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

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7 Options Considered

7 Options ConsideredPriceDefault Search EngineDefault Adblocker
Vivaldi
Bing–
Mozilla Firefox
Yahoo!Disconnect (Simple OR Strict)
Opera
GoogleAdblocker
Brave Browser
––
Google Chrome
Google–
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Vivaldi

Endi Sukaj
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.
An_dz
Endi Sukaj
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.
An_dz
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Tabs can be stacked

•••
Tabs can be grouped under a single tab to easily keep track of all open webpages.
An_dz
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Cross-platform

•••
Vivaldi is available on Windows, Linux and OSX.
An_dz
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.
An_dz
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Monika
oli g.
Top Pro

Hibernate background tabs

•••
Tabs in the background can be put to sleep to free up memory resources.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
An_dz
Top Pro

Non-closable fixed tabs

•••
A setting lets you prevent closing fixed tabs so you don't close the YouTube tab by accident.
An_dz
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.
An_dz
Endi Sukaj
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. 😄
Endi Sukaj
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.
LearnedChrysus
Top Con

No automatic page translation

•••
Unlike Chrome, it doesn't automatically translate pages that are not in your language.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

No VPN

•••
Endi Sukaj
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...
See 19 more Pros & ConsSee 19 more Pros & Cons

Mozilla Firefox

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Alex
AuthenticBasmu
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Strong HTML5 feature support

•••
Firefox scores strongly on HTML5 feature support.
Alex
AuthenticBasmu
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.
AuthenticBasmu
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Awesome customizability

•••
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Syncs between devices

•••
Firefox Sync is an optional feature in Firefox that allows syncing bookmarks, passwords, and add-ons between devices.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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 su...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Strong developer tool

•••
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Automatically updated

•••
Firefox is automatically updated on the platforms where it makes sense.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Good font rasterizing

•••
Font rasterizing on Windows is much better than in competitors. Even smaller text is clear and contrast.
Endi Sukaj
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
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Icons display blurry on HiDPI

•••
Firefox has not yet addressed its scaling issues for HiDPI screens, making the icons blurry.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Slow performance in OS X

•••
Uses a lot of resources and feels slower than the Linux and Windows versions.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

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

•••
You must use PulseAudio if you need sound in Firefox.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Poor enterprise support

•••
Does not use standard management tools such as GPO or Profile management. No MSI.
See 21 more Pros & ConsSee 21 more Pros & Cons

Opera

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Georgia
Top Pro

AdBlocker onboard

•••
It's possible to add own filter lists. The internal adblocker is faster than any external.
Georgia
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.
Georgia
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.
Monika
LivelyToci
Top Con

Quite slow and sometimes unresponsive

•••
It also eats RAM.
See 2 more ProsSee 2 more Pros

Brave Browser

Add Video or Image
CooperativeManaf
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.
Paolo
CooperativeManaf
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.
Monika
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.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
See 2 more ProsSee 2 more Pros

Google Chrome

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Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Plenty of extensions

•••
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Customizable by user

•••
Each of the managed users can have their own configuration (themes, extensions, ...)
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Excellent HTML 5 feature support

•••
As of February 2015, Chrome scores highest of all browsers for HTML5 compatibility.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Popular

•••
As of March 2015, Chrome is the most popular browser on the internet, with a 43.9% - 63.7% market share, meaning most developers will be testing their sites against this browser to ensure compatibility.
Endi Sukaj
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 tho...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Installs extensions without requiring a restart

•••
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Freeware

•••
Available as a free download.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Simple user interface

•••
For example, the address bar is also the search bar. Google calls it Omnibox.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

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

•••
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Proprietary

•••
Google Chrome is proprietary software, meaning that it is not open source.
Endi Sukaj
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 accelera...
Endi Sukaj
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 19 more Pros & ConsSee 19 more Pros & Cons

Chromium

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Endi Sukaj
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 ju...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Completely open source

•••
Unlike Google Chrome, Chromium is completely open source.
Endi Sukaj
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 Chro...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Not possible to disable WebRTC

•••
See 5 more Pros & ConsSee 5 more Pros & Cons

Safari

Add Video or Image
Solon
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.
Monika
Mariano Alvarez
Top Con

It is for Mac only

•••
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81 Community Recommendations

An_dz
Febrianto Nugroho
oli g.
Great Hero J
Steven Dino Windfeld
Endi Sukaj
SHiLEE
x.
fanofjesus
PowerfulGyges
Timothy Bump
+56
Request recommendations from the community
DazzlingHuehuecoyotl
DazzlingHuehuecoyotl
Contributor for 4 months
2
Total 
Recs.
140
Total 
Karma
Opera
Recommended 4 months ago
Pros over the rest: pop-up windows easy tab-muting
See full
CooperativeManaf
CooperativeManaf
Contributor for 4 months
1
Total 
Recs.
75
Total 
Karma
Brave Browser
Recommended 4 months ago
Fast on youtube with build in ad block (ad block is optional and can be disabled if needed) pretty new browser, but already better than chrome in my opinion.
Pro
 Built-in Adblocker
Pro
 Free and open source
Pro
 Privacy protection
Pro
 Free and Open Source
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IncredibleRindr
IncredibleRindr
Contributor for 4 months
1
Total 
Recs.
75
Total 
Karma
Brave Browser
Recommended 4 months ago
excellent video speed
See full
fanofjesus
fanofjesus
Contributor for 4 months
1
Total 
Recs.
0
Total 
Karma
Vivaldi
4 months ago
it can't handle very many windows open or tabs at the same time
1See full
UpbeatMacGreine
UpbeatMacGreine
Contributor for 4 months
1
Total 
Recs.
0
Total 
Karma
Vivaldi
Recommended 4 months ago
This is difficult but ... profound! The answer would be ... I've used it to find it is so.
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x.
x.
Contributor for 5 months
41
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1K
Total 
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Vivaldi
5 months ago
Definitely not Vivaldi's strongest area.
See full
Currently displaying 6 out of 81 total recommendations.
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