77+ BEST Web Browsers [+ Top 5 & Top 10 Picks]

In this article, we take a comprehensive look at the best web browsers for speed, privacy, and customization features.

We also look at the best browsers:

• For Windows or PC
• For Mac
• For privacy
• For Android
• For iPhone
• For gaming
• Lightweight web browsers
• And many other specific categories

The 77+ BEST Web Browsers in November 2024

#1 Google Chrome

Google Chrome is one of the fastest web browsers in existence, and it has benefited from Google’s wealth of targeted advertising experience.

It also happens to be one of the most popular web browsers out there because its ease of use and speed make it a great choice for anyone who wants their browsing experience to be fast and hassle-free.

Chrome extensions are now a staple of online life.

The main drawback to Chrome is that it can be rather resource-intensive, requiring a lot of RAM to operate.

#2 Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is an open-source web browser that was created to break away from Internet Explorer’s monopoly on the market, and it has since become one of the most respected browsers in existence.

It also happens to be not just beautiful, but highly customizable as well.

Firefox is also heavily lauded for its privacy features. It is also considered more secure and faster than Chrome.

Chrome and Firefox are often considered the top two browsers on the market.

#3 Opera Browser

Opera browser was designed for speed early on, and speed is what still sets it apart from its competitors today.

This free, open-source browser is one of the fastest on the market and has a sleek modern interface.

In addition to speed, Opera also offers an ad-blocker by default that makes browsing far less annoying for users who don’t enjoy being inundated with online advertisements.

In fact, Opera was ahead of the competition in implementing browser data compression technology that saves bandwidth when you’re surfing online. With support for Windows

Opera Mini

Opera is a web browser that’s been around for quite some time and it’s well known for its speed and innovative features (some of which other browsers later adopted).

It was the first browser with real-time traffic information, mouse gestures, tabbed browsing, and popup blocking.

Unfortunately, it has fallen behind in recent years when compared to Chrome or Firefox.

That said, there are still many people who use Opera and if you’re one of them then be aware that Opera Mini is optimized for devices with low processing power such as older PCs running Windows XP.

On modern hardware, this version of Opera does tend to freeze up from

#4 Safari

Safari is arguably one of the fastest web browsers available today.

It’s aesthetically pleasing and efficient as well, which makes it a great choice for anyone who wants their web browsing experience to be simple yet elegant.

That said, Safari’s biggest drawback is its lack of add-ons and extensions when compared to Firefox or Chrome. This means that some tasks will need to be done in other browsers when using Safari.

#5 Vivaldi

Vivaldi is a newer web browser and it looks and feels like something from the future (in a good way).

It’s designed to help you manage your browsing life, clicking on just what you want when you want it.

In addition to its speed and simple interface, Vivaldi allows for tab stacking which makes it easy to organize open web pages in multiple windows.

Another neat feature of Vivaldi is that if you see an image or piece of content that interests you, but don’t have time to read at the moment, simply click on the “note” button and save it for later.

Vivaldi is also less RAM / CPU-intensive relative to other browsers.

With its security features and clean browsing experience, Vivaldi is already one of the top web browsers, and still underrated.

#6 Microsoft Edge

Microsoft’s Edge browser is included here as a representative of the new computing environment.

While it does have its own set of flaws, Microsoft Edge has a sleek interface and takes up much less space than Internet Explorer ever did, so it’s worth trying if you want to minimize your system usage.

That said, there are still some basic features missing from Microsoft Edge that might make using this browser impractical for now.

For instance, there isn’t a built-in spellchecker or auto-correct function which can be an inconvenience when typing online.

Edge got a boost in popularity with the rollout of Bing chat and its investment with Open AI.

#7 Brave

Brave is a new kind of browser and it’s worth checking out if speed and security are important to you.

This web browser uses algorithms to block ads and trackers by default, which means that surfing the internet will be faster than ever before, and your browsing history will remain private.

That said, Brave lacks some of the more advanced features that come with other browsers such as Firefox or Chrome.

So if you’re looking for something with many options for customization then Brave might not be your best choice at this point.

Brave is already gaining ground fast in the world of Android phones / tablets.

And now there’s an iOS version of Brave too.

#8 Internet Explorer

Blast from the past!

As old as it is (mid-1990s), and with all the evolution in the market, you can’t ignore Internet Explorer.

While it’s definitely not the BEST on the market, it’s still out there and people use it.

If you haven’t upgraded to a newer browser yet, then this would be your best browser choice for now.

As long as you use Google Chrome Frame alongside IE so that you can integrate with Google products like Gmail, Google Docs, Drive, etc., then IE will continue to work fine.

Why are we mentioning this?

Because of recent updates to Microsoft servers which no longer support HMTL5 support in IE 11 (and below).

So if you’re using Windows 7 or 8 on an older machine without Chrome Frame installed, then upgrading to another web browser will be your only option to continue using Google products.

#9 Chromium

Chromium is a quality, alternative version of Chrome.

What’s the difference between Chrome and Chromium?

Chrome is a web browser that was developed and released by Google and is a form of proprietary software.

Chromium is a niche open-source browser with nowhere near as many users, also developed by Google.

Chrome uses the same source code as Chromium, but with fewer extra features and add-ons.

Chromium can also be slightly faster than Chrome because of its open-source, lightweight nature.

#10 DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo is a search engine that can also function as a web browser.

It’s one of the best non-tracking browsers available, keeping your personal data safe and secure even from DuckDuckGo itself.

You can set it to automatically block ads, trackers, social media buttons, etc., to keep you anonymous when surfing the internet or searching for anything online.

Naturally, DuckDuckGo is popular among those serious about keeping their privacy online.

#11 Maxthon

Once you get past the top 10 browsers, you start getting into niche areas of the browser market.

Maxthon is definitely one of those.

This browser is known for its unique interface options, including virtual desktops, sidebars, color customization, and more.

It’s also fast, lightweight, and built on the Chromium engine so it relies on Chrome technology to function properly.

It may also have a legitimate claim at the world’s fast web browser due to its simplicity.

However, Maxthon can be unstable at times – especially when trying to sync your settings across devices.

#12 Konqueror

Konqueror isn’t familiar to everyone, but it’s not one of the new kids on the block.

Web browsers don’t get much older than Konqueror.

Developed during the KDE 3 and 4 eras and built into KDE desktop software for Linux, Konqueror is a well-tested browser that’s been around for over 20 years.

Even today it can be used as your default browser in most versions of Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian).

Konqueror is strong on security and safety features such as HTTPS encryption when browsing websites via secure connections. It also has full support for WebExtensions add-ons so you can customize it to your liking with extensions from Mozilla’s add-on library.

However, because it depends on outdated software and technology lots of people shy away from using it altogether in favor of modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Microsoft Edge, and Vivaldi.

#13 Pale Moon

Pale Moon is essentially a Firefox clone that offers the same type of user experience as well as a great deal of customization, but with speed improvements of its own.

The browser runs on the Gecko rendering engine, which is the same engine used in Mozilla Firefox, and it’s also built on top of open-source software like Chromium.

What’s unique about Pale Moon is that it isn’t as bloated as Firefox, and with a few basic tweaks to its configuration settings, you can make Pale Moon run faster than most other browsers.

However, if you’re not into making those tweaks yourself then there’s no real need to switch from your current browser because even with these “bloatedness” problems Firefox still performs decently fast enough with most websites out there.

Pale Moon Portable

Pale Moon Portable is essentially the same as Pale Moon for desktop computers, but because it can be run directly from an external device like a USB drive, USB thumb drive, or SSD drive – it makes it easier to carry around with you on any computer system regardless of whether have administrative privileges on that computer.

#14 Netscape Navigator

Netscape Navigator was one of the earliest web browsers on the internet.

It had a strong following in the 1990s, but many of its users switched to Mozilla’s Firefox when Netscape Navigator became obsolete.

Firefox still uses some components based on code from Netscape Navigator, so it can be considered an extension or successor to Netscape Navigator rather than a completely different browser.

These days you’ll mostly find old-school Internet users who are more familiar with Netscape/Mozilla than any other major browser, so it remains popular among that user base. However, if you’re not one of those then there’s no real reason to use Netscape over modern browsers like Vivaldi or Opera.

#15 Flock

Flock is a browser specifically designed for social media users who frequently use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or other online communities.

It comes with pre-installed add-ons that allow you to easily share photos and videos on sites like YouTube, Flickr, Scoop.it, Mashable, Reddit, Mix, Tumblr, etc., while also giving you easy access to your bookmarks on social networks.

The user interface is colorful and nicely designed with big buttons that are optimized for sharing content across various social networks.

So, if you’re a social media junkie, it’s not a good browser to check out.

#16 SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey is the successor to Netscape Navigator and Mozilla Firefox, but it’s mainly aimed at developers.

It features a lot of customization options, support for all kinds of add-ons, including WebExtensions (which are compatible with Firefox), and you’re able to easily switch between different builds (i.e., version numbers) based on which components you want to be included in each build.

#17 SlimBrowser

SlimBrowser isn’t as popular as it used to be, but the browser is still lightweight and comes with a basic set of features that makes it easy to manage your online activities.

It’s based on Internet Explorer technology which means that you can expect software bugs and performance issues just like what you’d get from IE.

Most importantly, SlimBrowser only supports old technology such as NPAPI (which Chrome has already dropped), ActiveX (which Microsoft Edge won’t support), and VBScript (which has been retired).

These components also might end up being security vulnerabilities so you probably wouldn’t want to use this browser for online banking activities or anything private.

#18 Yandex Broswer

Yandex Browser is a very popular Russian-made alternative to Google Chrome.

It has a good balance of speed, simplicity, quality, and security – making it a decent option for browsing the web.

However, if you’re not into downloading new browsers then there’s no real reason to use Yandex over Chrome or any other browser that has a comparable feature set.

#19 Avant Browser

Avant Browser offers a fast and reliable browsing experience with lots of customization options, including the ability to display multiple websites in one window (a feature that Firefox had several years ago).

It speaks about 20 different languages and automatically translates pages into your preferred language.

The browser is based on Chromium technology so it’s very similar to Google Chrome, but also has some unique features like ad-blocking and mouse gesture support.

However, since Avant Browser is based on Chromium it means that you can expect software bugs and performance issues just like what you’d get from Chrome.

#20 UC Broswer

UC Browser is a lightweight browser that comes with built-in ad-blocking and tracking protection for better privacy.

It has a clean design with a taskbar, speed dial, and other useful features – but it can be resource intensive if you’re using too many tabs at once.

As a Chromium-based browser, UC uses the Blink rendering engine just like Chrome so it’s very similar to that browser in terms of performance and features.

In fact, it even has the same security vulnerabilities as Google Chrome. For example, one critical vulnerability was found in both browsers last July 2017.

The good news is that this exploit only affects Windows users so Linux users would probably be safe from harm (but they can still get infected).

#21 Lynx

Lynx is a text-based Web browser that has been around for ages.

It’s very simple, lightweight, and focused on browsing the web without any distractions or fancy features that users don’t need.

As you can expect from a text-based browser, this alternative to Chrome doesn’t come with support for Adobe Flash Player either – but it has some other interesting features like custom hotkeys and command-line interface options.

#22 Uzbl

Uzbl is an advanced browser that comes with a lot of interesting features and minimalism. Uzbl is an interesting browser at the same time because it has been built from scratch as a completely CLI-oriented application.

For example, it takes up less than 500KB of space and loads pages very quickly.

It also uses WebKit as its foundation so you can expect software bugs along with some unique security vulnerabilities that other browsers don’t have.

To take full advantage of this browser, you’ll need to use the command-line interface which means that it’s not as easy to use as other Chromium alternatives like Chrome or Vivaldi – but at least you get more control over how the browser functions.

#23 GNOME Web

GNOME Web is an interesting browser that comes with support for the Epiphany technology.

It’s basically a fork of Firefox but has some unique features like ad-blocking, fast startup time, and support for GNOME Shell extensions.

Note that it only runs on Linux though, so Windows users will need to look at other options like Chrome or Vivaldi (which can both run on Windows through WINE).

#24 Dooble

Dooble is a privacy-focused browser that comes with built-in ad blocking and tracking protection.

It also supports various encryption protocols, including the popular HTTPS Everywhere extension.

However, it doesn’t come with any plugins or themes so you’ll have to form your own experience by coding the features that you want into the browser yourself.

#25 K-Meleon

K-Meleon is a unique browser that uses Gecko rendering like Firefox.

However, it’s very lightweight and fast because of its native C++ core engine.

It also has features like mouse gestures, history manager, JavaScript debugger, user scripts (similar to Greasemonkey), and lots of other options for customization.

As with most browsers on this list, you can expect software bugs which means that K-Meleon doesn’t quite match up to the stability of Chrome or Firefox.

#26 Shiira

Shiira is a lightweight browser made for MacOS.

It has a full-featured address bar, built-in speed dial, and support for add-ons so you can customize how it works to fit your needs.

Opening local files with Shiira will automatically change the user agent in order to avoid issues related to Web scraping and document rendering.

It’s completely free but doesn’t receive any updates from the developer anymore – so it might be unsafe to use in today’s Web environment.

#27 Midori

Midori is another open-source browser that happens to be built upon Chromium, so if you like how Chromium looks then you’ll feel right at home when using Midori.

As far as performance goes, there’s nothing really separating these two browsers from each other.

They are both open source, lightweight browsers, so they tend to be fast but missing all the extra add-ons that accompany Chrome and Firefox.

All in all, Midori is another open source lightweight browser that uses WebkitGTK+ as its rendering engine (which makes it behave like Chrome/Chromium).

It also comes with an ad blocker, e-mail client, news client, download manager, text editor, and more out of the box.

Although there aren’t any significant performance differences between this browser and Chrome, it’s still worth checking out.

#28 sombrero

Sombrero v2 is a lightweight browser that focuses on simple, intuitive design.

It’s basically a modification of Firefox but comes with some unique features like built-in ad blocking and support for WebKitGTK+ extensions – both of which are interesting to have if you’re a fan of customization.

The main issue with this browser is that its developer hasn’t updated the project in four years so it doesn’t support newer versions of HTML or CSS.

In other words, you’ll probably run into problems as time goes on so it’s best not to use Sombrero v2 as your primary web browser.

#29 Mosaic

MOSAIC is an interesting web browser that’s designed to run on the NOS operating system.

This web browser also works as a shell which means that you can customize how it behaves and performs by scripting its every function.

It doesn’t receive any updates from its developer anymore (only security patches) but still functions very well – especially if you use older hardware like we do here at Top Alternatives.

#30 reckon

Reckon is an open source browser with automatic updates built-in.

It also has support for plugins and themes so you can customize how it works to fit your needs.

Since this browser uses the Chromium engine, it can be expected that Reckon will receive performance boosts in future versions of Chromium in order to catch up with Chrome’s speed.

Although, there are no major bugs or issues at present so there’s nothing really separating Reckon from Chrome right now other than its customization options.

#31 Roccat

Roccat is an very lightweight browser that can handle basically any task you put it through.

It’s built on the same engine as Google Chrome, so if you’re looking for a reasonably fast web browser then give Roccat a try – especially since it’s completely free and open source.

However, keep in mind that this browser is still young so don’t expect any updates or support outside of what the developer provides since there are no other developers working on this project anymore.

#32 QtWeb

QtWeb is an open-source mobile browser that runs on the Qt framework.

It’s still in the early stages, so there might be some bugs here and there but it works relatively well for what it was designed to do.

Besides being used as a mobile browser, you can also use this browser in your Linux operating system if you feel adventurous enough to try something new.

#33 Arora

is yet another free web browser built on top of QtWebEngine (the rendering engine used for Chromium and Brave).  It has support for Flash and WebGL content, along with ad filtering capabilities which should keep most people happy while browsing the web.

There also doesn’t appear to be any significant performance differences compared to regular Chromium so you shouldn’t expect any updates to the project any time soon.

#34 Links

Links is a text-based browser that runs on top of weechat.  It has support for CSS and Javascript, with HTML5 video and audio playback capabilities as well.

The only real issue with this browser is that it’s not very user-friendly in comparison to most modern browsers and might take some time getting used to if you’re new to Links.

#35 Sleipnir

Sleipnir is a Chromium-based web browser that was specifically designed for computers running the Windows operating system.

It’s fast, lightweight, and has lots of customization options which are all great things to have in a browser.

The main issue with this browser is its monetization policy, where the developer tries to make money through ad revenue when you use Sleipnir.

You can disable this by using an extension called AdBlocker for Chrome which works on Sleipnir just fine if you’re willing to spend the time configuring it correctly.

#36 surf

Surf is a lightweight web browser that runs on top of WebKit (the same engine used by Safari).

It’s based on Google Chrome, but unlike QtWeb it doesn’t use the Blink rendering engine.  Instead, Surf uses Apple’s own open source rendering engine to display pages.

This also means that you won’t be able to integrate any extensions or themes downloaded from other sources like you would with most Chromium-based browsers.

#37 Lunascape

Lunascape is another interesting Chromium alternative – but instead of being a drop-in replacement for Chrome, it’s actually three different browsers in one package: Trident ( MS IE ), Gecko ( Firefox ), and Webkit ( Chrome ).

It also has support for Flash, so you won’t have to worry about being stuck in a “Flash-less” web world when using this browser.

Unfortunately, it’s not available on Linux. Linux users will need to look at Chromium alternatives instead.

#38 Vitrium

Vitrium is another Chromium-based web browser that also offers some interesting changes and enhancements over the original code base.  It’s still very much a work in progress, so it can be buggy at times but the developer has made significant improvements over the past year or so as well as adding support for WebRTC and HTTP/2.

The only real issue with this browser at the moment is related to how slow it loads pages, which can sometimes take several seconds depending on your connection speed.

#39 Kometa

Kometa is another open-source browser that uses Chromium as its foundation, but it comes with some interesting features like ad blocking capabilities and support for WebRTC.  It also has some basic extensions that you can use to improve your overall browsing experience.

The main downside with this browser is that it’s not under active development and the project seems to be dead at this point in time (at least as far as we can tell).

#40 Falkon

The Falkon browser is another Qt-based open-source browser that targets Plasma users by offering a small and fast web browser with support for the KDE Connect feature.

It’s not available on Linux, though, so you’ll need to use it in Microsoft Windows or Chrome OS if you want to give it a try.

#41 Camino

Camino is a Mac OS X-oriented web browser that uses the Gecko rendering engine, which is also used by Firefox.

It has support for extensions and themes, plus some other nice features like native video codecs, security sandboxing, and better performance compared to most browsers based on Mozilla’s technology.

The only real issue with this browser these days is that it’s not being actively developed anymore so you’ll have to rely on Camino 2.2 if you want to use something more recent than that.

Development of Camino itself came to an end in 2008 but since Webkit was later forked into Blink (which was then used by Opera), the folks behind Camino decided it would be best to port the browser to this new engine so it could run on modern systems without any issues.

This new version is available for Mac OS X 10.9 and newer, but it’s still not available for other operating systems.

#42 GNU IceCat

The Icecat web browser is an interesting Chromium-based browser that’s based on GNU Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release).

This makes it possible for individuals to update their version of Icecat whenever security updates are released from Mozilla, but also makes sure that addons will continue working without any changes should they be ported over from Firefox as well.

#43 Epic

Epic Privacy Browser is a new offering on the market which promises to provide all the privacy features that most users want by default.

This includes ad blocking, tracking protection, fingerprinting shields, and support for the Linux operating system.

Among other USPs are Epic’s so-called Blissful Browsing mode which clears your history when you close the browser and a “decent” cookie policy (Epic claims they will never allow third parties to use cookies unless users give them explicit permission).

#44 Amaya

Amaya is another browser that’s based on the Webkit rendering engine.  It has support for several interesting features, including HTML 5 video playback and an integrated WYSIWYG editor.

#45 Dillo

Dillo is another lightweight browser with a simple user interface and basic features.

It was created to replace Elinks, so it might be useful if you need something similar to Lynx and don’t want to install too many packages on your Linux distro.

Dillo runs on top of FLTK (a cross-platform widget library).  It doesn’t include many features and functions like other browsers, but it’s still worth checking out if you want a lightweight web browser for your Linux OS.

Even though its performance isn’t as good as Chromium or Firefox, it should be more than enough for opening up basic websites.

#46 Avast Secure Browser

The Avast Secure Browser is another cross-platform web browser sporting a familiar design and feel.  It doesn’t have a complex feature list to read through, but there’s a bunch of interesting stuff in the pipeline once you start using the browser.

You can use it for basic surfing purposes or to download files from your favorite torrent site because it does come with built-in support for magnet links.

As expected from a product developed by Avast, you’ll find several privacy features integrated into this browser as well, including ad blocking and tracking protection tools.

#47 iCab

iCab is a decent Safari alternative created for iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad.

It has support for plenty of interesting features, including 3rd party script blocking extensions, ad blocking options, and built-in search systems that can be used to find files on FTP servers or specific text on webpages.

#48 ELinks

ELinks is another text mode web browser for Linux systems.

It doesn’t run on Windows, but it’s still worth checking out if you want to use an alternative to Links when running your OS of choice.

Although the official ELinks download page states that this program no longer in development or maintenance, it does point out that they will continue providing security updates whenever needed.

#49 Origyn Web Browser

Origyn is a lightweight web browser for Linux, BSD, and OS X systems.  The developers released the first version in 2012.

Based on Chromium, it can be used as a replacement for Slimjet or SRWare Iron because it has support for most of the same features.

It doesn’t have extensions enabled by default, but you can easily enable them with a few clicks in the settings menu.

#50 WebPositive

WebPositive is a lightweight browser for Mac users based on WebKit.  It’s not as popular as Chromium or Firefox, but it includes all the basic web browsing features that most people want in a web browser.

There isn’t a lot of information available about this product because it doesn’t have a website where you can go to find out more details.  Even when you download WebPositive from GitHub, there’s no README file included so you’ll have to figure everything out from scratch when using the application for the first time.

#51 Comodo IceDragon

Comodo Dragon is another Chromium-based browser, but this one comes with some additional features that you don’t usually see in Chrome or other browsers.

For example, it offers all kinds of security enhancements that are designed to give you the highest level of protection possible while surfing the web these days.

Some of these enhancements include cloud-based anti-virus scanning and active HTTPS content filtering which allows Comodo Dragon to block any malicious websites before they even load or execute on your system.

The browser also includes built-in malware detection which provides something

You’ll notice that this browser looks very similar to Chrome so if you are familiar with Google’s browser, then you should feel right at home using IceDragon as well.

However, the developer has made some modifications including an ad blocker and support for HTML5 video playback.

What really stands out about IceDragon though is its focus on privacy – something which isn’t offered by other browsers these days except for Tor which requires some configuration and advanced knowledge in order to use properly.

#52 AOL Explorer

AOL Explorer is another IE clone but this time for AOL users.

As you can probably guess, it’s an old piece of software that hasn’t seen any active development in several years.  However, there are still plenty of people who use AOL and there could be some value in using this browser if you meet the requirements to use it.

To get started with AOL Explorer, all you need is Internet access through AOL and a Windows-based computer so things won’t work on Linux or MacOS X machines.

You should also be aware that at this point AOL has discontinued support for the browser so there will not be any official security updates released anymore.

#53 OmniWeb

OmniWeb is located on the Mac platform, but it has universal compatibility with all platforms that run macOS.

What makes OmniWeb really stand out is that even though it’s still in beta, it’s already very lightweight and capable of handling most websites without any issues.

The browser comes with an ad blocker built-in so you don’t have to worry about ads when browsing webpages like on Chrome or Firefox (which both by default come with their own baked-in ad blockers).

Like many other browsers, OmniWeb also uses its own engine for rendering webpages instead of using open-source software like Chromium (the browser engine behind Google Chrome), which means there are some

#54 Waterfox

Waterfox is based on Firefox but optimized for 64-bit systems (most modern browsers are only available in 32-bit).

This means it can make better use of your computer’s hardware and will likely be faster when rendering web pages with more complex content or lots of animated graphics.

The developer claims that Waterfox is 6x faster than Firefox so while this may not hold true in all cases, there will definitely be improvements in terms of speed and stability offered by this browser compared to others.

Waterfox is basically an optimized version of Firefox that removes all of Mozilla Corporation’s trademarks and branding from its source code – along with using alternative settings that give you better privacy while browsing the web.

The only major difference between this and Firefox is that Waterfox was developed to take full advantage of multi-core processors so it’s widely considered to be one of the fastest Chromium alternatives around (if not THE fastest).

However, this focus on multi-core processors may become less important as time goes by considering how much faster single-core performance has been improving over the past few years.

For example, according to Jim Lynch, “Firefox Quantum not only runs circles around Chrome/ium but also renders pages about 5% faster on average than Waterfox (mostly because it’s multi-core aware). With Quantum, Firefox has never been better.”

#55 Coral IE

Coral Internet Explorer is a newer web browser built from scratch using Microsoft technologies (including Trident and MSHTML).

If you are familiar with Internet Explorer, then you should know that the interface will be very similar to what you’d expect out of Microsoft’s browser.

You can still access your bookmarks just like before and customize them if needed.  It also has built-in support for Adobe Flash Player so no need to download it separately if you want to view multimedia content online (assuming Flash is still supported by the website).

Coral IE isn’t perfect though; it lacks support for Chrome standards like HTML5 video playback.

Also, this browser is currently in beta which means there could be some bugs when using it.

#56 Coc Coc (formerly WeBrowser)

is a Chromium-based web browser developed in China.

It’s another lightweight browser that is designed to be similar to Chrome, so most users shouldn’t have a problem getting used to it.

The biggest difference between Coc Coc and most other browsers is its built-in support for the Hexagon rendering engine from Baidu – which this browser uses for loading webpages instead of Chromium or Blink.

Although there are some minor differences in how it behaves compared to normal Chromium-based browsers, there isn’t anything too major that would make you feel like you aren’t using Google Chrome anymore.

While this browser was mainly created so Chinese internet users could access only the websites they were allowed by their government (specifically those with a .cn domain name), it can still be used by anyone who wants to give it a try.

#57 BlackHawk Browser

BlackHawk Browser uses its own custom rendering engine which claims to be faster than other Chromium alternatives.

However, since this browser hasn’t been updated in over 2 years you might not want to use it as your main web browser because of potential security vulnerabilities.

Since this browser uses Chromium under the hood, you’ll still be able to use most Chrome extensions and run Adobe Flash without any problems so long as it’s installed on your computer.

It also comes with some useful keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation.

#58 Tornado Browser

is a free web browser based on Chromium but with additional privacy features built-in (called ‘Tornado Shield’).

This includes ad blocking, tracking protection, anti-fingerprinting, and an option to prevent third parties from hijacking downloads.

Even though it only has a few thousand users right now, this is another lightweight browser that will work pretty well for casual browsing if you don’t mind giving it a try.

The main benefit of using Tornado Browser is that you won’t need to install extensions or add-ons because they’re already available by default.

However, bear in mind that this browser isn’t as customizable as Chrome so some users might not like the fact that they can only choose between a light and dark theme (no other colors).

#59 rekonq

rekonq is a Chromium-based web browser for KDE’s Plasma desktop environment.  In other words, it only runs on Linux so Windows users will need to look at other options like Chrome or Vivaldi if they want a Chromium alternative (which can run on Windows through WINE).

#60 QupZilla

QupZilla is a Qt-based browser with support for WebKitGTK+ extensions and the usual set of features you’d expect from a modern web browser (like support for HTML5 videos, Flash content, ad filtering capabilities, etc.).

There isn’t much that separates this Chromium alternative from others in this category so it’s mostly up to personal preference when it comes down to choosing between QupZilla and other lightweight browsers like Midori.

#61 Web (Epiphany)

Web (also known as Epiphany) is an interesting browser because it was originally developed by the GNOME project before it was then forked into its own separate browser (which still remains compatible with GNOME desktop environments).

It has a completely different interface compared to other Chromium alternatives, but it does feature most of the common features you’d expect from any modern web browser.

However, due to being developed by GNOME there are some Linux-specific options available under this browser’s hood that are only accessible if you have GNOME installed on your system as well.

Other than that, Web works pretty much like any other Chromium-based browser on Windows.

So if you’re looking for something different and don’t mind trying out an older version of Epiphany, give it a shot!

#62 QtWebKitPPC

Like the name suggest, QtWebKitPPC is a fork of the WebKit engine that supports PowerPC architectures.

Otherwise, there don’t appear to be any significant differences between this version of QtWebKit compared to the one used by regular Chromium or Safari after removing all obvious placeholders

#63 Qutebrowser

Qutebrowser is an advanced browser created using Python and PyQt5 . It has support for ad blocking, user scripts, cookies settings for specific sites, bookmarking options and more.

One interesting feature this particular browser offers is the ability to split the screen vertically or horizontally. In other words, it can be used as a sidebar similar to how Firefox handles add-on content.

There’s also support for different color schemes which is always nice for those of us who want more customization options.

Qutebrowser doesn’t really have anything that makes it stand out from other Chromium alternatives but it does offer a few features that make it a bit easier to use, especially if you’re migrating from Firefox and aren’t ready to jump on Microsoft’s bandwagon just yet…

#64 Atlas

Web browsers need to increasingly compete on one or a few things to have a comparative advantage.

Once it achieves some level of gravity, it can then improve from there.

At least that’s the basic business strategy.

Atlas was built with one goal in mind – speed.

As such, everything from the design up through to how it displays web pages is geared towards making your entire browsing experience as fast as humanly possible (supposedly).

The only real downside here is that it’s not Chromium-based like most browsers on this list – instead, it uses Torch which is another lightweight engine that’s built with modern web browsers in mind.

#65 Galeon

Galeon is a fork of the GNOME Web browser (also known as Epiphany).

There isn’t much that separates this Chromium-based alternative from others on this list. It can run most Flash content, features an ad blocker and includes some other basic features you’d expect from any modern web browser.

Apart from that, Galeon doesn’t really offer anything else besides being yet another way to surf the web on Linux .

#66 NetSurf

NetSurf is a free, open-source web browser that’s built with portability in mind.

It can run on anything from your regular PC to mobile devices like the Raspberry Pi.

The only issue here is that it’s not particularly fast because of how old it is (it first appeared back in 1996).

However, NetSurf was built for speed so its core components are relatively more lightweight than most browsers.

So if you just want something simple and don’t care about having all of the modern bells and whistles then check this one out.

#67 RockMelt

RockMelt is a Chromium-based browser that also comes with its own unique interface.

There are plenty of customization options available, while extensions can be installed directly from the built-in Discover feature (most of them are designed to enhance your social media experience).

It also includes a social media sidebar for easy sharing content, while publishers can use the new Heat platform to build web apps on top of Rockmelt’s foundation.

So, all in all, RockMelt is another browser that’s built with social media integration as its primary focus.

Maxthon, which also competes in that niche, could be considered a RockMelt competitor.

RockMelt comes with an intelligent sidebar filled with content pulled from your various accounts on Twitter, Facebook, etc., while all of your bookmarks are automatically pushed to these services too for easy sharing between devices.

The only real downside is that it requires a lot of permissions to run properly so might be best avoided by those who value their privacy.

#68 SRWare Iron

SRWare Iron is another Chromium-based browser that offers you the same speed improvements over Google Chrome as other similar browsers out there do.

It uses completely different code when compared to other open

#69 Web (OpenWeb)

The new OpenWeb browser from Opera isn’t just another Chromium clone with Opera’s old branding slapped over it.

It’s an attempt to change how we use browsers in general by using a more modern approach involving HTML 5 push notifications and granular customization of content display through sidebars and so forth.

#70 Amazon Silk

Amazon Silk is not technically a web browser.

Instead, it’s Amazon’s own take on an application platform that uses the cloud to make your browsing experience faster.

So while some people might be put off by all of this “cloud” talk, it actually makes quite a bit of sense in some ways (especially if you’re already an Amazon Prime member).

With this browser, pages load fast no matter how far away their servers are because they’re being processed somewhere else before they reach your PC or mobile device.

Moreover, Amazon says it learns from your browsing habits so can pre-load content depending on where you tend to go during certain times of the day and so forth.

#71 Dolphin Browser

Dolphin Browser HD is another Chromium-based browser that boasts support for Flash.

There aren’t really any other standout features here, but then again it does have some handy things like a dedicated reading mode and pop-up blocker built in.

#72 QQ Browser

While not technically a browser in its own right, QQ Browser is an interesting option for those who don’t want to install Google Chrome on Android.

It’s not available everywhere, but if you’re using Android 4.0 or later then this might be worth checking out (especially if you like the way it integrates with Tencent services like WeChat).

#73 SRWare Iron

Iron is a Chromium-based browser with unique user interface tweaks and extra features that help improve security while surfing the Internet.

What makes it stand out from Chrome are its HTML5 media rights management tools which limit the number of supported formats (should be perfect for schools) and support for Chrome extensions (so you can keep all your work seamlessly in sync between two browsers).

#74 Eolie Browser

This Chromium-based browser is pretty much the only one that focuses exclusively on getting speed improvements over Google Chrome.

In fact, since it uses its own Blink engine instead of Webkit or Gecko, there are some special features in play here including support for multi-touch gestures and automatic loading of links when text is selected.

#75 SlimBoat

SlimBoat is another lightweight cross-platform browser based on Chromium and with similar features to other browsers designed for Android or iOS platforms.

#76 Firefox Developer Edition

Firefox Developer Edition was designed for web developers who need more than just your average open-source browser to help build sites with.

So it’s not really targeted at everyday users who just want something easy to use – instead, it is geared towards people who are building or testing websites with HTML 5 extensions.

#77 Webcat

Webcat is basically just another fork of the WebKit engine but there aren’t any major differences between this version of QtWebKit compared to others like QQBrowser (which also uses the same engine).

However, it is worth checking out if you want to check out what web browsing was like back in the early days of smartphones.

Other information on the best web browsers

More appendix-style information for those interested in how various web browsers might be categorized based on their focus or shell.

Text-based web browsers

• Links
• ELinks
• Lynx
• w3m
• Emacs/W3
• EWW
• Line Mode Browser

Mosaic-based web browsers

• AMosaic
• IBM WebExplorer
• Internet Explorer 1.x
• Internet in a Box
• Mosaic-CK
• Netscape
• Spyglass Mosaic
• VMS Mosaic

Specialty browsers

Current

• SpaceTime (To search the web in 3D)
• ZAC Browser (Browser for children with autism, autism spectrum disorders (ASD) such as Asperger’s syndrome, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and PDD-NOS)

Discontinued

• Flock (To enhance social networking, blogging, photo-sharing, and RSS news-reading)
• Ghostzilla (Blends into the GUI to hide activity)
• Gollum browser (Created specially for browsing Wikipedia)
• Kirix Strata (Designed for data analytics)
• Miro (A media browser that integrates BitTorrent add-on)
• Nightingale (open source audio player and web browser based on the Songbird (see below) media player source code)
• Prodigy Classic (Executable only within the application)
• RockMelt (Designed to combine web browsing, and social activities such as Facebook and Twitter into a unified one window experience)
• Songbird (browser with advanced audio streaming features and built-in media player with library)

EdgeHTML-based

• Microsoft Edge (formerly using EdgeHTML, now using Blink)

For Java platform

• BOLT Browser
• HotJava
• Opera Mini
• Teashark
• ThunderHawk

Blink-based web browsers

• Chromium
• Google Chrome (based on Blink since Chrome v. 28)
• JioBrowser
• Microsoft Edge
• Opera
• Puffin Browser
• Redcore
• Vivaldi
• NAVER Whale
• Yandex Browser
• Qt WebEngine
• Dooble (from Version 2.2)
• Falkon
• RockMelt
• Sleipnir
• SRWare Iron
• Torch
• ungoogled-chromium
• qutebrowser (Blink backend mostly stable)
• Amazon Silk
• Avast Secure Browser
• Blisk
• Brave
• Cốc Cốc
• Comodo Dragon
• Epic

Trident shells

Some software publishers have built web browsers and other software products based on Microsoft’s Trident engine.

The list of browsers below are all based on the trident shell:

• 360 Secure Browser
• AOL Explorer
• Bento Browser (built into Winamp)
• Deepnet Explorer
• GreenBrowser
• Internet Explorer
• MediaBrowser
• MSN Explorer
• NeoPlanet
• NetCaptor
• RealPlayer
• Tencent Traveler

Gecko-based web browsers

• TenFourFox (Firefox port to PowerPC versions of Mac OS X)
• Timberwolf, AmigaOS’ Firefox rebrand
• Iceape Debian’s Seamonkey rebrand
• Skyfire (for mobile)
• SlimBrowser
• Yahoo! Browser (or partnership browsers e.g. “AT&T Yahoo! Browser”; “Verizon Yahoo! Browser”; “BT Yahoo! Browser”, etc.)
• Minimo (for mobile)
• Mozilla Firefox (formerly Firebird and Phoenix)
• Conkeror, keyboard-driven browser
• Galeon, GNOME’s old default browser
• K-Meleon for Windows
• K-MeleonCCF ME for Windows (based on K-Meleon core, mostly written in Lua)
• K-Ninja for Windows (based on K-Meleon)
• MicroB (for Maemo)
• Beonex Communicator (separate branch, based on Mozilla Application Suite)
• Classilla (an updated fork of the Suite to Mac OS 9)
• Gnuzilla GNU’s fork
• Netscape (Netscape 6 to 7, based on Mozilla)
• AT&T Pogo (based on Firefox)
• Cliqz, a fork of the Firefox web browser
• Tor Browser, patched Firefox ESR for browsing in Tor anonymity network
• Swiftfox (processor-optimised builds based on Firefox)
• Camino for Mac OS X (formerly known as Chimera)
• SeaMonkey (successor to Mozilla Application Suite)
• CometBird, an optimized fork of Firefox
• Comodo IceDragon (Firefox-based web browser for Windows)
• Flock (was based on Firefox until version 2.6.1, and based on Chromium thereafter)
• Iceweasel, Debian’s Firefox rebrand
• GNU IceCat, GNU’s fork of Firefox
• Netscape Browser 8 to Netscape Navigator 9
• Swiftweasel (processor-optimized builds based on Iceweasel)
• Waterfox (Firefox-based web browser for Windows, macOS, and Linux)
• xB Browser (formerly XeroBank Browser and Torpark), portable browser for anonymous browsing, originally based on Firefox
• Firefox for mobile (codenamed Fennec)
• Mozilla Application Suite

Goanna-based

• Basilisk – similar to Pale Moon, but with the interface of Firefox 29–56 and a few other differences
• K-Meleon – starting from version 77 (2019)
• Pale Moon – a fork of Firefox that maintains support for XUL/XPCOM extensions and retains the user interface of the Firefox 4–28 era

Gecko- and Trident-based

Browsers that use both Trident and Gecko include:

• K-Meleon with the IE Tab extension
• Mozilla Firefox with the IE Tab extension
• Netscape Browser 8

Webkit- and Trident-based

• Maxthon (up until version 4.2)
• QQ browser

Blink- and Trident-based

• Baidu Browser
• Maxthon (since version 4.2)

Gecko-, Trident-, and Blink-based

Browsers that can use Trident, Gecko and Blink include:

• Avant Browser
• Lunascape

KHTML-based

• Konqueror
• Konqueror Embedded

Presto-based

• Internet Channel (for Wii console, Opera-based)
• Nintendo DS Browser (Opera-based)
• Opera (for releases up until 12.18)

Conclusion: Best Web Browsers in 2024

Our top 5 web browsers are:

• Chrome
• Firefox
• Opera
• Safari
• Vivaldi

Vivaldi is still the most underrated browser, having a relatively low share of the market relative to its capabilities.

Vivaldi is more of a power user’s browser because it offers lots of customization options, including keyboard shortcuts (like Opera), tab stacking (which Firefox had several years ago), note taking capabilities (to use as knowledge base), mouse gestures which Microsoft Edge supports now.

Yet, it’s still hard to beat Chrome with its extra features, add-ons, and extensions, which is why it owns two-thirds of the browser market.

Some of the smaller browsers are worth checking out for those who are interested in the full menu of options.

For example, Lunascape is a very unique browser since it uses three rendering engines (Gecko, Trident, and Webkit) instead of one like most other browsers on this list.

It also comes with tabbed browsing which means you won’t ever be limited to just one window when you’re surfing the Web.

A race against Chrome?

Since Chrome is the clear market leader, it’s the most emulated.

And since Chrome is proprietary, many web browsers are built off the open-source version, which is Chromium.

For instance, Arora is a cross-platform web browser written using the QtWebKit framework, so it’s basically another Chromium alternative if you’re looking for one.

It offers most of the common features you’d expect from any modern Chromium-based web browser (such as ad-blocking capabilities) and even comes with its own collection of keyboard shortcuts.

On top of that, Arora has built-in support for accessing torrent trackers right out of the box.

This should come in handy if you like downloading files or watching streaming content via peer-to-peer networks.

Other than that, this lightweight browser works pretty much like any other app running on Windows, Linux or macOS – meaning there’s no need to set up system-wide proxy or search plugins, as it just works.