Uruky Private Search Engine: EU-Based Alternative to Kagi

Uruky is a private, paid search engine based in the European Union, designed as an alternative to services like Kagi. It focuses on user control, the elimination of surveillance capitalism, and strict adherence to EU-based infrastructure for both data storage and payment processing.

Core Privacy and Business Model

Uruky operates on a subscription model (€5 per month for unlimited searches) to remove the incentive for tracking users or serving advertisements. The service is built around a "privacy first" architecture that avoids collecting personal identifiers.

  • Anonymized Accounts: Following a model similar to Mullvad VPN, Uruky does not store names or email addresses. Users are assigned a random account number that serves as their unique identifier.
  • EU Sovereignty: The service utilizes EU servers, EU storage, and EU payment processing. It leverages EU search providers such as Marginalia, Mojeek, and EUSP.
  • No AI Integration: Uruky has explicitly stated there are no current plans to implement AI features, citing the difficulty of doing so in a responsible and respectful manner.
  • Source Code Guarantee: In a unique transparency move, Uruky provides a copy of the source code to customers who have been paying for the service for 12 months.

Search Capabilities and Personalization

Uruky functions as a meta-search engine, aggregating results from various providers to offer a private search experience without the "ecosystem" bloat of big-tech alternatives.

  • Personalization: Users can tune their search results by boosting or excluding specific domains.
  • Technical Compatibility: The engine supports searching with JavaScript disabled.
  • API Access: Uruky provides API functionality, allowing users to retrieve search results in JSON format via the f=json query parameter, making it viable for integration into agent workflows.

Community Feedback and Technical Critiques

Following its presentation on Hacker News, the community provided several technical and usability critiques regarding the current state of the platform.

Usability and Onboarding

Users reported significant friction during the initial evaluation process. Several commenters noted that the requirement to create an account and solve captchas before performing a test search creates a high barrier to entry compared to competitors like Kagi, which offers a limited number of free searches.

"It is a bit hard to evaluate the potential when you need to top up and do a captcha just for evaluation purposes. The barrier of entry is quite high."

UI/UX Design

Design professionals in the community described the user interface as "bland" and lacking personality. Specific suggestions included adding favicons to search results for better visual recognition and improving the language selector, which is currently located at the bottom of the page and relies on system locale detection that can be inaccurate.

Search Quality and Indexing

While some users praised the EUSP index, others noted deficiencies in tracking recent events. One user reported that a search for "walibi belgium rmc" returned outdated articles rather than recent announcements, suggesting a lag in indexing current events.

Privacy and Payment Concerns

Despite the account-number system, some users questioned the true anonymity of the service, noting that standard payment methods are personally identifiable. There were multiple requests for the integration of Monero (XMR) to ensure payment anonymity.

"If it's so privacy-focused - where's the payment option for transferring Monero?"

Comparison to Kagi and SearxNG

Technical users debated whether Uruky's value proposition is strong enough to compete with Kagi's more advanced features or the free, self-hosted alternative SearxNG. Some argued that the EU-based positioning is a strong draw for those avoiding US jurisdiction, while others suggested that without its own proprietary index, Uruky is essentially a paid version of a meta-search engine.

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