When comparing GNOME Web vs Cake web browser, the Slant community recommends GNOME Web for most people. In the question“What are the best desktop web browsers?” GNOME Web is ranked 19th while Cake web browser is ranked 54th. The most important reason people chose GNOME Web is:
Since it is a GNOME app, you get all the benefits of the GNOME desktop. It's easy to use, Epiphany just works out of the box. It stores your web site passwords in the secure GNOME keyring, and uses your existing desktop settings to launch applications and access the network, so you don't need to configure everything twice.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Fits in perfectly with the GNOME desktop
Since it is a GNOME app, you get all the benefits of the GNOME desktop. It's easy to use, Epiphany just works out of the box. It stores your web site passwords in the secure GNOME keyring, and uses your existing desktop settings to launch applications and access the network, so you don't need to configure everything twice.
Pro Excellent alternative to the most popular web browsers
Sometimes my workflow involves using separate browsers. I like mail in app tabs, but some jobs are well suited to a lighter, simpler web browser.
Pro GNOME integrated
Includes features specific to GNOME like turning sites into apps that are managed with GNOME software and the ability to install GNOME extensions.
Pro For Linux and Windows
Available for Linux and Windows 10 with WSL, see here.
Pro Lightweight
Epiphany is pretty lightweight and doesn't require much memory to start up.
Pro Best touchpad navigation
Pinch to zoom, smooth bidirectional scrolling are still far beyond other browsers.
Pro Default in many GNOME versions
Epiphany has been the default browsers for many distributions that use stock GNOME for a long time now (although it's being replaced by the much more popular Firefox lately).
Pro Less bloated than Google
Ad settings are removed.
Pro Adblock
Blocks ads.
Pro Fast
Even faster than Google Chrome.
Pro Always secure 24/7
Cons
Con Crashes often
Epiphany can crash on a heavy load or when closing/opening tabs. While this only happens every few days, it still happens more often than in most other browsers.
Con Not much room for configuration
The choice for extensions is very limited, although there are decent extensions for the most useful activities and features it still cannot compare to the extensive collections that other browsers may have access to.
The number of tweaks that can be done to the browser from the options menu is also very limited since Epiphany follows a philosophy of "less is more". While this can be enjoyable for some it still hinders a lot of functionality and removes the ability to personalize the browser the way you want it to be.
Con Becomes messy on highly graphical pages
Sometimes struggles to handle complex graphical pages such as Facebook. In these circumstances, it becomes 'messy' - text and graphics get mixed up - and will eventually crash. Even so, this is a light and useful browser.
Con Tends to lag on large pages
Open this page in Epiphany and start zooming/scrolling quickly to see what it.
Con Limited UI
Con Unable to block Verizon media trackers
Con Lags and freezes
Something needs to be done about it.
Con Has Yahoo as its default search engine
Which is quite ironic for this "privacy" browser with Verizon Media.
Con Lacks tracker blocking features on websites you visit
Con Same security holes as Yahoo
Cake uses the same browser as Yahoo, meaning that it has the same security holes as Yahoo. Yahoo is also a big target for hackers, and a web page that will hack Yahoo also will hack cake.
Con Dumbed down its latest versions
Before, Cake almost felt like DuckDuckGo. Now it's dumbed down, it almost feels like Chrome/Chromium. For example, it's still not secure on websites you visit.
Con Has odd behavior
When you leave the app and go back in, it lets you go back to the top of the page, rather than where you are.
Con Mobile-only
Cake is currently available on mobile only. Due to the screen size, cake is not available on windows, linux, etc.
Con Depends on Yahoo
Since it's based on Yahoo.