MevaSearch vs MetaGer: two ad-free European search engines compared
MetaGer has been around since 1996 and is run by a German non profit association, while MevaSearch is a young Polish search engine. Both are ad free and both are paid for by their users, but they charge in different ways and offer quite different things around the results.
A veteran and a newcomer
MetaGer started at the end of 1996 as a research project, with the University of Hannover among its early partners. Today it is run by SUMA-EV, a registered non profit association based in Hannover, Germany, which took over the project in 2012. Its source code has been published under the GNU AGPL licence since 2016.
MevaSearch is a Polish search engine created by Igor Oprządek and the WebOrbiton team. Like MetaGer, it has no ads, does not build user profiles and does not keep a search history linked to your account. The difference is that MevaSearch is a commercial service with monthly plans and puts a lot of work into the interface and AI features.
Where the results come from
MetaGer is a metasearch engine. According to its list of search engines, web results come from Mojeek, Brave Search and Serper, which uses the Google index. Images come from Brave, Pixabay and Serper, and news from Brave, Serper and TootNews, a service run by SUMA-EV itself. MetaGer also says it uses some small indexes of its own.
MevaSearch combines results from the Brave Search API, its own Polish index WebAtlas and Wikipedia. When you want to see more, it adds results from the independent Mojeek index. For technical, scientific or book related queries, specialist sources appear as well, including Stack Overflow, MDN, OpenAlex, Europe PMC, Zenodo, Open Library, Codeberg and the CIRCL vulnerability database for CVE numbers.
So both use Brave and Mojeek. The clear difference is Google: MetaGer includes results from the Google index through Serper, while MevaSearch uses neither the Google search API nor any Google AI.
Artificial intelligence
MetaGer does not present an AI chat or AI summaries on its home page. It focuses on search, anonymous browsing and tools such as maps.
At MevaSearch, every AI feature runs on Claude by Anthropic. That covers short summaries above the results, MevaSearch AI chat, which remembers the conversation and cites a source for each piece of information, related searches and photo search. Requests reach Anthropic from our servers without any account details, and under Anthropic’s commercial terms, data sent through its API is not used to train its models. AI answers are included in every plan, from 200 a month on Lite to 3,000 on Pro.
Privacy
MetaGer promises no tracking and no logging. According to its privacy policy, your IP address and user agent are not saved or shared during a web search, and the services run on hardware rented from Hetzner, a German hosting company. You do not need an account or an email address, only a key that holds your balance. MetaGer can also open websites for you through its anonymous browsing feature, and it is available as a Tor hidden service.
MevaSearch keeps account data and service files on servers in the European Union, mainly in Lithuania, with backups in France. Queries to external providers such as Brave or Mojeek are sent from our servers without your IP address or account details. A MevaSearch account uses an email address, which makes password recovery, invoices and family profiles possible. Visit statistics are collected with our own tool, PriviMetrics, without tracking cookies.
How you pay
MetaGer works with tokens instead of a subscription. One ad free web search with default settings costs one token, and tokens come in packages from 500 for 5 euros up to 6,000 for 60 euros. There is no standing order, you have 30 days to return unused credit, and you can even pay in cash if you want to stay anonymous.
MevaSearch Lite costs 4.99 dollars a month and includes 500 searches and 200 AI answers. Plus costs 14.99 dollars for 1,500 searches, 1,000 AI answers and two extra profiles. Pro costs 24.99 dollars and gives you unlimited searches, 3,000 AI answers and four profiles. The Lite plan comes with a free trial of 3 days, and MevaSearch prices include VAT.
For a light user the cost is similar, about 5 euros or dollars for 500 searches in both cases. If you search only now and then, MetaGer’s tokens can last longer because nothing renews. If you search a lot, MevaSearch Pro with unlimited searches will usually come out cheaper, and its plans also include AI answers.
Families and businesses
With MevaSearch Plus and Pro you can create extra profiles, each with its own login, so family members never need your password while sharing your plan. For younger users there is Kids Mode, which locks SafeSearch at the strictest level and blocks access to payment settings.
For businesses, MevaSearch offers a separate plan at 89.99 dollars a month. It includes a shared pool of 9,000 searches, 10,000 AI answers, 10 team profiles and VAT invoices issued by the payment provider.
Where MetaGer is stronger
MetaGer has almost 30 years of history, is run by a non profit association and publishes its full source code. You can use it without an email address, pay in cash and buy only as many searches as you need. Its anonymous browsing, maps and Tor service go beyond what most search engines offer. If openness and a non profit operator matter most to you, MetaGer is an excellent choice.
What makes MevaSearch stand out
MevaSearch is for people who want a modern search engine with more help around the results. You get AI answers with sources, specialist results for developers and researchers, NetKrypton warnings about scam websites, the option to pin or hide domains, !bang shortcuts, dead link markers and removal of tracking parameters from links. There are also separate tabs for images, videos, news, music and podcasts, family profiles, a plan for businesses and an interface in 16 languages.
Which one should you choose
If you want an open source search engine from a non profit, pay per search, no email and the option to pay in cash, choose MetaGer. If you want results without Google, AI from Anthropic, specialist sources, family profiles and unlimited searching on the Pro plan, MevaSearch is the better fit.
Both show that Europe has real alternatives to ad funded search. The best way to decide is to try each of them for a while and see which one fits the way you search.