What are the best browsers for desktop & mobile with browsing across devices?

Question

9

Options
Considered

221

User
Recs.

Jul 13, 2021

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

8 Options Considered

Best browsers for desktop & mobile with browsing across devices	Price	Based On	License
89 Brave Browser	$0	Chromium core	OpenSource (MPL)
88 GNU IceCat	-	Mozilla Firefox	OpenSource
68 Mozilla Firefox	-	Netscape>Mozilla Suite	OpenSource (MPL-2.0)
-- Vivaldi	-	Chromium core with proprietary UI	BSD+Proprietary
-- Safari	-	N/A	Proprietary

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score 38 · Answer 1

Brave Browser

Top Pro

Built-in Adblock

Other apps make it difficult to block ads without rooting your phone or going through unoptimized add-on stores, but Link Bubble blocks them out of the box, making browsing much less crowded. Contains an optional "Allow Brave Acceptable Ads" So you can support the site you truly enjoy. See More

Top Con

Hypocritical/deceptive stance on privacy and advertisement

Brave is advertised as a browser that respects your privacy and blocks ads while still supporting content creators. However, at the same time the company is making deals with Facebook, Twitter and others to whitelist their trackers and ads. See More

PersistentRanginui's Experience

I just heard it’s rlly good also it’s tied with tor in my list for best security See More

Specs

Based On:Chromium core

License:OpenSource (MPL)

Browser Engine:Blink

Top Pro

Faster than Chrome and Firefox

3x to 6x faster is what Brave says. See More

Top Con

No history or tab sync

It is in the works but the lack of history and tab sync is the reason I am not using Brave. See More

Top Pro

Takes care of privacy and security

Takes privacy seriously by blocking ads and trackers and not tracking people's searches. Things like https everywhere and no tracking are standard with Brave. In most other browsers, things like these are optional at best. See More

Top Con

Sync issues

Unable to sync extensions, no cloud sync (only device sync). See More

Top Pro

Free/libre software

Released to the community under the Mozilla Public License (MPL), this software respect the FSF's four freedoms, including the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute with or without modification freely. See More

Top Con

Power hungry, uses much more battery power than other browsers

Per default Brave enables hardware acceleration which results in a much higher energy (battery) consumption than the most other web browsers. See More

Top Pro

Faster than Google Chrome

Brave consistently beats Chrome in speed, might have to do with less tracking being run in the background See More

Top Pro

Tor is available right in the browser

Tor is now the default search engine for Brave. But it falls short of privacy by having customizable window size. See More

Top Pro

Option to disable additional privacy concerns

Like fingerprint tracking. See More

Top Pro

Planned optional feature for you to get reimbursed for viewing ads

Basic Attention Token; you will be able to opt into a new blockchain-based digital advertising system, giving publishers a better deal and users a share of the ad revenue for their attention. See More

Top Pro

Built-in torrent client

Top Pro

Option to pay supported sites based on view time percentage

Set up automatic micro-donations. Brave will automatically divide a monthly donation among the top sites you visit. And/or, you can decide which sites get what percentage of your donation. It’s called pinning. See More

Top Pro

Earn Crypto while browsing

One of the biggest advantages is to earn BAT while browsing See More

Top Pro

Now supports Chrome Webstore

It's now a faster, less intrusive Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Developed by creator of Mozilla and Javascript

JavaScript and Mozilla are very popular, so it makes no sense why Brave is not popular See More

Top Pro

Sync is now available

The CON from below (no sync) is now added. See More

Top Pro

Very fast

The fastest browser out there. See More

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score 20 · Answer 2

GNU IceCat

Top Pro

Made by idealists

It is part of the GNU Project. See More

Top Con

Very slow boot time

It takes 10+ seconds for the browser to load up. See More

Specs

Based On:Mozilla Firefox

License:OpenSource

Browser Engine:Gecko

Top Pro

Extra security and privacy features

Top Con

Includes LibreJS by default with no way to remove it

Top Pro

Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF

Top Con

Dependent on Mozilla

Since IceCat is based off Firefox, it's dependent on all of Mozilla's decisions. See More

Top Con

Requires too much unnecessary configuration to use

You have to manually delete all the bloated addons from your files (only for them to show up again when the browser is updated) and manually install some addons and themes that the browser labels as "corrupt". See More

Top Con

Too much bloat

The browser comes with 15 addons installed by default, most of which are useless or ruin one's browsing experience. See More

Top Con

Mainly just an old Firefox

It is mainly a renamend older version of Firefox that comes preinstalled with some extensions. See More

Top Con

Not up to date

Latest binary is still version 60.7 ESR and was last updated over a year ago See More

Top Con

Can't install some Firefox themes/addons

"Installation aborted because the addon appears to be corrupt". See More

See All

score 43 · Answer 3

Mozilla Firefox

Top Pro

Syncs between devices

Firefox Sync is an optional feature in Firefox that allows syncing bookmarks, passwords, and add-ons between devices. See More

Top Con

Uses GTK on Linux/BSD

This makes the integration on non-GTK Desktop Environments very hard. See More

StudiousTisiphone's Experience

The sync system works wonderfully and on top of that you don't have to worry about Mozilla snooping in your synced data. See More

Specs

Based On:Netscape>Mozilla Suite

License:OpenSource (MPL-2.0)

Browser Engine:Gecko, Webkit on iOS(since Apple does not allow third party web engines)

Platforms:Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android,iPadOS

See All Specs

Top Pro

Free and open source

Firefox is a completely free and open source web browser. See More

Top Con

partial dark mode

(bookmark, context menu, etc are not themed) See More

Misu Ballo's Experience

Firefox has better features than Chrome and is easy to use. See More

Top Pro

Free, open source and community driven

Firefox is available as a free download. All Mozilla software is licensed under the Mozilla Public License. Instructions on how to obtain the source code can be found here. See More

Top Con

Crappy license

Cannot redistribute binary after source code modification. See More

Top Pro

Lower memory fingerprint than competitors

Firefox used to be a trailer in memory usage, but as of 2017 it's less hungry for memory than competitors like Edge, Chrome, Safari and Opera. See More

Top Con

Abandoned XUL for webextensions

Top Pro

Awesome customizability

Top Con

Sometimes very buggy and slow

On sites like twitch.tv chat scrolling is still not fixed. Compared to other browsers Firefox is still very slow and feels sluggish. See More

Top Pro

Strong HTML5 feature support

Firefox scores strongly on HTML5 feature support. See More

Top Con

Lack of keyboard shortcuts customization

Keyboard shortcuts can not be changed in a user-friendly way. It is also difficult to manipulate addons with hotkeys. See More

Top Pro

Available for Android

Not only is it available for Android, but the Android version can also be customized by installing add-ons - something no other browser can brag about. See More

Top Con

Pocket integration

Top Pro

Uses less resources

Firefox 57 (Quantum) and newer uses less resources than ever. It is proven with benchmark done by AppleInsider. See More

Top Con

Some built-in advertising

with their new "pocket" feature, they offer advertisements built-in. See More

Top Pro

Respects your privacy

Mozilla is one of the first browsers that advocates privacy. They believe that internet should be in the user's control and not those who run the websites, and so they give tools inside the browser to make the user be more in control. See More

Top Con

GTK Themes styles the HTML forms

If you're in Linux and you use a dark GTK theme that uses white text and come to a webpage that forces black text on html-forms buttons you will get black buttons with unreadable black text. See More

Top Pro

Open Source

Open Source means that you can see the source code. So everybody even if they don't work for Mozilla is able to look what the browser does in the background. So you can be 100% sure that Firefox doesn't have hidden "spy features" unlike Google Chrome. See More

Top Con

Can't scroll tabs with mouse wheel

It's pretty basic but you can't switch between tabs back and forth using your mouse wheel. Any add-ons supporting this have been deprecated since FF57. See More

Top Pro

Really independent browser

It is really independent browser, unlike many other that are based on Chromium. See More

Top Con

Multi Profile are not user friendly

multi profile require commandline -no remote to use and open about:profiles to create manually (on chrome, you can instantly create them on right top user button) See More

Top Pro

Android version allows installation of addons

Unlike other browsers, Mozilla uses almost the same codebase as with the desktop version so extensions work as-is without code modifications - something other browsers cannot do due to their breaking and sometimes unrelated code branches to the mainline desktop branch. See More

Top Con

Android app needs a new UI

Android app doesn't look good, performance also average compared to Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Ethical and pragmatic company mission

The Mozilla Manifesto outlines the company's mission and principles. Paraphrasing, they want the Internet to be a free and open resource, and to enable individuals to get the best use of that resource. They do this by creating open source software to which anyone may contribute, so long as such contributions fit with their principles (both ethical and technical). See More

Top Pro

High performance

The Firefox Quantum update (FF57) greatly increases the render speed and general performance of the browser, by taking better advantage of the user's hardware. See More

Top Pro

Strong developer tool

The built-in developer tools have been merged with the popular FireBug extension since FF57. See More

Top Pro

Fast bookmark management

In order to add an open page to the bookmark bar, the tab can be dragged down and is added immediately. See More

Top Pro

Automatically updated

Firefox is automatically updated on the platforms where it makes sense. See More

Top Pro

Easy screenshots without extensions

Within the browser itself, you can easily take screenshots and save them to your computer. See More

Top Pro

Good font rasterizing

Font rasterizing on Windows is much better than in competitors. Even smaller text is clear and contrast. See More

Top Pro

Integration with Pocket

Firefox comes with build-in Pocket integration that can allow users to quickly save the article for a read it later function to easily find any articles saved in Pocket from various sources and devices. See More

Top Pro

Fast

With new integrations focused on security and performance, Firefox is faster and less likely to have problems during use than ever before. See More

Top Pro

HTML5 Video Preload

The only web browser that only preload entire HTML5 video which useful for slow internet See More

Top Pro

Dark theme

Beyond the toolbar and tabs, it darkens UI elements such as the URL-bar, pop-downs, new-tab page and more See More

Top Pro

Firefox Experiments

FF Experiments are Mozilla projects available from FF Test Pilot, such as Firefox Colour, witch lets you customise your browser theme to your liking! See More

Top Pro

A lot of add-ons

An enormous number of add-ons. See More

Top Pro

One of the few browsers not using Chrome's Blink engine

Firefox uses its own rendering engine (called Gecko), instead of Google-controlled Blink like the vast majority of other browsers. See More

Top Pro

Reader View

Reader View in Firefox allows users to read an article without any distractions by removing ads, unrelated elements and other distractive objects (similar to Microsoft Edge's Reading Mode and Safari's reader mode). See More

Top Pro

Screenshots tool

Powerful screenshots tool built right into the browser. See More

Top Pro

Uses fewer resources than other widely-used browsers

Firefox 57 (Quantum) and newer uses less resources than ever. It is proven with benchmark done by AppleInsider. See More

Top Pro

WebRender

The newer versions of it will soon use WebRender to render webpages, which'll make it much more efficient by utilizing GPU to paint webpages. See More

Top Pro

Firefox Lockwise Password Management

Helps store your usernames and passwords. Lockwise also lets you know if any of the sites you have login details for have had their (and potentially your) data leaked! See More

Top Pro

Automatically updated

Firefox is automatically updated on the platforms where it makes sense. See More

Top Pro

Tagging bookmarks

Firefox is one of the few browsers that you can tag your bookmarks. You can view a list of tags and can search your bookmarks in the address bar with tags. See More

See All

score 17 · Answer 4

Vivaldi

Top Pro

You can modify vivaldi trough css

Css modifying can completely change the look and feel of the browser. See More

Top Con

Telemetry

According to its privacy policy, Vivaldi sends an approximate location, randomized ID, version, CPU architecture, screen resolution and time since last message every 24 hours. See More

Duy Nguyen Luong's Experience

it's fast, simple, great-look See More

Specs

Based On:Chromium core with proprietary UI

License:BSD+Proprietary

Platforms:Windows; macOS; Linux; Android

Top Pro

Synchronisation

Everything can be synced with a Vivaldi account between computers and OSes. Though no mobile version is available yet. See More

Top Con

Slow

FunnyErnmas's Experience

Old user interface. See More

Top Pro

Tab bar position can be changed

Users can change tab bar position to top, bottom left or right See More

Top Con

No VPN

ExuberantSpes's Experience

A very large variation of customizations See More

Top Pro

Compatible with most Chrome extensions

So what’s the key features here bc sounds like y’all are exactly like the other sites and apps Since Vivaldi is built on Chromium, the same base as Chrome (among other browsers) is built on, it was possible for Vivaldi developers to allow Chrome extensions to run in their browser. See More

Top Con

Old User Interface

Looks like 5/6 Years old. Haven't been updated till the first release. See More

Eric Waters's Experience

I personally love Vivaldi! It's one of my favorite Desktop browsers, and as soon as they finish their mobile app, I'll probably be heading back there. See More

Top Pro

Built-in page capture

Vivaldi can grab a picture of the whole webpage or part of it and saves it automatically inside a note or as a file in your disk. See More

Top Con

Comes with many ads

After installation the first thing you have to do is to remove all the default bookmarks and quickdial links which is really annoying. There is more minor stuff like the default search provider or your start page things that could be easily managed with a wizard at the first startup. See More

Top Pro

Custom search engines

You can add as many search engines as you like. For example you can set up one for YouTube, one for Wikipedia, or whatever you want: you need only the URL of the search and it can be used from the URL bar (by prefixing it's nickname, yt for YouTube for example). See More

Top Con

Proprietary

While Vivaldi is currently available gratis (without monetary charge), it is currently not fully libre (meaning that it does not allow users to view the source code used to create, to modify that code, or to redistribute modifications) and is therefore neither free nor open-source software. The C++ source code however is open-source under a BSD license and can be downloaded and browsed from here. The UI code though is not open-source, but it's easily readable as it's HTML, CSS & JS. Modifications can be shared as their forum even has a dedicated section. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Vivaldi is available on Windows, Linux and OSX. See More

Top Con

No built-in adblocker

Unlike Opera (but like most browsers), Vivaldi doesn't have an adblocker out of the box. You'll need an extension, if you want Vivaldi to block ads. See More

Top Pro

Tabs can be stacked

Tabs can be grouped under a single tab to easily keep track of all open webpages. See More

Top Con

Can't disable all spyware features

Top Pro

The UI can be customized with ease

Since Vivaldi uses JavaScript, React, Node.js, Browserify and multiple npm packages to build the browser, it can be customized with ease by anyone who knows HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. See More

Top Con

Feature Creep

Top Pro

Built for power users

Vivaldi includes lots of niche functionality such as the ability to move tabs to any side of the screen, turn images on and off, or render pages with monospace fonts. See More

Top Con

Developers do not care for your privacy

Top Pro

Web Panels

Web Panels allow for easy access to any site from the side panel. They are useful for reading two websites side by side or for chatting (i.e. Facebook) and surfing at the same time. Panels can be hidden when not in use. See More

Top Con

Freezes often

Top Pro

Full of customizable keyboard shortcuts (can be completely keyboard-driven)

It's possible to change and add keyboard shortcuts for basically all commands. It also has single key shortcuts to execute actions with one click. See More

Top Con

Comes with default bookmarks

By default: Vivaldi has a number of websites (such as Amazon) already bookmarked. This could be seen as a pro or a con. However, these default bookmarks can be deleted, same as any other bookmark. See More

Top Pro

Non-closable fixed tabs

A setting lets you prevent closing fixed tabs so you don't close anything important by accident. See More

Top Con

Same security-holes as Chrome

Vivaldi uses the same browser engine as Chrome, meaning it has the same security-holes as Chrome. Chrome is a big target for hackers (being the most popular browser in the world), and a webpage that will hack Chrome may also hack Vivaldi. See More

Top Pro

Allows navigating to the next page without searching for the link

A feature called fast forward puts a dedicated button before the address bar that is designed to help you navigate to the next page of a multi-page article, forum thread or search results without having to hunt for the link. See More

Top Con

Not available on your Phone/Tablet

Vivaldi is currently only available for desktop operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac). Though the developers have already said that they plan to release it. See More

Top Pro

Manage bookmarks very well

Vivaldi has an excellent bookmarks system. Bookmarks can be easily accessible via Speed Dial, side-bar, bookmarks bar, quick commands. No more messy bookmarks bar is needed and location bar suggestion is improved thus! See More

Top Con

No silent background updates

Unlike most modern browsers, Vivaldi doesn't have the option to update silently in the background. It gives you a dialog box when an update comes out. Worse, the box doesn't warn you that not updating the browser could lead to security risks. That could be pretty bad for your average joe, who doesn't know computers that well. See More

Top Pro

Ability to search through settings, history, open tabs, bookmarks in one place

A feature called Quick Commands (accessed via Ctrl + Q) allows quickly getting to settings, history, open tabs, bookmarks with incremental search. See More

Top Con

Can't protect pinned tabs from changing to another URL

Clicking on a page link, then another, easy to wind up far from the original pinned tab site. There is no chrome addon or native vivaldi function to stop this. See More

Top Pro

Notes

A notes panel allows leaving notes on webpages and can include screenshots for reference and have tags and organized in folders to help manage them. See More

Top Con

No automatic page translation

Unlike Chrome, it doesn't automatically translate pages that are not in your language. See More

Top Pro

Reader mode

Vivaldi has a built-in reader mode so you can remove all the clutter in news pages and read only the content, you can also customise the reader mode, like font size, style and colours. See More

Top Pro

Usable fullscreen mode with address bar when needed

In comparison, on Chrome you will not see the address bar, only on ChromeOS when your mouse is on the top of the screen. See More

Top Pro

Programmable user interface

For you programmers out there: Since Vivaldi uses JavaScript, React, Node.js, Browserify and multiple npm packages to build the browser, it can be customized with ease by anyone who knows HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. See More

Top Pro

GDPR compliant

Top Pro

Compatible with all Chrome extensions

Since Vivaldi is built on Chromium, the same base as Chrome (among other browsers) is built on, it was possible for Vivaldi developers to allow Chrome extensions to run in their browser. See More

Top Pro

Lots of features and customizability

Vivaldi has a lot of features and customizability. Far more then most (perhaps all) other browsers. See More

Top Pro

Dark theme out of the box

There's even an option to automatically transition from light to dark based on the time of day. See More

Top Pro

Updates via dialog box

Unlike most modern browsers (but like most browsers of yesteryear), Vivaldi gives you a dialog box when an new version comes out; it doesn't just update silently in the background. The dialog box tells you about the changes that have been made, and lets you chose when you want to update. See More

Top Pro

Tab behaviour can be customised

The order you toggle, open, close or clone tabs can be modified to match a workflow that best works for you. For example you can choose tabs to toggle in recent order so you can go back and forth between the last most useful tabs without needing to change their position on the tab bar. See More

Top Pro

It does not collect any personal data

It only ckecks your browser version and cpu architecture every 24 hours See More

Top Pro

Built-in ad and tracker blocker

Vivaldi has a built-in blocker that allows you to select between blocking just trackers or both trackers and ads. With customizable blocking list sources, good performance, and support for all the standard blocker list features you find in ad blocker extensions (with more to come), you might not need an ad blocker extension at all. This also comes in handy on Android, where Chromium/Vivaldi doesn't support extensions. See More

Top Pro

Faster than Firefox or Chrome

Top Pro

Mouse gestures

Integrated mouse gestures. Fully configurable as of Vivaldi 1.2 (snapshot available now). Allows for navigating the web, switching tabs, closing windows, opening settings etc. with a flick of the mouse. See More

Top Pro

Analytical history

View graphically the most visited pages on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. See More

Top Pro

Cross browser extensions with Opera and Chrome, Firefox web-ext's too

All Vivaldi, Opera and Chrome users can get extensions from all extension/addon sites, especially from Opera Addons and Chrome Store. See More

Top Pro

WebRTC IP leaking can be disabled

A built-in setting called "Broadcast IP" will stop the IP leaking with WebRTC when disabled. See More

Top Pro

VPN is available by extension- also routing through Tor network

VPN and Tor encryption is possible through extensions. Tor is a free choice if one doesn't want to subscribe to a VPN service. See More

Top Pro

Portable version can be added on default apps

Most portable version cannot be added as default apps but Vivaldi offers that option and it comes with updater too. See More

Top Pro

Saving sessions

It saves oversights many options and functions implemented in Vivaldi. E.g. see CON "No option to open saved tab stack as... tab stack!" See More

Top Pro

Manages bookmarks well

Vivaldi has an excellent bookmarks system. Bookmarks can be easily accessible via Speed Dial, side-bar, bookmarks bar, quick commands. No more messy bookmarks bar is needed and location bar suggestion is thus improved. See More

Top Pro

PC Cross-platform

Vivaldi is available on Windows, GNU/Linux and macOS, so it covers the most used PC operating systems. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 5

Safari

Top Pro

iCloud syncing

Tabs, passwords, bookmarks, and history all sync across devices. See More

Specs

Based On:N/A

License:Proprietary

Browser Engine:WebKit

Platforms:macOS, iOS, iPadOS

See All Specs

Top Pro

Safari uses Webkit, a great open source web engine

Webkit is very light compared to Blink, renders web pages at an incredible speed, great CSS support and is also constantly evolving. See More

Top Pro

Sleek design

– No distraction stuff like favicons in tabs, all that borders, bevels and embosses in panels like in other browsers, no ugly shaped tabs. – Neat adress bar. – Good looking start “show all tabs” screen. See More

Top Pro

Extremely fast

Top Pro

Works elegantly in OSX

The rendering of the pages and the browser compatibility with OSX works smoothly, when compared to other browsers. Also you get very high battery life with Safari, when compared to Chrome. See More

See All

score 13 · Answer 6

Opera

Top Pro

AdBlocker onboard

It's possible to add own filter lists. The internal adblocker is faster than any external.but it leaves placemarks. See More

Top Con

Opera is owned by a Chinese consortium

Who certainly need to conform with Chinese government requirements to let them infiltrate everything you do online. Also, China does not have internet freedom. See More

Jim S's Experience

Fast and small footprint on both desktop and androids See More

Specs

Based On:Chromium core with proprietary UI

License:Proprietary

Browser Engine:Blink

Default Search Engine:Google

See All Specs

Top Pro

VPN onboard

Free and fast VPN onboard, includes Germany, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Singapore. See More

Top Con

Basically a Chrome clone

The latest versions of Opera are basically Chrome clones, so they really don't add anything new. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

It doesn't consume much RAM, unlike Chrome. See More

Top Con

Buggy

Some buggy or confusing behavior with the bookmarks bar and moving tabs, and entire windows turning black after a while. See More

Top Pro

Broad OS range

Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, etc. Browsing across devices is supported on all of these. See More

Top Con

Free VPN scammy

So basically it’s not even a VPN it’s something scammy See More

Top Pro

Deep implementation of browsing across devices

One can not only view tabs on other devices, but also view and edit their express panels. See More

Top Con

Trash VPN

Terrible VPN service. Super slow. And it's not even a VPN, It's just a proxy service. See More

Top Pro

Opera Sync

Opera Sync allows you to synchronize your bookmarks, passwords, and more from any computer, phone, or tablet. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

While Opera is currently available gratis (without monetary charge), it is currently not libre (meaning that it does not allow users to view the source code used to create, to modify that code, or to redistribute modifications) and is therefor neither free nor open-source software. See More

Top Pro

Battery saving mode

Top Con

Uneditable default search providers

It can not delete or replace already built-in search services such as Yahoo, Google, DuckDuckGo, and Wikipedia. See More

Top Pro

Opera Flow

You can syncrhonize different devices with the Opera Flow service so you can send web pages from one device to the other ones inside the synchronization easily See More

Top Con

Cannot stop auto update

I guess it’s a bug See More

Top Pro

Built-in Social Media services integration

Has a built-in support for WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and VK functionality which let you use them from the side bar See More

Top Con

Cannot select tabs

Unlike in Chrome and Vivaldi, one cannot select multiple tabs to move to another/new window. See More

Top Pro

Speed Dial

Opera's Speed Dial (new tab page) has the ability to hold as many websites as you want, and you can customize it almost however you want. You can also organize the websites on the Speed Dial into folders. See More

Top Con

Fewer extensions

That means fewer password managers See More

Top Pro

Video pop-out feature

You can pop-out any video and it will stay on top while you are surfing on other tabs. See More

Top Con

Same security-holes as Chrome

Opera uses the same browser engine as Chrome, meaning it has the same security-holes as Chrome. Chrome is a big target for hackers (being the most popular browser in the world), and a webpage that will hack Chrome will also hack Opera. See More

Top Pro

Compatible with Chrome extensions

Since Opera is built on WebKit, the same engine Chrome (among other browsers) is built on, it was possible for Opera developers to allow Chrome extensions to run in their browser. See More

Top Con

Needs user prompt to install from Chrome web store

Every time you install an extension, you need to say install first from Opera extension list to proceed. See More

Top Pro

Opera turbo

Opera has a functionality called Turbo which increases browsers speed and reduces data consumption considerably by compressing the data that's found in a web page. See More

Top Con

Unable to sync extensions

Imagine having 100 extensions and Opera link cannot sync them, which will be troublesome. See More

Top Con

Owned by a Chinese consortium

Who certainly need to conform with Chinese government requirements to let them infiltrate everything you do online. See More

Top Con

WebKit/Blink is not customisable or lightweight

Opera is built on WebKit/Blink, which means it shares cons of Chromium: high RAM usage (Not lightweight), lack of customizability. See More

See All

score 24 · Answer 7

Google Chrome

Top Pro

Syncs between devices

By logging into Chrome using a Google account it's possible to sync history, extensions, passwords, bookmarks and other settings between devices. This makes it great for anyone working with multiple devices as it allows experiencing consistent context when in the browser. See More

Top Con

Huge memory hog

Each tab and extension in the browser uses significant chunks of RAM, giving the browser poor performance on machines without enough RAM to supply. See More

Misu Ballo's Experience

It is really fast and it has a nice user interface. I miss the screenshot options that Firefox has, but I can just download a plugin for that. I can download a plugin for almost anything. Another thing that I like about Google Chrome is that it has a great web inspector, that can be very useful for web developers. See More

Specs

Based On:Chromium with proprietary Media codecs and Addons

License:Proprietary

Browser Engine:Blink, Webkit on iOS(since Apple does not allow third party web engines)

Platforms:Linux; macOS; Windows; Android; iOS

See All Specs

Top Pro

Multiple account login

You can have multiple Chromes with different accounts logged at the same time. And it is really easy to manage different accounts. See More

Top Con

No mobile extensions

Chrome on Android and iOS does not support extensions. See More

Top Pro

Data Collection

Chrome uses online services to collect our data and improve our browser experience. See More

Top Con

Online tracking by default

Chrome allows opting out of tracking by going to Settings > Advanced > Privacy and un-checking any unwanted services. Alternatively Chromium can be used to get a similar browser experience without Google's services on top of it. See More

Top Pro

Multimedia Plugins and Codecs included

Google Chrome comes with its own flashplayer and the most common multimedia codecs so you don't have to worry that they are outdated nor do you need to install them as a third party package. See More

Top Con

Increasingly slow

When Chrome first came out, it was known for being lightweight and very speedy. Over the years, more and more features have been added to Chrome. Because of this, crashes, errors, and general laggy-ness has increased noticeably. See More

Top Pro

Engine is open-source

Chromium is open source, except the proprietary media codecs like AAC, H.264, MP3 and Adobe Flash, that can't be legally open-sourced. See More

Top Con

Gives too much weight to Google on the future of the Web

Top Pro

Uses Blink

It uses the blink rendering engine which has removed many legacy khtml/webkit code to be much lighter and faster. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

Google Chrome is proprietary software, meaning that it is not open source. See More

Top Pro

Only one distributor

Unlike those various unofficial Chromium builds, there is only one distributor, so all Chrome releases follow the same standards. See More

Top Con

Basic

Unlike Opera and Vivaldi which are more stable and has more features, Chrome is pretty basic. See More

Top Pro

Chrome is faster than Firefox

Top Con

Bad for battery life

Drains battery life on both Windows laptops and Macs much quicker than the alternatives. It can shave hours off the battery life of any non Chromebook laptop. See More

Top Pro

Plays more media formats than any open source browser

Includes support for many licensed unfree media formats. See More

Top Con

Bad quality control on extensions

Some just plain don't work while a few actually break the browser. See More

Top Pro

Backed and supported by Google

Whilst Chrome is based on the open-source browser Chromium, Google reviews this code and builds on top of it. This means it takes (and contributes to) a number of the benefits of the open source model whilst having the resources, support, and investment of a major company. See More

Top Con

Does not hardware accelerate HTML5 video correctly

Chrome is unable to hardware accelerate HTML5 video correctly which makes playing 4k video on laptops a poor experience filled with lag. Though there is a workaround for YouTube in that a plugin can be installed to force Flash playback instead of HTML5, which plays smoothly and has no HW acceleration issues. There's another plugin (h264ify) that will force to use the h.264 codec video if available instead of the VP9 one which is the resource hog. See More

Top Pro

Great built-in developer tools

Chrome comes with built-in developer tools, making testing and enhancing web pages simpler for those of us involved in working with such technologies. As well as being beneficial to developers, this also has some benefit to non-technical users; in that by making testing simpler for developers those developers are more likely to use Chrome for their tests, and can spend more time making improvements over investigating underlying causes of issues. See More

Top Con

Big target for hackers

Chrome is the most popular browser in the world. That makes it the most targeted browser in the world by hackers. See More

Top Pro

Installs extensions without requiring a restart

Top Con

Not fully open-source

While most of Chrome is open source: Chrome does have some closed-source components to make it possible to play some closed media formats. See More

Top Pro

Simple user interface

For example, the address bar is also the search bar. Google calls it Omnibox. See More

Top Con

No reader view

Unlike most other browsers, Chrome doesn't have a reader view function. See More

Top Pro

Automatically updates

Chrome updates in the background ensuring you're always on the latest version. This makes it much more likely that sites will work on your browser, since (almost) all Chrome users will be running exactly the same version. See More

Top Con

Not as customizable as Firefox or Vivaldi

Top Pro

Excellent HTML 5 feature support

As of February 2015, Chrome scores highest of all browsers for HTML5 compatibility. See More

Top Con

Hard/impossible to transfer passwords to a different machine without uploading them to Google

Top Pro

Plenty of extensions

There are far more available on this browser than any other, and that may matter for some. See More

Top Con

Blurred fonts on Windows

Fonts on Windows are blurred, that is especially noticeable in light fonts on dark background. Small italic text is hard to read. See More

Top Pro

Good performance

According to TopTen Reviews, Chrome is currently one of the best performing browsers for initial (cold) startup, average startup, and navigation times. See More

Top Con

No menu bar (except on Mac)

There's no no menu bar, except on Mac OS. See More

Top Pro

Sandboxed tabs

Every tab runs as their own process, so if one crashes or becomes unresponsive, the whole browser isn't affected. See More

Top Pro

Works great with many extensions

Unlike Firefox, Google Chrome can keep its fast performance regardless of how many extensions are installed. With more than 10 extensions Firefox gets slower and slower in a geometric progression rate. Google Chrome doesn't care how many extensions the user has installed - 3 or 133 it still performs great. See More

Top Pro

Customizable by user

Each of the managed users can have their own configuration (themes, extensions, ...) See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 8

Edge

Top Pro

Better performance

The performance of Microsoft Edge not just outperforms Microsoft's previous browser known as Internet Explorer, but due to the better technologies used, it also performs faster than other browsers such as Chrome. See More

Top Con

Cross platform support lacking

Only available on Windows 10 for desktop users, Edge manages to filter out a significant number of its intended target audience. Although also available on Android, the mobile version has significant stability issues, making it an unreliable primary browser. Unfortunately, this completely negates the main reason for wanting to use it in the first place - cross platform connectivity. See More

Specs

Based On:Chromium Core

Browser Engine:Blink

Platforms:Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS

Default Search Engine:Bing

Top Pro

Very efficient

Less battery draining than any other browser. See More

Top Con

The slow updates

It does not update often . See More

Top Pro

Works with Windows Defender - real time protection.

Edge has real-time protection from malicious websites and identity thefts by Windows Defender. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

While Microsoft Edge is currently available for Windows 10 without additional monetary charge (free as in price), it is currently not free as in freedom (meaning that it does not allow users to view the source code used to create, to modify that code, or to redistribute modifications) and is therefore neither free nor open-source software. See More

Top Pro

Stacked Tabs

With the new Creators Update, tabs can now be stacked for later use. See More

Top Con

Poor HTML5 support

Edge is considerably worse at rendering pages than Chrome or Firefox, or other leading competitors, and often encounters rendering issues where it doesn't render the page as the web designer expects. See More

Top Pro

Reading list

Reading list is a read-it-later feature that can allow users to add article to this section and read the article later on similar to Pocket and Safari's Reading List See More

Top Con

Flash embedded

The "security bug once a week" software flash is standard embedded and enabled in Edge. See More

Top Pro

No longer support legacy elements from Internet Explorer

Microsoft Edge drops supports of legacy elements that are previously available in Internet Explorer such as ActiveX, Browsers Helper Objects (BHOS) and VBScript in favor with JavaScript and HTML5. See More

Top Con

Only for Windows 10

On desktops, Edge is only available on Windows 10. However, it is cross-platform on tablets. See More

Top Pro

Supports web notes (annotations, drawing and highlighting)

Microsoft Edge supports annotations, drawing and highlighting that can allow users to add annotations into the website as a reference, highlight the notes on the website and also draw anything on the website. See More

Top Pro

Reading mode

Reading mode is a feature that can allow users to read an article in a reader mode, removing distractive elements such as ads and other elements, leaving only the main article and images, similar to Safari's reader mode and Firefox's recent addition of Reader View. See More

See All

score 7 · Answer 9

What are the best browsers for desktop & mobile with browsing across devices?

8 Options Considered

Brave Browser

My Recommendation for Brave Browser

My Recommendation for Brave Browser

Built-in Adblock

Hypocritical/deceptive stance on privacy and advertisement

Faster than Chrome and Firefox

No history or tab sync

Takes care of privacy and security

Sync issues

Free/libre software

Power hungry, uses much more battery power than other browsers

Faster than Google Chrome

Tor is available right in the browser

Option to disable additional privacy concerns

Planned optional feature for you to get reimbursed for viewing ads

Built-in torrent client

Option to pay supported sites based on view time percentage

Earn Crypto while browsing

Now supports Chrome Webstore

Developed by creator of Mozilla and Javascript

Sync is now available

Very fast

GNU IceCat

My Recommendation for GNU IceCat

My Recommendation for GNU IceCat

Made by idealists

Very slow boot time

Extra security and privacy features

Includes LibreJS by default with no way to remove it

Protects your freedom, certified free by the FSF

Dependent on Mozilla

Requires too much unnecessary configuration to use

Too much bloat

Mainly just an old Firefox

Not up to date

Can't install some Firefox themes/addons

Mozilla Firefox

My Recommendation for Mozilla Firefox

My Recommendation for Mozilla Firefox

Syncs between devices

Uses GTK on Linux/BSD

Free and open source

partial dark mode

Free, open source and community driven

Crappy license

Lower memory fingerprint than competitors

Abandoned XUL for webextensions

Awesome customizability

Sometimes very buggy and slow

Strong HTML5 feature support

Lack of keyboard shortcuts customization

Available for Android

Pocket integration

Uses less resources

Some built-in advertising

Respects your privacy

GTK Themes styles the HTML forms

Open Source

Can't scroll tabs with mouse wheel

Really independent browser

Multi Profile are not user friendly

Android version allows installation of addons

Android app needs a new UI

Ethical and pragmatic company mission

High performance

Strong developer tool

Fast bookmark management

Automatically updated

Easy screenshots without extensions

Good font rasterizing

Integration with Pocket

Fast

HTML5 Video Preload

Dark theme

Firefox Experiments

A lot of add-ons

One of the few browsers not using Chrome's Blink engine

Reader View