Alternatives to Google Site Search

Google plans to discontinue Site Search:

On April 1, 2017, Google will discontinue sales of the Google Site Search. All new purchases and renewals must take place before this date. Google Site Search will be completely shut down by April 1, 2018.

So what next,

No more Google site search. Only Google custom search, free version with ads and lot of restrictions such as no image search, no e-mail support etc. but one possible solution provided by some experts in Google Forums.

Try Google custom search with XML or JSON API:

I didn't tried this method. please comment it, if anyone tried and works.

Check the reply from Google about GSS using XML or JSON API:

If you have implemented GSS using XML or JSON API provided in GSS control panel->Business->XML & JSON page then note these features are specific to GSS only and not available in CSE. Once your GSS gets downgraded to free CSE these XML and JSON API implementation will stop working. However if you want to implement CSE using JSON API, you can consider taking the API key from developer console. By default this API key provides 100 queries per day for free and beyond that you need to enable separate billing on this API key to increase the daily limit. Additional requests cost $5 per 1000 queries, up to 10k queries per day.
Using this implementation you can see ads free search results.

You can read more about this API at https://developers.google.com/custom-search/json-api/v1/overview

You can read more about billing and payments at https://support.google.com/cloud#topic=3340599

Other Alternative Solutions:

1. Server side coding: We can have code on our server to do a simple search. It would not be as fast as Google but still serve the purpose for free.

2. Cloud based:

• Amazon CloudSearch - Amazon CloudSearch is a managed service in the AWS Cloud that makes it simple and cost-effective to set up, manage, and scale a search solution for your website or application. https://aws.amazon.com/cloudsearch/pricing/

• Azure - Make your apps, webpages, and other experiences smarter and more engaging with the Bing Search APIs. Harness the same knowledge used by hundreds of millions of people, as well as the industry’s technology leaders, today.  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/cognitive-services/search-api/

3. Others:

• Cludo - A standard internal search engine finds results if users know exactly what they are looking for. https://www.cludo.com/en/pricing/

• Swiftype - Create and manage a search experience tailored to your specific needs in no time, thanks to seamless indexing, best-in-class relevance and intuitive customization features. https://swiftype.com/pricing

• Algolia - Algolia's Search API makes it easy to deliver a great search experience in your apps & websites. Algolia Search provides hosted full-text, numerical, faceted and geolocalized search. https://www.algolia.com/pricing

• Funnelback - Search is an integral part of your website. For best results, prioritise your search strategy. https://www.funnelback.com/product/search

• searchIQ - Supercharge your website’s search functionality with searchIQ. With blazing speed get your users to what they are looking for faster than ever and get real–time analytics to help manage your content more effectively. https://searchiq.xyz/pricing.html

• SearchBlox - SearchBlox is an enterprise search, sentiment analysis and text analytics platform for websites, intranets, file folders, databases and social content. https://www.searchblox.com/pricing-2/