When comparing Google Chrome vs Microsoft Edge (Chromium), the Slant community recommends Google Chrome for most people. In the question“What are the best desktop web browsers?” Google Chrome is ranked 21st while Microsoft Edge (Chromium) is ranked 24th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Excellent HTML 5 feature support
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.
Pro Simple user interface
For example, the address bar is also the search bar. Google calls it Omnibox.
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.
Pro Plenty of extensions
There are far more available on this browser than any other, and that may matter for some.
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. Works very well with the uBlock Origin adblocker.
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.
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.
Pro Works great with many extensions
Unlike Firefox, Google Chrome can keep its fast performance regardless of how many extensions are installed. With more than 10 extensions Firefox gets slower and slower in a geometric progression rate. Google Chrome doesn't care how many extensions the user has installed - 3 or 133 it still performs great.
Pro Customizable by user
Each of the managed users can have their own configuration (themes, extensions, ...)
Pro Can translate text directly
Pro Uses Blink
It uses the blink rendering engine which has removed many legacy khtml/webkit code to be much lighter and faster.
Pro Only one distributor
Unlike those various unofficial Chromium builds, there is only one distributor, so all Chrome releases follow the same standards.
Pro Sandboxed Tabs
Every tab runs as their own process, so if one crashes or becomes unresponsive, the whole browser isn't affected.
Pro Chrome is faster than Firefox
Pro Simple interface
Pro Data collection
Chrome uses online services to collect our data and improve our browser experience. But this also means it spies on you.
Pro Engine is open-source
Chromium is open source, except the proprietary media codecs like AAC, H.264, MP3 and Adobe Flash, that can't be legally open-sourced.
Pro Popular
As of March 2015, Chrome is the most popular browser on the internet, with a 43.9% - 63.7% market share, Its rendering engine Blink is also the most used rendering engine and used in many products including: Opera, Vivaldi, Qt, Brave, Steam or Electron meaning most developers will be testing their sites against this browser to ensure compatibility.
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.
Pro Plays more media formats than any open source browser
Includes support for many licensed unfree media formats.
Pro Multimedia Plugins and Codecs included
Google Chrome comes with its own flashplayer and the most common multimedia codecs so you don't have to worry that they are outdated nor do you need to install them as a third party package.
Pro Fast
Pro Supports Chrome extensions
As it is built on Chromium.
Pro Better web compatibility
Uses the same engine as Chromium so web pages render better.
Pro More private
During the launch of Chromium-based Microsoft Edge, the company claimed to have removed more than 50 services intended to collect user data. The improvement in this aspect does not come only from the hand of privacy, but also from optimization. The privacy settings are also a lot simpler to understand, more robust, and better than Chrome. There are three modes, basic, balanced and strict.
Pro Faster than Chrome and other browsers
It uses less RAM, has tracking prevention and accelerates the hardware when possible.
Pro Built on Chromium
Microsoft are contributing to Chromium.
Pro Great UI
It will soon get a new UI codenamed Phoenix. Very cool.
Pro Consumes much less battery than Chrome and other alternatives
Pro Preinstalled in most Windows 10 devices
Most Windows 10 devices have Microsoft Edge preinstalled.
Pro Has built-in ad blocking features
If you select the "strict" option in the Microsoft Edge settings, it practically becomes an ad blocker.
Pro Fast enough, fair privacy protection and compatible with chrome extensions
Pro Has its own built-in plugin web store
Microsoft edge support both, microsoft edge add-ons and chrome web store
Pro Replaces the old pre-installed Edge
Since the old Edge isn't removable on most PCs.
Pro You can earn money with this Browser
with microsoft rewards and Edge you can earn money
Pro Free integrated VPN
Pro Good features for teams to work together, like workspaces
free Office integrated
Pro Lots of features
Pro Sidebar with AI features and new Edge Drop
Edge drop is a good way to integrate your phone into windows
Pro Useful features like the reader mode
Cons
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.
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.
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.
Con Not fully open-source
While most of Chrome is open source: Chrome does have some closed-source components to make it possible to play some closed media formats.
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.
Con It's Google
Data collection!
Con No mobile extensions
Chrome on Android and iOS does not support extensions.
Con Not as customizable as Firefox or Vivaldi
Con Big target for hackers
Chrome is the most popular browser in the world. That makes it the most targeted browser in the world by hackers.
Con Hard/impossible to transfer passwords to a different machine without uploading them to Google
Con Bad quality control on extensions
Some just plain don't work while a few actually break the browser.
Con Basic
Unlike Brave and Vivaldi which are more stable and have more features, Chrome is pretty basic.
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.
Con No menu bar on Windows
There's no menu bar, except on Mac OS or Linux appmenu.
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. There's another plugin (h264ify) that will force to use the h.264 codec video if available instead of the VP9 one which is the resource hog.
Con No reader view
Unlike most other browsers, Chrome doesn't have a reader view function.
Con American agents may track you
Con Soon to disable AD blocking and create DRM for the web
Con Gives too much weight to Google on the future of the Web
Con Microsoft sends all your browsing history to Microsoft and tracks you by default
Microsoft Edge collects less information than Chrome, but still is collecting data about you and your interests.
Con Synchronization between PC and phone is weak
Although synchronization between computers is similar to Chrome, synchronization between PCs - phone is weak.
Con Unlike the legacy version, it doesn't have the option to set aside tabs which was a very useful feature
It does give you the option to give feedback for people who want setting tabs aside back, but it's not likely they're going to add it.
Con (Integration with) Windows designed by Microsoft so that deinstall/ install of browser of user choice is extremely elaborate
Let's just wait to see history repeat itself, and Micorsoft being fined for it. (Again!)