Mojeek
🇬🇧Mojeek
Replaces
free
European Search Engines Alternatives
Search engines from European companies, as alternatives to Google Search and Bing, from Mojeek and its own independent index to Qwant and Ecosia, which serve results from a European index they built together.
Quick answer: There are 10 European alternatives in Search Engines from 5 countries. 6 have a free plan.
10 European alternativesSee the shortlist
6 Free Options
5 Countries
Search Engines alternatives at a glance
| Product | Country | Pricing | Free plan | Open source | Self-host | Replaces |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mojeek | 🇬🇧United Kingdom | Free | No | Not verified | No | Google Search, Bing +1 |
| Qwant | 🇫🇷France | Free | Yes | No | No | Yahoo Search, Bing +1 |
| Ecosia | 🇩🇪Germany | Free | Yes | Not verified | No | Yahoo Search, Google Search +1 |
| Swisscows | 🇨🇭Switzerland | Freemium | Yes | No | No | Google Search, Yahoo Search +1 |
| MetaGer | 🇩🇪Germany | Freemium | No | Not verified | Not verified | Bing, Google Search +1 |
| Overit Estonia | 🇭🇺Hungary | Freemium | Yes | Not verified | Not verified | |
| Overit Denmark | 🇭🇺Hungary | Paid | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | |
| Overit Bosnia | 🇭🇺Hungary | Yes | Not verified | Not verified | ||
| Overit.sk | 🇭🇺Hungary | Yes | Not verified | Not verified | ||
| Overit Serbia | 🇭🇺Hungary | Paid | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified |
A dash means we have not verified that attribute. Details and sources are on each product page.
What actually separates these search engines
Whose index do the results come from?
A search engine either crawls the web itself or takes results from one that does, and that decides how different its answers can be. Mojeek runs its own crawler and says it indexes over nine billion pages. MetaGer is a metasearch engine: it combines the results of several other search engines. Swisscows credits its results to its own index and a cooperation with Brave. Qwant keeps its own index, and its privacy policy says Microsoft supplies results when Qwant does not have the answers itself. Ecosia's help centre says its results come from Microsoft Bing, Google or the joint European index, depending on your country, device and cookie settings.
Sources: Mojeek: about, MetaGer: about, Swisscows: FAQ, Qwant: privacy policy, Ecosia help: search result providers
What is the European index that Qwant and Ecosia share?
Qwant and Ecosia announced a joint venture, European Search Perspective (EUSP), in November 2024 to build a search index they both use. It started serving part of the results for users in France in August 2025, and on 30 July 2026 heise reported that an index for Germany had launched, with Ecosia raising its share of German results gradually. Ecosia's help page, updated on 12 August 2026, still lists the joint index as available only in France. On Ecosia you can open the menu next to a result to see which provider answered.
Sources: Qwant: Ecosia and Qwant join forces (November 2024), Ecosia: our European search index goes live (August 2025), heise: Ecosia and Qwant launch German web index (July 2026), Ecosia help: search result providers
Who owns them?
MetaGer is a project of SUMA-EV, a non-profit association in Hannover. Mojeek Limited is a company registered in England. Swisscows AG, based in Egnach in Switzerland, is a subsidiary of Hulbee AG. Qwant is based in Paris; in April 2023 OVHcloud's co-founders Octave and Miroslaw Klaba and the French Caisse des Dépôts announced Synfonium, a company set up to buy all of Qwant, 75% led by the Klabas and 25% held by the Caisse des Dépôts. Ecosia calls itself steward-owned and says the joint index company, unlike Ecosia, is structured to allow outside investment.
Sources: MetaGer: about, Mojeek: about, Swisscows: about, Shadow: introducing Synfonium (April 2023), Ecosia: our European search index goes live
What does searching without ads cost?
Swisscows says its free search carries ads delivered through its partner System1 and that this advertising is not data-secure, because certain usage data must be processed; searching without ads or data sharing needs its paid Swisscows Pro. MetaGer sells keys for ad-free search, starting at 500 tokens for 5 euros. Ecosia's ads come from the same partners as its results. Qwant's privacy policy lists Microsoft Advertising among the partners allowed to show you personalised ads, with your consent.
Sources: Swisscows: FAQ, MetaGer: terms, Ecosia help: search result providers, Qwant: privacy policy
Checked in September 2026 against the sources linked under each answer.
Notable
- Indexes over nine billion web pages
- Web Search API for embedded web search
- Site Search API for embedded site search
Pick Mojeek if you want a search engine that indexes over nine billion web pages.(our assessment)
Checked against Mojeek's about page.
Qwant
🇫🇷Qwant
✓Free plan
Replaces
free
Notable
- Built-in artificial intelligence gives short, precise answers to your everyday searches and questions
- The Summary feature gives a condensed summary of a web page in one click
- Browser extension to use Qwant as your default search engine
Pick Qwant if you want a separate search engine for children and educators.(our assessment)
Checked against Qwant's homepage and legal notice.
Ecosia
🇩🇪Ecosia
✓Free plan
Replaces
free
Notable
- Search results and related ads on Ecosia come from partners Microsoft Bing, Google and EUSP (European Search Perspective)
- Shows which search provider powered a specific search directly on the results page
- Lets users adjust their market (region) or, where available, their search provider preference in Ecosia Search Settings
Pick Ecosia if you want the results page to show which provider powered a specific search.(our assessment)
Checked against Ecosia's 579 search results providers page.
Swisscows
🇨🇭Swisscows AG
✓Free plan
Replaces
freemium
Notable
- Neither indexes nor displays pornographic and sexual content
- Search results are based, among other things, on its own index
- Index-based country search and semantic search
Where it falls short
Pick Swisscows if you want a search engine that neither indexes nor displays pornographic content.(our assessment)
Checked against Swisscows's homepage, privacy policy and legal notice.
MetaGer
🇩🇪metaGer
Replaces
freemium
MetaGer is a metasearch engine.
Notable
- Combines the results of multiple search engines
- Open any website in a private browser that runs on MetaGer's servers, not on your device
- Adds deep links, relevant news and videos into search results when helpful
Pricing: from 5 euros for 500 tokens (agb page)
Pick MetaGer if you want a search that combines the results of multiple search engines.(our assessment)
Checked against MetaGer's about page, homepage, agb page, legal notice and datenschutz page.
Looking for alternatives to a specific product?
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Which should you choose?
- Pick Ecosia if you want the results page to show which provider powered a specific search.
- Pick MetaGer if you want a search that combines the results of multiple search engines.
- Pick Mojeek if you want a search engine that indexes over nine billion web pages.
- Pick Qwant if you want a separate search engine for children and educators.
- Pick Swisscows if you want a search engine that neither indexes nor displays pornographic content.
Our assessment, based only on the checked statements above.
How we checked this
We checked 5 of the 10 alternatives on this page against each company's own website in September 2026. Every line in the grey panels comes from that company’s own site, and a second check tried to disprove it before we kept it. A dash in the table means we could not verify that detail. "Pick it if" lines are our own assessment, based only on those checked statements.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there free European search engines?
Yes. Overit Estonia, Overit Bosnia, Overit.sk, Swisscows, Ecosia and Qwant are free or have a free plan, according to the pricing each company publishes. Free plans usually carry limits; each product page links to the company's terms.