Show HN: Uruky (EU-based Kagi alternative) now has Image Search and URL Rewrites

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

An EU-based paid search engine called Uruky is positioning itself as a privacy-focused alternative to Kagi, combining multiple mostly European indexes, offering an API, and experimenting with its own small web index. Commenters welcome more EU-first, non‑surveillance search options and praise the transparent, account‑ID style model, but raise concerns about usability barriers (mandatory signup and captchas), a somewhat confusing UI, and limited index size and freshness compared to Google or Kagi. There is also active debate over payment methods and geopolitics—especially avoiding Russian providers like Yandex—and whether strong privacy stances and EU hosting meaningfully outweigh search quality and convenience.

Positioning vs Kagi and other search engines

  • Uruky is framed as an EU-based, privacy-focused, paid metasearch engine, compared frequently to Kagi, SearxNG, and Mojeek.
  • Some argue the Kagi comparison is misleading because both are metasearch engines with small proprietary indices; others say Kagi’s main differentiator is search quality and AI tooling, not just “not Google.”
  • Several users like Uruky’s EU focus and minimal account data (random ID, no email), while others say “EU-based” alone is not a strong product strategy.

Indexing, providers, and search quality

  • Uruky aggregates EU-centric providers: Mojeek, Marginalia, EUSP (Ecosia/Qwant), Linkup, Serper (Google proxy, UK-based), and a small in-house “Uruky Site Search” index, plus Pixabay for images.
  • Own index is tiny, opt-in, and cannot yet be used alone; goal is to grow to ~100M URLs.
  • Some users report weak recent-events performance; a date filter is being added.
  • Uruky no longer merges all providers by default for cost/duplicate reasons; it queries others when needed or lets the user switch per search.

Privacy, payments, and geopolitics

  • Strong emphasis on EU servers, EU payment processing, and not using Yandex (important for users boycotting Russian services).
  • Concern that card payments are personally identifiable; suggestions include Monero, Taler, Privacy Pass, Mullvad-style vouchers, and cash-by-mail.
  • Operator notes legal/FX constraints for handling Monero directly and considers third-party proxies, which some argue undermine privacy.

Onboarding friction, abuse controls, and API

  • To combat bots, Uruky requires either account creation (auto-generated ID) plus payment, or a proof-of-work CAPTCHA for a 2-hour free trial.
  • Many find the requirement to create an account and solve CAPTCHAs before first search too high a barrier; some propose limited free searches instead.
  • Uruky exposes a JSON API and clear rate limits; some feedback suggests relaxing “1 request/sec” style limits to short bursts and clarifying API usage to avoid accidental IP bans.

UI/UX, language, and feature requests

  • Mixed feedback on UI: some like it; others call it bland, busy, or confusing (e.g., missing search button, provider controls location, language selector buried).
  • Requests include: site/domain blocking, DDG-style bang shortcuts, better widgets (sports, local businesses), family plans, “grandparent-friendly” mode, improved branding, and explicit per-provider controls.
  • Uruky explicitly rejects adding generative AI, which some praise and others see as a downside.