Meta note : am not sure if this is on topic for this community, please tell me if it is not. I could not find rules, so I assume it’s okay, but i’ll remove it if its not.

So, after the recent Mozilla privacy drama, I saw multiple recommendations of alternative browsers, each one with their pros and cons. I was trying to get a better understanding of which one was good/bad for which reasons, and I thought i might share it here so people with more knowledge can correct my takes.

Here is what I could get so far, based mostly on Lemmy comments and Wikipedia pages. This is aimed at browser that share some of Firefox values (foss, independency, (maybe) privacy, etc), so I excluded Chrome, Edge, and others. I’m open to any feedback/infos/browser suggestions to get a more accurate summary !

Browser FOSS Privacy Features Browser Family [1] Platforms Notes
Firefox ✅ ❌ ✅ Firefox WMLAI AI interest
Brave ✅ 🟠[2] ✅ Chromium WMLAI Crypto interest[3], bigot CEO[4]
Vivaldi 🟠[5] 🟠[6] ✅ Chromium WMLAI Aims to be a better Opera
Ungoogled Chromium ✅ ✅ ✅ Chromium WMLA Removes Google tracking and specific components
Cromite ✅ ✅ ✅ Chromium WLA Removes most Google tracking and keeps some specific components
Zen Browser ✅ ✅ ✅ Firefox WML
Librewolf ✅ ✅ 🟠[7] Firefox WML [8]
Waterfox ✅ 🟠[9] ✅ Firefox WMLA
Floorp ✅ ✅ ✅ Firefox WML
GNU IceCat ✅ ❓ ✅ Firefox WML Firefox without copyrighted content and with a bit more privacy
Tor Browser ✅ ✅ 🟠[10] Firefox WMLA
IronFox ✅ ✅ ❓ Firefox A
Mullvad Browser ✅ ✅ ❌[11] Independent WML Made by the Tor team and Mullvad (VPN providers)
Ladybird ✅ ❓[12] 🟠 Independent ML Very early development stage, bigot devs[13]
Orion Browser ✅ ✅ ✅ Independent MAI In beta, claims to be top browser in terms of tracker blocking, considers making a Windows version, AI interest[14]

Notes : Privacy is based on Firefox level, which I considered “bad” for the sake of the comparison. Browser family is the browser on which each is browser is based, mostly Chromium, Firefox or none. I first called it Engine and it was unclear. Features is to identify barebones browsers and how much risk there is to find websites not compatible with those browsers. Question mark is for when there is a debate or I could not find infos. Platforms is for the platforms on which the browser is available. To keep it tight, only one letter per platform : W for Windows, M for macOS, L for GNU/Linux, A for Android, I for iOS.

contributors : [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Edit 1 : added Vivaldi, Floorp and Ironfox, clarify ‘Engine dependency’ column, add ‘Platforms’ column, add bigot warning for ladybird.
Edit 2 : added [email protected] table (Tor, Ungoogled chromium, Cromite) and IceCat, updated info on Vivaldi
Edit 3 : add Orion Browser, corrects lines to group browser together by engine, added users whose infos I used via edits
Edit 4 : corrected Brave and Opera Privacy rating.
Edit 5 : removed Opera since both Privacy and FOSS would be bad. Updated Vivaldi Privacy rating.
Edit 6 : changing Engine category to Browser Family and adding explanation.

  1. most browsers are fork of or rely on another browser. The two main “source” browsers are Chromium and Firefox, resulting here in three main categories : Chromium-based, Firefox-based and Independent. This is sometimes called the engine, though technically the engine is different (engines are Gecko (used by Firefox), Blink (used by Chromium), Webkit (used by Safari and Orion), and also Ladybird and Servo which are in development). ↩︎

  2. they have a lot of optional data collecting, from their Privacy Policy ↩︎

  3. from Brave’s Wikipedia page. ↩︎

  4. from his personal Wikipedia page. ↩︎

  5. some parts are open source, but the UI is proprietary ↩︎

  6. they collect data for statistics, from their Privacy Policy ↩︎

  7. some websites may be blocked due to stricter privacy setups, according to LinuxSecurity’s article cited on Wikipedia. ↩︎

  8. some users seemed to fear that having a small team, Librewolf would be late on security patches, but their FAQ seems to say it’s ok. ↩︎

  9. from Waterfox’s Wikipedia page, linking to Exodus report stating that android version of Waterfox uses same trackers as Firefox. ↩︎

  10. some websites might block tor network ↩︎

  11. lemmy users said it is barebones and their FAQ says it has little features by design to prevent fingerprinting. ↩︎

  12. could not find infos on their website or wikipedia page. Probably not that bad, but since it is in early development, it may evolve in better ways than other. ↩︎

  13. from their github, considering gender neutral wording is politics and does not belong in ladybird. ↩︎

  14. from the Kagi Wikipedia page and lemmy comments. ↩︎

  • @TakapapatapakaOP
    1•4 hours ago

    Thanks for the clarification. If i’m not mistaken, Chromium is not an engine either, but a browser forked to create many other, like firefox. That’s what I was trying to show with this ‘engine’ column : would you have an idea for a better name? Maybe Browser Family? Fork of?

    Yup, in the end I think I’m going to stick with Firefox family for a while too, there really only seem to be chromium based, firefox based or tech enthusiast (as in either hyper focused on privacy or in early development) options.

    • @gedaliyah
      3•3 hours ago

      Yes, Chromium-based browsers technically run on the Blink engine. I like family, although I think it’s fine to call it the “Chromium engine” or “Firefox engine” for general comparison purposes. WebKit is the Safari engine.

      • cabbageEnglish
        4•3 hours ago

        Worth noting that WebKit is open source also powers some great alternative browsers on Linux, such as Gnome Web/Epiphany. :)

        Other than Gecko, Blink, and WebKit, Ladybird and Servo are the two new engines currently being developed.