Good European browsers and search engines to reccomend? (Privacy-focused and open source ideal) (piefed.social)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by BoulderHole@piefed.social to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

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I currently use Firefox and DuckDuckGo, but I'm thinking about getting a new browser and search engine. Are there any good recommendations. Privacy-focused is non-negotiable, and i would like it to be open source.

I have heard of Ecosia. How exactly do they work? If they truly do help the environment, like they claim, I may look into that. Is there any evidence? Looking into their privacy policy, it doesn't seem too optimal.

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[-] jdr@lemmy.ml 31 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There are only really two and a half browsers; Firefox and Chrome/Safari. Firefox (engine: Gecko) is descended from Netscape (which was American) and Chrome (Blink, fork of WebKit) and Safari (WebKit, fork of KHTML) are descended from Konqueror (KHTML, German, abandoned). Everything else (almost) is a reskin of one of those.

There are two up-and-comers, Servo (cancelled Gecko replacement, now resurrected by Igalia in Spain) and Ladybird (Swedish). I'd love to use either, but they're not ready yet. These (and all the other little independent browsers that aren't just Chrome/Safari/Firefox with a new hat) are awesome, but will fail on the shitty "modern" websites you're inevitably forced to use.

(To some extent all of the above mentioned browsers are open-source and not really just developed in one country, but I'm simplifying for the sake of choosing whether they're European or not.)

[-] BoulderHole@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

Thanks for the info!

[-] FLP22012005@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

While the actual rendering engine is important, I don't think that is the component that collects and sells your data.

[-] jdr@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago

Fair point. I naively assumed that a) people turn this off in the settings, and b) the big browsers respect the settings. Trying to use a web browser without getting fucked over is exhausting. It's fine if you just want to scroll Lemmy, but once you need to book flights or log in to some bullshit from your school or work it's hard to use anything that isn't corporate-blessed.

[-] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 week ago

I use Ecosia, but Qwant is my backup if I see privacy becoming an issue.

[-] digital_digger@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

Adding to that, both are european but they use Microsoft Bing results. However they are cooperating to slowly build their own index and be 100% independent. I use Qwant and I am totally satisfied. The only european search engine that does not depend on big tech is Mojeek but I find their results sometimes disappointing.

[-] BoulderHole@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago

Thanks! I'll look into Qwant.

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago

Those are search engines, not browsers

[-] 0x0@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago

This is a comment.

[-] betanumerus@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago

Ecosia is both, and OP's question is for both. Please pardon my perfect answer.

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 week ago

Excuse me, I didn't realise OP was also asking for search engines. (Not sarcasm)

[-] computerdata@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

I'm using Vivaldi and Zen as browsers. Qwant as search engine. So far so good!

[-] BoulderHole@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

Thank you! Which do you prefer out of Vivaldi and Zen?

[-] dieTasse@feddit.org 7 points 1 week ago

Btw vivaldi is not fully open source

[-] BoulderHole@piefed.social 3 points 1 week ago

[-] computerdata@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

I switched from chrome to Vivaldi at first. Then I discovered Zen, which is probably still in beta although it works very well. I use one on my laptop and the other on my work pc. The most notable difference in day to day use is that Zen only shows tabs in a column on the left of the page. There's no option right now to show them horizontally as you would be used with any other browser.

All in all they both work well preferring to the other is gonna be pretty subjective. Just try them out ;-)

[-] thethirdobject@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Zen is an interpretation of Arch in Firefox, but it's become more than that. I really enjoy using it, both practically and aesthetically

[-] dieTasse@feddit.org 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I think browser do not have to be european as long as it is opensource, so Firefox, Librewolf, Brave, Mullvad (swedish) are all great options. As search ecosia worked well for me but I didn't find a way too see their random ads (to support them) with my protections, so I felt like I should not use them. Duck duck go works for me best, I made my piece with that.

[-] verified_human_user@infosec.exchange 6 points 1 week ago

@BoulderHole

https://www.degoogle-your-life.com/en/alternatives/browser-alternatives

https://www.degoogle-your-life.com/en/alternatives/google-search-alternatives

Two posts on my website that cover that - (though admittedly not exclusively EU-focused).

[-] huppakee@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Not sure you're aware but you failed to create a mention once @verified_human_user@infosec.exchange, and also failed to create a link twice (link to degoogle-your-life.com). No hard feelings though

[-] verified_human_user@infosec.exchange 1 points 1 week ago

@huppakee
Perhaps I'm missing something... The links and mention above seem to be working on my end - but no hard feelings taken regardless :D just mildly confused

[-] huppakee@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Strange, wouldn't have commented for the mention but Voyager on Android shows this as the first 'word':

degoogle-your-life.com/en/altedegoogle-your-life.com/en/alteTwo

[-] StrangeMed@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I’ve been using Ecosia for years and it’s only improved over time. Their commitment to environmental activities is sincere and you can check everything they do through their blog. I think using it is a no brainer.

[-] shoki@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

their commitment to env. activities is sincere

I somewhat had this opinion as well, but by jumping on the ai hype train they threw this commitment out of the window imo

Edit: sadly I don't have any real european alternatives (that aren't just using google or bing results) as the only other one that (partly) uses an eu-based web index is qwant, which is in no small part funded by Axel Springer and iirc a previous ceo went on to create a sourveillance company (which kinda seems fishy)

[-] BoulderHole@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Ohh, thank you for the info. Do you think it's still safe to use qwant, then?

[-] shoki@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

to be honest: i have no idea

it could be perfectly safe; it could be very unsafe

because of that i'm currently using startpage

kinda based in europe
iirc the company that owns it is american though
uses google's search results ._.
doesn't do any ai stuff iirc

while trying to minimize my web searches by

typing in domains instead of searching for them
using bookmarks
using firefox search shortcuts to use a websites built-in search
using offline stuff
- linux man pages
- python help()
- etc

[-] BoulderHole@piefed.social 1 points 1 week ago

Thank you!

[-] timestatic@feddit.org 3 points 1 week ago

I like Zen browser, it's a fork of Firefox. AFAIK its not based in any single jurisdiction. And as a search engine I like Qwant. They have a pretty minimalistic design, value my privacy and are building a European Search Index with Ecosia.

[-] BoulderHole@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

Thanks!

[-] 0x0@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

For search engines you can try a searx instance, which will use whichever backends you want.

this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2026

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