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%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- 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” - Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (February 2026)”
- Comment from 25 May 2026 in “Search engines alternatives now that Google isn't Google anymore”
- Comment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)”
- Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: What are you working on? (August 2026)”
- Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2026 – Show and tell”
- Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Uruky reached 300 monthly active accounts!”
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” - Comment from 18 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: How do you search the web programmatically these days?”
- Comment from 18 Oct 2026 in “DeepSeek search and fetch – $0.75 per 1000 successful requests”
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?” - Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites”
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.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kagi | 732 | 234 | 76% | 13 | 2 yrs106 owners | Approved |
| Google Search | 315 | 1,039 | 23% | 12 | 20 yrs25 owners | — |
| DuckDuckGo | 286 | 204 | 58% | 12 | 3.5 yrs47 owners | — |
| Hister | 81 | 9 | 90% | 9 | 2 mo17 owners | Approved |
| Uruky search engineThis page | 39 | 23 | 63% | 9 | 2 mo5 owners | — |
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”
“My wife and I wanted one, so we founded one and launched it earlier this year”
“the amount of settings and options available are a little overwhelming if I wanted to suggest it to non-technical users”
“it provides, to some people, certain guarantees (like GDPR)”
“Just ad-free private search that you can tweak to your liking.”
“biggest gap I experienced was lack of calculator and currency converter”
“private, paid, ad-free and personally customizable search engine”
“It's private, paid, ad-free and personally customizable search.”
“much more reliable than scraping DuckDuckGO and Brave, with the benefit of blocking common AI slop sites”
“They’re functionally unlimited on $5 but less developed feature wise”
“Faster, better quality (subjective) and much less tokens per search - 3.5k vs 23k”
“Commercial uruky is good. Basically Kagi except you can also run api calls over it”
“Uruky sounds like the google that we used to have: one that's just good because it returns relevant results”
“Uruky is for people who want ad-free, private, and personalized search, and no AI, while stimulating the European economy.”
“The EUSP index is surprisingly good, by the way. Bingish level from my experience...”
“Solid EU-first positioning — the "trust local infrastructure" angle is increasingly important here.”
“login gated with a paywall of 5 dollars, could not use the product”
“It lacks two things that are very useful : website blocking, and !hashbangs like DDG.”
“it sort of makes it resemble the paid text ads inserted into Google Search?”
“Now just add a freaking search button. That's literally your primary function”
“Their UX is really at most a proof of concept, not good enough for daily use.”
“This is a bug plus in my book, and it is, besides being Europe-based”
“With Uruky, these customers can now move on instead, and the lower price will serve as another reason.”
“Especially that I can also use it via API too and that expectations are limits are set out clearly”
“I like the account/payment system, where you top up a random account number for a period.”
“Uruky does exactly that (it has an API and any searches fund the search providers directly).”
“It adds a bit of friction for someone to have to make an account and pay just to test the product.”
“It's a cool search engine. I agreee that need improve in UI/UX.”
“It is by far the best third party search alternative in terms of how they approach privacy and transparency.”
“I think this is excellent so that Kagi can focus on making the best search engine”
“by using Uruky with them, you're supporting them financially, directly.”
“I really like the idea and that it's eu-made a love it.”
“there are also ad-free alternatives, where you're not the product”
“At Uruky we integrate with several independent search providers and indexes”
“an ad-free and privacy-focused search engine, that's focused on a simpler experience than Kagi”
“we allow you to query our service programmatically (€5 / month)”
“I love the idea! It's so good to see people advancing the european tech landscape.”
“Customers seem to really enjoy the simple UI (search can be used without JS)”
“given everyone seemed to be quite satisfied and there hadn't been requests for changes”
“privacy-focused and ad-free search with domain boosting/exclusion rules”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.