the world. I read & like --> Read Review Guidelines. Thank you, Sincerely, for providing this safe search engine for Good people. The 'World' needs you. I will be back. I do get confused when a different name comes up from what I have searched. I will Register then tour this website.- Love. From me.

Thumbnail of user jonahh7
10 reviews
24 helpful votes
February 16th, 2013

Startpage is a VERY awesome alternative to Yahoo & Google and they are working on Startmail which will work like Yahoo mail minus the gathering of information.

Thumbnail of user waynej357
1 review
0 helpful votes
March 7th, 2023

Was happy using startpage and startmail and mail up until now. Came home and tried to use startpage and got a message a message saying due to a high degree of usage from my ip address they are not letting me use startpage because I may be a bot.This after I reinstalled windows and the cloud decided to upload my photos and videos. That's all I took for them to get their panties in a Knott.
Anyway if you use startpage watch you usage or they won't like it.
I think I'm done with them.

Thumbnail of user ianm11
140 reviews
749 helpful votes
July 5th, 2011

StartPage is an initiative by Ixquick.

StartPage works similar to Google. Go into your URL bar - type "startpage.com" and you can surf the internet like Google does. But - what's the difference between Google and StartPage? What makes StartPage better than other search engines?

Well StartPage.com picks up very similar results as to what Google would pick up. StartPage.com doesn't log your IP address and supports 256 bit SSL. A really cool part about StartPage.com is its proxy tool. For example - lets say you wanted to view the NASA website - enter NASA into the engine, then click "proxy". This will then take you into their site through a secure proxy server. However - bare in mind that it will disable Java.

Thumbnail of user bv7
2 reviews
20 helpful votes
February 12th, 2013

This search engine is even more private than www.ixquick.com... It doesn't allow links to work in the webpage you visit that would be able to trace back to you...

Thumbnail of user daniell1072
1 review
13 helpful votes
December 30th, 2020

Startpage is a trojan horse. They pretend to care about your privacy. They don't. If you use an anonymizing proxy, they block you from searching. They are big tech creeps in disguise. Use DuckDuckGo instead.

Users who use anonymizing proxies receive the following error message when trying to use Startpage, a supposedly "private" search engine:

We apologize for the inconvenience: to prevent possible abuse of the Startpage.com service, your Internet connection has been prevented from accessing it at this time.

This happens when a large number of search requests are received from one's Internet connection in a short amount of time -- for example, if you are using "screen-scraping" software, or if you are sharing a connection with many people, perhaps through a proxy service.

Otherwise, if you have received this message in error, please help us in investigation by providing following information:

- Are you using TOR or other anonymous proxies?
- Do you have special browser configuration or extensions?
- Are you using VPN?
- Are you using a company network?

We will seek to refine and correct this whenever possible. Thank you for your patience.

Thumbnail of user startpages
StartPage S. – StartPage Rep

Hi Daniel - thanks for providing this feedback. Hopefully over time we can earn your trust back - especially given the lengths we go to for protecting your privacy. As an example, when you visit Startpage, your IP address is changed in their system to 0. 0. 0. 0 while many other private search engines (including DDG and Ecosia) only mask part of your IP.

We applaud our users who increase their privacy by using a VPN and many tell us that they do.

Around the time that you left this review, we had a large jump in abusers using specific VPNs and you were likely connected to a VPN server that was used for abusive purposes. Most of the time, if our users switch to a different server (within VPN provider server options) the situation resolves.

We've been focusing on resolving these issues and hope that you'll give us another try. Additionally, we've recently added many new features like news, shopping, currency conversion, calculator...

If you continue to have issues and would like personal attention to troubleshoot, we'd be happy to help. Feel free to contact us at support@startpage.com.

Thumbnail of user laneys
6 reviews
54 helpful votes
September 3rd, 2019

If you truly want as many search results as you possibly can find to get the information you are looking for, do not use StartPage. StartPage can respect your privacy by not using an algorithm to find everything about you to give you search results to feed your confirmation bias. But, StartPage has not modernized the amount of Google search results in its database system. Google has waaay more search results compared to StartPage. Which speaks volume about StartPage's quality altogether. People who want privacy will benefit from StartPage. However, people who want quality search results despite privacy violation need to use the Google search engine or the DuckDuckGo search engine. Unfortunately, I used to like StartPage until I realized how outdated and unreliably limited it was when it came to searching for things and will switch to DuckDuckGo again. Fortunately, I might think about switching back to StartPage once StartPage business people start modernizing StartPage's search results.

Thumbnail of user startpages
StartPage S. – StartPage Rep

Hi Laney. Please email our Customer Support Team so we can look into why you are not getting the quality results most people get: Support@Startpage.com

Note that you can get the best and most updated results by going directly to Startpage.com for your searches. Sometimes the app will not be as current or have as many results. We are working on that.

Thank you for caring about privacy and letting us know about the issue. We look forward to hearing from you.

Thumbnail of user omegar
149 reviews
1,784 helpful votes
November 19th, 2011

I agree that this site is a wonderful search engine because it does not record one's IP address and that means I am able to protect myself online.

Here is the claim made by this search engine:

"Ixquick search results are more comprehensive and more accurate than other search engines. Ixquick's unique capabilities include an Advanced Search, a global search and power refinement."

I would have to agree with them personally and I intend to make them one of my regular search engines from now on.

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Thumbnail of user startpages
StartPage S.
Typically does not respond to reviews

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