The best European alternatives to Google Search

Ecosia is a CO2-negative search engine based in Germany that empowers users to fight climate change simply by browsing the web. Founded in 2009, Ecosia uses the profit generated from search ads to partner with local organizations and plant trees in biodiversity hotspots around the world. Unlike traditional search engines that track user activity to sell data, Ecosia focuses on privacy. They do not sell your data to advertisers, they have no third-party trackers, and they anonymize all search queries within one week. Ecosia is also highly transparent, publishing monthly financial reports that show exactly how much revenue was made and how many trees were planted. Technically, Ecosia's search results are powered by a combination of their own algorithms and Microsoft Bing technology, ensuring high-quality results while maintaining European privacy standards.

Qwant is a privacy-first search engine designed and hosted in France. Launched in 2013, it was created with the philosophy that the web should be neutral and that users should not be tracked. Qwant guarantees that no search history is stored, no personal data is sold, and no tracking cookies are installed on your device. One of Qwant's key differentiators is its commitment to search neutrality. Unlike other engines that may tailor results based on your past behavior (creating a "filter bubble"), Qwant shows the same results to everyone for a given query. This ensures a diverse and unbiased view of the web. It also features "Qwant Junior," a secure search mode dedicated to children that filters out inappropriate content. As a European alternative, Qwant is strictly compliant with GDPR and hosts its servers within the European Union. While it historically relied on Bing for part of its index, Qwant is actively developing its own sovereign European indexing technology to ensure independence from US tech giants.