Qwant icon
Qwant icon

Qwant

 167 likes

Qwant is a European web search engine, launched in July 2013 and operated from Paris. It uses Bing in order to provide people with web search results. It claims not to employ user tracking and doesn't personalize search results in order to avoid trapping users in a filter...

Qwant screenshot 1

License model

  • FreeProprietary

Country of Origin

  • FR flagFrance
  • European Union flagEU

Platforms

  • Online
  • Android
  • iPhone
  • Android Tablet
  • iPad
  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
3.8 / 5 Avg rating (16)
167likes
14comments

Features

Suggest and vote on features

Properties

  1.  Privacy focused
  2.  Lightweight
  3.  Support for Themes

Features

  1.  No Tracking
  2.  Meta-Search
  3.  Dark Mode
  4.  GDPR Compliant
  5.  No registration required
  6.  Bangs

Qwant News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

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Recent activities

  • Kualdir and EmilE1337 liked Qwant
    about 1 month ago
  • App icon
    Danilo_Venom added Qwant as alternative to Peekr
    about 1 month ago
  • App icon
    POX added Qwant as alternative to Waterfox Private Search
    about 2 months ago
  • thesuncitywitch and sebastianpaczoski liked Qwant
    about 2 months ago
  • POX updated Qwant
    2 months ago
  • Sitric added EU-based as a feature to Qwant
    2 months ago
  • Sitric and PredatorQ liked Qwant
    2 months ago
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Comments and Reviews

   
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Comment summary: Qwant is praised for its commitment to user privacy and its European origin. Users appreciate its privacy-focused approach, making it a strong contender against Google. It offers features similar to DuckDuckGo and is GDPR compliant. However, there are criticisms regarding the reliance on Bing for search results, and limitations in searching specialized topics and recent events. While Qwant protects privacy, some argue its search capabilities need improvement and it lacks features like Boolean searches.
Top Positive Comment
John Fastman
Mar 22, 2017
26

If you live in the Western world, Google dominates the internet, search included. There's a huge amount wrong with Google, from its compliance with totalitarian censorship, to the fact it profits at the expense of users' privacy, its tax-avoidance, filter bubbling, and much, much else besides. I hate to point out the obvious at this point, but you'll notice that genuinely all of these directly affect important aspects of democracy. Sorry: That's not me, it's just that information, taxes and privacy are inherently at the core of democracy.

Qwant is a comparatively new search engine which promises not to leverage your privacy to profit. It doesn't - as Google does - compile your searches, catalogue your interests, cross-reference your website visits (to say nothing of email contents, youtube views, bookmarks, contacts, phone apps and everything you've done on Chrome). Nor does Qwant leverage all this information to build up a profile of you as an individual, as Google does. Nor does it use that information for its own profit. You might remind yourself of historical examples where an organization has compiled profiles of individuals for its own benefit. And how those organizations related to democracy.

For going against that trend Qwant deserves a modicum of merit, wouldn't you agree?

So what should I say? That its search is better than Google's? No. But it's near-equal. Damn-near equal. So what price your privacy? What price do you put on the freedom to search, to not be bubbled, to not be profiled as a matter of routine?

And if you don't like Qwant, let me break it to you gently: Bing (see here) and Yahoo search (see here) will not help. Privacy conscious alternatives are:

  • Startpage (looks crappy, but searches well... and that's because it proxies your requests to Google. Google results, no privacy violation.)
  • DuckDuckGo (a privacy-respecting search engine. Read more here.)
  • SearX (a meta search-engine: it gathers results from other search engines and present it to you without revealing to them what you're asking)
  • Disconnect.me (another way of getting results without revealing who you are)

One more thing: If privacy considerations of this sort are new to you, know that many alternatives exist to the convenience you've been sold by Google. It just takes time to research them and learn why it's important. You can do worse than by starting with www.privacytools.io and advice from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a US non-profit organization advising the public). Don't go thinking that Chrome and Facebook are necessities (or even desirable). You don't have to have every thought and message catalogued by Gmail for their benefit. Ask yourself why things you use are "free". (The answer is because they are using you, in case you're in doubt.)

Top Negative Comment
get_crunk_big_funk
Jan 29, 2025
2

claims to be independent but is bing, claims to be private but has tracking links on the homepage, not impressed

thatguyrrb211
Mar 14, 2025
0

amazing I'ma be dead ass with y'all this shit surprised even me with its sincerity I fw this hard would recommend

K0RR
Oct 5, 2024
0

No built-in currency converter and calculator. Just use Brave Search or DDG.

Toto
Mar 26, 2024
1

Qwant is getting better and better with the years. Very good alternative located in Europe.

Le moteur de recherche s'est vraiment amélioré ces dernières années. Une entreprise à soutenir fortement!

TBayAreaPat
Nov 5, 2023
-1

Qwant doesn't do Boolean searches from what I see.. that's pretty limiting.

K0RR
Oct 5, 2024

It does

c17s5qhu
Jul 29, 2023
1

It is simple, userfriendly, works very well. Hosted and maintained in France. GRPR complaint. Filter results by selected country. Does everything what a search engine needs to.

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What is Qwant?

Qwant is a European web search engine, launched in July 2013 and operated from Paris. It uses Bing in order to provide people with web search results. It claims not to employ user tracking and doesn't personalize search results in order to avoid trapping users in a filter bubble. It is available in 13 languages.

Official Links

Qwant information

  • Developed by

    FR flagQwant
  • Licensing

    Proprietary and Free product.
  • Rating

    Average rating of 3.8 (16 ratings)
  • Alternatives

    105 alternatives listed
  • Supported Languages

    • English
    • French
    • German
    • Italian
    • Spanish

AlternativeTo Category

Online Services

Apple AppStore

  •   Updated May 19, 2025
  •   4.72 avg rating
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Our users have written 14 comments and reviews about Qwant, and it has gotten 167 likes

Qwant was added to AlternativeTo by Jonathan DUMONT on Apr 21, 2015 and this page was last updated Apr 14, 2025. Qwant is sometimes referred to as Qwant Mobile.