Last updated Nov 25, 2024 at 5am ET
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A private search engine uses additional settings to keep the user information and search information private. The private search engines support advertisement free environment while offering users guaranteed privacy to profile information.
A good example is Qwant. Operated from Paris in France, Qwant is an encrypted web search engine that is created to respect the user’s privacy. The search engine is rated as the 64th most visited website in France and it is quickly outdoing leading search engines like Google.
Recently, we saw news headlines indicating that France National Assembly intends to bid goodbye to Google in favor of the private search engine. Introduced for the first time in 2013, Qwant has grown to become a popular search engine attracting over 10 million search requests on a daily basis.
Every month, 50 million users are searching the web through the search engine. So what is it that makes the search engine capture attention in Europe and other continents? In this article, we feature some important basics about the search engine. Let`s start by looking at some of Qwant’s features
Qwant features
Qwant is rated as a feature-rich web search engine. Here are some of the features that Qwant offers its users.
A search engine that respects the user’s privacy
Qwant is an authentic search engine that is designed to ensure the privacy of the users. This is through the delivery of best possible results without an attempt to know who is searching or what is being searched. The search queries are securely encrypted, making sure no third party will find out what is being searched. Still to be extra secure and private we would recommend to use VPN service, check our list of the best VPNs.
Qwant guarantees the user’s neutrality and impartiality
Qwant indexes the web with no discrimination. The search engine uses the sorting algorithms with the same requirements. This means that no websites are treated as priority websites on the Qwant search engine results.
The search engine results do not reflect any bias based on political, economic or social criteria. Instead, the search results are treated equally. Moreover, Qwant results are not based on your recorded search history or the user profile. The search engine results reflect the reality of the complex world, including diverse opinions.
The Qwant mobile app
Qwant offers an app that is suitable for both Android and iOS. Therefore, you can comfortably and effortlessly access the power of Qwant from your mobile devices. This allows mobile users to easily search the web with privacy.
The Qwant app offers:
- Private search though its cookie-free feature
- Fast and secure browser
- Activated tracking protection
Check this VPNs compatible with:
Qwant Junior
Qwant is also mindful of younger web users. The search engine has developed the Qwant Junior feature for kids aged 6 to 13. This is offered free and does not come with commercial ads.
Just like the main search engine, there is no history that is retained when using the Junior version. Qwant Junior has a similar capability to the main search engine, although it is designed to eliminate results that are not suitable for children.
Qwant Boards
This feature allows the user to share web pages as notes. Each board comes with several notes that the users can follow whenever they want. The users can follow an existing board or create personal boards.
How does Qwant work?
Qwant is designed and built as an efficient and ethical search engine. The founders of the search engine based the design on two fundamental pillars: protecting the user’s privacy and not collecting the user’s personal data
Unlike Google and Internet Explorer, Qwant is a cookie-free search engine. The search engine does not include a tracker of any kind on the browser. Therefore, the search engine does not keep your browsing history.
Is Qwant safe?
The search engine is a perfect choice if you are looking for privacy. We can conclude that it is a safe web browser if you are looking for a platform that does not share a user’s profile information, store cookies, etc. And yet we would recommend to use VPN on top of that. Check our VPN review list to pick best option that will meet your needs.
Qwant vs. DuckDuckGo
Security
The two search engines offer data privacy to users. DuckDuckGo and Qwant do not collect or share any personal information. They are therefore rated as secure web search platforms. They do not have the user-tracking feature and hence both are secure search engines.
Usability and quality
The DuckDuckGo search engine offers the users great usability and has a high-quality interface. The platform is designed with people in mind with less clutter and great service. Qwant also offers a great user experience with both the Android and iOS apps available for download. Compared to DuckDuckGo, Qwant has a higher usability rating.
Qwant details
- Parent company: Qwant is owned by Qwant SAS
- Launched in: Qwant was launched in July 2013
- Number of Pages Indexed: 20 billion
- Number of Daily Queries: Qwant has 10 million daily queries
- Advertising on search engine: No
- Security features: HTTPS; Qwant features a cookie-free environment and user privacy protection is guaranteed on the search platform
DuckDuckGo details
- Parent company: DuckDuckGo is owned by Duck Duck Go Inc.
- Launched in: DuckDuckGo was launched in July 2008
- Number of Pages Indexed: 1.2 billion
- Number of Daily Queries: DuckDuckGo has 25 million daily queries
- Advertising on search engine: No
- Security features: HTTPS; DuckDuckGo also features a cookie-free environment and user privacy protection is guaranteed the search platform
QWANT ignores things like -(sitename).com and has developt into a useless browser like so many others, seach-results are misleading, worthless and thoroughly censored -we will (again) tryh to find another browser
y.s. G.O.V. grumpy old viking
As long as you get qwants search results majority of things are private. Now if qwant can’t get a search results, then good ol Bing to the rescue with the search results. Now there’s a issue. Because then qwant sends Bing your IP address, ISP provider, device info and basically everything else. But only if Bing supplies the search results. And how often is that happening??
How does Qwant make money? The company is certainly not making this large financial effort just for the glory of it.
They share with Bing. Next time you use Qwant look at the stored cookies. I found 66 cookies, both tracking and temp. Bottom line nothing is free and the medicine show barkers can claim anything and are never held to their promises. Look at the fiasco with duck duck go recently.
but the countries in EU have to respect the privacy laws, unlike USA. yes the EU have strong privacy laws plus the different laws withing each country. unlike USA where money goes above even the health of USA citizens; in EU laws protect the privacy. if Qwant send peoples info, they would be in deep trouble. people in Europe take seriously privacy, they always know what’s going on (unlike americans that never bother to check what’s going on congress). the privacy community hasn’t detect anything from qwant. so it’s ok
duckduckgo is an american engine and US has no privacy laws and no regulation (except “”California””). and they can do whatever they want
My issue is with Qwant Lite. Seems to be a decent search engine but it displays ads and the only way I could get rid of them was by installing Adblock Ultimate. Also when I restart Firefox I sometimes have to reblock the ads again. Something else of interest is Qwant saves data for two years….is that SOP for a privacy policy?
DuckDuckGo donations aren’t far left at all. Right wing whiners are just upset they don’t give to fascists.
Read for yourself.
https://spreadprivacy.com/2020-duckduckgo-donations/
nice
Why did duck duck go start censoring? That’s as much of an issue as privacy anymore.
Hi, Does Qwant have a built-in VPN? If not, Why not? Thank you.
It makes no sense for a search engine to have a “built in” VPN… nor does it for any other website either.
Hey there. Qwant does not have a VPN. I can’t say for sure why it doesn’t have one, but I can guess. For starters, the Qwant search engine is already encrypted, making it secure and private already. Also, it does not personalize your search queries, meaning it does not consider your geographical location as a factor. Basically, you can use whatever VPN you want for added security and it shouldn’t change the search results in any way.
Qwant seems pretty awesome at this point. I switched to it from DuckDuckGo as there were too many questions over their ethics. Started reading things about them censoring searches, being in the pockets of big tech and funding extremist organisations. I wish companies would stay away from forcing politics on the user base. See also Firefox. Luckily Qwant seems better than DDG so far anyway and will do nicely. Until I find out they strangle cats or something lol.
Agreed
How do you clear the browser history or as you mention to someone else to search using the icognito mode. How do I do that?
Hey, Barbara! You can do both in the Settings of your browser. They are usually located in the upper right corner.
I’m using Qwant and it keeps saving the last link in history even thou it’s suppose to clear itself, the chinese already attack my phone and the lanuage keeps changing.
and google keeps poping up as a browser
Dear Liza,
I’m sorry you’re having issues with Qwant. I’m not sure where you’re seeing the last link in history. If that’s your browser history – you should use the incognito mode before searching with Qwant.
I work on a Chromebook so it obviously comes with google but I changed the search engine to Ecosia since there is no Qwant option available right now for the Chromebook but Qwant is still good I mean to write this im literally using Qwant but Ecosia is also a good 1
You can always install a browser like Firefox and then set Qwant as default serch engine.
I have been using Qwant since last year, and it works pretty well, plus I like the interface design. Only when I search for more complicated terms I use StartPage.
I was using Qwant happily until it is not available in Singapore. Help, anyone?
14th Dec 2020 1232hrs(UTC)
There was a French – German project for and EU search machine, Quaero, but this unfortunately died for unknown reasons. Now with the emerging EU cloud project Gaia-X could be resurrected as enough founding is available, but this needs a big public push.
I doubt in Qwant privacy as the server is NOT located in Paris, France but in Warsaw, Poland and Poland is a very US friendly country!
I wonder: I like the Qwant app on my 11 inch up to date iPad Pro. I don’t know, or I don’t understand, what web browser is used when I tap on a link that comes up in the Qwant search app. Information from Qwant and elsewhere on the internet gives no indication that Qwant is itself a web browser.
It is based on firefox
To be honest though I still prefer Qwant over Duck Duck Go as I’m avoiding US companies. A lot of people avoid Chinese companies because of privacy reasons but they are completely oblivious to the fact that the US Government also has a ‘backdoor’ to every American IT company (Other countries might have as well but I trust the EU more than the US).
I really love the boards feature that in effect offer a great way to bookmark pages. The way America is now politicizing IT services I have no other choice then to fall back to my own European services. This morning Google dropped support for Huawei and therefor my brand new Huawei phone gets no OS updates. This because of a decision of an American president. What will be next. I will try to get rid of America on my machines.
Ironic. You obviously don’t care about privacy if you have a Huawei Phone.
Amercan “intelligence” have been unable to show any evidence of Hauwei spyware or practices despite their best efforts. but you seem to have. please provide link.
Xander crews, That’s just what I was Thinking. Spot on(:-)
Hm. This is like Duck Duck Go? I really enjoy that service, so I’ll definitely be looking into this one. The DDG folks are s a fine company and they really care about security, at least in my experience, so it’ll be interesting to see how their competitors handle things. Does anyone in here have experience with it?
My research has indicated that DDG gives large sums of $ to left leaning organizations. Choose wisely.
While I have been using DDG in Mint browser, started reading about DDG and how secure and No info collected.. Y’all might want to check up on this. Multiple site’s have stated that DDG Does store some of user’s information. Since I don’t know much about this stuff, I think it was Techrade..