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Web BrowserPrivacySecurityBrowsers

What are the most private and secure web browsers?

13

Options
Considered

371

User
Recs.

Feb 5, 2024

Last
Updated

12 Options Considered

What are the most private and secure web browsers	Price	Browser Engine	License
58 Tor Browser	FREE	Gecko	Open Source (MPL-2.0)
-- Mozilla Firefox	FREE	Gecko, Webkit on iOS(since Apple does not allow third party web engines)	MPL-2.0
51 Google Chrome	free	Blink, Webkit on iOS (since Apple does not allow third-party web engines)	EULA
-- LibreWolf	-	Gecko	MPL - 2.0
-- Microsoft Edge (Chromium)	free	Blink	EULA

Tor Browser

Top Con

Extremely slow

Caused by the tor network the browser depends on. See More

Top Pro

The only browser package which includes a gateway build in into TOR a network where you can actually browse the web with completely anonymous or at least to whatever you browse on it

Privacy. It's fundamental. And this browser has enabled and keeps enabling people to lookup things they don't want their ISP/ government or surveillance marketers to see. And what's better they won't know a thing about what you searched. What is visible to the outside world however is the fact: you make use of TOR and probably the TORBrowser this client / citizen of ours is using TOR to obfuscate his /her traffic (=~anonymize ). See More

ConfidentOceanus's Experience

Users are easily traced as most sites require scripts and they were all enabled for years despite settings saying they were not. TorProject altered default settings to low security to help Law Enforcement facilitate Operation Onymous in 2014. If downloaded from GooglePlayStore a Unique User ID is assigned to track people. See More

Specs

Browser Engine:Gecko

License:Open Source (MPL-2.0)

Based On:Mozilla Firefox ESR

Default Search Engine:DuckDuckGo

Top Con

Not secure at all

Tor is based on Firefox which is very insecure compared to Google Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Tor sets the standard for safe and private browsing

If you follow their instructions religiously, Tor is the nec plus ultra in terms of safety and privacy. For the time being at least. See More

Top Con

Not made as your daily browser

It does not support many modern features due security and is pretty slow. See More

Top Pro

Access hidden .onion sites

Top Con

Dependent on Mozilla

Since it uses gecko. See More

Top Pro

Provides anonymity

Tor Browser routes traffic through the Tor network and deletes all privacy sensitive information (such as the browsing history or cookies) at the end of each session. Additionally, it encrypts all traffic. See More

Top Con

Not secure

Firefox isn't as secure as Chrome. See More

Top Pro

Portable

Can be installed and run on a portable device such as a USB stick. See More

Top Con

Does not guarantee perfect anonimity unlike what most users would suspect

Top Pro

Free and open source

Top Con

Must adapt new browsing habits

It is not recommended to do several things TOR browser that users would want to do in a normal browser, such as visiting social networks and banking. See More

Top Pro

Uses the Tor network

Top Con

You will hang on every recaptcha

Top Pro

Open source

Open source builds trust on using the program. See More

Top Pro

Based on Firefox

Firefox is a great browser, and tor is built on it. See More

Top Pro

Relatively fast

Top Pro

NoScript and HTTPS Everywhere installed by default

Mozilla Firefox

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

Some built-in advertising

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

TallMaahes's Experience

Well-established, well-designed and well-supported browser with many add-ons to provide extra facilities. SO MANY GOOD THINGS...but of course a few niggles - though yours are probably not the same as mine ;o). If you don't know about it, where have you been for the past 20+ years for goodness's sake? Anyway, for your own good, PLEASE STOP using anything which includes Google (E.g. CHROME - though NOT Chromium-based browsers - there are many fundamental difference...especially related to privacy) and similarly any Microsoft equivalent (like BING). They both track YOUR internet activities... If that's really what you want, ignore what I said (but be prepared to live with the consequences...) See More

Specs

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

License:MPL-2.0

Based On:Netscape>Mozilla Suite

Default Search Engine:Bing

Top Pro

Automatically updated

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

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

ConscientiousParthenope's Experience

Firefox has become the most horrible browser, everythime you open it after an update it wants something from you. I just want an simple browser that can be extended, I don't care about sponsored links, pocket and all the other extensions it comes with... See More

Top Pro

Awesome customizability

Great library of add-ons. See More

Top Con

Crappy license

Cannot redistribute binary after source code modification. 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

Terrible user interface

And you can't even fix it anymore because they removed XUL. 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 Con

Uses Google as its default search engine

Which is pretty ironic for a browser that's focused on "privacy". See More

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

Installs addons with updates

Mozilla is installing/integrating addons with every update like the Mr. Robot promotion - it also has integrated Pocket that spams you every time you open the browser or a new tab with partners of Pocket. See More

Top Pro

Built-in Privacy Protection

Blocks tracking cookies, finger print scanners and Cryptominers by default. Can be changed to the user's individual needs. See More

Top Con

Doesn’t support multiple languages for spell check

If you write in multiple languages, you need to manually switch the spell check language. See More

Top Pro

A lot of add-ons

An enormous number of add-ons. See More

Top Con

Sponsored bookmarks

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 Pro

Really independent browser

It's not dependent on Google. See More

Top Pro

Mobile

Firefox has a solid mobile app. 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

Very secure

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

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

Strong HTML5 feature support

Firefox scores strongly on HTML5 feature support. Though not as strongly as Chromium/Chrome browsers do. See More

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 Pro

About:config

Master about:config and uBlock Origin, and all Firefox-based browsers will be yours. 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 Pro

Built-in privacy protection

Blocks tracking cookies, finger print scanners and Cryptominers by default. Can be changed to the user's individual needs. 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

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

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 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

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

Google Chrome

Top Con

It's Google

Data collection! See More

Top Pro

Simple user interface

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

CuriousSif's Experience

Just like Edge...This ranking is a CON! See More

Specs

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

Based On:Chromium with proprietary Media codecs and Addons

Default Search Engine:Google

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

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

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

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 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

Top Pro

Excellent HTML 5 feature support

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

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

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

Customizable by user

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

Top Con

Not as customizable as Firefox or Vivaldi

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

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

Good performance

According to TopTen Reviews, Chrome is currently one of the best performing browsers for initial (cold) startup, average startup, and navigation times. Works very well with the uBlock Origin adblocker. See More

Top Con

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

Top Pro

Chrome is faster than Firefox

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

Plays more media formats than any open source browser

Includes support for many licensed unfree media formats. See More

Top Con

No mobile extensions

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

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

No menu bar on Windows

There's no menu bar, except on Mac OS or Linux appmenu. 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

This ranking is a CON! You switch browsers to avoid Googles...

Read the title "Most Private and Secure web browsers". How is data selection either of those? Where does it say rank your favorite browser? What am I missing here? Not helpful! 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 Con

Soon to disable AD blocking and create DRM for the web

Top Pro

Popular

As of March 2015, Chrome is the most popular browser on the internet, with a 43.9% - 63.7% market share. Its rendering engine Blink is also the most used rendering engine and used in many products including: Opera, Vivaldi, Qt, Brave, Steam or Electron meaning most developers will be testing their sites against this browser to ensure compatibility. See More

Top Con

American agents may track you

Top Pro

Data collection

Chrome uses online services to collect our data and improve our browser experience. But this also means it spys on you. 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

Developed by a trusted company and not an unknown developer

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

Can translate text directly

Top Con

Bad quality control on extensions

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

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 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 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 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 Pro

Backed and supported by Google

Whilst Chrome is based on the open source browser Chromium, Google reviews this code and build 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

LibreWolf

Top Pro

Carefully hardened browser

Many privacy preferences enabled by default. See More

DeliberateCeto's Experience

Very secure, private and free Browser! l'ts a tweaked Firefox Browser, with privacy and Anti-Fingerprint enabled by Default... See More

Specs

Browser Engine:Gecko

License:MPL - 2.0

Based On:Firefox

Default Search Engine:DuckDuckGo

Top Pro

Up to date

Updated following new versions of firefox. See More

EfficientHel's Experience

Using as default for browsing, pdf reading and other See More

Top Pro

Good and secure browser

Easy to configure security options, many configured by default. See More

Top Pro

Synchronizable

Very easy to synchronize with any Firefox-based browsers. See More

Microsoft Edge (Chromium)

Top Con

(Integration with) Windows designed by Microsoft so that deinstall/ install of browser of user choice is extremely elaborate

Let's just wait to see history repeat itself, and Micorsoft being fined for it. (Again!) See More

Top Pro

Fast

CuriousSif's Experience

What is your definition of private and secure? How would that include data collection? The title doesn't say best browser experience does it? This ranking is a CON! See More

Specs

Browser Engine:Blink

Based On:Chromium core with proprietary UI

Default Search Engine:Bing

Top Con

Microsoft sends all your browsing history to Microsoft and tracks you by default

Microsoft Edge collects less information than Chrome, but still is collecting data about you and your interests. See More

Top Pro

Has built-in ad blocking features

If you select the "strict" option in the Microsoft Edge settings, it practically becomes an ad blocker. See More

Top Con

Synchronization between PC and phone is weak

Although synchronization between computers is similar to Chrome, synchronization between PCs - phone is weak. See More

Top Pro

Better web compatibility

Uses the same engine as Chromium so web pages render better. See More

Top Con

Unlike the legacy version, it doesn't have the option to set aside tabs which was a very useful feature

It does give you the option to give feedback for people who want setting tabs aside back, but it's not likely they're going to add it. See More

Top Pro

Built on Chromium

Microsoft are contributing to Chromium. See More

Top Con

This ranking is a CON!

What is your definition of private and secure? How would that include data collection? The title doesn't say best browser experience does it? This ranking is a CON! See More

Top Pro

More private

During the launch of Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, the company claimed to have removed more than 50 services intended to collect user data. The improvement in this aspect does not come only from the hand of privacy, but also from optimization. The privacy settings are also a lot simpler to understand, more robust, and better than Chrome. There are three modes, basic, balanced and strict. See More

Top Pro

Consumes much less battery than Chrome and other alternatives

Top Pro

Faster than Chrome and other browsers

It uses less RAM, has tracking prevention and accelerates the hardware when possible. See More

Brave

Top Con

Quite intrusive advertisements, especially on Windows

Advertisements keep popping up in the Windows notification center. Must opt in to ad system, but no option to disable sound for ad notifications only. See More

Top Pro

Built-in adblocking

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

Specs

Browser Engine:Blink

License:MPL-2.0

Based On:Chromium core

Top Con

Brave is an Ad company

Brave Software is a for-profit company (though users must opt into Brave ads and Brave doesn't track users.). See More

Top Pro

Very fast

The fastest browser out there. See More

Top Con

Useless built-in 'ad blocker'

Its adblocker is useless to be honest. Since the extension uBlock Origin is a great blocker by itself, the Brave ad blocker does not block every ad! 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

Same security-holes as Chrome

On the desktop: Brave 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 Brave. However, Brave has security features that Chrome doesn't (such as a built-in adblocker). Those features will stop many hacking attempts. See More

Top Pro

Option to disable additional privacy concerns

Like fingerprint tracking. 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

Tor is available right in the browser

Top Con

Promotes search engines that track users such as Bing and Google

Google Search is the first search engine on the list. See More

Top Pro

Developed by creator of Mozilla and Javascript

Top Con

Download package is very large considering it as a browser

Brave takes on a lot of roles besides just browsing so it is understandably a larger file. 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

Doesn't remove search engine ads

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 Con

Creator support limited

Most creators don't use it and so will not profit from the crypto system. See More

Top Pro

Now supports Chrome Webstore

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

Top Con

Sync issues

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

Top Pro

Supports the latest technologies

Brave regularly adds new functionalities like decentralized domain support and a native crypto wallet long before Chrome considers them. These features to be disabled in settings. See More

Top Con

No reader view

Can be accessed with an extension though. See More

Top Pro

Optional feature for you to get reimbursed for viewing ads

Basic Attention Token; you can decide 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 Con

No cloud sync like Firefox

Top Pro

Sync is now available

Option to synchronize data between devices using peer-to-peer connections. No sign-in required, only a sync code. See More

Top Con

Still dependent on Google

Since it's based on Chrome. See More

Top Con

Bookmark management

Bookmark management is not as seamless as other browsers. See More

Top Con

Uses much RAM

1 tab, 400+ RAM, also it depends on what website you're on. See More

Top Con

A browser for NFT-ers(?)

There would be less of a problem with using Web3 solutions if they weren't sometimes looking like an art for art's sake, a jerkcircle shoving down it's own topic down the users' throat. Replacing the Web 2.0 with another commercial solution is bound to end up as a reinvention of the wheel, where even more commercialization and direct monetization will push digital exclusion. Non-profit open source community has achieved great things while so far NFTs and cryptos are, not without a reason, ridiculed. See More

GNU IceCat

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 Pro

Extra security and privacy features

Specs

Browser Engine:Gecko

License:OpenSource

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

Very slow boot time

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

Top Con

Mainly just an old Firefox

It is mainly a renamed older version of Firefox that comes preinstalled with some extensions. 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

Includes LibreJS by default with no way to remove it

Top Con

Dependent on Mozilla

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

Top Con

Made by idealists

It is part of the GNU Project. See More

Top Con

It is created for Unix/Linux

Unix/Linux are a very small minority of device users. Software is not compatible with other OSs. See More

Top Con

Can't install some Firefox themes/addons

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

Iridium

Specs

Browser Engine:Blink

License:OpenSource (3-clause BSD)

Based On:Chromium

Default Search Engine:Qwant

Bromite

Top Con

Not secure

Bromite lacks ad blocking and other privacy protecting features. See More

Top Pro

Removes click-tracking and AMP from search results

Specs

Browser Engine:Blink

Based On:Chromium

Default Search Engine:Google

Mobile Platforms:Android

Top Con

Still contains spyware

Default homepage is spyware and searches are enabled by default. See More

Top Pro

Super private

Has built-in ad blocking and default search engine can be changed easily. No Google account tracking. See More

Top Con

Eats up battery life

Because it's very fast, which puts pressure on the RAM & hence ultimately on battery. See More

Top Pro

Respects your privacy better than all other Chromium based browsers

DNS over https (require more flexibility if possible). See More

Top Con

Unsecure

Bromite lacks ad blocking and other privacy protecting features. See More

Top Pro

Up to date with the Chromium releases

Top Con

Big target for hackers

Bromite, as a Chromium fork, is the most popular browser in the world. This means that it is a big target for hackers. See More

Top Con

Fake privacy browser

Top Con

Bromite = Google Chrome

It uses Chrome for the query. See More

DuckDuckGo

Top Con

Downranks "misinformation" results

Company announced that they are downranking misinformation results about the war by Russia media, after Russian's invasion of Ukraine. See More

Top Pro

Very protective of user privacy

DuckDuckGo does not collect or share any personal information. Their privacy page has a great rundown on why privacy is important. The most important repercussion of this is that DDG doesn't use the data collected to tailor results, avoiding exposure to the "Filter Bubble". See More

PoliteIasion's Experience

This entry is not a browser!! See More

Specs

Category:Search engine

Top Con

Activism censorship

They started to block results based on activism. See More

Top Con

Irrelevant search results

They store no information about you (theoretically a pro) but this results in absolutely awful search results, and having to modify your search terms 4-5 times to get what you are looking for. See More

Top Con

No date information in search results

In search results, there are no dates when the pages were published, which doesn't allow you to immediately know if the page is outdated. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo has many 'Owners'

DuckDuckGo is owned by Gabriel Weinberg who is is the founder, current CEO and controlling shareholder. Investors/shareholders include Union Square Ventures and several others. DuckDuckGo generates its income from advertising (Bing Ads) and collects affiliate revenue (Amazon, eBay). See More

Top Con

Owner would compromise his service/customer privacy

In a question to Weinberg, “if you were served an NSL or were commanded to compromise your service/customer privacy in any way, would you and could you just pull the plug like Lavabit did or would you run into opposition from shareholders/investors that would prevent you from doing so?” Gabriel Weinberg said: “No one is preventing me from doing that.” See More

Top Con

Based in US, so they cannot guarantee there is no backdoor

Top Con

Saving settings in Duckduckgo's Cloud still needs improvement

Cloud save and the ability to pull up your settings on any device is a nice idea but the implementation needs work. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo has no 3rd party certifications

Top Con

Doesn't do personalized searches

Since they don't track you the results are not tailored to your interests. See More

Top Con

Bing = DuckDuckGo

Duckduckgo depends on Bing for the query. See More

Top Con

Hosted on Amazon servers (EC2)

Top Con

Referrers

A referrer is an HTTP header field that identifies the address of the webpage (i.e. the URI or IRI) that linked to the resource being requested. By checking the referrer, the new webpage can see where the request originated.” Basically it tells a website where you came from. DDG does give this out. See More

Top Con

Search using language other than English is not so great

Korean would never use it. See More

Top Con

DuckDuckGo and Yahoo Partnership

See here and here. See More

Top Con

Bangs do not protect user privacy and can be misleading

Using these bangs will instantly connect you to the service you requested. For example typing “!g white cat with green eyes” and hitting return, drops you off on the Google website to display your results (thus logging your IP, search term and browser info immediately). It does not get you Google results inside DuckDuckGo. It is reasonable for DDG users to assume and expect a private search engine warns if there is a risk to that privacy being lost, like it does with Youtube videos but in the case of Bangs this does not happen. See More

Top Con

Needs a clearer vision of the future

What's duck's goal or quest? See More

Top Con

Still not better than Google

Results are quite often not as good. They just lack resources to do it, for now. See More

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