What Swisscows actually does
Swisscows is a search engine built by Hulbee AG, a software company founded in 2014 by Andreas Wiebe and based in Egnach, Switzerland. Its defining feature is a content filter that cannot be switched off.
The core product
Pornographic and violent results are excluded entirely from Swisscows, with no toggle, account setting, or workaround to see unfiltered results, the company markets this as making it safe for shared and family devices without any setup required.
Under the hood, Swisscows blends its own semantic search technology with Microsoft Bing's index for general web results, uses its own crawler specifically for German-language queries, and adds shopping, music (via SoundCloud), and translation (via Yandex) as additional verticals.
It's available across platforms: the web interface, native Android and iOS apps, and as the default search engine in any major desktop or mobile browser.
What's new or notable
The newest development is commercial rather than technical: Swisscows introduced an optional "Swisscows Pro" subscription, priced from about 3.17 CHF per month billed annually, for an ad-free, no-tracking, source-customizable version of the search engine.
That's a meaningful shift in how the company frames its own product: the free tier still runs ads through Swisscows' own AdAnounce system, and per Swisscows' own marketing for Pro, the free tier doesn't carry the strongest privacy claims that the paid tier does.
Who should use Swisscows
Great fit if…
- You want content filtering that can't be turned off — useful for schools, libraries, or family computers without needing to configure anything or worry about a child disabling it.
- Jurisdiction outside the EU and US matters to you — Swisscows' company and servers are based in Switzerland, which the company uses as a data-protection argument.
- You want native mobile apps and easy setup — free Android and iOS apps exist alongside straightforward setup as a default search engine in any major browser.
- You're comfortable paying a small amount for the ad-free, no-tracking version — Swisscows Pro is available from about 3.17 CHF/month for that configuration.
Skip it if…
- You need to disable safe search for legitimate research or professional use — the filter is permanent, with no setting, account, or workaround to see unfiltered results.
- You want the strongest privacy version for free — the ad-free, no-tracking, source-customizable experience now requires the paid Pro subscription; the free tier runs ads.
- You want an engine with a large independent index outside German — most non-German results still come from Bing, so independence from large US search infrastructure is partial rather than complete.
Pricing in detail
Swisscows offers a free ad-supported tier plus a paid Pro subscription for ad-free, no-tracking, source-customizable search.
| Plan | Price | What's included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | Hybrid Bing/Hulbee semantic search, permanent content filter, shopping/music/translation verticals, native apps; runs ads via AdAnounce |
| Swisscows Pro | From about 3.17 CHF/month, billed annually | Ad-free, no-tracking search with source customization |
Where it falls short
- Filter can't be turned off — the safe-search filter is permanent, with no setting, account, or workaround to see unfiltered results, which rules Swisscows out for any use case that needs one.
- Strongest privacy now costs money — the optional Swisscows Pro subscription, from about 3.17 CHF/month billed annually, is required for the ad-free, no-tracking, source-customizable version; the free tier still runs ads and, per Swisscows' own marketing for Pro, doesn't carry the strongest privacy claims.
- Thin independent index outside German — most non-German results still come from Bing, so independence from large US search infrastructure is partial rather than complete.
Privacy & data
Swisscows' central privacy argument is jurisdictional: the company and its servers are based in Switzerland, outside both EU and US legal jurisdiction, which Swisscows uses as a data-protection argument distinct from what an EU-based competitor could claim.
Its ad system, AdAnounce, is described by the company as not sharing user data with advertisers, though this is a company statement rather than something we independently verified through an audit. The permanent content filter is itself a privacy-adjacent design choice in the sense that it can't be reconfigured by a compromised account or a shared device's other users.
The clearest nuance to flag is that Swisscows' own marketing positions the paid Pro tier as the more private configuration, ad-free and no-tracking, which implies the free tier, while still usable, isn't the maximum-privacy version of the product. We did not find a published independent security audit of Swisscows' backend on the pages checked.
How we checked this
This entry is based on Swisscows' company site (company.swisscows.com/en), checked on 2026-09-05, together with the verified verdict, feature list, and known limitations compiled for this entry, including the Bing/Hulbee hybrid backend and the Pro tier's introduction and pricing. We did not run hands-on search-quality or filter-bypass testing; the description of the filter's permanence and the Pro tier's positioning reflects what Swisscows documents and states about its own product rather than a testing session we performed.