What are the best fast browsers for YouTube and video streaming ?

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score 59 · Answer 1

Vivaldi

All

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

No VPN

Top Pro

Compatible with most Chrome extensions

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

Customizable UI

Vivaldi can change the colors across the browser and has the option to change the color automatically depending on the page. Also, page loading animations are available in the address bar. 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

Mouse gestures

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

Top Con

No default adblocker or crypto miner blocker

Top Pro

Built on web technology

Vivaldi uses JavaScript, React, Node.js, Browserify and multiple npm packages to build the browser. This means you can edit the UI if you know HTML, JS and/or CSS. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

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

Top Pro

Can be used to keep 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 Pro

Tabs can be stacked

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

Top Pro

Tab tiling

Tabs can be put in a side-by-side or grid view so you can watch a video and control YouTube while accessing other sites at the same time. The feature can be toggled on Tab Stacks or by selecting the tabs with Ctrl+clicking. 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

Low memory consumption

Top Pro

Faster than Firefox or Chrome

Top Pro

Can be completely keyboard-driven

All actions required to interact with the browser like navigating webpages and changing settings can be performed using only keyboard, no mouse required. See More

Top Pro

Hibernate background tabs

Tabs in the background can be put to sleep to free up memory resources. See More

Top Pro

Add websites as web panels for easy access

Allows for easy access to any site and for reading two websites side by side. Useful for chatting (i.e. Facebook) and surfing at the same time. Panels can be hidden when not in use. 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 Pro

Non-closable fixed tabs

A setting lets you prevent closing fixed tabs so you don't close the YouTube tab by accident. See More

Top Pro

Custom keyboard shortcuts

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

Top Pro

Analytical history

View graphically the most visited pages on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. This should give you a hint if you have been visiting YouTube too much recently. 😄 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

Specs

Default Search Engine:Bing

See All

score 16 · Answer 2

Mozilla Firefox

Top Pro

Strong HTML5 feature support

Firefox scores strongly on HTML5 feature support. See More

Top Con

Icons display blurry on HiDPI

Firefox has not yet addressed its scaling issues for HiDPI screens, making the icons blurry. See More

Top Pro

Fairly low on resource usage

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

Top Con

Heavy and consumes lot of memory

Mozilla developers should think on this as the new Microsoft edge browser steals less memory and it just pops up the moment you open it. In case of Mozilla, you have to wait for after clicking it for opening it. See More

Top Pro

Great 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 Con

Slow performance in OS X

Uses a lot of resources and feels slower than the Linux and Windows versions. 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

Unstable add-ons

E10s has already caused many extensions to not work properly. Also, in November, only add-ons with WebExtension API can be installed. See More

Top Pro

Awesome customizability

Top Con

Installing some extensions still requires restarting the browser

While some of the developers already allow users to install their extensions without the need to restart the browser, not all of the extensions have been updated to support non-restart installation yet, as some developers have yet to add special code to do so. 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

As of v. 52, audio support on ALSA systems was dropped

You must use PulseAudio if you need sound in Firefox. 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

Updates not in sync with updates of (key) extensions

A key extension can suddenly becomes useless because extension updates tend to fall behind the updates of Firefox. 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 Con

Poor enterprise support

Does not use standard management tools such as GPO or Profile management. No MSI. 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 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

Automatically updated

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

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

Top Pro

Distraction-free 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

Strong developer tool

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

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

Specs

Default Search Engine:Yahoo!

Default Adblocker:Disconnect (Simple OR Strict)

See All

score 11 · Answer 3

Opera

Top Con

Quite slow and sometimes unresponsive

It also eats RAM. See More

Top Pro

AdBlocker onboard

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

Top Pro

Customizable

Opera is full of user-controlled settings. Everything can be imported and exported even RSS feeds. It can be skinned in a variety of different themes or it can be extended through the use of a large number of plugins available. 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

Specs

Default Search Engine:Google

Default Adblocker:Adblocker

Built-in VPN:Opera's own free VPN

See All

score 8 · Answer 4

Brave Browser

Top Pro

Free and Open Source

It is a free to use browser in Android and also open source, so anyone can help contribute to the browser. See More

Top Pro

Privacy protection

Brave protects users with privacy and security features such as HTTPS Everywhere, script blocking, 3rd party cookie blocking, and private incognito tabs. See More

Top Pro

Built-in Adblocker

This feature ensures an ad-less web experience, while also having a performance improvement in loading websites up to 4 times faster. See More

Specs

Price:Free

Required Android Version:4.1 and Above

Developer:Brave Software

Android version:1.0.30

See All

score 4 · Answer 5

Chromium

Top Pro

Supports all of Google Chrome features

As Chrome is based on Chromium they overlap in supported features. Chromium syncs between devices, automatically updates, has great built-in developer tools, installs extensions without a restart, includes a combined text bar for entering URLs and searching and has excellent HTML5 compatibility just like Chrome. See More

Top Con

High RAM usage

Just like Chrome, Chromium also eats a lot of RAM, which can be a problem for machines with smaller RAM. See More

Top Pro

Access to Chrome's extensions

Chromium can access the Chrome Web Store and all the extensions hosted there can be installed and used on Chromium. See More

Top Con

Lacks privacy options

Top Pro

Completely open source

Unlike Google Chrome, Chromium is completely open source. See More

Top Con

Lacks support for certain common media formats

As Chromium avoids bundling any proprietary software, media that requires proprietary codecs or formats such as AAC, H.264, MP3 and Flash will not play by default on Chromium. See More

Top Pro

Backed by Google

Chromium was first released as a large portion of Chrome's source code as an open source project by Google in september 2008. The idea was to encourage developers to review the underlying code and to contribute in making Chrome cross platform and port it to Mac and Linux as well. Nowadays Chromium is a large project with a huge community that's standing behind it but still Google continues to take an extremely active role in Chromium development. This ensures the longevity and constant development and improvement of the browser. See More

Top Con

Not possible to disable WebRTC

Specs

Default Search Engine:Google

Price:FOSS

Built-in VPN:no

See All

score 4 · Answer 6

Waterfox

Top Pro

Fast

Top Con

Requires Windows XP SP2 or newer

Top Pro

Works with major streaming services

Includes widevine plugin and suitable user agent for viewing major streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Video. See More

Top Pro

Offers excellent privacy

Does not phone home. See More

Top Pro

Works with Firefox addons

Firefox 56 add-ons compatibility, including unsigned XUL extensions and complete themes. See More

Specs

Default Search Engine:Qwant

See All

score 6 · Answer 7

Google Chrome

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

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

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

Plenty of extensions

Top Con

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

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

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

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

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

Freeware

Available as a free download. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

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

Top Pro

Installs extensions without requiring a restart

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. See More

Top Pro

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

Customizable by user

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

Top Con

Spyware by Google

Top Pro

Simple user interface

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

Excellent HTML 5 feature support

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

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

Specs

Default Search Engine:Google

See All

score 2 · Answer 8

Safari

Top Con

It is for Mac only

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

Specs

Default Search Engine:Google

See All

score 2 · Answer 9

8 Options Considered

My Recommendation for Vivaldi

My Recommendation for Vivaldi

Built for power users

No VPN

Compatible with most Chrome extensions

No automatic page translation

Customizable UI

Proprietary

Mouse gestures

No default adblocker or crypto miner blocker

Built on web technology

Cross-platform

Can be used to keep notes

Tabs can be stacked

Tab tiling

Tab behaviour can be customised

Low memory consumption

Faster than Firefox or Chrome

Can be completely keyboard-driven

Hibernate background tabs

Add websites as web panels for easy access

Allows navigating to the next page without searching for the link

Non-closable fixed tabs

Custom keyboard shortcuts

Analytical history

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

My Recommendation for Mozilla Firefox

My Recommendation for Mozilla Firefox

Strong HTML5 feature support

Icons display blurry on HiDPI

Fairly low on resource usage

Heavy and consumes lot of memory

Great performance

Slow performance in OS X

Free, open source and community driven

Unstable add-ons

Awesome customizability

Installing some extensions still requires restarting the browser

Lower memory fingerprint than competitors

As of v. 52, audio support on ALSA systems was dropped

Ethical and pragmatic company mission

Updates not in sync with updates of (key) extensions

High performance

Poor enterprise support

Uses less resources

Good font rasterizing

Automatically updated

Fast bookmark management

Tagging bookmarks

Distraction-free reader view

Strong developer tool

Syncs between devices

Integration with Pocket

My Recommendation for Opera

My Recommendation for Opera

Quite slow and sometimes unresponsive

AdBlocker onboard

Customizable

Compatible with Chrome extensions

My Recommendation for Brave Browser

My Recommendation for Brave Browser

Free and Open Source

Privacy protection

Built-in Adblocker

My Recommendation for Chromium

My Recommendation for Chromium

Supports all of Google Chrome features

High RAM usage

Access to Chrome's extensions

Lacks privacy options

Completely open source

Lacks support for certain common media formats

Backed by Google

Not possible to disable WebRTC

My Recommendation for Waterfox

My Recommendation for Waterfox

Fast

Requires Windows XP SP2 or newer

Works with major streaming services