MevaSearch vs Uruky: two European paid search engines compared
MevaSearch and Uruky both ask for a small subscription instead of showing ads, and both keep their servers in the European Union. They take very different paths after that, one towards a minimal search engine with no AI at all, the other towards a rich search engine with AI from Anthropic.
Two European answers to ad funded search
Uruky describes itself as a European search engine that you pay for, so it does not need ads or your data to make money. It focuses on plain web and image search, with as little in the way as possible.
MevaSearch is a Polish search engine created by Igor Oprządek and the WebOrbiton team. It follows the same principle of no ads, no user profiles and no search history linked to your account, but adds AI features, specialist sources and many tools around the results.
Where the results come from
Uruky says it uses European search providers end to end, naming Marginalia, Mojeek, EUSP and Linkup among others. You can choose which providers are used for web and image search and in what order, which is a nice option for people who like to stay in control.
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.
It is fair to point out that Brave, the main source of MevaSearch results, is an American company. MevaSearch sends those queries from its own servers without your IP address or account details, but if you want every provider to be European, Uruky goes further here.
AI or no AI
This is the biggest difference between the two. Uruky deliberately has no generative AI or language model features, no assistants, no news and no summaries. If you simply want a list of links, that is exactly what you get.
At MevaSearch, AI is a core part of the service and runs on Claude by Anthropic. It 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 and accounts
Uruky keeps its servers, storage, payments and search providers in the European Union. Your account is a random number, so you do not even give an email address, and the service is also available as a Tor onion site.
MevaSearch keeps account data and service files on servers in the European Union, mainly in Lithuania, with backups in France. A MevaSearch account uses an email address, which makes things like password recovery, invoices and family profiles possible. Visit statistics are collected with our own tool, PriviMetrics, without tracking cookies, and MevaSearch is a Polish company operating under European data protection law.
Prices and limits
Uruky costs 5 euros a month for unlimited searches. Payments do not renew automatically, and there is a 14 day money back guarantee.
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, so the amount at checkout matches the price list.
To be honest, if you only need unlimited web search, Uruky is clearly cheaper. The higher MevaSearch price pays for the AI answers, the specialist sources, the profiles and everything else that Uruky intentionally leaves out.
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 Uruky is stronger
Uruky is cheaper for unlimited searching, needs no email address, uses only European providers and lets you decide which of them answer your query. It also promises paying customers a copy of its source code after 12 months, which is a rare kind of openness. If you want a calm, minimal search engine without AI, Uruky is a very good choice.
What makes MevaSearch stand out
MevaSearch is for people who want more than a list of links. 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, an app for Android, and an interface in 16 languages.
Which one should you choose
If you want the simplest and cheapest European search engine, without AI and without giving an email address, choose Uruky. If you want a European search engine with AI from Anthropic, specialist sources, family profiles and a plan for businesses, MevaSearch is the better fit.
Both show that search in Europe can work without ads and without tracking. Since both let you try them with little risk, the easiest way to decide is to use each one for a few days.