When comparing w3m vs Basilisk, the Slant community recommends Basilisk for most people. In the question“What are the best web browsers for UNIX-like systems?” Basilisk is ranked 24th while w3m is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose Basilisk is:
So the source code can be verified.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Support for several elements not found in terminal browsers
Although w3m is primarily a text-based web browser which runs inside the terminal, it supports and renders several elements which other terminal-based browsers cannot like images, tables, tabs or frames.
Pro Available as emacs plugin
W3m can also be downloaded as an emacs plugins to be used as a fast web browser that runs inside emacs.
Pro Open Source
So the source code can be verified.
Cons
Con Steep learning curve
Being a terminal web browser w3m has a certain learning curve because you need to learn the keystrokes and different commands.
Con Security risk
Con Limited WebRTC support
Con Licensed under MPL
which one of the more restrictive open source licenses.
Con Uses Goanna
A Gecko fork that is developed by mostly one developer.
Con Only available for Intel based cpu architectures
it is only available for ix86 and amd64.