This paper presents a new metaphor-free metaheuristic search called the swarm bipolar algorithm (SBA). SBA is developed mainly based on the non-free-lunch (NFL) doctrine, which mentions the non-existence of any general optimizer appropriate to answer all varieties of problems. The construction of SBA is based on splitting the swarm into two equal-sized swarms to diversify the searching process while performing intensification within the subswarms. There are two types of finest swarm members: the finest swarm member for the whole swarm and the finest swarm member in every sub-swarm. There are four directed searches performed in every iteration: (1) search toward the finest swarm member, (2) search toward the finest sub-swarm member, (3) search toward the middle between two finest sub-swarm members, and (4) search relative to the randomly picked swarm member from another sub-swarm. The performance of SBA is assessed through two assessments with a set of 23 functions representing the optimization problem. In the benchmark assessment, SBA is contended with five metaheuristics: northern goshawk optimization (NGO), language education optimization (LEO), coati optimization algorithm (COA), fully informed search algorithm (FISA), and total interaction algorithm (TIA). The result presents the superiority of SBA among its contenders by being better than NGO, LEO, COA, FISA, and TIA in 21,16,16,21,and 18 functions. The single search assessment is performed to evaluate each strategy involved in SBA. The result shows that the search toward the middle between the two finest sub-swarm members is the best among the four searches in SBA.