Hacker ApprovedDepartments

Uruky search engine

Ranked 10 of 38 search engines by recommenders

Ad-free, privacy-focused paid search with a simple interface, a usable API and European ownership, which people say makes it a good Kagi alternative. Critics say the UX is rough and account signup is awkward.

Ad-free, privacy-focused paid search with a simple interface, a usable API and European ownership, which people say makes it a good Kagi alternative. Critics say the UX is rough and account signup is awkward.

62 people gave an opinion

recommend it
39
criticize it
23
approval share
63%
Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 9 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: not recommended
  2. December 2025: not recommended
  3. January 2026: not recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Owned for 2 months

Median of the 5 owners who said how long they have had it.

Each square is one year.

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 39 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 1.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.

The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works

What people say about it

The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.

Why people recommend it

Each mark is one comment

  • Ad-free and privacy-focused search

    “Uruky is for people who want ad-free, private, and personalized search, and no AI, while stimulating the European economy.”

    Comment from 6 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “It is by far the best third party search alternative in terms of how they approach privacy and transparency.”

    Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “an ad-free and privacy-focused search engine, that's focused on a simpler experience than Kagi”

    Comment from 19 May 2026 in “A new era for AI Search”
  • Simple, clean interface

    “an ad-free and privacy-focused search engine, that's focused on a simpler experience than Kagi”

    Comment from 19 May 2026 in “A new era for AI Search”

    “Customers seem to really enjoy the simple UI (search can be used without JS)”

    Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2026) (Non AI)”

    “Just ad-free private search that you can tweak to your liking.”

    Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell”
  • Usable API alongside searches

    “Especially that I can also use it via API too and that expectations are limits are set out clearly”

    Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “Uruky does exactly that (it has an API and any searches fund the search providers directly).”

    Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “Commercial uruky is good. Basically Kagi except you can also run api calls over it”

    Comment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development”
  • European-made and EU-first

    “Solid EU-first positioning — the "trust local infrastructure" angle is increasingly important here.”

    Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “I love the idea! It's so good to see people advancing the european tech landscape.”

    Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?”

    “My wife and I wanted one, so we founded one and launched it earlier this year”

    Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “When did Google get so weird?”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Paid signup adds friction to testing

    “It adds a bit of friction for someone to have to make an account and pay just to test the product.”

    Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “login gated with a paywall of 5 dollars, could not use the product”

    Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”
  • UX rough, needs improvement

    “It's a cool search engine. I agreee that need improve in UI/UX.”

    Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “Their UX is really at most a proof of concept, not good enough for daily use.”

    Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”
  • Missing features like calculator or blocking

    “It lacks two things that are very useful : website blocking, and !hashbangs like DDG.”

    Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

    “biggest gap I experienced was lack of calculator and currency converter”

    Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)”

Other search engines people recommend

The four most recommended other search engines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.

Uruky search engine compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Kagi73223476%132 yrs106 ownersApproved
Google Search3151,03923%1220 yrs25 owners—
DuckDuckGo28620458%123.5 yrs47 owners—
Hister81990%92 mo17 ownersApproved
Uruky search engineThis page392363%92 mo5 owners—
See all 38 search engines, ranked

What people said

40 of the 101 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“Competitor uruky is more relaxed about api and is cheaper”

RecommendsComment from 18 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests”

“My wife and I wanted one, so we founded one and launched it earlier this year”

RecommendsComment from 28 Sep 2026 in “When did Google get so weird?”

“the amount of settings and options available are a little overwhelming if I wanted to suggest it to non-technical users”

MixedComment from 15 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)”

“it provides, to some people, certain guarantees (like GDPR)”

RecommendsComment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Uruky reached 300 monthly active accounts!”

“Just ad-free private search that you can tweak to your liking.”

RecommendsComment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell”

“biggest gap I experienced was lack of calculator and currency converter”

CriticizesComment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)”

“private, paid, ad-free and personally customizable search engine”

RecommendsComment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)”

“It's private, paid, ad-free and personally customizable search.”

RecommendsComment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)”

“much more reliable than scraping DuckDuckGO and Brave, with the benefit of blocking common AI slop sites”

RecommendsComment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Back to Kagi”

“They’re functionally unlimited on $5 but less developed feature wise”

MixedComment from 23 Jul 2026 in “Back to Kagi”

“Faster, better quality (subjective) and much less tokens per search - 3.5k vs 23k”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jul 2026 in “SearXNG: A free internet metasearch engine”

“Commercial uruky is good. Basically Kagi except you can also run api calls over it”

MixedComment from 30 Jun 2026 in “Qwen 3.6 27B is the sweet spot for local development”

“Uruky sounds like the google that we used to have: one that's just good because it returns relevant results”

RecommendsComment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (June 2026)”

“Uruky is for people who want ad-free, private, and personalized search, and no AI, while stimulating the European economy.”

RecommendsComment from 6 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“The EUSP index is surprisingly good, by the way. Bingish level from my experience...”

RecommendsComment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“Solid EU-first positioning — the "trust local infrastructure" angle is increasingly important here.”

RecommendsComment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“login gated with a paywall of 5 dollars, could not use the product”

CriticizesComment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“It lacks two things that are very useful : website blocking, and !hashbangs like DDG.”

MixedComment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“it sort of makes it resemble the paid text ads inserted into Google Search?”

MixedComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“Now just add a freaking search button. That's literally your primary function”

MixedComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“Their UX is really at most a proof of concept, not good enough for daily use.”

CriticizesComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“This is a bug plus in my book, and it is, besides being Europe-based”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“With Uruky, these customers can now move on instead, and the lower price will serve as another reason.”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“Especially that I can also use it via API too and that expectations are limits are set out clearly”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“I like the account/payment system, where you top up a random account number for a period.”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“Uruky does exactly that (it has an API and any searches fund the search providers directly).”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“It adds a bit of friction for someone to have to make an account and pay just to test the product.”

CriticizesComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“It's a cool search engine. I agreee that need improve in UI/UX.”

MixedComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“It is by far the best third party search alternative in terms of how they approach privacy and transparency.”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“I think this is excellent so that Kagi can focus on making the best search engine”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“by using Uruky with them, you're supporting them financially, directly.”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“I really like the idea and that it's eu-made a love it.”

RecommendsComment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”

“there are also ad-free alternatives, where you're not the product”

RecommendsComment from 25 May 2026 in “Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore”

“At Uruky we integrate with several independent search providers and indexes”

RecommendsComment from 20 May 2026 in “Google Search as you know it is over”

“an ad-free and privacy-focused search engine, that's focused on a simpler experience than Kagi”

RecommendsComment from 19 May 2026 in “A new era for AI Search”

“we allow you to query our service programmatically (€5 / month)”

RecommendsComment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you search the web programmatically these days?”

“I love the idea! It's so good to see people advancing the european tech landscape.”

RecommendsComment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you building that's not AI related?”

“Customers seem to really enjoy the simple UI (search can be used without JS)”

RecommendsComment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (April 2026) (Non AI)”

“given everyone seemed to be quite satisfied and there hadn't been requests for changes”

RecommendsComment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)”

“privacy-focused and ad-free search with domain boosting/exclusion rules”

RecommendsComment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.