Swisscows
Ad-supported web search without user profiles, with an optional paid ad-free tier.
- Swiss CompanyThe operating company is headquartered and legally incorporated in Switzerland.
- Swiss OwnedThe ultimate controlling owner is Swiss (Swiss persons, companies, foundations or public bodies).
- Hosted in SwitzerlandCore customer data and workloads are hosted in Switzerland by default.
- Swiss InfrastructureHosted in Switzerland on infrastructure operated by a Swiss-owned provider (or the company itself) — not a foreign hyperscaler.
- Free PlanA permanently free plan is available (not just a trial).
swisscows.com
Overview
Swisscows is a web search engine operated by Swisscows AG in Egnach, a subsidiary of Hulbee AG; the service started in 2014. It offers web, image, video and music search and says it does not build user profiles. Explicit content is filtered out of results. The free version shows ads from Microsoft Bing and Google, which receive the query and an anonymised IP address. Swisscows Pro, at CHF 3.17 per month billed annually, removes ads and lets users promote or hide particular sources.
Swisscows does not publish in detail where its web results come from. It states that it uses its own index together with a cooperation with the US search provider Brave. Earlier descriptions, including Wikipedia and a 2015 interview, said that Swisscows used Bing for most web results and its own index for German-language searches.
According to Swisscows, its servers are its own and are located in a data centre in the Swiss Alps, without cloud or third-party hosting providers. The same company also sells a VPN, an email service and the TeleGuard messenger. In August 2025 a district court opened bankruptcy proceedings against Swisscows AG; the Thurgau High Court revoked the decision on appeal in September 2025, and the company remains active in the commercial register.
Why it may be a Swiss alternative
Swisscows is operated by Swisscows AG, which is headquartered in Egnach, Thurgau. Swiss-headquartered company. Ownership is mixed or not fully verified, or development happens mainly abroad.
According to the information we found, core customer data is hosted in Switzerland.
May replace
- Google SearchGoogle LLC · USExplicit content is filtered out, and Swisscows does not publish how much of its web index it builds itself.
- Microsoft BingMicrosoft Corporation · US
Foreign products with overlapping functionality. An alternative is not necessarily a one-to-one replacement.
Swiss footprint
Five independent questions. A Swiss company is not automatically Swiss-hosted — and vice versa. How the footprint is assessed
Swiss company. Swiss-headquartered company. Ownership is mixed or not fully verified, or development happens mainly abroad.
- HeadquartersIs the operating company headquartered in Switzerland?
- Egnach, Thurgau (TG), SwitzerlandVerified[1]
- Legal jurisdiction
- OwnershipIs the company ultimately Swiss-owned?
- Yes — Hulbee AG · SwitzerlandInferred[3]
Swisscows AG describes itself as a subsidiary of Hulbee AG in Egnach. Founder and CEO Andreas Wiebe, who lives in eastern Switzerland, was described in 2022 as owner of Hulbee and Swisscows. The full shareholder structure is not published.
- DevelopmentIs the product developed in Switzerland?
- Unknown / not verified
Swisscows AG is based in Egnach and develops its own search technology, but it does not say where its development team works. It also cooperates with the US search provider Brave for its results.
- HostingIs customer data hosted in Switzerland?
- Yes — SwitzerlandVendor claim[2]
Swisscows states that it runs its own servers in a data centre in the Swiss Alps without cloud or third-party hosting providers, and its privacy policy states that data is stored on its servers in Switzerland. In the free version, the search query, a masked IP address and a cleaned user agent are passed to the advertising partners Microsoft Bing and Google.
- InfrastructureIs the hosting infrastructure operated by a Swiss-owned provider?
- Yes — Swisscows AG (self-operated) · SwitzerlandVendor claim[2]
Features & platforms
- Platforms
- Deployment
- Made for
- Interface languages
- Unknown / not verified
- Launched
- 2014
Privacy & security
- Not verified
- End-to-end encryption, Encryption at rest, Encryption in transit, Multi-factor authentication, Single sign-on (SAML/OIDC), SCIM provisioning, Public API and Data export
- Certifications
- None listed
Pricing
Paid plans fromCHF 3.17 / monthSwisscows Pro, billed annually at CHF 38.00
- Pricing model
- Freemium
- Free plan
- Yes
- Free trial
- Unknown / not verified
- Enterprise plan
- Unknown / not verified
- Billing in CHF
- Yes
Prices checked 15 Oct 2026. Always confirm on the vendor’s site. Pricing page ↗
Company
Company in Egnach (Thurgau) that operates the Swisscows search engine, first launched in 2014, and related privacy services. A subsidiary of Hulbee AG.
Sources & verification
Every claim on this page is marked as verified, vendor claim or inferred. Unknown means we could not confirm it — not that the answer is “no”.
- Verified Confirmed by an independent or official source such as the commercial register.
- Vendor claim Stated by the vendor in its own documentation, website or legal terms.
- Inferred Derived by the editors from indirect evidence — see the note.
- [1]
- [2]
- [3]
- [5]
- [6]
- [7]
Swisscows AG
- [1]
- [2]
- [3]
- [4]
- [5]