On a mildly tangential note, the way their marketing language describes their new plans leaves a poor impression with me, saying that I get something for free if I pay for it. Did you know? If you buy a Twix choclate for $2, the first bar is free.
You have to pick one. And you can’t really fault Kagi for providing the one when the other is already “adequately” covered by Google.
Maybe Kagi could offer a more privacy friendly "fill a wallet with crypto and we'll deduct a certain amount per search" option that doesnt require user billing data.
Im not a current user but would be more likely to test it if available.
Supposedly they are not doing it because of advantages of associating your payment method and searches.
Apparently I search around 1k times per month, which means the new Professional plan wouldn’t fit my needs.
I decided to cancel my subscription, Kagi didn’t provide that much benefit over Google to me. I just needed this last push! I do think it’s a good idea, we definitely need more competition in this market.
No ads, blazing fast, and the search results are more than adequate for me (I don't find myself ever reaching for Google as I did with DDG). I'm not too bothered where the results come from when those three things come together. It's just the premium search experience I want.
> all my searches are necessarily tied to a user id
I know that theoretically Kagi could sell me up a river at some point in the future. However, they have every incentive not to - they'll see a huge exodus of users if they ever do that - so the alignment of incentives feels right here.
For the moment I feel reasonably confident that my search preferences aren't being sold to the highest bidder (or every goddamn bidder). If that ever changes, I'll reconsider.
Overall I feel more comfortable paying for my search, and I want to support this business model.
> the metered usage feels far too much like an ancient cell phone plan
I'm going to wait and see how this works out for me. If I find I'm exceeding the $10/mo plan by a lot I'll also have to reconsider. But because I'm partly here to support the business model of paid search, I'm willing to give Kagi some leeway to find a sustainable setup.