MetaGer

MetaGer is a search engine built and run by SUMA-EV, a non-profit association in Hanover, Germany, whose full name is Association for Free Access to Knowledge. It does not crawl the whole web itself. It sends your query to several partner search engines, merges the answers and shows one result page, which is what makes it a metasearch engine.

The project began in 1996 as a research effort of the University of Hannover and moved to SUMA-EV in 2012. The source code has been published under the GNU AGPL licence since August 2016. The vendor says it keeps no logs of searches, shows no captchas, runs on renewable energy and offers an ad-free mode paid with a prepaid key instead of an account.

• Anonymous key instead of an account. A random key is generated automatically, with no name or email address needed. Credit hangs off the key. The same key works on several devices and can be shared with friends and family, and MetaGer says it removes ads and tracking when it holds balance.
• Anonymous browsing proxy. With a key you can open any website through a private browser that runs on MetaGer's servers. The vendor says sites cannot see who you are or where you browse from, and everything is deleted when the session ends. The feature dates from the 2014 Open Anonymously function.
• Result merging from several engines. Queries go to partner engines and the results are combined. MetaGer calls itself the only German search engine that combines results from several large web indexes, and says merging also protects against censorship by any single source.
• Personal blacklist and search within search. Users can block domains they never want to see, and can run a second search inside the current results. Both appear in the vendor's list of features that set MetaGer apart from other search engines.
• Open source code. The code is on the vendor's GitLab under AGPL, and the ranking algorithms are described as readable by anyone. The vendor presents this as proof of the privacy claims, together with a browser extension that lets users verify anonymity.
• Maps and Tor access. MetaGer Maps launched in 2016 on OpenStreetMap data with its own display and route planner. A Tor service has existed since December 2013. A browser add-on and a phone app set MetaGer as default search.

• A journalist researching a sensitive topic. Search with a key, avoid ads and tracking, and open sources through the anonymous proxy so the visited site does not see the reader's IP address or location.
• A school or library in Germany. Set MetaGer as default in the browser with the add-on or the manual steps on the plugin page. One shared key can cover several machines, which suits a small budget.
• A privacy-minded household. Family members share one key across phones and laptops. The vendor says about 500 token (EUR 5) usually lasts around two months, so a household can estimate its yearly cost.

Open metager.org and search straight away, with ads shown and no sign-up. To go ad-free, buy credit for a key; the key is generated automatically, so there is no registration form. Several payment options are offered, including anonymous cash payment.

Enter the key on each device you use, or install the browser extension, which keeps you logged in even after clearing browser data. The plugin page explains how to set MetaGer as default search engine with the add-on, or by hand in Firefox and other browsers through the search settings. A smartphone app also exists.

MetaGer is developed by the Hanover association SUMA-EV and combines results from several search engines plus small indexes of its own. A prepaid key removes ads and tracking, and about 500 token (€5) usually lasts around two months. Its ranking depends on the source engines, so its independence from large indexes is partial.

In our search engines ranking MetaGer stands at #13 of 16: it follows Google Search and comes before Marginalia Search. Challengers hold places 1 to 3 where a category has them; the number here is a place in the order, not a mark out of ten.

Europe is home to 6 of the 16 vendors, MetaGer among them (Germany).

MetaGer is a project of the non-profit SUMA-EV in Hanover.

It queries several engines, re-scores their rankings by its own criteria and adds small indexes of its own.

Source code is public.

Without a key, searches carry ads.

Pricing as recorded: Free with ads; ad-free with a prepaid key.

Searching is free with advertising. Ad-free and tracking-free search, anonymous browsing and all current and future features are activated by adding credit, called token, to your key. The vendor says about 500 token, equal to EUR 5, usually lasts around two months, which implies roughly EUR 2.50 a month for typical use. Members of SUMA-EV search ad-free, and donations and membership are handled by the association, with reduced membership fees available on proof. Prices for other currencies and a formal price list are not published on the pages fetched.

We took this from metager.org, the vendor’s own site, when we reviewed Best Search Engines in 2026; that review is dated 7 November 2026.

The privacy statement says MetaGer does not profile users and processes only data needed to run the service. The search query is passed to partner engines, and results are kept for display for a few hours.

Contact-form data is kept for up to two months, and donation payment data for 10 years for tax reasons. The operator is a German association, so German and EU data law applies. Formal certifications are not stated on the pages fetched.

Integrations the vendor names (7):

• Firefox add-on
• Browser extensions
• MetaGer app
• MetaGer Maps
• YaCy
• OpenSearch interface
• Tor network access

The choice below rests on shared catalogue tags, price model, free plan and region, with rank distance as the tie-break.

• Brave Search (#3 of 16): Independent index from the Brave browser company, with a paid API. Watch out: the price of the ad-free Premium option was not visible on the pages read, so it cannot be compared.
• Startpage (#4 of 16): Not for: buyers who must know whose index ranks their results. Dutch-run private search with anonymous page viewing and sponsored links.
• Qwant (#5 of 16): Paris-based engine with its own crawler, partner results and optional AI summaries. (France)
• Marginalia Search (#14 of 16): Not for: anyone needing a full-coverage daily search engine. Swedish open source engine built to surface small, non-commercial websites.

Read from the vendor’s own pages on 5 November 2026.

• metager.org/en-US: key model, 500 token for EUR 5, proxy, nonprofit, open source, renewable energy
• metager.org/en-US/about: history, metasearch features, blacklist, AGPL release, Maps, Tor
• metager.org/en-US/datenschutz: data retention periods, no profiling, partner query handling
• metager.org/en-US/plugin: setting MetaGer as default search

Four tests decide a position: how soon the product is useful, what the bill really becomes, how data leaves and who it suits. The result for MetaGer: #13, out of 16 ranked. Read the editorial process for the method and where paid visibility fits in.