Ecosia is a unique search engine that stands out for its commitment to environmental sustainability and reforestation efforts. With its headquarters in Berlin, Germany, Ecosia has become a popular choice for eco-conscious...
GOOD is a powerful search engine designed to provide an ethical and privacy-focused alternative to mainstream search services. By emphasizing user privacy and the importance of supporting positive social causes, GOOD aims...
MetaGer is a unique search engine that prioritizes user privacy and delivers decentralized search capabilities. Designed and developed in Germany, it offers an alternative to mainstream search engines while ensuring that users'...
Mojeek is a unique search engine based in Europe, designed to provide users with an independent and private web search experience. Unlike many popular search engines, Mojeek does not track or profile...
Qwant is a European search engine that prioritizes user privacy and data protection while delivering relevant and efficient search results. Established in 2013 and based in France, Qwant stands out by offering...
Seznam.cz is a Czech internet company based in Prague. Ivo Lukačovič founded it in 1996 as the first Czech web directory and remains its main shareholder. Besides its search engine it runs...
Startpage is a privacy-focused search engine that aims to provide users with a safe and secure way to browse the internet without being tracked or having their personal information sold to advertisers....
Swisscows is a privacy-focused search engine based in Switzerland, designed to provide users with secure and anonymous search experiences. With a strong commitment to user data protection, Swisscows ensures that no personal...
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Submit SuggestionThe best-known European alternatives to Google Search are Qwant (France), Ecosia (Germany), MetaGer (Germany), Swisscows (Switzerland), Startpage (Netherlands), GOOD (Germany) and Mojeek (United Kingdom). Only Mojeek runs a fully independent index of its own. The others either mix their own technology with results from Bing or Google, or are a privacy layer on top of a large engine. The table shows who does what, so that the choice depends on what matters most: independence, privacy, ad-free search or tree planting.
| Name | Country | Own index | Privacy (provider statements) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwant | France | Partly: own crawler plus third-party sources including Bing; a joint European index with Ecosia is being built | States that it does not retain search data |
| Ecosia | Germany | No: results from Bing, Google and, currently only in France, the joint European index | IP address anonymised after 7 days at most; search terms go to Bing or Google |
| MetaGer | Germany | No: metasearch that combines several large web indexes | No tracking, anonymising proxy, run by a non-profit association |
| Swisscows | Switzerland | Partly: own index plus a partnership with Bing, share not published | States that it stores no IP addresses |
| Startpage | Netherlands | No: shows Google results through a privacy layer | States that it does not log search queries; US investor System1 is a shareholder |
| GOOD | Germany | No: results from the index of Brave (USA) | No ads, no search history, paid subscription |
| Mojeek | United Kingdom | Yes: own crawler and index, more than 9 billion pages | No tracking according to the provider |
Running a web-scale index is expensive, which is why most alternatives are interfaces on top of Bing or Google. Qwant and Ecosia have founded the joint venture European Search Perspective in Paris to build a European index. According to Ecosia's help centre it is so far only available in France, while Bing and Google still deliver the results elsewhere. Qwant's legal notice says that part of its results come from third-party services such as Microsoft Bing. If independence from US providers is the main goal, Mojeek is the only listed engine that does not depend on a big index, with an index that is smaller than Google's.
Privacy and independence are two different questions. Startpage keeps Google's result quality but removes the tracking, and its investor System1 is American. Ecosia and Qwant are European companies, but their results still partly come from US services.
Google is more than search, and for most services there are European alternatives in the directory. Each link leads to a page with the full list of products.
Google is part of the US group Alphabet and therefore subject to US law, wherever its servers are. Many users also want less advertising-based profiling or a second source of search results. A change does not have to be total: using an alternative for search and keeping Maps or YouTube is a common first step. For the Microsoft side of the same question see European alternatives to Microsoft.
That depends on the goal. Mojeek has the most independent index, Startpage gives Google-like results with more privacy, and Qwant and Ecosia are the best-known European brands. None matches Google for every rare or local query.
Not yet at Google's scale. A joint European index by Qwant and Ecosia is under construction and live only partly in France. Mojeek from the UK runs its own index.
Not fully. Both use Bing for part of their results today, as their own statements show.
Startpage is a Dutch company. A US company, System1, invested in it in 2019, which is why the directory flags a non-European parent. Its results come from Google.