When comparing elinks vs w3m, the Slant community recommends elinks for most people. In the question“What are the best web browsers for UNIX-like systems?” elinks is ranked 23rd while w3m is ranked 25th. The most important reason people chose elinks is:
Elinks supports tabs and tabbed navigation.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports tabs
Elinks supports tabs and tabbed navigation.
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.
Cons
Con Text-based only
Lynx is a text-based only web browser and it's the oldest browser still in use. Being text-only, it's not very useful anymore outside some niche use cases.
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.