Private search is no longer a niche. More and more people are tired of ads and profiling and are looking for an alternative they pay for with a subscription rather than with their data. One of the options in this group is Uruky, a small European search engine from Portugal. We decided to compare it with MevaSearch, which is us. We're trying to be fair: we'll show where we're alike, where we differ, and who each option suits best.
A shared idea: you pay, not advertisers
Both search engines rest on the same assumption. There are no ads, no tracking, and the service is funded by its users. Both are also European: MevaSearch is built in Poland, and Uruky is run by I'm Blue, Lda., a company incorporated in Portugal in 2018. This matters because both projects reject the "you are the product" model. The differences start with the question of what should be inside.
Philosophy: an ecosystem off eatures or minimalism
Uruky is clear about itself: it focuses on search personalization, not on AI and side products. It offers web and image search, and aims to keep the service simple, partly so it can store as little data as possible. The team also stresses that you can inspect the code and self-host it
MevaSearch goes in a slightly different direction. We want a search engine that is private, but also convenient and tailored to you. That's why, besides web results, you get Images, Video and News tabs, a home page with weather, exchange rates and headlines, and optional AI summaries that you can switch off with a single toggle.
This isn't a matter of better or worse. If you prefer a search engine that does one thing and doesn't expand, Uruky is a coherent choice. If you like having more tools at hand, we're closer to what you want.
Where the results come from
This is one of the most important questions for any private search engine.
MevaSearch combines its own independent index, WebAtlas, with results from Brave Search and Mojeek, so we don't depend on a single provider.
Uruky is a meta-search engine with many providers. In the settings you can set their order, and the list includes Mojeek, EUSP, Linkup, Marginalia, Mwmbl, PriEco and OURRS, among others. For images it uses Pixabay and Serper. There is also Site Search, aimed at the small, independent web.
So Uruky gives you more control over who answers your query. We rely on our own index and fewer partners, whose results we combine ourselves.
Personalization:two different approaches
Here the two engines really stand out, each in its own direction.
Uruky is a paradise for people who like to steer the results themselves:
- boosting and excluding domains and top-level domains (TLDs)
- bangs (custom ones, plus Kagi and DuckDuckGo lists) and Quickbangs,
- tags for searching within specific sites,
- up to 10 scopes, i.e. ready-made, pre-filtered searches,
- URL rewrites, e.g. replacing links with privacy-friendly frontends,
- removal of UTM parameters from links,
MevaSearch focuses on how the search engine looks and what extra information it shows next to results:
- two interface styles, custom accent, background and text colors, custom fonts and button styles,
- icon sets, logo icons, optional background grain and a decorative cursor,
- a theme Marketplace, a theme builder and custom CSS,
- Add-ons that label results: Big Tech Detector, AI Slop Detector, Paywall Warning, Tracking Warning, Ads and Cookies Warning, Domain Familiarity, Open Source Badge and Fact Checking,
- MevaSearch Orbit, which organizes results according to your rules,
- blocking chosen domains and subdomains, plus an optional proxy prefix.
In short: Uruky gives you more tools for shaping the list of results, while MevaSearch gives you more for shaping the look and context around them.
Security and privacy
Both services protect you from harmful sites, but in different ways.
MevaSearch runs NetKrypton, our own system that checks links as results load and warns you about phishing and dangerous websites. You can also hide flagged results completely. We offer SafeSearch levels and a Kids Mode, and family accounts let you create separate profiles with their own logins, with no email address required.
Uruky flags malicious domains using third-party public blocklists and openly says it doesn't verify them itself, so false positives can occur. Labeling of mass-produced AI content works the same way. Interesting touches are the incognito URL, which lets you search without logging in, and the account number that replaces an email address.
Payment model
MevaSearch is a subscription with search limits: Lite (from $4.99 a month, 500 searches), Plus (from $14.99, 1,500), Pro (from $34.99, 4,000) and Ultra (from $59.99, 8,000). Lite comes with a free 3-day trial. Payments are handled by Polar.sh, so we don’t process or store your card details ourselves.
Uruky uses account top-ups: you pay for a period of use, and when it runs out the account stops working until you top it up again. Each month costs €5, and you choose how many months to add (1, 3, 6 or 12). The time is added to your current expiration date, so topping up early doesn’t waste anything. Besides a regular payment, you can use a voucher, pay with cash, or buy a voucher with crypto through a third-party shop (ProxyStore). Uruky promises a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Languages and extra services
MevaSearch is available in 16 languages, including Polish, and offers a mobile app, an extension, maps and a status page. Uruky's interface comes in six languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish. It has no Polish interface.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Uruky if:
- you like bangs, tags and scopes and want precise control over results
- you value simplicity, no AI and the option to self-host
- you want to set the order of result providers yourself.
- you want a search for the small, independent web (Site Search) or an API.
Choose MevaSearch if:
- you want privacy together with convenience: weather, exchange rates, news, video and maps,
- you value our own WebAtlas index and built-in NetKrypton protection,
- you like customizing the look, installing themes and labeling results with add-ons,
- you need a family or team account and a full Polish version.
- you want fresh news from WebAtlas News.
Add-ons, news and extra services
If you want to go beyond a standard results page, MevaSearch Add-ons are worth a look. Besides the labels mentioned above, you can enable “Other search engines” (quick links to run the same query elsewhere) and “Ask MevaAI” (a button on each result that opens MevaSearch AI with a question about that page). All Add-on settings are stored only on your device.
MevaSearch also offers WebAtlas News, our own news index with access to the latest headlines, which Uruky doesn’t have.
To be fair, Uruky has something we don’t: Uruky Site Search, a private search for the small and indie web. It costs €30 for 6 months and includes 10,000 searches and 300 indexed pages, with an API, a no-code results page, full white-label customization and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Summary
Uruky and MevaSearch answer the same question: how to search the web without being the product. One does it through minimalism and tools for filtering results, the other through its own index, scam protection and rich personalization. Uruky also offers Site Search for the small, independent web, while MevaSearch adds WebAtlas News and a wider set of Add-ons that label results. The best approach is to try both. You can test MevaSearch free for 3 days.
This comparison is based on publicly available information about both services as of October 2026. Features and prices may change, so check each service's website before deciding.
