The European alternative to Brave
Brave's privacy story is real, but the package keeps growing: cryptocurrency rewards, a built-in wallet, a paid VPN upsell, AI features, and a US-based parent company. Dazr is the same privacy-first Chromium experience without any of that. Just a browser, built in the EU.
Why people are leaving Brave
The technical privacy story is genuinely good. The non-technical parts are why people look elsewhere.
The cryptocurrency baggage
Brave Rewards, BAT (Basic Attention Token), the wallet, the in-browser ads that pay you crypto, the creator tipping. None of this is required to use the browser, but all of it is shipped, prompted, and visible. Many users who chose Brave for privacy don't want to also be running a wallet.
Product creep
Brave is now: a browser, a search engine (Brave Search), a VPN (paid), a wallet (multi-chain), a video calling product (Talk), a creator-tipping platform, and an AI assistant (Leo). Each one is its own attack surface, its own thing to maintain, and another reason for the codebase to drift away from "browser."
US incorporation
Brave Software, Inc. is California-based, so it's subject to US laws like the CLOUD Act and FISA Section 702 that can require it to hand over user data, sometimes through secret court orders. After the Schrems II ruling, that's a real concern for European users — and especially for European businesses. Dazr operates entirely under EU law.
Past product incidents
Brave has had moments that erode the "we're the trust-first browser" pitch: a 2020 affiliate-link incident where typed URLs were modified to include Brave's referral parameters (Brave apologized publicly and shipped a fix). Each individual issue is small. The cumulative effect, for some users, is enough to look around.
You may want a search backend with no Google upstream
If you want a search experience where Google is not in the data path at any level, that's a specific architectural choice. Dazr Search is built that way: the backend aggregates from non-Google engines and runs on EU servers.
Leo AI shipped by default
Brave's Leo AI assistant (powered by Mistral / Anthropic / Llama) is now in the sidebar by default. Yes, it's free for basic use; yes, it's marketed as private; yes, the prompts go to a third-party provider. Dazr ships no AI features at all.
Dazr vs Brave at a glance
Same Chromium engine on both sides, what's different is everything around it.
| Feature | Brave | Dazr |
|---|---|---|
| Telemetry | Aggregated (P3A) by default | None, ever |
| Country / jurisdiction | US (Brave Software Inc.) | EU |
| Cryptocurrency wallet | Built in (multi-chain) | None |
| Brave Rewards / BAT token | Shipped, prompted | No rewards, no token |
| In-browser ads (privacy-respecting) | Yes (opt-in) | Never |
| AI assistant in sidebar | Leo, by default | No AI shipped |
| Built-in ad blocker | Yes (Shields) | Yes (Ghostery engine) |
| Anti-fingerprinting | Yes | Yes |
| Strips tracking parameters | Yes | Yes |
| Default search engine | Brave Search | Dazr Search (EU-hosted, no Google upstream) |
| Built-in VPN | Yes, paid (Guardian) | No (we recommend Mullvad / Proton) |
| Tor private window | Yes | No (use Tor Browser for that workflow) |
| Browser engine | Chromium | Chromium |
| Free | Yes | Yes |
What changes when you switch
A browser that's just a browser
No wallet. No rewards. No tokens. No "earn while you browse" prompts. No creator-tipping interface. No AI assistant. Dazr's surface area is small on purpose, fewer features means fewer privacy attack surfaces and a smaller maintenance burden, which means more focus on the privacy fundamentals.
- No cryptocurrency anywhere
- No advertising business inside the browser
- No AI assistant or chat sidebar
- No upsell to paid services
European jurisdiction, not US
This is the meaningful structural difference. Brave is a US company, subject to US laws that can compel user data through secret court orders. Dazr is European, our services are European, our infrastructure is European. That's a categorically different situation.
- European privacy law, not US data laws
- EU non-profit DNS (dns0.eu)
- EU-hosted update server and search backend
- No US cloud anywhere in the data path
A search backend with no Google upstream
Some users specifically want a search experience where Google is not in the data path at any level. Dazr Search runs on our own EU-hosted backend, aggregating from non-Google engines. No Google index, no Google API.
- EU-hosted meta-search backend
- No IP logging, no query history
- No AI overview cluttering results
- Long-tail queries answered by independent indexes (Mojeek, Brave's index alternatives, Wikipedia, etc.)
What Brave still does that Dazr doesn't (yet)
- Mobile. Brave is on iOS and Android. Dazr is desktop today; mobile is on the roadmap.
- Private window over Tor. If routing private windows through the Tor network is part of your workflow, that integration isn't built into Dazr. Tor Browser does this best as a standalone tool.
Frequently asked questions
Why would I leave Brave? It's already privacy-friendly.
Brave's privacy story on the technical side is real. The reasons people switch are usually: (1) the cryptocurrency layer (BAT, Brave Rewards, the wallet, the VPN upsell) feels like product creep into something that should just be a browser, (2) Brave is US-incorporated and subject to US jurisdiction, (3) the team prefers a search backend with no Google upstream at all. Dazr is the version of Brave's privacy story without those layers.
Does Dazr have anything like Brave Rewards?
No. Dazr does not show ads, even "privacy-respecting" ones. There is no rewards program, no cryptocurrency wallet, no token, no creator tipping. The browser doesn't try to be a payment platform; it's a browser.
Does Dazr have a built-in VPN like Brave?
No. Brave's VPN is a paid Guardian Mobile add-on. We think the right answer is to recommend Mullvad, ProtonVPN, or IVPN, all EU-headquartered, all audited, rather than re-sell another company's VPN inside the browser.
Will my Brave bookmarks and extensions transfer?
Bookmarks: yes, Dazr offers automatic Brave bookmark import on first launch. Extensions: most popular Chromium extensions (Bitwarden, 1Password, Dark Reader, Vimium) work in Dazr too, install them as unpacked extensions.
Does Dazr search use Google?
No. Dazr Search runs on our own EU-hosted search backend, which aggregates from non-Google engines. The search backend, the update server, and the DNS resolver are all EU-only by construction.
Is the EU jurisdiction really meaningful?
Yes. US-based companies are subject to US laws that can require them to hand over user data to government agencies, sometimes through secret court orders. European companies aren't. For privacy-conscious users, and especially for European businesses, that legal difference matters.
Same privacy story, minus the crypto
If you came to Brave for the privacy and stayed despite the wallet, this is the version without the wallet. Built in the EU.
Download Dazr