Scaleway TEM — Sovereign EU transactional email, GDPR-compliant, hosted in France

In a digital world dominated by giants such as Mailgun, SendGrid or Amazon SES, all headquartered in the USA, the need for European-based transactional email services that respect GDPR and guarantee data sovereignty is rising fast. One of the strongest alternatives in Europe is Scaleway TEM, a solution built in France, hosted entirely within the European Union, and designed to meet the privacy expectations of companies everywhere, but especially in the EU.

What is Scaleway TEM?

Scaleway TEM (Transactional Email) is a cloud-hosted service for sending automated emails triggered by user actions—password resets, order confirmations, notifications, alerts, and similar. It offers both API and SMTP relay options, together with a dashboard for analytics, reputation monitoring, domain-based email authentication tools, and webhooks for tracking events.

Hosted in the EU, privacy & GDPR

• EU data residency: All infrastructure is located in Scaleway’s European cloud, primarily in France. Your emails and related data stay within the EU unless you explicitly choose otherwise.
• GDPR compliance: Scaleway TEM exceeds basic compliance—privacy by design, careful data processing, support for data subject rights (access, deletion, rectification), transparency in what personal data is processed.
• Anti-spam / transactional email only: The policy strictly prohibits marketing or unsolicited bulk email. TEM is for emails that users expect as a result of interactions.

Sustainability and green credentials

Although the “renewable energy” field was initially null, Scaleway does indeed use 100 % renewable energy (mostly hydropower) to power its data centers since 2017. It’s serious about energy efficiency: new data centers receive a target PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) below 1.15 older ones are also being improved. Water usage effectiveness (WUE) is aggressively optimized for example PAR-DC3 and PAR-DC4 show very low figures.

Features at a glance

Plans & pricing

Scaleway TEM offers two main plans:

1. Essential – ideal for small teams or startups. Includes up to 5 sending domains, 300 free emails per month. After that, pricing is €0.25 per additional 1,000 emails. Features include 1 webhook per domain, reports, alerts and automatic blocklisting.
2. Scale – for larger organizations with high volume needs. Cost is €80/month includes 100,000 emails, unlimited domains, unlimited webhooks, managed dedicated IP, 99.9 % SLA, reports/alerts, plus both automatic and manual blocklist management. Additional email beyond base is €0.20 per 1,000.

Free plan

Yes. The Essential plan offers a free-tier component (300 emails/month), making Scaleway TEM suitable for low-volume or experimental use.

How it compares to US-based providers

• Data privacy & jurisdiction: US providers like SendGrid (Twilio), Amazon SES or Mailgun typically store data in US or mixed jurisdictions. EU customers must rely on mechanisms like Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC), Privacy Shield equivalents, or third-party agreements to ensure GDPR compliance. Scaleway avoids such complexity by keeping data in the EU.
• Regulatory exposure: US laws such as the CLOUD Act may allow US access to data held by US companies—even if data is stored abroad. This concern is alleviated for EU providers like Scaleway.
• Pricing transparency: Scaleway is upfront about costs, and includes a free-tier. Often US services have tiers and add-ons, but sometimes obscure over-age charges, or encryption/transfers outside EU, etc. Scaleway clearly defines pricing per extra emails.
• Sovereignty & reputational trust: For sectors like healthcare, finance, government, or any business operating under strict EU rules, keeping servers, data, and privacy policies fully in Europe builds more trust and reduces legal risk.

Use cases & who should choose Scaleway TEM

• Startups & small SaaS who send transactional emails and want zero-cost or low-cost beginnings, but need room to grow. 🟢 Essential plan is perfect until volume picks up.
• Enterprises or large platforms needing a reliable, scalable service with dedicated IPs, higher SLAs, reputation tracking, advanced analytics—Scale plan fits them.
• Businesses under strict regulation—finance, healthcare, legal—that must ensure data never leaves EU soil. Scaleway TEM gives peace of mind.
• Organizations focused on ESG, sustainability, and wanting their vendor to match green commitments. Scaleway publishes environmental metrics, uses renewable energy, avoids waste.

Limitations & considerations

No system is perfect. A few things to bear in mind:

• Scaleway TEM is transactional email only. Sending marketing or promotional email is against policy. If you need newsletter-type email, you’ll need a different provider.
• Open source? No. TEM is a proprietary service. You must accept using their API and tools rather than deploying your own open-source server.
• If you scale very large beyond 100,000 emails/month and need multiple dedicated IPs, deliverability optimizations, international presence, you should compare cost vs US options—but always factor in privacy, legal risk.

Verdict

Scaleway TEM is a strong, GDPR-first, European alternative to US giants like SendGrid or Amazon SES. For organizations aiming to send transactional emails without compromising on data control, privacy, and compliance — this is one of the best options. With a generous free component, clear pricing, renewable energy commitments, and full EU hosting, it combines practicality with responsibility. If you only need transactional email, and especially if you prioritize European jurisdiction, this is clearly a top choice.

Official page: Scaleway Transactional Email (TEM)

Lilo — A French, GD-PR-compliant, privacy-respecting search engine hosted in the EU that offers a free plan and supports environmental and social projects.

Lilo is a search engine based in France that positions itself as a European alternative to big-tech US search players such as Google or Microsoft Bing. It offers users a way to search the web, while protecting privacy, complying with the GDPR, and using revenues from advertising to support environmental and social causes. Below is a detailed look at how Lilo works, how it compares to US-based giants on issues like privacy and data protection, and what users can expect.

What is Lilo?

Lilo (official website: lilo.org) is a French search engine founded in 2015. It is headquartered in Paris, operates as a “metasearch” engine, meaning it retrieves results by leveraging other search indexes—primarily Bing and formerly Yahoo and Google—and more recently integrating support for a European index jointly developed by Qwant and Ecosia.

Its model is “solidary”: every time a user searches, they accumulate virtual “drops of water” which can be allocated to projects of the user’s choice. Lilo donates around 50% of its advertising revenue to social or environmental organizations. Over its lifetime it has raised several million euros for such causes.

Core Features & Service Details

• Privacy and data protection: Lilo states that it respects user privacy, adheres to GDPR rules, and does not sell personal data. Users may disable optional tracking.
• Hosted in the EU: The infrastructure is located in Europe (France), ensuring legal jurisdiction under EU law and thus GDPR enforcement.
• Free to use: There’s no cost for basic usage. You don’t need to subscribe to a paid plan to use Lilo’s services.
• Plans & Pricing: There is no paid tier documented for core search-usage. The business model is supported by advertising, part of whose proceeds go to causes.
• Renewable energy / environmental performance: One source notes that Lilo uses electricity produced in France, making its operations around 96% decarbonised, and that it is among “eco-friendly search engines.” However, there is no clearly public, official disclosure confirming full use of renewable energy in all operations this appears approximate based on the country’s energy mix.
• Open source: Lilo is not open source. It does not publish its search engine’s code or index infrastructure publicly in an open source repository.

GDPR Compliance and Privacy Compared to Major US Companies

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a strong European law that imposes strict rules on how user data is collected, processed, stored, and shared. It gives users rights such as access to data, deletion (“right to be forgotten”), restriction of processing, and portability. Big US tech services (like Google Search, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo, etc.) must comply when providing services in Europe—but in practice many criticise them for practices like profiling, behavioural advertising, data sharing across services, and storing user data long term.

Lilo distinguishes itself by adhering from the ground up to GDPR standards. For example:

• It claims not to sell user personal data and gives users control over tracking, with optional features that can be disabled.
• Because hosting and data processing are inside the European Union, users benefit from the legal protections of GDPR and EU-jurisdiction oversight. This contrasts with many US-services, whose data processing may fall under US laws or cloud jurisdictions beyond the EU, or whose terms are governed by contracts in US jurisdiction. For those companies, even when GDPR applies, enforcement and transparency often lag according to critics.
• Big US services like Google and Microsoft have introduced or claimed GDPR compliance, but their practices often include collecting large amounts of personal data, profiling users for ad targeting, and storing user logs for long periods. Lilo’s model is simpler and more privacy-forward: fewer trackers, minimal data retention, no profiling.

Comparing with Google and Microsoft

Limitations & Trade-offs

No service is perfect. Here are some trade-offs when using Lilo:

1. Because it is a metasearch engine using results from other providers, result diversity and freshness can lag behind major search engines that maintain very large independent indexes. Users may find niche or new content less well represented.
2. The environmental claims, while positive, are partially based on France’s energy mix and not necessarily direct operation on renewable-only infrastructure. Full transparency is limited.
3. Performance or advanced features (such as AI summaries, integrated maps, or rich multimedia) may be less developed compared to Google, which has massive R&D budgets. Users expecting those may find Lilo gaps. Although Lilo is improving, its priorities are different.
4. Not open source, so internal algorithms, ranking biases, or data-handling details are not publicly audit-able. For comparison, some smaller search projects (e.g. Qwant, which itself is not fully open source for some components) or open-source search engines still offer more transparency.

Why Use Lilo?

Here are reasons someone might prefer Lilo over Google, Microsoft, or similar US-based services:

• Privacy priority: Minimal tracking, GDPR compliance, hosting in France/EU.
• Ethical impact: Your searches contribute to funding social, environmental projects of your choice.
• Independence: Lilo is part of the growing European movement seeking digital sovereignty—reduced dependency on big US tech. The integration with a European search index (through Qwant/Ecosia cooperation) is a step in that direction.
• Free service: No subscription fees basic search is free for users.

Conclusion

Lilo is a strong contender among European alternatives to US search engines in terms of privacy, GDPR compliance, and ethical impact. While it does not yet compete with Google or Microsoft in all features or scale, it offers a compelling tradeoff: a search experience that protects user data, supports important causes, and operates under EU laws.

For those concerned about data privacy, ad profiling, and wanting their online activity to contribute to something socially or environmentally meaningful, Lilo offers one of the better choices. If your priorities are state-of-the-art AI features, expansive multimedia search, or global scale, you might still occasionally rely on Google or Microsoft—but using Lilo as your primary search tool is a way to help reshape the digital ecosystem in a safer, more responsible direction.

Startpage: European search engine headquartered in the Netherlands, offering strong privacy and GDPR-compliant search services.

Overview

Startpage is a privacy-driven search engine based in the Netherlands, designed to protect users from the data collection practices that are common among large US-based tech companies like Google and Microsoft. It does not operate as an open-source platform, but privacy is central to its entire design. The service is free to use, includes a “free plan” by default, and is hosted within the European Union (EU), making GDPR compliance a key distinguishing factor.

GDPR & Privacy Commitments

Startpage fully complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), due to its incorporation and operations in the Netherlands. The GDPR is often considered one of the most stringent data protection laws globally—requiring firms to respect user rights over personal data, enforce data minimization and ensure users can request deletion, correction, and access to data. Startpage’s privacy policy states that it does not log IP addresses (except in cases of abuse detection), does not store search queries, and does not place tracking or identifying cookies on users devices.

The company also supports the “right to be forgotten” as interpreted by the European Court of Justice: users in the EU can request removal of search results that include their name if those results are irrelevant, outdated, excessive, or damaging to privacy.

How Startpage Operates

• Privacy Infrastructure: All searches pass through Startpage servers located in locked premises within the EU. Identifying metadata, especially IP addresses, is stripped out before queries are passed to search providers. This ensures that even the provider delivering search results (e.g. Google) does not see any personal user data.
• Anonymous View: After you search, you can click on a feature called “Anonymous View,” which allows you to visit results through a proxy. This keeps your identity, like IP address or browser fingerprint, hidden from the destination website.
• No profiles, no logs: Startpage does not profile users, store histories, or track behavior across websites. The only cookie used is a non-identifying “preferences” cookie, which expires after 90 days of inactivity.

Free Plan & Pricing

Startpage offers its core search engine features and the Anonymous View proxy tool completely free. The basic, privacy-first functionality—without search history or data profiling—is available without any cost.

There are no premium or subscription plans for different tiers—everything is free. Revenue is generated through ads that are clearly labelled, and which are based only on the search term used, not on user profiles, past searches, or tracking cookies.

Hosted in the EU & Renewable Energy

Startpage is headquartered in the Netherlands and uses servers in Europe. That means its operations fall under EU jurisdiction, including the GDPR and Dutch privacy laws. Hosting in the EU ensures privacy protections under EU law apply directly.

Regarding renewable energy, we found null (no confirmed evidence) that Startpage specifically uses renewable energy or runs on 100% renewable power. There are no published reports or claims as of the latest information that indicate a renewable energy sourcing certification or similar program for Startpage.

Comparison with Big Tech Companies from the USA

Google & Microsoft Search Engines

Google’s search engine logs search history, keeps data tied to user accounts, and uses browsing behavior to build detailed user profiles. Microsoft’s Bing similarly uses trackers and profiling. Both companies are based in the USA and subject to national laws and requests for user data beyond user consent, including demands from law enforcement. In many cases, data is stored long term and shared between services (like Google across Gmail, Maps, etc.).

Privacy Protections & Jurisdiction

Because Startpage operates under EU law and in the Netherlands, its legal obligations are much more restrictive: user data may only be requested via appropriate EU legal processes, and privacy-impacting legislation like Patriot Act (USA) has no direct jurisdiction over its servers located in the EU. This jurisdictional boundary provides stronger protections against involuntary data sharing or surveillance that is more common under U.S. laws.

Data Minimization vs Data Collection

Startpage adheres to the principle of data minimization—only collecting what is strictly necessary, and even that is usually anonymized or stripped. US-based tech giants often collect a much broader set of user data, sometimes claiming legal necessity, sometimes under terms of service agreements. This results in extensive profiling, behavioral targeting, and data retention that raise privacy concerns under European standards.

Strengths, Limitations, and What It Means for You

• Strengths:
  • Strong privacy protections under GDPR.
  • No user profiling, no search history kept.
  • Free service with clear advertising policy.
  • Control over server region, enhancing privacy (EU-based servers).
• Limitations:
  • Because Startpage builds upon Google’s search infrastructure, any changes Google makes to algorithms or indexing affect Startpage similarly.
  • Features like Anonymous View proxy may sometimes be slower or less seamless compared to direct browsing.
  • No clarity or evidence about renewable energy use—if environmentally sustainable infrastructure is important to you.

Verdict

For anyone wanting a search engine that respects privacy, complies with Europes toughest data protection law (GDPR), and avoids the pervasive tracking and profiling found in many U.S.-based tech products, Startpage offers one of the strongest alternatives. It delivers high-quality results—leveraging Google’s search backend—while removing most ways your personal data can be logged or exposed. The service is free, and its legal and operational structure provides meaningful protection against many of the practices big tech companies engage in. If your priority is to search without leaving a trail, Startpage is among the best.

Official website: https://www.startpage.com/

metaGer – a German-GDPR compliant metasearch engine offering a privacy-first alternative to large U.S. companies like Google or Microsoft’s Bing.

What is metaGer?

metaGer is a metasearch engine and search tool based in Germany (Al Alemania), operated by SuMa e.V., a nonprofit association committed to free access to knowledge. It is hosted within the European Union on servers located in Germany via Hetzner, and is run using renewable energy. metaGer is fully open source, offers privacy protection, and adheres strictly to GDPR and European privacy regulations. Its official website is metager.org.

Key Features

• Metasearch capability: metaGer queries many other search engines (e.g. Bing, Brave Search, Mojeek) plus its own small-scale web crawlers. Results are filtered, merged, and sorted to deliver a unified response.
• Privacy-first approach: IP addresses are not stored searches can be conducted anonymously. An anonymising proxy is used when viewing search results, and there is a Tor hidden service for greater anonymity.
• Open source: Source code is freely available since August 2016. Transparency is central to its operation.
• Environmental awareness: All services (servers, operations) run on 100 % renewable energy.

GDPR Compliance & Jurisdiction

Being based in Germany, metaGer is subject to strong European Union data protection laws, including the GDPR. Its servers are located exclusively in Germany, ensuring that data stored and processed comes under German and EU jurisdiction—not under U.S. laws like the Patriot Act. This contrasts with U.S.-based search providers like Google (Alphabet Inc.) and Microsoft, both of whom operate large-scale infrastructure subject to U.S. law.

Free Plan, Paid Services, and Pricing

Historically, metaGer offered a free search service supported by donations and membership fees. As of September 10, 2024, however, the free tier for standard anonymous, ad-free search was discontinued due to termination of its agreement with Yahoo (supplier of certain search results) . Now metaGer requires users to have a “key” and charges in “tokens” per ad-free web search under default settings. Token packs are available for example, 500 tokens cost €5, 1000 tokens cost €10, etc.

How metaGer Compares to Big U.S. Search Companies

Big U.S. companies such as Google Search and Microsoft Bing collect large quantities of personal data, build individual user profiles, personalize search experiences, and generally operate under U.S. jurisdiction—and often pre-EU GDPR compliance. metaGer rejects personalized results and tracking, emphasizing that it does not store IP addresses, build user profiles, or share data with third parties. Its infrastructure is located in Germany. These differences make metaGer a strong European alternative for privacy-conscious users.

Strengths and Limitations

• Strengths: GDPR compliance, privacy, open-source, no central user profiling, renewable energy, hosted in EU jurisdiction, transparent operations.
• Limitations: after the contract loss, pure free ad-free search requires purchase of tokens. Some search results still derive from external sources (Bing, Yahoo, etc.), which have their own limitations or biases. Search result quality may vary versus the top U.S. engines.

Use Cases

1. Users who value privacy above personalization and do not want their search data harvested or stored.
2. People concerned about U.S. law implications—for example, users who prefer their data to remain under German/EU law.
3. Individuals wanting open-source tools and transparency in how search algorithms and proxies work.
4. Those willing to pay small token-based fees in exchange for ad-free, anonymous search experience.

Conclusion

metaGer offers a compelling European alternative to U.S.-based search giants by providing a privacy-focused, GDPR-compliant, open-source, and environmentally aware search service. While it no longer provides a completely free ad-free standard search tier, its token-based model keeps costs minimal and its values intact. For users prioritizing data protection, transparency, and jurisdictional control, metaGer is among the strongest and most principled choices in the search and metasearch category.

Swisscows – Switzerland’s private search engine committed to GDPR-aligned privacy. Official site: swisscows.com

Introduction: Swisscows in the Privacy Landscape

Swisscows is a European search engine alternative based in Switzerland that markets itself as a private, family-friendly option for users tired of data collection by big tech companies such as Google and Microsoft. Unlike many US-based giants, Swisscows claims that it neither tracks nor stores personal user data, adheres to stringent data protection standards, and operates from its own infrastructure in the Swiss Alps. Launched in 2014, the service aims to provide smart internet search without surrendering privacy or user autonomy.

How Swisscows Works: Hosting, Indexing & Content Filtering

Swisscows uses its own underground data centers located under the Swiss Alps, geographically outside both the European Union and the United States. This gives it greater independence from foreign jurisdictions and potential surveillance demands.

The infrastructure is built to high standards: the datacenter holds a TIER IV certification, supporting availability of 99.998 %, is designed for resistance to civil and military threats, and uses multiple redundancies in power supply and physical access. Solar photovoltaic installations generate around 230,000 kWh annually for its operations.

Swisscows’ search results depend largely on semantic recognition technology, along with its own index, particularly for German-language content. It also draws on some partnerships (for example, with Brave) to enhance its results. Unlike many engines that personalize results, Swisscows avoids tracking, user profiling, or storing IP addresses or browser fingerprints.

The service deliberately filters violent, pornographic, or explicit content by default, making Swisscows a popular choice for family-safe, educational, or institutional use.

Privacy & GDPR Compliance

Swisscows claims compliance with data protection rules, including principles consistent with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), though it is subject to Swiss law rather than EU law. Nonetheless, Swiss data protection laws are known to be strict and protective of users’ privacy.

Its privacy policy states that neither IP addresses, browser details, search histories, nor personal data are stored or analyzed. Minimal anonymous data may be collected in some cases, but nothing that can identify individuals. Thus systems like user profiles, behavioral tracking, or targeted advertising are not part of the core free offering.

Free vs Paid: Plans & Features

Swisscows offers a free plan that is fully functioning for most users. The search engine includes advertising in the free tier, and the revenue model depends on sponsored entries and ads via partners. For users who want maximum privacy, it offers a “Pro” version that delivers searches without ads, storage, or shared data.

Category & Open-Source Status

In the broad classification of internet tools and services, Swisscows falls into the search engine category. It is not open source—its software and indexing algorithms are proprietary.

How Swisscows Compares: Alternatives & Big Tech Companies

• Google (USA): Googles search engine tracks user behavior, profiles users for ads, relies heavily on personalized data, stores IP addresses and search histories, and is subject to US data laws Swisscows avoids all these practices.
• Bing / Microsoft (USA): Similar to Google, Microsoft builds advertising profiles and retains user data for personalization. Some Swisscows search results are supplemented by Bing and Brave, but Swisscows itself does not reintroduce the tracking that characterizes Microsofts standard offerings.
• DuckDuckGo (USA): Also focused on privacy, DuckDuckGo does not track user searches or store personal profiles, similar in intent to Swisscows. Key differences include Swisscows’ stricter infrastructure control in Switzerland and its family-friendly filtering by default, while DuckDuckGo is based in the US and subject to different legal and regulatory pressures.

Strengths and Limitations

1. Strengths:
   • Strong privacy stance with minimal or no retention of user data.
   • Secure infrastructure under strict Swiss law, outside EU & US jurisdictions.
   • Family-safe search by default, filtering explicit content.
   • Choice between free, ad-supported use and a paid “Pro”-level experience for higher privacy.
2. Limitations:
   • Because it uses its own index only partially, and supplements with third-party sources, result breadth may vary compared to Google or Microsoft.
   • Not open source, so internal algorithms are opaque.
   • Some users may find restrictions on explicit content or filtering too rigid.
   • Premium features and ad-free experience require a paid plan (“Pro”).

Authentication: Planetary Compliance & Data Sovereignty

Swisscows’ approach embodies digital sovereignty for European (and global) users: hosting in Switzerland in the Alps, operating according to Swiss law, and explicitly avoiding foreign cloud providers or third-party data centers. This focus helps mitigate risks posed by cross-border legal demands and ensures that user data remains under the control of Swiss and users’ own jurisdictions.

Conclusion

Swisscows stands as a serious European alternative to Big Tech search engines. It offers GDPR-aligned privacy, strong infrastructure, free usage for all, and premium privacy options. While it may not rival Google in terms of scale or distinctive features, for users seeking data protection, minimal tracking, and a family-friendly environment, Swisscows offers a compelling choice. Its secure hosting, commitment to user privacy, and transparent policies make it an important player for anyone concerned about the influence of US-based companies over personal data.

GOOD — A privacy-preserving European search engine based in Germany that offers a free‐plan option, full GDPR compliance, and hosting within the European Union. Official website: good-search.org

Introduction

In an era dominated by Google, Microsoft (Bing), and other U.S.-based Big Tech companies, European alternatives are gaining traction by emphasizing user privacy, regulatory compliance, and ethical business models. One of the most prominent among them is GOOD, a non‐profit search engine headquartered in Germany (Deutschland), fully compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Unlike many search engines based in the USA, which often rely heavily on user tracking, targeted advertising, and data monetization, GOOD pursues a different path: algorithmic independence, carbon neutrality, no-tracking, and social responsibility. The aim of this article is to provide a detailed overview of GOOD—its features, pricing, how it contrasts with big tech alternatives, and why it matters.

Service Overview and Hosting

GOOD is hosted entirely within the European Union, specifically in Germany, ensuring that the data infrastructure complies with EU legal frameworks. It uses carbon-neutral energy sources, maintains a secure and transparent privacy policy, and is governed under German data protection law, making it subject to both the GDPR and Germany’s national data protection statutes.

The search engine operates without advertising trackers and without storing search history or personal user profiles. Every search query is processed anonymously. GOOD emphasizes “independent search results” not manipulated by commercial interests.

GDPR Compliance and Privacy Practices

One of the core selling points of GOOD is that it is fully compliant with the GDPR. As a German company, it is directly bound by the strict legal requirements of the GDPR, and all data processing is done under its framework.

GOOD also ensures privacy by not collecting or storing personal data such as IP addresses, user profiles, or browsing histories. The mobile apps are equipped with ad blocking and anti-tracking capabilities. While some result providers—such as Bing or Wikipedia—may be used to enrich the search experience, GOOD applies legal agreements and technical safeguards to preserve user privacy, even when partners process queries.

Pricing and Plans

• Free Plan: GOOD offers a free version that is set up “free of charge,” meaning users can start using the service without payment, enjoying the basic privacy, anonymity, and ad-free environment.
• Subscription Model: Although a free plan exists, GOOD also provides paid subscription tiers. According to its “Press Release” from December 2024, the pricing starts at €2 per month (or €19 annually) for the basic subscription. Higher tiers—such as “Impact” and “Karma”—cost €5 and €10 per month respectively, offering stronger support for social and climate initiatives.
• Organizational / B2B Pricing: For institutions like schools, public administrations, or companies focused on sustainability, tailored solutions are available. For example, there is a model priced around €1/month per device (for B2B).

Does GOOD Use Open-Source Technology?

No—the service is not open source. While many of its partners and some components (e.g. search feeds like Brave or others) may have open-source elements, the core software of GOOD itself is proprietary and not published under an open license.

Search Architecture and Independence

Unlike some European privacy-oriented search engines that rely heavily on Google or Microsoft for their search index and ads, GOOD aims for greater independence. The primary search feed used for GOOD is from Brave (the index developed originally by Cliqz and later by Brave Software). This means it avoids reliance on U.S. tech giants for search results and algorithmic bias.

That said, GOOD still uses third-party providers to display matching results or enrich content (e.g. from Wikipedia or certain information widgets). When it does, it ensures that only necessary parameters are transmitted and that privacy safeguards are in place.

Comparison with Big Tech Alternatives (Google, Microsoft Bing)

Strengths and Limitations

Strengths

1. Data sovereignty and privacy: As a service under German jurisdiction, GOOD ensures legal protection for European users that U.S. alternatives can’t match easily. Freeloaders of surveillance laws don’t apply in the same way.
2. Ethical and sustainable business model: Non-profit status, B Corp certification, CO₂-neutral operations, and social impact initiatives linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals—all combining to create a mission-driven service rather than purely profit-oriented.
3. No ads, no trackers: Removes commercial influence from search results. Users see what is relevant rather than what is paid for or algorithmically pushed by ad spend.
4. Affordability and inclusivity: With a free option and modest prices for subscribers, including “pay as you can” models.

Limitations

1. Search result quality and comprehensiveness: Because GOOD uses the Brave index rather than having its own fully comprehensive crawler or the deep infrastructure of Google/Bing, certain niche or long-tail queries may not perform as well.
2. Not open source: The core codebase is proprietary, meaning that while privacy policies are transparent, the internal workings are not fully open for third-party audits by code inspection.
3. Dependency on partners: For enriched content, widgets, or third-party integrations (e.g. Wikipedia, Bing feed when necessary), GOOD must rely on external providers. Even if these are carefully selected, it introduces some external dependencies.
4. Scale and recognition: Compared to Google or Microsoft, GOOD is still relatively small in terms of global market share, awareness, and ecosystem integrations (browsers, tools). That may affect features, localization, or peripheral services.

Why It Matters

Europe has increasingly insisted on digital sovereignty—both as a political concept and a legal framework. GDPR is only the legal minimum public trust is eroding with recurring data breaches, surveillance controversies, and the commercial monopoly of U.S. tech firms. GOOD represents a counter-model: search services that respect fundamental privacy rights, reduce environmental impact, and distribute benefits rather than merely accumulating profit.

Moreover, for institutions like educational systems, public administrations, or socially responsible businesses, a service like GOOD offers a legally safer solution—especially under GDPR, which places legal penalties on inadequate protection of EU citizens’ data. Using U.S.-based search services creates cross-border legal risks, including data transfers, oversight, and transparency issues.

Conclusion

GOOD stands out in Europe’s growing landscape of privacy-first tech alternatives. With its German base, full GDPR compliance, robust privacy protections, ad-free design, and mission-driven ethos, it offers a compelling alternative to Big Tech giants like Google and Microsoft Bing. While it does have limitations—especially around open source and scale—the trade-offs are small for many users seeking ethical, responsible, and sustainable search. If you value data privacy, digital autonomy, and environmental commitment, GOOD is well worth considering.