MevaSearch vs Yahoo: search engines compared
Yahoo is one of the oldest names on the internet: free, funded by ads, with results from Microsoft Bing and a new answer engine called Scout. MevaSearch is a Polish, subscription based search engine with no ads at all. Here is how they differ.
Who is behind Yahoo and MevaSearch
Yahoo was founded in 1994 in the United States and today belongs to the investment firm Apollo Global Management. Besides search, it runs Yahoo Mail as well as news, finance and sports sites, among others.
MevaSearch is a Polish search engine developed by WebOrbiton and created by its owner, Igor Oprządek. It focuses on one thing, search, and is funded only by subscriptions. There are no ads, we do not build user profiles and we do not keep a search history linked to your account.
Where the results come from
Yahoo’s search results come from Microsoft Bing. Yahoo adds its own elements on top, such as trending searches on the home page, a panel with information from Wikipedia and video carousels.
MevaSearch uses Brave. It combines results from the Brave Search API with its own Polish index WebAtlas and Wikipedia, and 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.
The same query in both search engines
For the query YouTube, Yahoo does well: youtube.com comes first with a large set of extra links, videos follow below, and a side panel shows the headquarters, founders and links to YouTube’s social profiles.
For the same query, MevaSearch shows youtube.com first, with a box for searching YouTube directly and extra links, followed by videos and other pages about YouTube. Every result also has a CloakView button that opens the page through MevaSearch, without a direct connection to the website.
Ads and privacy
Yahoo is free and funded by ads. As a large media company, it collects data about how you use its services and may use it, among other things, to tailor ads. You manage this in Yahoo’s privacy and cookie settings.
MevaSearch requires an account because it is a paid service, but it does not build a user profile, does not keep a search history linked to your account, shows no ads and does not work with ad networks. On top of that, NetKrypton warns you about scam websites, results are marked when a link is dead, and tracking parameters are removed from links.
AI
Yahoo is developing Scout, an AI answer engine launched in January 2026. Its main model is Claude by Anthropic, and Microsoft Bing is used to tie answers to sources. At launch, Scout was available as a beta in the United States, and Yahoo was testing ads in it.
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.
Prices
Yahoo search is free.
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.
Where Yahoo is stronger
Yahoo is free, needs no account, gives you Bing results with rich panels and extra links, and offers a whole set of services, from mail to news and finance. Scout, built on the same Claude model as MevaSearch’s AI, is an interesting answer engine for users in the United States.
What makes MevaSearch stand out
MevaSearch gives everyone search without ads from the first query. On top of that 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 19 languages.
Which one should you choose
If you want a free, familiar search engine and you do not mind ads or a large media company handling your data, Yahoo will do the job. If you would rather search without ads or ad networks, with AI by Anthropic in every plan, specialist sources and family profiles, MevaSearch will suit you better.
With the 3 day trial of MevaSearch Lite, you can compare both search engines side by side.
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