Web Browser Recommendations

I use Windows, macOS, Linux and Android on a regular basis, and these are the web browsers I like better than Chrome, Edge and Safari. (I don’t have any iOS devices, so I can’t really speak to how well these run on there.)

I’ve been quite happy with Vivaldi for the past few years. It’s the spiritual successor to the original Opera browser, built on Chromium, and they’ve committed to not cluttering up your experience with “AI” (though you can clutter it up with power-user features if you want). Vivaldi runs on Windows, macOS and Linux (on both x86_64 and ARM) as well as Android and iOS. The Android version is noticeably faster than Firefox.

Orion

Orion Browser has been quite nice as well. It’s more advanced than Safari, and can run extensions made for Safari, Chrome or Firefox, but tries to keep a simpler, less cluttered design. Currently it’s only on macOS (and maybe iOS, I forget), but they’re working on a Linux version.

I should add that I don’t have a problem with Safari, I just usually want a bit more than it can provide, like the ability to sync with my non-Apple devices.

Firefox Variants: Waterfox and Zen

Mozilla…seems to be flailing about these days, chasing ad revenue and investor-friendly buzzwords. While I still like Firefox overall, I haven’t been happy with the direction it’s been going.

Waterfox has been solid: it’s basically Firefox minus Mozilla, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, as well as Android. The macOS version is universal, the Windows version is x86_64-native but runs well under emulation on ARM systems, and the Linux version is x86_64-only. The Android version is slower than Vivaldi, but it can run extensions.

I also like Zen Browser, which is trying to build “a calmer internet” experience. Zen is sort of like rebuilding Arc using Firefox instead of Chromium, and runs on all major desktop platforms.

Special Use Cases

Privacy

LibreWolf (desktop) and IronFox (Android) both use Firefox as a base and make a bunch of trade-offs to make it harder for sites to track you. Tor Browser is the gold standard, and bounces your traffic around the world to hide where you’re connecting from…but that also slows things down a lot.

Slow hardware

Falkon has a decent balance between capability and leanness. It mainly on Linux, but if you’re running on old or low spec hardware, Linux is going to run a lot better on it than Windows anyway. And then there’s the extremely minimalist Dillo, which doesn’t support JavaScript but is blazing fast at loading and displaying web pages.

Avoid

Edge tries very, very hard to lock you into Microsoft’s services as thoroughly as possible.

Chrome tries very, very hard to lock you into Google’s services as thoroughly as possible.

Brave has experimented with some interesting tech, but it’s wrapped up in the crypto/venture capital/exploitation side of Silicon Valley.

Opera seems to just be chasing buzzwords these days. I much prefer Vivaldi, which picked up where the old Opera left off.

Dia feels like a chatbot with a web browser bolted on, rather than the reverse. I haven’t tried OpenAI’s Atlas, but from what I’ve read, they dispensed with the web part as much as they could.

I’ve tried and reviewed a lot of web browsers over the past year, if you’re curious about what didn’t make my best / worst list here.