European alternatives to Yandex Search

Russia's most used search engine, now fully Russian-owned.

Yandex N.V. · Outside Europe

About Yandex Search

Company
Yandex N.V.
HQ
Russia
Zone
Outside Europe

Key concerns

Non-European ownershipSubject to Russian law
#1

MetaGer

97 · Certified European

Germany · Search engines

A privacy-focused metasearch engine run by the German non-profit association SUMA-EV. It blends results from multiple sources, hides your IP behind an anonymising proxy, and is open source. No profiling, no ad-tracking.

Freemium · from Free Free tier Open source 🇪🇺 EU
#2

Swisscows

93 · Certified European

Switzerland · Search engines

Swiss search engine founded in 2014 by Andreas Wiebe, hosted in a high-security data center in a former military bunker in the Swiss Alps. No IP logging, no tracking cookies, no user profiling. Family-friendly content filtering built in by default.

Free · from Free Free tier EFTA
#3

Qwant

93 · Certified European

France · Search engines

French privacy search engine founded in 2013. No user tracking, no data reselling. In 2024 partnered with Ecosia to build the European Search Perspective (EUSP), Europe's first independent search index. Acquired in 2023 by Octave Klaba, founder of OVHcloud.

Free · from Free Free tier 🇪🇺 EU
#4

Ecosia

86 · Strongly European

Germany · Search engines

Berlin-based search engine that donates 100% of profits to tree-planting and climate projects. Founded in 2009, certified B Corp, over 20 million monthly users. Search results powered by Bing but privacy-respecting with no personal data sold.

Free · from Free Free tier 🇪🇺 EU
#5

Mojeek

86 · Strongly European

United Kingdom · Search engines

A genuinely independent search engine from the UK that runs its own web crawler and index rather than reselling Google or Bing results. No tracking, no user profiling, and a no-tracking privacy policy since day one.

Free · from Free Free tier European
#6

Startpage

68 · Mostly European

Netherlands · Search engines

Dutch private search engine that delivers Google-quality results while stripping out the tracking, profiling, and targeted ads. Operated from the Netherlands under EU privacy law, with an Anonymous View proxy for private browsing.

Free · from Free Free tier 🇪🇺 EU
#7

Kagi Search

45 · Mixed Origins

United States · Search engines

Ad-free, privacy-first search engine. You pay a small fee, so they work for you, not advertisers.

Paid · from $5/mo

Looking for all European Search engines alternatives? Browse the full list →

Did you know? Several major Russian tech companies have been used as instruments of state policy. Operational independence from the Russian state cannot be assumed.

Why avoid Russia-owned services?

CLOUD Act

Allows US authorities to compel American companies to hand over data stored anywhere in the world.

FISA Section 702

Permits mass surveillance of non-US persons' data held by US tech providers, without a warrant.

GDPR vs US law

Transferring personal data to US companies may conflict with EU data protection rules under GDPR.

These concerns apply to all Russia tech companies — see our full analysis →