Comparison

CustomSearch 2 vs BastionChat

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

CustomSearch 2

Take control of your web searches with a customizable engine selector. Choose from dozens of pre-built options or add your own, and use quick shortcuts to switch engines on the fly. Your privacy is protected as the extension only operates at the URL level.

Highlights
  • 29+ built-in search engines
  • Add custom search engines
  • Bang shortcuts for quick switching
  • Native iOS and iPadOS app
  • Privacy-focused operation
  • Safari toolbar integration
Features
Read full description

Custom Search Engine 2.1 has been rebuilt from the ground up with SwiftUI. Faster, cleaner, and now including a full native iOS app for iPhone and iPad that syncs with iCloud. Take back control of where Safari sends your searches. Choose from 33 built-in engines or add your own. Enable, disable, and switch engines in seconds from the Safari toolbar. 33 Built-in Search Engines Brave Search, Kagi, DuckDuckGo, Startpage, SearXNG, Perplexity, Google, Bing, and 21 more, all pre-configured and ready to use. No setup needed. Bang Shortcuts Override your default engine for any single query. Type k! for Kagi, d! for DuckDuckGo, pp! for Perplexity, y! for YouTube... no settings change required. Works at the start or end of any search. Add Your Own Engines Any search engine works. Enter a URL with %s as the query placeholder, assign a bang shortcut, and go. Your Privacy, Protected The extension operates at the URL level only. It never reads page content, never stores your queries, and never makes network requests. What you search is yours alone. How It Works 1. Enable the extension in Safari Settings → Extensions 2. Tap the toolbar icon to pick your default engine 3. Search as you always do, Safari redirects automatically Available for Mac (Safari App Extension) and iPhone & iPad (Safari Web Extension). Free, no account, no subscription, no ads, no tracking.

About

BastionChat

Features
Read full description

Private AI that runs entirely on your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Chat with your documents, get instant summaries and ask out loud, with no internet, no account and no data collected. ASK YOUR DOCUMENTS Import a contract, a manual, a report or a scanned PDF. Ask in your own words and get a clear answer, with the source one tap away, so you can check it instead of trusting it. Small documents are read in full; large libraries are searched. INSTANT SUMMARIES Turn a long file into the key points: parties, dates, amounts, conditions. JUST ASK OUT LOUD Voice mode with on-device speech recognition. Nothing is uploaded. UNDERSTANDS IMAGES Ask about photos and screenshots with vision models. WORKS OFFLINE On a plane, at sea, underground: the AI model lives on your device, so it keeps working. In airplane mode, web tools are simply not offered. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No tracking. Your documents and conversations never leave the device. Apple's privacy label: Data Not Collected. Lock the app with Face ID using iOS's built-in app protection. YOUR CHOICE OF MODEL A curated catalog of open models (Qwen, Gemma, Phi, LFM and more) sized for your device: fast ones on iPhone, larger ones on iPad and Mac. Or import any GGUF model from Hugging Face. FOR POWER USERS Adjustable thinking (Off, Short, Full), calculator, optional web search, MCP tools for agent workflows. ONE PURCHASE No subscription, no usage limits, Family Sharing. Download a model once, then everything runs locally. Requires iOS 18 or later. Larger models need more memory; the app recommends what fits your device.

Screenshots

CustomSearch 24 screens
BastionChat4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: CustomSearch 2 at every 6 weeks against BastionChat's every 4 months. CustomSearch 2 also leads on price ($1.99 vs $4.99). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

CustomSearch 2 costs $1.99 and BastionChat $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CustomSearch 2 ships an update every 6 weeks, BastionChat every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
CustomSearch 2 versus BastionChat: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCustomSearch 2BastionChat
Price$1.99 — better$4.99
Rating2.5 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.618.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB79 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMarco Cebrian MuinoFrederic Ayala Heinrich

In-app purchases

None

CustomSearch 2

No in-app purchases

None

BastionChat

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CustomSearch 2 free?
CustomSearch 2 costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is BastionChat free?
BastionChat costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do CustomSearch 2 or BastionChat have ads?
Neither CustomSearch 2 nor BastionChat shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CustomSearch 2 or BastionChat?
CustomSearch 2 ships an update every 6 weeks, and BastionChat every 4 months. Most recently, CustomSearch 2 was updated on October 25, 2026 and BastionChat on October 23, 2026.

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