# Ecosia: Search to plant trees — user reviews > 1,199 indexed App Store user reviews of Ecosia by Ecosia GmbH, rated 4.70/5 from 9,275 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ecosia-search-to-plant-trees/id670881887/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ecosia-search-to-plant-trees/id670881887.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 7,894 · 4★ 704 · 3★ 295 · 2★ 139 · 1★ 243 ## What do users think of Ecosia? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🌳 Helps plant trees - 👍 Smooth and fluid browsing experience - 🔒 Secure and private - 🔍 Better search results than Google - 🌍 Eco-friendly alternative to big tech - 💨 Fast and efficient **Cons** - 🐛 Glitchy and freezes frequently - 🔍 Search results not always relevant - 🕰️ Slower than other browsers - 🔍 Missing some advanced search features - 🌐 Incompatible with certain websites and links **Commonly reported bugs** - Tabs and browsing history disappearing - Captcha issues preventing searches - Ads causing viruses or malware - Autocomplete not working as expected **Most requested features** - Add dark mode - Implement password syncing across devices - Improve image search functionality - Provide more transparency on tree planting progress - Add 'find on page' feature ## Newest reviews (13 of 1,199) ### 3/5 — Might be broken *2026-08-18, version 12.4.2* Great work with the app but every time I try to open a tab it says I’m a robot and I just downloaded the app. Everytime I confirm I’m not it resets and makes me do it again. ### 3/5 — No search access *2026-08-17, version 12.4.2* Verified I am human, but still won’t search can only access by entering url. Troubleshooting suggestions do not work. Only reporting available seems to reporting a bug that will no be looked at until the next update ### 2/5 — Not so good *2026-08-17, version 12.4.2* The app and what it stands for is nice but using it is a pain, it hardly has results for what you want and is very complicated. Google and safari much better. ### 4/5 — Okay App *2026-08-16, version 12.4.2* Nothing new snd I do not care about the apps cause. ### 4/5 — Great Search Engine. 🪴 *2026-08-15, version 12.4.2* I'm glad that this browsing app helps the Earth by planting trees when you search for anything you want. I'm glad to be thinking more about the environment and life, thanks to Palestine. Hope Ecosia stays forever. ### 4/5 — yes but *2026-08-15, version 12.4.2* the only reason those lousy rates about “why is there an ai if ai destroys the planet!!” it’s a fricking ai that plants trees probably but the ads do have virus ### 4/5 — robot verification *2026-08-15, version 12.4.2* I love this search engine but I got a robot verification without the puzzle and for several days nothing has changed :( I uninstalled I cleared cache, everything & it still persists, I can't search anything because the test isn't showing up I'm so confused & irritated ### 3/5 — Update *2026-08-15, version 12.4.2* I did not ask for ai to take over my searches. I’d like to remove ai tell me how. ### 3/5 — Where are the bookmarked pages? *2026-08-12, version 12.4.2* I love ecosia for most things but the only issue I have found is accessing bookmarks on IOS. Idk if it’s the case on other devices but the homepage is quite useless. ### 5/5 — Problems *2026-08-10, version 12.4.2* I’d love to keep supporting Ecosia and all but I’ve run into a problem that many other people have. Every time I try to search something up, it says “confirm you’re not a robot”. As of writing this, I’ve probably already clicked it 20-30 times. Instead of letting you search something up after clicking the square, it pauses for a moment and asks you to click it again. Please fix your app, Ecosia. I want to help plant trees but this is stopping me from doing so. (5 stars so people can see) ### 4/5 — overall good, minor complaints *2026-08-10, version 12.4.2* good but the default tab really should be ecosia.org!!! that searches better than the default one but it isn’t able to be set as default or anything!!!!! same positives as the other reviews but give phones more customization!!!! we can’t make ecosia.org our default opening PLEASE ### 5/5 — please help me!! :( *2026-08-09, version 12.4.2* ive had some awesome experience with this app until recently, (hence the 5 stars.) I have not been able to properly search things without a bot warning coming up, and when I try to complete it, it doesn’t work!! Please help :( ### 5/5 — search stopped working *2026-08-08, version 12.4.2* 5 stars so EVERYONE can see, they ask you to verify if you’re not a robot every. single. time. you search something up, ive been using this app for about months now and it just randomly started asking me, and matter of fact, i cant even do the verification for some reason, it loads and then goes away?? like what even is the point of adding it if i can’t use it?? duckduckgo tbh is a wayyy better option with adblocker, turnable off ai (like ecosia) etc, do what you will with this info idk ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Silly captcha *2026-08-18, version 12.4.2* Every time I try to search something it says “Our system has detected unusual traffic from your network. Please solve the challenge below to show you’re not a robot.” So I click on the cloudflare thingy but it just reloads the page and gives me the same message! So disappointing! I was excited to use this browser because of the positive climate impact but I guess it wasn’t meant to be 😭 ### 1/5 — Too much AI :( *2026-08-14, version 12.4.2* I really wanted to like this browser, I’ve used it for about a year now. The problem I keep running into is that it’s absolutely FULL of AI everywhere, you can’t avoid it or turn it off. The images feature is completely full of slop, it’s very difficult to find real normal photos of things. It’s disappointing considering AI is destroying the planet, making the integration of this counterintuitive to the mission. I know the AI is to “keep up” with the other popular search browsers, but I really think most people who are looking for browser alternatives are not interested in AI. If this is removed, or at least if there’s an option to remove it like DuckDuckGo, then I might come back. But right now it feels practically unusable to me