What is Ecosia used for?

Ecosia is a search engine that uses advertising revenue to fund tree planting, offered through a website and browser extensions. It is a good fit for searching while supporting tree planting and replacing a default search engine.

Is Ecosia open source?

No. Ecosia is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Ecosia include SearXNG, YaCy and Degoog.

What are some alternatives to Ecosia?

Ecosia competes with DuckDuckGo, Startpage and Brave Search. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Ecosia alternatives.

Ecosia: features, pricing and alternatives

About Ecosia

Ecosia is a search engine with an environmental mission. It uses revenue from advertising shown alongside search results to fund tree planting, so everyday searches contribute to reforestation projects.

Ecosia is proprietary and vendor-hosted, free to use and available as a website, apps and browser add-ons. Details of its search sources, privacy practices and planting projects are described by the company on its own site.

Key features

Web search funded by advertising
Tree planting from search revenue
Browser extensions and apps
Free to use

Good fit for

→Searching while supporting tree planting
→Replacing a default search engine

Tags: search-engine; sustainability; tree-planting; web-search; browser-extension; privacy

Ecosia: questions and answers

What is Ecosia used for?: Ecosia is a search engine that uses advertising revenue to fund tree planting, offered through a website and browser extensions. It is a good fit for searching while supporting tree planting and replacing a default search engine.
Is Ecosia free?: Yes. Ecosia is free to use.
Is Ecosia open source?: No. Ecosia is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to Ecosia include SearXNG, YaCy and Degoog.
What are some alternatives to Ecosia?: Ecosia competes with DuckDuckGo, Startpage and Brave Search. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Ecosia alternatives.