Kagi Teams

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Paid search engine Kagi’s new Teams offering prompts mixed reactions: many users praise its ad-free results, customization options, and bundled access to multiple “premium” LLMs, arguing the productivity gains justify the subscription cost over Google. Others find the price high, setup friction annoying, and note that Google still performs better for shopping, local business, maps, images, and very recent news. A major flashpoint is Kagi’s use of Yandex as a data source and revenue-sharing with it, which some see as unacceptable given Yandex’s ties to the Russian state, leading several previously enthusiastic subscribers to cancel.

Search Quality and Overall Experience

  • Many long‑time users report significantly better results than Google, mainly due to fewer ads, less SEO spam, and higher density of useful links.
  • Others find Kagi “no worse” than Google, which is sufficient to justify paying for an ad‑free, user‑funded model.
  • Some users barely notice which engine they’re on, beyond lack of ads.
  • A few say Kagi’s results skew heavily to certain sites (e.g., Reddit) or feel limited, sometimes returning “no results” where Google returns noisy but broader coverage.

Customization and Features

  • Raise/Pin/Lower/Block domain controls are praised; one user found results improved after removing extensive filters.
  • There’s interest in stronger controls to downrank commercial/monetized sites and surface “non‑commercial passion projects.”
  • Universal Summarizer and result customization (favicons, site boosts) get positive mentions.

LLM Integration

  • Kagi offers an AI assistant and direct access to multiple “premium” LLMs (Claude, GPT‑4o, Gemini, Mistral, Llama).
  • Users can define custom “assistant flavors,” toggle web access, and apply search lenses.
  • Some see the LLM bundle alone as worth the subscription; others prefer cheaper pay‑per‑use APIs.

Pricing, Teams, and Adoption

  • Individual “Ultimate” vs “Team Ultimate” are effectively feature‑equivalent; differences center on billing (no annual discount on Teams, per‑active‑user billing, central management).
  • Teams can mix search‑only and LLM‑enabled seats.
  • Some argue $10–25/user/month is trivial if productivity improves; others note that enterprise procurement friction, not price, is the main barrier.

Comparisons to Other Tools

  • Google still wins on fresh news, local/business info, shopping, and Maps.
  • Users combine Kagi with Google via bang shortcuts when needed.
  • Alternatives mentioned: SearXNG, Brave Search, DuckDuckGo, Perplexity (more chatbot‑oriented), and self‑hosted solutions.

Privacy, Tracking, and Anonymity

  • Paid model and lack of ads are valued; some trust Kagi’s leadership with payment‑linked identities.
  • VPN use (e.g., Mullvad) can be blocked at registration/payment, which some accept as fraud‑prevention, others reject on anonymity grounds.

Yandex Integration Controversy

  • Discovery that Kagi pays Yandex (≈2% of subscription cost) for some search/image results sparked strong backlash.
  • Some canceled or won’t subscribe over funding a company now seen as closely tied to the Kremlin and Russian propaganda.
  • Others dismiss this as overblown or engage in “what about” arguments regarding Western companies; several emphasize that degrees of state control matter.