Search without Google
The default search box on every European browser sends 90% of queries to Google. The other 10% mostly goes to Microsoft Bing. Both companies are American, both train AI on what you search for, both decide what counts as "the web".
One thing worth knowing first: most European "alternatives" still use Bing's index under the hood. Qwant, Ecosia, and swisscows pay Microsoft for search results and add a privacy layer on top.
Mojeek and Seznam are the rare exceptions, both crawling their own index: Mojeek from the UK since 2004, Seznam from Czechia since 1996. Genuinely European-owned, though Seznam's index is built for the Czech and Slovak web rather than the world.
Qwant
Pricing: Free, ad-supported.
Known for: French privacy search engine that does not store or sell user data, EU-hosted on OVHcloud, with a separate kids-safe version. Draws on Bing's index alongside its own crawler.
Ecosia
Pricing: Free, ad-supported.
Known for: Berlin-based search engine that puts most of its profit into planting trees, over 200 million so far, and runs on renewable-powered servers. Results come from Bing or Google by preference.
Mojeek
Pricing: Free, ad-supported.
Known for: UK search engine running its own independent crawler and index since 2004, hosted entirely in UK data centres, rather than re-skinning Bing or Google.
GOOD
Pricing: €2 per month or €19 per year, ad-free and subscription-only.
Known for: Non-profit, B Corp-certified German search engine funded by subscriptions rather than ads, using Brave's independent index and renewable-powered hosting. Formerly Gexsi.
swisscows
Pricing: Free, ad-supported.
Known for: Swiss-hosted privacy search with a family-friendly filter that blocks explicit content by default. Combines Bing's index with its own.
metaGer
Pricing: Free with ads, or 500 ad-free searches for €5 using tokens.
Known for: German metasearch engine run by a non-profit association, combining results from multiple providers. Open source, with servers on green electricity.
Seznam
Pricing: Free, ad-supported.
Known for: Czech search engine running its own independent crawler and index (Seznam Fulltext) since the late 1990s, one of the few engines worldwide to hold significant home-market share against Google. Czech-language interface, also widely used across Slovakia.