Yeah, ultimately this is what turned me off. Used the beta and loved it for as long as it lasted. When it ended it was hard to migrate elsewhere but I couldn't convince myself it was a good idea to continue investing in a service that was entirely at the mercy of its direct competitors and shows no signs its working to reduce that risk and cost.

Unless they mitigate those risks they will only exist for as long as google or bing wants them to. The only ways they survive are: - Mitigating those risks and costs (e.g., building/using own index, well designed caching could help) - Staying small enough in terms of searches and users to be under the radar for Google and Microsoft - Pray for the mercy of two of the most ruthlessly anticompetitive companies in existence (laughable) - Convincing Google or Microsoft that they are worthwhile to acquire (but this kills the service for me anyways)

Price hiking +150% for the stated reason that my direct competitor increased my costs certainly shows the pressure is on and working as intended. On the off chance that kagi devs or management reads this, PLEASE find a way to isolate yourself from being totally reliant on google,bing,etc. Unless you are going for an acquisition exit from Google or Microsoft, it will kill your company eventually.