firefox vs chrome vs safari vs edge

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Compared: Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge on macOS in 2022

Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge on macOS, compared.

The truth is, the perfect browser doesn't exist. Each of the four most popular macOS browsers has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, just based on the engine that's used for web rendering, and what the developers of the big-four have prioritized.

While the best browser for the individual varies on use case, and which websites behave the best on any given browser, there are a series of benchmarking tools that can measure performance on synthetic tasks.

Browser benchmarks

We tested each browser on three different testing platforms: JetStream 2, Speedometer, and MotionMark.

JetStream 2 is a JavaScript-benchmark that scores browsers based on how quickly they can start and execute code, which translates to faster JavaScript performance. Since JavaScript is used on most web browsers, it's a good test of snappiness for code-intensive sites.

MotionMark is a graphical browser testing suite that measures the ability to render complex web pages. Think a page that has complicated graphics and animations. A higher score results in smoother transitions and animations.

Speedometer 2.0 determines the responsiveness of a browser when running web applications. Among the three, it's the truest option for testing real-world performance across many popular websites and online services. A good example is adding tasks to a to-do list in a web app.

Chrome came out on top in JetStream 2 testing, while Safari took second place.

Safari was the fastest in MotionMark benchmark testing.

Speedometer testing showed off interesting results, with Firefox and Edge coming in first and second, and Safari in last place.

Different testing platforms result in different scores, so your own mileage may vary. Safari was the best for graphical performance, for example, but its responsiveness lagged behind others. Choose what specific metrics are most important to you.

For Mac users, Safari is an institution. It's the default browser on Apple platforms and is generally lightweight and efficient. As you'd expect for an Apple product, Safari also emphasizing privacy while you browser online.

From the very first boot on a new Mac, Safari is instantly available and configured for easy, private browsing. That makes it the best choice for the most non-technical among us, since you won't need to download and install anything. Safari "just works" out of the box.

It also features the tighest integration across Apple's other devices and systems. You can use Continuity to easy hand-off your browsing between your Mac and any iPhone or iPad you have around. If you need to buy something with Apple Pay , you can authenticate purchases with Face ID or Touch ID.

Safari also features some strong privacy protections, including mechanisms aimed at mitigating cross-site tracking and ad targeting. It features a built-in password manager that allows you to save and store passwords — with easy autofill options — across your Apple devices.

As an Apple-made product, Safari is the most convenient option on this list for Mac users — particularly those who own multiple Apple devices. It's also a good choice for the privacy conscious, though it isn't the fastest and it doesn't yet have a strong extension marketplace.

• Default Mac browser with effortless setup
• Strong privacy protections
• Integration with other Apple products
• Not the fastest or most responsive browser in some testing
• Lackluster support for add-ons and extensions

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a massively popular browser, and a particular favorite of those who routinely use extensions to customize their web experience. It's the most-used web browser in the world, and it's faster and more RAM-efficient than it used to be. Chrome is even currently speedier than Safari on macOS.

The browser also has one of the world's most extensive list of add-ons, plug-ins, and extensions. From plugins focused on online privacy or to video content downloaders, there are around 190,000 extensions in total to choose from. You can also choose from a number of different themes and customization options.

Intelligent Google-made features include automatic site translations and deep integration with the company's online tools and services — so it's great for those who rely on Gmail, Google Docs, or another Google service. Syncing between Google apps on different devices is also top-notch.

However, Google is a data company that relies on collecting information about its users. While the company has taken steps to bolster its privacy reputation, it's still a company that makes money on harvesting data. Those who are particularly privacy-conscious will probably want to look elsewhere.

It's hard to go wrong with the world's most popular web browser, particularly with its seamless workflow features and customization options. However, if you are even slightly concerned about online privacy, you may want to go with another option.

• Simple to learn, fastest option in some cases
• Syncs your Google account across other devices
• Extensive list of extensions and add-ons
• It's Google — so not that private
• Is a RAM and CPU hog

Mozilla Firefox is one of the only popular and mainstream browsers to have started life as an open source project. It's still a free and open source browser with a hefty focus on privacy and security, which could make it a good fit for those who want a Google Chrome alternative.

Because of its open source nature, users are free to explore Firefox's code — and they do. The browser doesn't have any hidden secrets or data-harvesters. It also features some excellent built-in privacy and security protections, including Enhanced Tracking Protection and an extensive list of customizable permissions.

Firefox was also the first browser to actually offer third-party extensions and add-ons. Although it might not have as many extensions as Google Chrome, you'll still find a hefty list of options ranging from privacy add-ons to customizable themes for your browser.

Although Firefox has some cross-platform integration between its app and built-in Pocket support, it isn't as seamless as Chrome or Safari. If speed if your primary concern, it's also important to note that Firefox isn't the fastest browser by most metrics.

Users who want an open source browser or are committed to Mozilla's mission of keeping the internet open and free will find a browser after their own hearts here. For the average user, however, another browser on this list might be a better fit.

• Completely free and open source
• Extremely customizable with extensions, themes, etc.
• The best option for hardcore privacy
• Not the fastest or most RAM efficient
• Synchronicity isn't as robust

Microsoft Edge is the spiritual successor to Internet Explorer that was first released in 2015. Originally HTML-based, Microsoft overhauled the browser to be based on Chromium, which is the same underlying software used to make Google Chrome.

As such, Microsoft Edge is now much more competitive than it used to be. It's far from a Google Chrome clone, but you should expect a similar level of performance from it. Some users believe that Microsoft Edge even feels snappier than Chrome on a Mac.

Because it's Chromium-based, Microsoft Edge also has a list of extensions similar to Chrome. It also sports a number of unique features, such as a "Collections" ability that lets you save information like text or webpages to a built-in notebook. There's also a vertical tab bar, a built-in read aloud feature, and an easy native screenshot tool.

It's a solid option for anyone that doesn't like Safari and wants an alternative to Google Chrome because of privacy reasons. If you use a Microsoft account like some use a Google account, then Edge might also be a solid option.

• Snappy, lower RAM and CPU usage
• Unique features like Read Aloud and Collections
• Good performance in most metrics
• Can be slower than Chrome in terms of pure performance
• Syncing isn't as strong as Safari or Chrome

The perfect browser doesn't exist, but you can pick and choose what you need

There's no clear answer for what the "best" browser on macOS is. However, some browsers are better suited to specific tasks than others.

When it comes to smooth JavaScript execution, Chrome is in the top spot with Safari a close second. Safari, according to the MotionMark testing, handles complex web pages better than any other browser.

Firefox, interestingly enough, may be the fastest when it comes to general everyday web apps.

Of course, there's also the issues of extension support, privacy, and synchronization across other devices. Many of the browsers are evenly matched on these metrics, but some excel in specific areas like privacy or cross-platform integration.

But, unlike on iOS, you aren't effectively stuck with one browser core technology. These four browsers, and several more, are available on macOS, and can be run in parallel.

While we don't recommend running all four unless you're a web developer or unit case tester, two or three different browsers can be run at-will, if any given browser doesn't handle your work case well.

Top Stories

Amazon's latest Apple deals make perfect Mother's Day gifts (and prices start at just $24)

Apple's macOS 15 to get rare cognitive boost via Project GreyParrot

How to use Delta for iPhone to emulate retro games on your iPhone

New HomePod part leak shows off glossy display cover

Apple Notes in iOS 18 looks to up the ante with Microsoft OneNote

When to expect every Mac to get the AI-based M4 processor

Featured deals.

Grab Apple's new M3 MacBook Air for $999

Latest comparisons.

M3 15-inch MacBook Air vs M3 14-inch MacBook Pro — Ultimate buyer's guide

M3 MacBook Air vs M1 MacBook Air — Compared

M3 MacBook Air vs M2 MacBook Air — Compared

Latest news.

Limited supply: Apple's latest 14-inch MacBook Pro is $200 off

Apple resellers are competing for your business with a $200 price cut on the current 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Pro chip, 18GB RAM and 512GB of storage.

Game emulators, iPad Air screens, and Elgato's new range on the AppleInsider Podcast

As China seems poised to get the Apple Vision Pro, we've had a whole range of new Elgato devices randing from game capture to webcam, plus the iPad Air may cost more than we think — and the M4 Macs will be here before we know it.

Provenance plans to bring Sony & Sega console emulation to the App Store

Retro game players may soon have more options to emulate old game consoles on the iPhone, with Provenance aiming to support systems from Sony and Sega as well as Nintendo.

Exclusive: Apple has been working on the most significant update to its Calculator app in years and the version being tested in early betas of macOS 15 sports brand-new features and exciting enhancements to the unit conversion system.

Senator Warren doesn't have a plan to break up Apple, but still wants to pretty badly

Senator Elizabeth Warren has posted a call for Apple's "stranglehold monopoly" on the smartphone market to be broken up, despite the iPhone peaking at only half the US population.

Tim Cook leaves Singapore after week-long Asia tour

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been posting an account of his last few meetings with officials, users, and students from his Singapore visit.

Everything you need to know about emulating retro games with Delta for iPhone

Your iPhone can play retro games originally released for the Gameboy, Nintendo 64, and more, thanks to the Delta app. Here's how to get started.

TikTok might not have existed without insights from Steve Jobs

The story of TikTok's start highlights how visionary ideas, much like those of Steve Jobs, can have unexpected paths that profoundly impact global technology and culture.

Exclusive: One of Apple's most inconspicuously popular apps, Notes, is bound to become even more powerful when the company unveils its next generation operating systems in June, AppleInsider has learned.

Apple rolls out second beta round, including EU Web Distribution in iOS 17.5

Apple has shifted onto the second round of developer betas, with the latest iteration of iOS 17.5 including Apple's Web Distribution system.

Latest Videos

All of the specs of the iPhone SE 4 may have just been leaked

The best game controllers for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV

Latest reviews.

Ugreen DXP8800 Plus network attached storage review: Good hardware, beta software

Espresso 17 Pro review: Magnetic & modular portable Mac monitor

Journey Loc8 MagSafe Finder Wallet review: an all-in-one Find My wallet

{{ title }}

{{ summary }}

• GTA 5 Cheats
• What is Discord?
• Find a Lost Phone
• Upcoming Movies
• Nintendo Switch 2
• Best YouTube TV Alternatives
• How to Recall an Email in Outlook

The best web browsers for 2023

All web browsers have the same basic function, and yet, the choice between them has always been one of the most contentious in tech history. You have more options these days than ever before, whether you’re looking for the best web browser for privacy , the best for speed, or perhaps something a bit more adventurous.

To help you decide on the best web browser, we grabbed the latest browsers and put them through their paces. Even if some could use a complete overhaul, these options are your best chance for a great online experience.

The best web browser: Google Chrome

Chrome is ubiquitous — and for good reason. With a robust feature set, full Google Account integration, a thriving extension ecosystem (available through the Chrome Web Store), and a reliable suite of mobile apps, it’s easy to see why Chrome is the most popular and the best web browser.

• The best PDF editors for 2024
• The best Chrome VPN extensions for 2022

Chrome boasts some of the most extensive mobile integration available. Served up on every major platform, keeping data in sync is easy, making browsing between multiple devices a breeze. Sign in to your Google account on one device, and all Chrome bookmarks, saved data, and preferences come right along. Even active extensions stay synchronized across devices.

Chrome’s Password Manager can automatically generate and recommend strong passwords when a user creates a new account on a webpage. Managing saved passwords and adding notes to passwords is even easier. The search bar, or Omnibox, provides “rich results” comprised of useful answers, and it now supports generative AI capabilities. Favorites are more accessible as well, and they’re manageable on the New Tab page. And it’s now easier to mute tabs to avoid unwanted sounds.

Other updates have included a Dark Mode for Windows and MacOS , better New Tab customization and tab group creation, tab hover cards, and an in-browser warning if your password was discovered in a data breach. There’s a price tracking feature that can help locate the best deals. Android users will appreciate the Phone Hub for linking and monitoring their phones. There’s also the ability to quiet notifications, so websites don’t bombard you with requests to enable in-browser notifications.

What’s the bottom line? The Google Chrome browser is fast, free, and even better looking than before. With a thriving extension ecosystem, it’s as fully featured or as pared-down as you want it to be. Everything is right where it belongs, privacy and security controls are laid out in plain English, and the browser just gets out of your way. While it can be a little RAM-hungry at times , Google is working to make it more efficient — like Microsoft’s Edge, Google can now hibernate tabs in the background to stop them from using too many resources.

Overall, Chrome remains the best web browser download for the average user.

And, things are looking to get even better. Google announced some significant upgrades to the browser that haven’t gone live yet, to celebrate Chrome’s 15th birthday . A Material You design language will allow users to customize Chrome’s look and feel and attach themes to profiles to make it easy to tell them apart. The menu system will be revamped to provide easier access to a variety of settings and features including Extensions, Password Manager, Translate, and others. The Chrome Web Store will be redesigned using Material You to be easier to use, and AI will help identify useful extensions. And finally, Safe Browsing will now work in real time to protect against threats.

The best Chrome alternative: Microsoft Edge

In response to the market’s rejection of its original home-grown Edge browser, Microsoft rewrote Edge using the open-source Chromium web browser engine. The new Edge launched on February 5, 2020 , as a separate, stand-alone browser that replaced the integrated version. It became part of Windows 10 with the May 2020 update, although you can still download it for Windows 10 builds prior to version 2004. Of course, it’s the default web browser for Windows 11.

At first glance, the new Edge browser looks and feels like Google Chrome. It prompts you to import Chrome’s bookmarks toolbar and other settings. This is great if you hated the old Edge browser and want to give Microsoft’s new browser another shot. It also supports Chrome extensions , though the browser leads you to the Microsoft Store for add-ons. You must manually load the Chrome Web Store to install anything not listed in Microsoft’s repository.

However, it’s not Chrome with a Windows 11 theme. Microsoft reportedly disabled many features, including Google’s Safe Browsing API, ad blocking, speech input, Google-centric services, and more. In return, the company worked to optimize Edge and reduce its footprint while continuing to add new, Microsoft-oriented features. As of January 2023, Edge is the most efficient browser in terms of memory usage. It also allows sleeping tabs, to let tabs release their resources when they haven’t been used for some time.

Features launched since its release have included the new Edge Sidebar that provides easy access to various tools, more flexibility in managing how Edge starts up, Citations to make it easier for students to cite sources, and various other updates to make the browser more productive. Edge Workspaces lets users organize tasks into dedicated windows, and Microsoft has continuously tweaked various features, like the Edge Sidebar, to make them more user-friendly.

Microsoft Edge also provides simpler privacy settings and security updates. Microsoft Edge uses a graphically friendly interface that displays three security levels: Basic, Balanced, and Strict. With Balanced set as the default, many sites request you to disable your pop-up blocker even though one isn’t manually installed. All in all, we’re very optimistic that Edge is on its way to challenging Chrome as the best web browser.

The best Chromium alternative: Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is the best browser that’s not based on the Chromium browser engine. Mozilla has taken real strides to make its browser a truly modern way to surf from site to site, thanks to efforts like its upgrade to Firefox Quantum , its VR alternative Firefox Reality , and password-free browsing .

It wasn’t too long ago that Mozilla rebuilt the browser’s interface, offering a cleaner, more modern take on what a web browser should be. The changes weren’t just skin-deep, however. There’s some impressive engineering going on behind the scenes.

For example, Firefox Quantum is designed to leverage multicore processors in ways that its competitors just aren’t doing. It was not designed to make a huge difference in your day-to-day browsing, but Mozilla hopes this design will give Firefox Quantum an edge moving forward. By engineering for the future now, Firefox Quantum is in a better position to take advantage of quicker processors as they emerge.

Some Firefox strengths include privacy protections with SmartBlock anti-tracker support, improved password syncing across devices, enhanced readability, integrated breach alerts, and a Protections Dashboard that provides a summary of how Firefox protects your privacy behind the scenes. WebRender improves the graphics performance on Windows PCs with Intel and AMD CPUs.

Recent updates include easier download management, captions, and subtitle support on YouTube, Prime Video, and Netflix videos watched in picture-in-picture mode, HDR support in MacOS, and the ability to edit PDFs with text, drawings, and signatures. Firefox can also recognize text from an image, which is copied to the clipboard when selected. Finally, Firefox Colorways provides new options for optimizing how Firefox looks on-screen.

Beneath those changes, Firefox remains a comfortable, familiar standby. It’s a capable browser with a deep catalog of extensions and user interface customization. While managing settings across platforms isn’t as seamless as Google Chrome , the mobile browser app lets you share bookmarks between devices when using a free Firefox account.

There’s a bit of a fringe benefit, too. Since it’s been around longer than Chrome, some older web apps — the likes of which you might encounter at your university or workplace — work better on Firefox than they do on Chrome. For that reason, it never hurts to keep it around.

Overall, Firefox is more privacy-centric than Chrome and comparably fast, but its feature set isn’t quite as expansive elsewhere. If you like the sound of this, download the Firefox browser today.

The most innovative web browser: Opera

Another venerable browser and popular alternative, the Opera browser shares much of Chrome’s DNA and deserves its place as one of the best web browsers. Like both Edge and Chrome, Opera is built on Google’s open-source Chromium engine and, as a result, they all have a very similar user experience. Both feature a hybrid URL/search bar, and both are relatively light and fast.

The differences appear when you look at Opera’s built-in features. Where Chrome relies on an extension ecosystem to provide functionality users might want, Opera has a few more features baked right into the browser itself. It introduced a predictive website preload ability, and an Instant Search feature isolates search results in their separate window while the current page fades into the background, letting users more easily focus on the research task at hand.

You can install extensions from the Opera Add-ons store , which are just like Chrome extensions. Similar to Google’s browser, you’ll find useful tools like Giphy, Amazon Assistant, Avast Online Security, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more. If Chrome’s wide variety of extensions is important to you, then Opera becomes an intriguing alternative. It might just be one of the best browsers for quickly navigating web pages.

Opera also features a built-in “Stash” for saving pages to read later. There’s no need to sign up for a Pocket or Evernote account to save a page for later reading. Similarly, Opera features a speed-dial menu that puts all your most frequently visited pages in one place. Google Chrome also does this, but only on a blank new tab. Finally, Opera has a built-in unlimited VPN service, making it a more secure browser option.

The biggest changes came with Opera 60 and Reborn 3, a complete revamp that brought a new borderless design, Web 3 support, and a Crypto Wallet, allowing users to prepare for blockchain-based sites. With version 69, Opera became the first browser with a built-in Twitter tool, and the company has added others as well including Instagram and TikTok. Just click the icon on the toolbar, log in to your account, and tweet away right from within the slide-out menu.

Other recent advancements include Lucid Mode, which sharpens video playing on a variety of platforms, supports emojis instead of web links, and other enhancements. The Opera Sidebar adds new functionality much like Edge’s Sidebar, allowing quick access to various Opera features. And Opera Aria adds new generative AI capabilities built right into the browser.

You can see that we’re well into hair-splitting territory, which is why it’s important to remember that your choice of browser is, more than any other service or app you use each day, entirely dependent on your personal preferences — what feels most right for you. The Opera web browser has a unique look and feel, and it combines some of the best features of Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Alternative browsers

While the preceding browsers will meet most users’ needs, other alternatives exist for anyone looking for something different. This section is for those who have a more niche preference in web browsers  or want to try something new.

Apple Safari

If you use Apple devices exclusively, Safari is already your default browser. It’s also significantly faster than in the past, surpassing Chrome in its quickness. It’s integrated into iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS, and you’ll likely get better battery life thanks to Apple’s in-house optimizations and the underlying hardware.

Safari also focuses a great deal on privacy and security. If you want to minimize how you’re tracked and whether Big Brother is looking over your shoulder, then Safari is a good choice. If you also use an iPhone and/or an iPad, then using Safari on your Mac will make for the most seamless transition between platforms. Open websites on an iPad or iPhone are carried over to MacOS.

Safari is not offered outside the Apple ecosystem.

Vivaldi Browser

The Vivaldi browser is truly unique. No two Vivaldi users will have the same setup. When you run it for the first time, you’re guided through a setup process that lays out your browser in a way that makes sense for you. You choose where your tabs and address bar go and whether you want browser tabs displayed at the top of the page or in a separate side panel. This is a browser built from the ground up to deliver a unique user experience, and for the most part, it succeeds. Vivaldi 2.0 enhanced the customization features and made them easier to access.

This browser excels at customization, and you can choose from a variety of tasteful themes that don’t feel dated or out of place on a modern PC, in addition to the aforementioned UI choices. It also has some standout privacy-enhancing features, like its team-up with DuckDuckGo to make the non-tracking search tool the default option when in privacy mode.

Finally, recent updates added more powerful tab management, enhancements like Web Panels that make for smarter browsing, and (as mentioned) even more powerful customization options. Other new updates include a built-in ad blocker, a built-in tracker blocker, a clock in the Status Bar, a new Notes Manager, and a Break Mode for pausing the internet while keeping the browser open.

Brave Browser

One of the most unusual browsers around is Brave — or, perhaps, it’s Brave’s business model that’s the strangest. Brave blocks all ads on all web pages by default, which makes it arguably the fastest browser around. Ads are a huge portion of how many websites make money — block these ads, and suddenly the most important web financial tool is eliminated.

That’s where the Brave Rewards program comes in. Users receive Basic Attention Tokens (BATs) when they view alternative ads that Brave places in the browsing stream. Users can pass along a portion of their tokens to publishers. As of January 2021, there were over 70,000 websites that supported BAT-based transactions through the Brave browser, including Wikipedia, The Guardian, WikiHow, MacRumors, and more.

What’s in it for users? Simply put, if you’re not waiting for ads to download along with website content, then your web experience will feel much faster. Brave performs no user tracking, making it ideal for private browsing as well.

Tor Browser

The Tor Browser is a version of Firefox that serves one very specific purpose: A simple entry point for The Onion Router, or Tor .

Tor is software combined with an open network aimed at making you invisible by routing your traffic through several anonymous servers. While it’s not foolproof, it’s very difficult for someone to identify you when you’re properly configured and using something like the Tor Browser to surf the web — especially if combined with a VPN .

There are many legitimate uses of the Tor Browser and the Tor network. It’s a good choice for people who live in countries with repressive governments, as well as journalists and activists. The dark web is also one of the destinations for people using Tor, which includes many nefarious and illegal sites.

In any event, if you want to remain completely anonymous while surfing the web, the Tor Browser and network are for you. If you want a more mainstream alternative, Opera includes a VPN component, but it’s far less private.

Avast Secure Browser

Avast Secure Browser first arrived as the Opera-based Avast Safezone Browser in 2016 as part of the Avast Antivirus paid bundle. It was revised and rebranded in 2018 as a free stand-alone product based on Chromium. Originally the “SafeZone” aspect kicked in when users visited websites to make purchases or manage money.

Avast Secure Browser provides several built-in tools to protect your data and privacy. These include an anti-phishing module, fingerprinting and online tracking prevention, an ad blocker, and a Webcam Guard tool to control which websites can access your camera. The Hack Check tool will determine if your info was leaked in a data breach.

Avast Secure Browser is a stand-alone download for Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS. The desktop version doesn’t include an integrated VPN but instead directs users to download the company’s separate SecureLine VPN software. The listed Bank Mode — part of the Avast Free Antivirus client — flips on when users load a banking website.

Best web browser features — what to look for

Benchmark tests.

Notice we don’t include Safari in our main comparison. Apple’s Safari web browser is unavailable on Windows, Android, or Chrome OS, so we removed it from our primary list.

Most browsers are compatible with web standards and handle performance with relative ease. A casual user probably won’t notice a difference in the rendering speed between today’s modern browsers, as all six are much faster and leaner than those of a few years ago.

We ran the following benchmarks on a desktop with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe solid-state drive, and Windows 11. All browsers were clean installs of the most current production versions as of January 2023, and all were run at their default settings.

First, JetStream 2 is a JavaScript and WebAssembly benchmark. It tests how quickly a web browser can start and execute code, and how smoothly it runs. Higher numbers are better.

Notice how all three Chromium-based browsers outperform Firefox. In fact, there’s very little difference between them, while Firefox’s performance is quite poor by comparison.

The next test we ran was Speedometer 2.0 . It measures how responsive a browser is to web applications by repeatedly adding a large number of items to a to-do list. Higher numbers are better.

Here, Opera led the pack, with Chrome and Edge running nearly neck to neck. Firefox came in last here with a relatively low score.

Finally, we tested how much RAM each browser uses, both with no tabs open and then with 10 tabs open accessing the same popular sites. We made sure that each browser had no extensions running, and we let each browser settle in before looking at its memory use. For the test with 10 tabs open, we averaged memory use when all the tabs were opened and then five minutes later to account for any variability.

It’s not a scientific test, but it should be sound enough to give you an idea of which browsers are the most and least efficient in terms of taking up your RAM. We found Opera to use the least amount of RAM when first opened, barely ahead of Edge, while Chrome used the most. Edge used the least with all 10 tabs loaded by a significant margin, a third or less than the other browsers. Chrome used the most with all 10 tabs open, and Firefox and Opera weren’t far behind.

Security and privacy

The most valuable tool for secure and private browsing is user discretion, especially when you consider that every web browser has encountered security breaches in the past. In particular, Internet Explorer and Chrome’s reputations for protecting users’ security and privacy credentials are spotty at best.

Chrome, Safari, Vivaldi, Opera, and Firefox all rely on Google’s Safe Browsing API to detect potentially dangerous sites. Thanks to constant updates, Mozilla, Chrome, and Opera all make constant security improvements. Microsoft disabled this API in Edge.

All browsers offer a private session option, too. Private sessions prevent the storage of browsing history, temporary internet files, and cookies. Browser support for Do Not Track remains spotty.

Mozilla made some strides in differentiating itself from others with a real focus on privacy in recent years. It even debuted a Facebook Container  in 2018 to make it harder for the social network to harvest user information.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need to use a VPN when browsing the web? 

You do not have to use a VPN when browsing the internet. However, a VPN can be a good tool to use as it protects your privacy and data by creating a secure and encrypted data tunnel between your browser and a VPN server. In turn, that server creates a secure and encrypted connection between it and the target website.

As a result, the website can’t identify you personally, nor can it see your true geological location or internet address. Not even your ISP knows where you’re surfing or the device you use with a VPN enabled. Some VPN services are free while others require a subscription. We have a list of the current best VPN services .

Which browser is most used in the world? 

Google Chrome leads the web browser market with a 64.68% share, according to Statcounter . Apple Safari follows with 18.29%, Edge at 4.23%, Mozilla Firefox at 3.01%%, and Opera at 2.25%. Internet Explorer is still in use with 0.81%, while Microsoft Edge “Legacy” is fading out at 0.32%.

What are the best ad blockers to use for your browser? 

We have a guide on the best ad blockers for Google Chrome , but here’s a short list:

• AdBlock and AdBlock Plus
• AdGuard (Chrome only)
• CyberSec by NordVPN
• Poper Blocker (Chrome only)
• Stands Fair AdBlocker (Chrome only)
• uBlock Origin (Chrome and Firefox only)

What is browser fingerprinting and how can you prevent it? 

Websites want to know everything about you: Your tastes, your habits, and where you like to surf. When you load a website, it quietly runs scripts in the background that collect information about you and your device. The operating system, the web browser, all installed extensions, your time zone — all of this information is strung together to create a “fingerprint,” which in turn can be used to trace you across the internet via cross-site tracking.

Avast provides a detailed explanation and outlines various forms of fingerprinting. For example, the “canvas” method forces the browser to draw an image or text in the background, without the user knowing, to determine the operating system, web browser, graphics card, installed drivers, and the current font style. Device fingerprinting determines all internal and external device components.

As your fingerprint is tracked across the internet, this “profile” can be sold to data brokers, who then resell the data to advertisers. It’s a more silent means of gathering information about you versus using cookies that require your consent. The problem is, browser fingerprinting is still perfectly legal.

The best way to prevent browser fingerprinting is by randomizing and generalizing data. Third-party software like Avast AntiTrack does this by inserting “fake” data when website scripts try to collect your information. However, this tool allows scripts to continue running in the background so the website doesn’t “break.”

Many browsers offer some type of anti-fingerprinting protection. These include Avast Secure Browser (see above), Brave Browser (randomization), Mozilla Firefox (blocks fingerprinting scripts), and Tor Browser (generalization).

Editors' Recommendations

• The 23 best Google Chrome themes in 2024
• The best Chromebook for students for 2023
• Best Products
• Google Chrome

Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for technology into a marketing, consulting, and freelance writing career aimed at helping people use technology to enhance their lives. At Digital Trends, he reviews laptops and desktops, including the latest from HP, Dell, Lenovo, Apple, and more, and writes news and easy to understand how-to articles about the computing industry as a whole.

When he’s not writing, you’ll find him reading and watching science fiction, taking photos with his family, and obsessing over Indiana University basketball.

Laptop Reviews

Best Budget Laptops Best 2-in-1 Laptops Best Business Laptops Best Laptops Under $1,000

A 4K monitor is a great way of enjoying an enhanced image as you work with more pixels, higher resolutions, and often better colors too. Over at Best Buy, there are some great monitor deals squarely focused on all things 4K. There are dozens of 4K monitors in the sale so the smart move is to hit the button below to see what’s there for yourself. If you want some help though, we’re here. We’ve picked out a few highlights in the sale so take a look for yourself.

What to shop for in the Best Buy 4K monitor sale Samsung makes some of the best monitors around so why not start with the ? It’s currently reduced by $150 so it costs just $200. Its IPS panel looks great with AMD FreeSync support effectively eliminating screen tears and stutters. There’s also HDR support which brings with it some great looking colors while wide viewing angles mean it looks great from any perspective.

It's tough to find the right gaming CPU for your next PC. We've benchmarked dozens of processors to find the best CPU for gaming, and there's a clear winner right now: AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D. Although the latest chip from Team Red claims the crown, there are still several other great options on the market.

Whatever your needs and budgets, though, we have options from AMD and Intel that will be great performers. We're focused on gaming here, but if you want a processor that can game and get work done, make sure to check out our list of the best processors.

Despite their relatively steep price tags, 5K monitors have gained substantial popularity among various creative professionals, including photographers, videographers, filmmakers, and graphic designers. These displays not only deliver exceptionally sharp and detailed imagery but also come with high-end, factory-calibrated panels to ensure precise color reproduction.

A true 5K resolution is defined as 5120 x 2880 pixels, with the emphasis often placed on the horizontal pixel count by many manufacturers. It's important to note that only a few monitors offer this exact resolution. Therefore, we have compiled a list of the top monitors that provide a 5K2K resolution (5120 x 2160 pixels) as well. Here are the best 5K monitors currently available for purchase in 2024.

Best web browsers 2023: Firefox vs Google Chrome vs Microsoft Edge

Firefox vs Chrome vs Edge - discover which comes out on top in the ultimate battle to crown the very best browser

Like anything else you do on your computer, be it editing documents or productivity tracking, browsing the web should be done with the best tools available. Every computer is shipped with a default browser and each operating system (OS) is preloaded with a proprietary browser, but these may not be the best for each individual’s specific needs. Different browsers will prioritize different features, and some features will be exclusive to each browser itself.

Trying to weigh up Firefox vs Chrome vs Edge can be a daunting challenge, and every major browser will usually offer features that will satisfy the needs of most internet users. Nonetheless, the competition would not be so heavy if slight differences did not matter to users. Choosing the right browser for you is a difficult decision and migrating browsers can be a long and tedious process. As such we recommend carefully considering your decision before committing to any in order to ensure your initial time investment is worth it.

What to look for in a browser

Before you make your choice, we recommend you research the core features of each browser to determine what you are looking for. Many features will be shared across Firefox, Chrome, and Edge, including password managers and private browsing. But other features may be exclusive to the specific browsers and these features require the closest consideration.

Take, for example, Firefox, which uses less RAM than its competitors and is therefore less computationally demanding to run. This might mean it is the better choice for people with hardware with low RAM, or who require RAM for other tasks and do not want their internet browsing to drain this resource.

Microsoft Edge features Copilot integration, one component to Microsoft’s wider push to bring generative AI to all of its major products in order to bring richer, smarter, and quicker user experiences.

Google Chrome is easily the most popular browser on the market and includes a number of helpful features such as offline document editing if you use the Google Workspace on a daily basis.

A number of organizations have their own in-house extensions and web apps that staff rely on to complete their work. Sometimes, these are only compatible with specific browsers, meaning the number of options you can pick from may be restricted to those that support the extension.

The nature of your work is also a factor that will influence your decision. Developers who work with metaverse experiences, for example, may choose the Firefox Reality browser in order to navigate the web using a VR headset.

Finally, regardless of the bold claims made by each browser about their security and privacy credentials, you will want to confirm that your choice is compliant with your employer’s IT policies. When working remotely, you might need to speak with your administrator to ensure your browser is able to join the network. We would be very surprised if any of our choices cause any consternation, but forewarned is forearmed.

Understanding Chrome vs Chromium vs ChromeOS

You’ll see “Chrome” and “Chromium” used a lot in this roundup. It’s not a misprint - they’re two separate browsers... except they’re not. Let us explain. 

Released alongside the flagship browser in 2008, Chromium is a totally open-source, white-lable version of Chrome. Most of the codebase is the same, and although Google curates the project, it is separate from parent company Alphabet LLC. Chromium’s logo is identical to that of Chrome, just with a blue and grey colour scheme, instead of Google’s traditional colors. The UI is completely identical, but Chromium does lack some codecs and syncing technology which is standard in the proprietary version of Chrome. 

Chromium is an important browser to be aware of because of its role as the basis for many of the other browsers on the market, including Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi. Thanks to the open source community, Chromium is available for more unusual machines such as the Raspberry Pi ; and creators of browsers based on a ‘forked’ build of Chromium are expected to add their code to the Chromium codebase for the benefit of all. Stock browsers for Android forks such as Samsung (Samsung Internet) and Amazon (Silk) are usually based on chromium.

Chrome is Google’s official build of Chromium and the most popular browser in the world. It has tighter integration with Google accounts and a number of additions “under the hood” . It has three ‘channels’ - Stable, Beta, and Canary - with each updated to a new official build on a four-week cycle.

ChromeOS, meanwhile, is another separate yet related entity. It's an operating system built on the Chrome browser and used in Chromebooks and other Google desktop products ; almost identical to the Chrome browser, but with a desktop, settings, and driver support. As of February 2022, you can also install it on PCs and Macs, via ChromeOS Flex .

All three products share the same codebase and are completely compatible with Chrome’s wide range of extensions. Updates to ChromeOS also run on a four-week cycle, but often arrive several days later than the standalone Chrome browser.

Best browsers 2023: Edge vs Chrome vs Firefox

Google chrome.

The growth in market share for Google’s browser since launch has been phenomenal. During 2021, Statcounter reports that 63.84% of devices around the world were running it, and at one point that figure was over 70%. There’s a lot to love about Chrome - most notably its tight integration with Google services making it extremely easy to switch between devices, as well as a huge ‘Chrome Store’ full of extensions, apps and customizations. As the world’s most popular browser, it has almost complete compatibility with any webpage you can throw at it and renders them at speeds unimaginable even a decade ago .

All that speed comes at a cost, though. Chrome is a notorious resource hog, using over a gigabyte of RAM during runtime. Add a few extensions and you could find it monopolizes the bulk of your machine’s memory. Google has worked hard to bring down Chrome’s memory footprint, but it’s still a lot more resource-hungry than any other browser on this list.

Despite this, Chrome is still the people’s choice by a factor of three and if there’s a feature not available natively, the chances are someone has written an extension to add it. Just remember that more extensions equals more RAM usage, so if you’re running a 2GB netbook, you might want to rethink how many you add.

Chrome is available on Windows, macOS, most Linux distros , Android, iOS, and Chromebooks (as part of ChromeOS).

Microsoft Edge

Technically, the current product calling itself Microsoft Edge should be called Edge 2. When it launched back in 2016 it looked very different and owed much of its layout to its predecessor, Internet Explorer. It failed to capture the public’s imagination, so it was completely rebuilt from the ground up using the Chromium codebase, and from April 2021 that became the only version of Edge, pre-installed alongside Windows 10 or 11.

It differs from Google’s Chrome in a number of ways, not least of all that it’s slightly less of a memory hog. It’s compatible with a limited number of extensions originally designed for Chrome, but Microsoft controls which ones. This is supposedly due to security concerns, but ironically it’s the browser that collects the most user telemetry, leading some experts to question its own security. Users still report compatibility issues with extensions, which is a good point to remind ourselves that Edge, in its current form, is only two years old and occasionally shows its relative lack of bug-squashing.

Where Chrome links up nicely with Google products, as you’d expect, Edge syncs with your Microsoft account. Being a Microsoft product, it’s very keen to enforce Bing on you, which takes a certain amount of tweaking to change and in some cases (such as translation) can’t be switched to another provider.

There’s no question that Chromium Edge is a great deal better than the legacy version and yes, for basic tasks, it’s a little less power-hungry than Chrome, but the fact that it uses Bing so liberally whilst having relatively poor extension support means there’s still no reason not to download Chrome at the first opportunity. The fact that in 2021, it only garnered 3.99% of the market, despite being preinstalled on Microsoft products, speaks volumes. It’s a good browser, but it’s young, and it’s not quite there yet.

Mozilla Firefox

An open-source project, originally designed for use by Mozilla’s development team, Firefox is the oldest of the ‘big three’ browsers - in fact in 2022, it’s celebrating its 20th birthday. Before Chrome arrived, it was gaining significant market share. After several years in the relative doldrums, it was retooled in 2017 under a project called ‘Quantum’ which allowed its proprietary Gecko engine to perform at speeds more akin to Chrome.

Firefox was the first browser to offer extensions, which it refers to as 'Add-ons', and as a result, it had a wealth of them to download, but since Quantum it has relaunched the feature and this treasury has been replaced by a new library which is still growing. The new add-ons use the same API as Chromium and as a result, there is now some cross-compatibility.

In recent years, Firefox has focused on its security credentials and in 2021 became the first browser to offer the ability to block cross-site tracking. It also offers DNS over HTTPS (DoH), a feature that makes it almost impossible for hackers to monitor your web traffic, and a feature that blocks any scripts that attempt to mine cryptocurrency from your machine.

Firefox is still a great browser, but with Chromium-based browsers so much the norm now, it has seen its popularity plummet from nearly 30% at one time, down to 3.91% in 2021, putting it almost exactly on par with Edge. Whilst it still has a lot to recommend it both in terms of security and performance, Mozilla has consistently been last to basic features (it only began sandboxing processes in 2018) that are standard in other browsers. However, if you’re looking for a corporate deployment to your whole team, there is a long-term support edition available alongside tools to push itself to multiple machines on a domain, making it a smart choice for business.

Apple Safari

Although we’re focusing on Windows browsers for this round-up, we can’t ignore Apple’s stock Safari browser, which has 19.56% of the market, almost entirely made up of Mac and iPhone/Pad users after Apple ceased updating the Windows version a decade ago. For macOS and iOS users, it offers a more familiar layout and continuity features that let you carry on your surfing from exactly where you left off on another Safari instance, as well as a handful of unique software features built on integrations with the rest of the macOS platform.

Mac and iOS users should be aware, however, that all the browsers on this list are rendered using Apple Webkit rather than the standard renderer (usually Blink) in order to comply with Apple’s policies. As such, you’ll find that performance between browsers is much of a muchness, and any desire to switch to something other than Safari should be based on features, rather than any hope of a performance boost.

Best browsers 2023: Head-to-head performance

Just because the majority of the options above share the same Chromium codebase, it doesn’t mean they’ll have identical performance. In our benchmarking tests, we used three tools - Jetstream 2.0 which measures Javascript and WebAssembly performance using advanced web apps, Speedometer, which shows web app responsiveness, and Kraken, which calculates Javascript, but based on what Mozilla calls “more realistic workloads”.

The results were surprising. You may remember a few years ago, all the major browsers claimed that it was theirs that offered the fastest performance. Our results explain why - there simply is no clear winner. While Chrome offered a blistering 62.619 in the Jetstream tests, compared with a pitiful 35.182 for Firefox, Speedometer results were so poor at 19.5 that we reran the test several times to make sure it really was that bad. Compare that to Microsoft Edge at 69.1, with Opera a valiant second at 66.2. Kraken, a tool created by Firefox maker Mozilla, actually proved a problem for its own browser - it gave the slowest result of 3967.1ms. The winner was Vivaldi, which scored 1618.6, more than twice as fast as Firefox - yet scored mid-table on our other benchmarks.

By aggregating the results, we’re declaring that Opera is the best-performing browser by some margin, coming a consistent runner-up in all our benchmarks. Microsoft Edge is next, followed by Vivaldi, Brave and bringing up the rear, Chrome in fifth place, thanks to its perplexingly poor Speedometer performance, and Firefox bringing up the rear.

It’s worth remembering though, that none of these scores indicate a problematic or unusable level of performance, and we found that all our browsers (with the exception of Opera) were better at some tasks than others - so it may be that for your workload, another browser could be the right one for you.

Edge vs Chrome vs Firefox: Which is best?

In the internet’s early days, there was a clear benefit to staying with the default browser on the operating system. These days, however, the essential task of a web browser – to browse the web – is a mostly universal experience regardless of which you choose. As such, before choosing the right browser for you you should pay attention to the feature set of each – whether that be compatibility with other products, a lightweight footprint, or one of the unique features of the smaller browsers.

In the majority of instances, add-ons or extensions will let you gain any features that aren’t natively supported. We can’t say any one browser is the perfect fit for everyone (but if you push us, Chrome is the best of most worlds) so we would recommend trying a few options and creating your ideal surfing environment.

Best browsers 2023: Google Chrome alternatives

If you enjoy Chrome’s user experience, but don’t particularly want to fuel Google’s data-hungry business model, there are various alternatives to the major players of internet browsing that provide some intriguing comparisons.

Of all the Chromium browsers, Opera is the one that looks most visually distinct from Chrome. As one of the first browsers to switch to Chromium from its own engine, back in 2013, it has had ample time to carve a distinctive path, and has done so in spades. With a free VPN and Ad-Blocker built-in, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’d done enough, but with “Speed Dial” access to your favorite sites from a mosaic of thumbnails, a built-in crypto wallet, a sidebar for social media, and a variety of instant messaging platforms, and a one-click eraser for all your cookies and browsing history, Opera is an absolute powerhouse.

Unfortunately, its add-ons aren’t directly compatible with Chrome extensions, but there is an unofficial way to add them. The big turn-off for Google users is that it syncs with other instances of Opera, but not with Google (or Microsoft) accounts. It’s not a dealbreaker, but you’ll notice the lack of this feature if you’re used to it. It’s a shame because in most other ways, Opera is very, very special.

A relative newcomer, Vivaldi is the product of John Van Teschiner, one of the architects of the original (pre-Chromium) Opera. Originally designed to replace some features retired from his old browser, Vivaldi has blossomed into a distinct product in its own right, offering stackable tabs groups, tracking protection through DuckDuckGo, a pop-out video player, native mail and calendar clients and Chromecasting support, to name but a few. Vivaldi has become more like a dashboard for everything you’re doing, meaning you could, in theory, never leave it for another app all day. It’s also very privacy and safety-minded, with granular controls over blocking of ads and cookies by type, content, or source.

Brave is a privacy-first browser with a twist - by default it will block ads, but if you switch them on, you can earn cryptocurrency for each one you watch. It has repeatedly come top in “most private browser” testing, but it also has some unique features - for example if you try and surf to a page that doesn’t exist, it will automatically search for a cache from Wayback Machine. If you need further privacy, you can route traffic through the TOR network and it also has its own in-built news aggregator. You can use cryptocurrency earned to offer micropayments to bloggers on certain sites, a reflection of Brave’s attempts to try and find new ways to finance the internet. There’s a lot to love (perhaps too much) and from a business point of view, you might find it a bit “busy”, but as a product in its own right, it’s a promising new alternative.

What about Internet Explorer?

Due to being included with every version of Windows since Windows 95, Internet Explorer is familiar to most computer users. Despite ceasing active development of Internet Explorer in 2016 to focus on its Edge browser, it continued to bundle the final edition IE11 with Windows to allow compatibility with legacy sites. 

This all changed in 2022, when on June 15th, Internet Explorer was put out to pasture, once and for all. Going forward, Microsoft recommends using Edge (of course), which offers an Internet Explorer emulator mode that can be opened in a new tab. This should only be used for web pages that are business-critical, and only as a stopgap until your organization upgrades the page or package in question to be compliant with more modern alternatives.

Some products which already bundle Internet Explorer, such as Windows Server, won’t reach EOL until 2029, so Microsoft will continue to offer IE security updates until that time - but it bears repeating that in 2022, the use of IE really should be a last resort. There’s a joke in the tech industry that 'Internet Explorer is the browser you use to download Chrome'. It’s funny because it’s true.

Get the ITPro. daily newsletter

Receive our latest news, industry updates, featured resources and more. Sign up today to receive our FREE report on AI cyber crime & security - newly updated for 2024.

Darien began his IT career in the 1990s as a systems engineer, later becoming an IT project manager. His formative experiences included upgrading a major multinational from token-ring networking to Ethernet, and migrating a travelling sales force from Windows 3.1 to Windows 95.

He subsequently spent some years acting as a one-man IT department for a small publishing company, before moving into journalism himself. He is now a regular contributor to IT Pro, specialising in networking and security, and serves as associate editor of PC Pro magazine with particular responsibility for business reviews and features.

You can email Darien at  [email protected] , or follow him on Twitter at @dariengs.

Meta's Llama 3 will force OpenAI and other AI giants to up their game

Cisco launches Hypershield – a 'must-have solution' for those defending against IoT-based cyber attacks

Red Hat adds trio of new tools to its Trusted Software Supply Chain

Transforming health and social care through game-changing connectivity

Innovation to boost productivity and provide better data insights

Five ways to drive innovation at the edge

2023 Cybersecurity Insiders VPN risk report

• 2 Red Hat adds trio of new tools to its Trusted Software Supply Chain
• 3 ITC Infotech agrees to acquire cloud experts Blazeclan Technologies
• 4 Government lays out its Smart Data Roadmap despite concerns over lack of regulatory oversight
• 5 After a string of high profile cyber gang takedowns, is the cyber crime industry about to get a lot more fragmented?

• Software Reviews
• Affiliate disclosure
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy

Edge vs Firefox - Which is Better in 2024?

updated on January 2, 2024

Share this article

Improve this guide

Read our disclosure page to find out how can you help MSPoweruser sustain the editorial team Read more

Edge and Firefox may not be the most popular browsers , but as the leading alternatives to Chrome, which comes out on top in 2023?

To answer that question, we put Edge vs Firefox in a battle of user-friendliness, features, performance, and more.

Of course, choosing a browser partly comes down to personal preference, but it’s also important to know which hogs more resources, whether there are any privacy concerns, and the features that stand out the most.

Edge vs Firefox Overview

Currently, both browsers are free, available across desktop and mobile operating systems, and can sync between your personal devices.

Comparing Microsoft’s Edge to Mozilla’s Firefox is a worthy task, as they both occupy the third and fourth spot in the global browser market.

Since the death of Internet Explorer, most web users jumped to Google’s Chrome, which gained significant exposure because the search engine is so popular. On the other hand, Apple users predominantly use Safari as it’s native to iOS and macOS.

Microsoft has managed to regain support with Edge and Firefox has maintained a loyal following as the proverbial third party.

Here’s what we found when putting them head-to-head on Windows.

Edge vs Firefox – User Interface

When it comes to interfaces, most desktop browsers including Edge and Firefox have become quite homogenous. That’s not a bad thing, as developers know what users want.

The address bar, tabs, and settings icons are all at the top where you’d expect. The key difference is that Edge supports vertical tabs. This allows you to scroll through in a similar fashion to the Windows start menu (or any menu for that matter).

While this isn’t groundbreaking, it’s useful if you are constantly working through a lot of tabs and/or have a small display. More screen space is given, so the tabs don’t get bunched up. Firefox does have a solution by allowing horizontal scrolling, but it’s more clunky.

Because Edge is integrated with Windows and Bing, there’s also a bit more happening on-screen than Firefox. It makes use of a small toolbar on the right that includes shortcuts to Bing AI, Office 365, Outlook email, etc. Firefox gives all its screen space to the web page.

Functionally, both are very easy to find what you want. In two clicks you can be in the settings deleting cookies or modifying your homepage.

It all comes down to whether you value the extras that Edge offers or a cleaner interface from Firefox.

Winner: Draw

Edge vs Firefox – Features

Let’s first look at what both browsers do the same, so we can then highlight what makes them unique. Both browsers have:

• Web tracking and crypto mining blockers
• Curatable homepages
• Password management and syncing
• Built-in screenshot tools
• Video pop-out play
• Auto-play blocking
• Text-to-speech
• Spell checker

Here’s how each browser stands out:

Edge and Bing AI

Perhaps the most notable feature that has popped up in recent months is Bing’s ChatGPT-powered assistant. Clicking the B icon on the right toolbar expands a window where you can ask the chatbot questions.

There is also a tab for composing different types of content, including email responses, short paragraphs, or even entire blog posts. Drafts can be saved and are easily retrievable.

While Firefox may be able to achieve a similar experience with add-ons and extensions, Edge has nailed AI integration out of the gate.

Edge and OneDrive

Edge can sync your files between your computer and OneDrive, so you can access them from anywhere. When you save a file in Edge, you can choose to save it to OneDrive. This will make the file available on all devices that are signed in. It also has an easy share and collaborate feature.

Edge Tab Groups

As well as vertical, Edge also supports tab grouping to keep track of your tabs and to make it easier to find the tabs that you need. Once you have created a tab group, you can open and close it by clicking on its name in the tab bar. You can also move tabs between groups by dragging and dropping them.

Edge Price Comparisons and Coupons

This built-in tool helps you find the best prices when searching for products online. When you’re on a shopping website, Edge automatically scans the web for lower prices from other retailers. It will also show you any available coupons or promo codes that you can use to save money.

It doesn’t always get it right, but it’s certainly useful if you never considered that a product might be cheaper elsewhere.

Firefox Instant Queries

As the name suggests, instant queries give you basic search results and answers within the Firefox address bar. For example, you don’t have to wait for a full page to load to get the solution to a math problem, currency conversion, or language translation.

Firefox Search Shortcuts

While Edge walls you into Bing search, Firefox has easy shortcuts within the address bar itself to use your preferred search engine.

Firefox Address Bar Customization

Firefox is a lot more customizable than Edge and is technically open-source. So, if you’re inclined, you can get down into the code.

For the average user, customization can be experienced with things like separating the search bar from the address bar, resizing toolbars, changing the color scheme, and adding shortcuts.

Firefox Pocket

This modern take on bookmarks lets you save articles, videos, and other content in your ‘pocket’ to access later. You can then access this content from any synced device that has Pocket installed.

You can tag content for easy organization, create lists, share your pocket with others, and access it offline.

Firefox Containers

Containers are like different browsing profiles. This can be useful for keeping your work and personal browsing separate, or for managing multiple social media accounts.

Each container is isolated from the others, so cookies, site data, and other tracking information are not shared between containers. This can also help to improve your privacy and security.

Edge vs Firefox – Extensions

Firefox used to rule the roost when it came to extensions, but in 2023, Edge is Chromium-based and therefore is compatible with many of the extensions developed for Google Chrome. This compatibility has significantly expanded Edge’s extension library.

Firefox still uses its own system, giving you a smaller library to choose from. The only saving grace is that these are generally more customizable.

Winner: Edge

Edge vs Firefox – Privacy

While browsers like Brave or Tor are best for privacy, Edge and Firefox both offer a high level of privacy without sacrificing features.

Firefox has a built-in Enhanced Tracking Protection that blocks third-party trackers from tracking your browsing activity. Edge also has a tracking protection feature, but it is not as comprehensive as Firefox’s and isn’t turned on by default.

Moreover, Firefox’s Private Browsing mode has an auto-erase feature that removes all cookies, cache, and browsing history once you close the browser. Edge’s InPrivate mode still saves some browsing history. It also doesn’t prevent the sites you visit from tracking you.

If you are looking for the most privacy-focused mode, Firefox private browsing is the better option.

Winner: Firefox

Edge vs Firefox – Resource Consumption

There’s nothing worse than a browser that slows down your computer, hogs memory, or freezes when too many tabs are open.

Both Edge and Firefox are well-optimized and will not significantly impact a modern Windows computer. However, they both perform better in different areas.

When browsing simple websites and opening a few tabs, Firefox is more RAM-efficient by roughly half. However, Edge closes the gap when opening lots of tabs, because it doesn’t keep unused tabs in memory like Firefox.

Firefox also uses more processing power than Edge.

Therefore, Edge generally has the advantage, unless you never open more than a few tabs.

Every setup is different so you can test system performance by checking the Windows Task Manager yourself.

Edge vs Firefox – Browsing Speed

Your internet connection is always the most important factor for browsing speed, but the browser itself also plays a role. Benchmark speed tests can give insight into which browser loads pages, videos, and other data quicker based on similar conditions.

Using Mozilla’s own benchmark tool, Speedometer, Edge still comes out on top with a score of 201 compared to Firefox’s 147 .

Conclusion – Edge gets the Edge

The Edge vs Firefox contest is closer in 2023 than in previous years.

Microsoft has greatly improved Edge since switching to Chromium and it now surpasses Firefox in speed and system performance. The inclusion of Bing Chat and vertical tabs is useful to many.

For most Windows users, Edge is the better option, overall.

However, that doesn’t mean Firefox has been left in the dust. Its performance is still excellent, and its interface is less cluttered. Mozilla’s browser is also more customizable with better privacy and transparency. That still counts for something, especially if you aren’t married to Windows.

Journalist & Software Expert

Keelan has covered tech and software for a decade. You'll find him getting hands-on with reviews or crunching the numbers to find interesting stats.

Was this page helpful?

Let us know if you managed to solve your tech problem reading this article.

We’re happy to hear that!

You can subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date with the latest news and best deals!

Do you have a suggestion?

We know how frustrating could be to look for an universal solution.

If you have an error which is not present in the article, or if you know a better solution , please help us to improve this guide.

Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, or Safari: Which Browser Is Best for 2024?

Don't take your browser for granted we help you narrow your options by comparing the best web browsers on speed, privacy, and other important features..

Most people browse the web using Google Chrome without really thinking about their options. Gmail or YouTube or some other site once suggested they use Chrome, and perhaps they never questioned it. The truth is you do have options when it comes to your web browser, and you may find another that serves your needs better. Browsers offer varying levels of privacy, security , performance, and power efficiency. They differ even more when it comes to unique and helpful features beyond merely displaying websites.

Here we examine the top five browsers in the US, in order of popularity. That criterion rules out  Brave  and  Vivaldi , with usage rates hovering near or below 1%, even though they are both first-class browsers. If you're interested in those two, check out our article on the  best alternative web browsers . Or, if your utmost concern is security, see what makes the best private browsers different.

Below are short reviews of the top five browsers. After that, keep reading for more information about the browser landscape, additional details about our testing, and advice on what you should take into consideration when choosing a web browser.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome Web Browser

Most people need no introduction to the search behemoth's browser, Google Chrome. It’s attractively designed and quick at loading pages. Most website codes now target Chrome, so compatibility is seldom an issue. Chrome is available for all major platforms, and the mobile version offers syncing of bookmarks, passwords, and settings.

Chrome doesn't have many unique browsing features, however, and it's the only browser included here that you won't find in the desktop app stores for macOS and Windows. There’s no built-in VPN, no cryptocurrency locker, no note feature, and no screenshot tool. Google has announced a feeble gesture towards adding a reading mode; feeble because it will only be in a sidebar, with the full, noisy distracting page still displaying in the main central browser window. The lack of a true reading mode makes sense for a company that earns its keep through web ads since reading modes hide them. All the other browsers here have full-page reading modes.

Chrome allows multiple user profiles, meaning different users of the same computer can have their own browser settings, history, and favorites. The browser also finally caught up with others by adding a Share icon to the address bar that eases sending sites via social media or email.

A few years ago, Google controversially announced it would be removing the API function that allowed ad-blocker software to fully block ads. As of now, it seems ad blockers may be limited starting at some point in 2024. Some Chrome development, though, has centered around security and privacy, notably among them a plan to kill off tracking cookies in favor of Google's tracking mechanisms. The company's Privacy Sandbox initiative (in development) tries to cater to both  ad targeting and user privacy . Some worry both of these developments will only result in more consolidation of the company's grip on web advertising and user profiling.

Apple Safari

Apple Safari 5

The default Mac and iOS browser is a strong choice, though its interface has some nonstandard elements. Safari was a forerunner in several areas of browser features. For example, it was the first with a Reading mode, which cleared unnecessary clutter like ads and videos from web articles you want to read. That feature debuted in 2010 and has made its way into all other browsers except for Chrome.

Apple has brought up the topic of fingerprinting protection—preventing web trackers from identifying you by your system specs. Unfortunately, the EFF's Cover Your Tracks test site only shows partial protection from trackers in Safari, while several competitors get a result of Strong protection. Other benefits include Apple Pay support and a "Sign in with Apple" feature to replace Facebook and Google as web account authorizers.

In macOS Monterey, the browser gained a compact tab bar with floating tabs like Firefox's and Tab Groups that live in a convenient sidebar, and with Ventura , they become shareable and pinnable. Safari also supports Apple's proprietary Shared with You feature in its proprietary iMessage system. For iCloud+ subscribers, a Private Relay obscures your IP address, similar to a VPN.

If you use an iPhone and a Mac, Safari integration makes a lot of sense, since Apple’s Handoff feature lets you continue your browsing session between devices. Safari trails other browsers on support for emerging HTML features, but we haven’t run into or heard of any major site incompatibilities with it.

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge Web Browser

The latest version of Microsoft Edge uses Chrome’s webpage-rendering code, Chromium, guaranteeing site compatibility and freeing up its developers to add unique features. You won’t run into the site incompatibilities users of the previous incarnation of Edge occasionally encountered, and the browser performs snappily. Edge now runs on Apple macOS and Windows 11 and earlier. Mobile versions for Android and iPhone let you sync history, favorites, and passwords.

Edge is a leader in performance, thrifty memory management, and disk usage. Startup Boost technology reduces the time it takes to open the browser, and sleeping tabs save memory on tabs you're not viewing. Edge's Efficiency mode can extend laptop battery life. The initial focuses for the browser were privacy, the customizable start page, and the intriguing Collections feature for web research. For enterprise customers who still rely on Internet Explorer to run legacy programs, Edge offers an IE Mode .

The Collections feature uses a sidebar onto which you can drag webpages and images, write notes, and then share the whole assemblage to Excel, OneNote, or Word. It's a great organization and planning tool . Edge's Immersive Reader mode not only offers distraction-free web reading, stripping out ads and nonessential eye candy, but it can also read webpage text aloud using lifelike Neural Voices. It's worth trying because it reads with sentence intonation, rather than simply word by word, as we’ve come to expect text-to-speech audio.

Other notable Edge options include built-in web sharing, tabs down the side rather than across the top, a built-in screenshot tool, automatic coupons for shopping sites, and timely themes to dress up your browser. Recent additions include a side panel that integrates the new Bing AI chat search , game controller haptic feedback, and a multitasking side toolbar that lets you access first- and third-party services for social networking, search, messaging, search, and productivity.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox Web Browser

Firefox, an open-source project from the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, has long been a PCMag favorite. The browser has pioneered many web capabilities and the organization that develops it has been a strong advocate for online privacy. It’s also notable for its wealth of available extensions. The unique Multi-Account Containers extension lets you sequester multiple logins to the same site on different tabs. Without it, you'd have to open a private browsing window or another browser to sign out of all your web accounts and start a fresh session.

Mozilla’s browser is in the vanguard of supporting new HTML and CSS capabilities, and the company is working on open-source AR and speech synthesis standards. The organization now offers a full password management service called Lockwise, which can generate complex passwords, sync them between devices, and secure everything under a strong master password. That and the organization's VPN offering are paid extras.

The mobile Firefox apps offer excellent interfaces, and you can send a webpage tab from any device to any others that are logged into your syncing account. That’s right: You can be reading a webpage on your desktop PC, and have it instantly open on your iPhone or vice versa. It's a slick and useful feature.

If that’s not enough, Firefox has a Pocket button in the address bar, letting you save a page for later viewing anywhere with one click. The Reader View button declutters a webpage loaded with ads, promos, and videos, so you can peruse it with no distractions. PiP video supports closed captions and HDR and AV1 video formats. The browser is ultra customizable, letting you select and arrange buttons on the toolbar to taste, as well as select from a large number of Theme add-ons that change window border patterns and colors.

Recent additions include PDF editing and the Firefox View feature, basically a pinned tab of recent sites that syncs between the desktop and mobile versions of the browser.

Opera Web Browser

Perennially hovering around the 2% usage level, the Opera browser has long been a pioneer in the segment, inventing basic browser innovations like tabs, CSS, and the built-in search box. Opera can make a bigger privacy claim than the other browsers here—if you’re a believer in VPNs. It includes a built-in VPN (actually an encrypted proxy server) that protects and reroutes traffic from Opera to cloak your IP address. Opera uses the Chromium page-rendering engine, so you'll rarely run into site incompatibilities, and performance is fast. It's available for all major platforms, and the Opera Touch mobile browser is a beautifully designed app that connects (via quick QR scan) to your desktop.

Beyond the VPN, another unique feature in Opera is its built-in ad blocker, which also blocks crypto-mining scripts and trackers. Ad blocking also means less data consumed, especially of interest to those using metered connections or mobile plans with data caps.

More unique features in Opera include its Speed Dial start and New Tab page, as well as its quick-access sidebar of frequently needed services like WhatsApp or Spotify. My Flow lets you send webpages and notes between devices easily. The browser also includes a video pop-out window, a Pinboard feature similar to Edge's Collections, and a Workspaces feature that lets you create function-based tab views. Opera uniquely offers a cryptocurrency wallet as an option, which supports most popular tokens.

Opera offers a gaming version called Opera GX , and the company recently bought a gaming engine , moving into that specialty even further. The company also offers a futuristic secure Crypto Browser for navigating Web3 . And like Edge, Opera is adding AI ChatGPT capabilities to the browser , starting with a summarizer tool for text you highlight or even full sites.

More Inside PCMag.com

• Stop Trackers Dead: The Best Private Browsers for 2024
• Go Beyond Google: The Best Alternative Search Engines
• Has Chrome Lost Its Shine? These Are the Best Alternative Web Browsers

About Michael Muchmore

PC hardware is nice, but it’s not much use without innovative software. I’ve been reviewing software for PCMag since 2008, and I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine , the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft win and misstep up to the latest Windows 11.

More From Michael Muchmore

• The Best Mobile Video Editing Apps for 2024
• Adobe Acrobat Gets Generative AI in Time for Tax Day
• Adobe Generative AI Tools to Help Editors Add, Remove Objects in Premiere Pro
• Corel VideoStudio Ultimate
• Microsoft Extends Security Updates for Windows 10 Beyond 2025 (for a Price)

Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Microsoft Edge: Which browser gobbles up the most RAM?

Google Chrome may use up a lot of RAM, but so do Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox

A few years ago, gaming company Corsair put out an amusing advertisement that quickly went viral. In it, a man wearing a Google Chrome shirt greedily devours a plate of RAM-shaped cookies, while another man in an Adobe Photoshop shirt takes a dainty bite of one, then puts the rest back.

It was a damning indictment of Chrome — even if it was missing some important context. For the record, Google Chrome really does go to town on your computer’s memory, and I had a good laugh along with everyone else. But it also got me thinking: Does Chrome really gobble up more than its fair share of RAM? And, if so, do other popular Internet browsers take a more conservative approach?

• How Chrome, Edge and Firefox protect your privacy
• Try the best Android browsers
• Plus: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti could be coming — but there's a catch

I tested Chrome against Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge , and my findings were quite interesting. Despite its reputation for being a real RAM hog, Chrome did not perform the worst. In fact, Chrome was mostly in the middle, while Firefox used up the most RAM overall. Microsoft Edge used up the least RAM in every single test.

Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge: How I tested 

A quick refresher: Random access memory, or RAM, is a place to store data for short-term processing. Your computer needs RAM to render text, images, music, videos — essentially, all the things you find on a website. That's why browsers need a lot of RAM, particularly as you open more tabs.

To see how much RAM each browser required, I shut down every nonessential program on my PC, then booted up one browser at a time. In that browser, I opened 10 tabs that might come up in everyday life: Google, Tom’s Guide, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify , YouTube and so forth. (I also opened up the Corsair homepage, since that company inspired this whole experiment.)

I used Guest profiles in Chrome and Edge, and a “clean” profile in Firefox, in order to prevent extensions or bookmarks from clogging things up. From there, all I had to do was monitor memory usage in Windows Task Manager.

The second step was to see how each browser handled massive amounts of data. When a browser has a ton of tabs open, rather than try to run each one simultaneously, it will often prioritize and optimize data in order to save RAM. This time around, I kept the initial 10 tabs, then added 10 more from equally demanding sites: eBay, Best Buy, the New York Times, Disney Plus and Google Stadia, to name a few. 

Sign up to get the BEST of Tom’s Guide direct to your inbox.

Upgrade your life with a daily dose of the biggest tech news, lifestyle hacks and our curated analysis. Be the first to know about cutting-edge gadgets and the hottest deals.

Next, to really tax each browser I opened a whopping 60 tabs in Chrome, Firefox and Edge. I opened three copies apiece of each website from the 20-tab test. For the final test, I opened up each browser twice, and launched 20 tabs in each instance. This replicates a user multitasking — writing in one window, and researching in another, for example.

Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge: RAM usage results 

Running 10 tabs took up 952 MB of memory in Chrome, while Firefox took up 995 MB. The real surprise, however, was Edge, weighing in at only 873 MB of memory. That Edge made such a great showing is less surprising when you remember that Microsoft’s browser now runs on the same Chromium architecture as Chrome. But to beat Google at its own game is still impressive.

With the 20-tab test, Chrome performed the weakest , eating up 1.8 GB RAM, compared to Firefox at 1.6 GB and Edge at only 1.4 GB.

Edge continued to perform the best when I loaded 60 tabs in a single browser window, taking up 2.9 GB of RAM, versus 3.7 GB for Chrome and 3.9 GB for Firefox. The results here were much starker than the 20-tab test, as Firefox required a whole extra gig of memory, compared to Edge. On the other hand, not every user needs 60 tabs open simultaneously, so consider whether this use-case might apply to you.

On the final test, with 40 tabs open across two instances (20 tabs apiece), Edge required 2.5 GB RAM altogether, while Chrome needed 2.8 GB and Firefox needed 3.0 GB. These figures are roughly double what the 20-tab test required, which is not terribly surprising — except for Chrome, which seems to be a little bit better about optimizing data across two windows.

Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge: Observations 

Microsoft has made a big to-do about Edge being a real contender in the Web-browsing space, and my results suggest that the company isn’t just blowing smoke. It really is leaner and meaner than either Chrome or Firefox. The difference isn’t night-and-day, particularly if your system has a lot of RAM to play with, but this could be a big deal for lower-powered PCs — especially lightweight laptops.

It’s important to remember that my tests weren’t highly scientific. RAM usage will vary somewhat depending on your system, and will vary tremendously depending on what kind of websites you visit, and which extensions you use. 

Does this make Edge the “best” Web browser? Not necessarily. A browser should be lightweight, sure, but it should also load your favorite websites without a hitch, run the extensions you want, protect you from malware and so forth. This test didn’t evaluate any of those factors, so you’ll have to decide for yourself whether it’s worth making the switch.

But if nothing else, it’s good to know that Chrome isn’t as bad with RAM as I thought — and that Microsoft Edge beats both Chrome and Firefox.

• How to change the default browser in Windows 11

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a science writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. After hours, you can find him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi. 

Forget Chrome: Edge could soon become the most RAM-friendly browser

Google is testing the ultimate dark mode for Chrome — here’s how to turn it on

This is the Google Pixel 8a in every color and every angle — thanks to new leak

• Sid Nightwalker Ahhhhahaha, yeah I'll just stick to Opera, thank you. People still use Firefox even though it's as bad as Internet Explorer circa 1995 nowadays? Wow. Reply

admin said: Surprisingly, Microsoft Edge may be the most lightweight mainstream Web browser, leveraging less RAM than either Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Microsoft Edge: Which browser gobbles up the most RAM? : Read more

• pygolpher Any insight on how Safari compares with these? Reply
• kep55 Ever use the Three Finger Salute and see many instances of each are running? The last I checked, Chrome had around 15, Edge about the same and Firefox 6. I killed the smaller instances and all three kept chugging along. Reply

Sid Nightwalker said: Ahhhhahaha, yeah I'll just stick to Opera, thank you. I mean holy mother of god, people still use Firefox even though it's as bad as Internet Explorer circa 1995 nowadays? Wow.

Sid Nightwalker said: Ahhhhahaha, yeah I'll just stick to Opera, thank you. People still use Firefox even though it's as bad as Internet Explorer circa 1995 nowadays? Wow.

• View All 6 Comments

Most Popular

• 2 Google Maps just got a major upgrade that solves our biggest problem with EVs
• 3 This new Android banking trojan impersonates Chrome to steal your money — how to stay safe
• 4 Visible just made its unlimited 5G plan even more affordable — here's how
• 5 Sony Bravia 9 TV hands-on — this could be the best Mini LED TV of the year

Edge vs. Chrome vs. Firefox: Battle of the Windows 10 Browsers

Though millions of people use Internet Explorer, it has lost market share and street cred to Chrome and Firefox. With Windows 10 , Microsoft has launched a new browser called Edge that promises to give its competitors a run for their money, especially with its new embedded Cortana feature and markup capabilities. Does this newcomer have a shot at taking on the browser giants? I tested Chrome, Firefox and Edge to see which browser provides the greatest and fastest Internet experience.

Round 1: Speed and performance

To see how quickly each browser executes common tasks, I ran each one through a gauntlet of benchmarks and real-world tests on the same Intel Core i5-powered Surface Pro 3 running Windows 10.

Peacekeeper: On the Peacekeeper benchmark, which measures browser speed, Firefox topped the group, with an average of 4,652. Chrome came in second, with 4,069, while Edge's 2,642 average placed it last, because it could support only five of the seven tests the software uses.

Speed-Battle: Firefox notched a shocking 1,116 on Speed-Battle, which clocks the speed at which a browser loads JavaScript. Edge followed with 746, and Chrome got 704.

Sunspider: Microsoft's new browser pulled ahead in Sunspider, which tests JavaScript loading speed. Edge's 108.1ms time was twice as fast as Chrome (256.3ms) and Firefox (213.4ms).

Browsermark: This benchmark tests a variety of browser functions such as re-sizing screens, 2D and 3D performance, crunching numbers, and rendering graphics. Chrome took the lead here, notching 5,591 against Firefox's 4,308 and Edge's measly 2,882.

Page Load Times (Numion): I also timed, using the Numion stopwatch, how long it took Edge, Chrome and Firefox to display media-heavy sites such as Tomsguide.com and ESPN.com. To make sure Internet speeds didn't affect the results, I repeated this test across two different days at different times.

Edge delivered the fastest speeds in general, loading ESPN.com in 4.45 seconds, compared to Chrome's 4:67 and Firefox's 4:59. Edge displayed TomsGuide.com in 1:55 seconds, faster than Chrome's 2:22 and Firefox's 4:90.

Winner: Edge. Though it faired poorly on a couple of synthetic tests, Edge processes JavaScript fastest and displays pages the fastest of the lot.

MORE: Windows 10: Full Review

Round 2: Layout and ease of use

The best browsers are laid out in an intuitive manner, putting key controls within easy reach while reducing clutter on the screen. Thoughtful organization makes going to your favorite pages hassle-free, and keeps distracting buttons out of sight.

All three browsers save space by putting the tabs up at the top of the window in lieu of a title bar. Chrome is the cleanest, however, with just buttons for back, forward, refresh, favorite and settings in addition to a search/URL bar that takes up the width of the screen.

Edge has a flat, modern aesthetic that helps it look minimalistic despite the extra buttons it has at the end of the search/URL bar. With icons for Reading mode, Favorites, Hub, Make a Web Note, Share and More actions on the right side, Edge's top bar is more cluttered than Chrome's.

Firefox has two bars by default: one for URLs and one for search. You can remove the search bar to make room, and the remaining one will accept both URLs and search queries, but I'd like if Mozilla had just one bar by default. Like Edge does, Firefox has a bunch of buttons at the end of the two bars, for Favorite, Download, Home and Menu. The Forward button only pops up next to the Back symbol when there is a page ahead. The beauty of Firefox is that you can customize your layout however you want, so you can add or remove buttons as you like.

If you want to take a page you're browsing and share it to Facebook , Twitter or your email, it's easiest to do so via Firefox. The Mozilla browser has a native Share button that you can add to your navigation bar, and a Share This Link option when you right click on any link. You'll have to install the relevant plug-ins for each platform, and the feature supports popular services such as Facebook, Tumblr, Gmail, Delicious and LinkedIn.

Edge also has a native Share button, but to add channels through which to share pages, you'll first have to install the Windows Store app version of that service on your device. The Share button pulls up apps on your PC or tablet that support this feature, but very few apps do so right now. For instance, there is no official LinkedIn app for Windows.

Chrome doesn't have a built-in sharing feature. You can add the function via bookmarklets or widgets pinned to the bookmarks bar, or by installing extensions.

All three browsers show you which tabs are playing media by showing either a Play button in the tab's title or a speaker icon.

Power users might get frustrated at the lack of right-click options in Edge. While you get shortcuts such as "Open link in private window" and Save Link As in Firefox and Chrome, these two options are missing from the right-click menu in Edge. You'll get "Open in new tab," "Open in new window," Copy Link and Ask Cortana in Microsoft's offering. I like the Ask Cortana function, and Firefox has a similar option with its Search Yahoo (or default search engine), since asking the digital assistant pulls up search results.

If you right click any blank space on Firefox or Chrome, your menu options are plenty, including going backward and forward, reloading, printing (Chrome), translating to English (Chrome), and sharing the page (Firefox). Edge only has Select All, Inspect Element and View Source in the same scenario.

Winner: Firefox. Mozilla's browser takes the prize because of its customizability and easy sharing function.

Round 3: Extensibility

Both Chrome and Firefox have supported extensions for years, and these babies can really enhance your Internet experience. For instance, the Phone to Desktop Chrome add-on lets you send any text or links to your desktop browser, and the Text to Voice Firefox extension reads out words you highlight on any page.

Firefox and Chrome both have tens of thousands of extensions, spanning categories such as Productivity, Downloads Management, Social & Communication, Search Tools, and Shopping. Firefox seems to be a little more geared toward power users, with specific categories for Web development, Tabs, and Privacy & Security. I especially love that you can skin Firefox with one of thousands of theme add-ons.

Some of Chrome's add-ons run offline and integrate with a variety of Google's existing services, such as Save to Google Drive and Tags for YouTube. For anyone who uses any of the Internet giant's services at all, Chrome's extensions will make life much easier.

Microsoft has said that it expects to add extensions to Edge in the near future. When that happens, the Windows-maker will have a lot of catching up to do, especially in providing a similar number and variety of add-ons as its counterparts.

Winner: Chrome. Chrome takes this round with its extensions' sheer number, usefulness and ability to integrate with other Google services.

Round 4: Standards support

All three browsers support common Web standards that most websites use today, but the browsers differ in extent of support. For instance, Edge supports only five out of seven HTML5 capabilities tested in the Peacekeeper benchmark. Firefox and Chrome both met seven out of seven.

I ran the HTML5Test and CSS3Test on all three programs, and found Edge trailing in both. The two benchmarks test, respectively, whether each browser recognizes all features of HTML5 or CSS 3 (a styling language), but not whether the standards are implemented correctly.

MORE: How to Make Chrome or Firefox Your Default Browser in Windows 10

Chrome leads the pack in HTML 5, with 526 out of 555 components met. Firefox got 467, while Edge scored just 402. On CSS 3, Firefox pulled ahead, with 55 percent of tests passed, while Chrome followed with 51 percent. Edge came in last, with just 46 percent.

All three browsers support the JavaScript engine WebGL for rendering interactive 3D graphics, but at varying degrees. On the Oort Online GL benchmark, which measures how well your browser or device renders WebGL graphics and animation, Chrome came in first, with its average score of 3,635. Edge was runner-up, with its average of 2,958, while Firefox trailed the rest, with 1,525 on average.

Winner: Chrome. Google won this round with its comprehensive coverage of today's common Web standards.

Round 5: Special features

Each browser has its own special features to help it stand out. Chrome tabs, for instance, can be cast to your TV if you have a Chromecast , so you can Facebook stalk your frenemies on the big screen. Chrome also has a nifty autofill feature for forms, and generates passwords for you when creating new accounts so you don't have to think up a secure code every time you set up a new profile.

Google's browser also imports your browsing history, saved passwords and open tabs across all the devices you're signed into, so you can easily pick up on your desktop where you left off on your phone. I can't tell you how many times I've been saved by Chrome when my computer crashed and I lost my hundreds of open tabs.

Firefox also does the same with its Firefox Sync feature, except you'll have to make sure you're signed in to your Firefox Account. Since I don't use my Firefox account for anything else, I'm always at a loss for what my username and password are. Signing in to Chrome is much easier, since I have my Gmail/Google password burned into my brain. Plus, logging in to any Google service also signs me in to Chrome and vice versa.

Firefox has a bunch of other goodies, including Firefox Hello, for easy video conferencing within your browser, and built-in developer support (debugger, color dropper, etc.). Hello not only lets you see your contacts, but also lets you share your tabs. However, during my testing on the Surface Pro 3, the Hello feature was buggy, crashing in the middle of my video call. It worked smoothly on my Dell Latitude 6430u laptop running Windows 7 , though.

Edge's most outstanding feature is Cortana. Like a personal concierge, Cortana is ready to provide information on anything you come across. Highlight a word you don't understand, right click and ask Cortana about it. A panel slides in from the right with Bing search results on that word. When available, Cortana will display pictures, directions and reviews.

Microsoft also said that when you are on a page that Edge detects is a restaurant, Cortana will appear as a circle on the URL bar saying, "I've got the directions, hours and more." Click that icon, and a panel slides in from the right with pictures, directions and a shortcut to call the restaurant. This is similar to what Google already does with its search results, except you don't have to go to a separate tab or page to do this and can make reservations or look up directions without leaving the restaurant's page.

However, during my testing, Cortana turned up only one out of the close to 10 restaurants' websites I tried. I even went back to the same restaurant's Web page where the circle had appeared before and it did not pop up again. The only thing I had changed was that I maximized the window.

Cortana sure is a cool tool for Edge users, but right now, the feature is not mature or consistent enough. Microsoft said it's continuing to work on improving Cortana, so hopefully there will be more upgrades soon.

Edge also has a Markup mode that lets you scribble on the page you're browsing, save your notes and share the page with your friends. This is handy for anyone with a stylus, but I didn't find myself using it a lot. Microsoft also designed Edge to zoom out and show the whole page when you're in tablet mode but its window is narrower than the width of the site, instead of showing horizontal scroll bars at the bottom like other browsers do.

I liked Edge's Reading Mode, which stripped a page of its ads and navigational interface to make it easier to read. Firefox also has a built-in reading mode, but Chrome doesn't.

Winner: Chrome. Chrome narrowly takes this round because of how well its features integrate with Google's other products and how widely used they are. Firefox has a useful variety of bonuses, but needs to make them more coherent and easy to access.

Overall Winner: Chrome

Taking three rounds out of five, Chrome wins the battle of the Windows 10 browsers, thanks to its superb standards support, extensibility and special features. It did pretty well at performance, too. Firefox is a close second, with its excellent performance and customizable layout, but needs to serve a less niche audience to rise above the competition. Although Edge lags its more-popular browser brothers in other areas, it's off to a very good start with its best-in-class performance, clean look and Cortana integration.

Now that you know which browser works best for you, check out our guide on how to pin your favorite websites onto the Windows 10 Start Menu. 

Windows 10 Basics

• Previous Tip
• 7 Settings to Change Right Away
• Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts to Save You Clicks
• 5 Ways to Take Screenshots
• Change Your Password in Windows 10
• Uninstall Programs in Windows 10
• Enable or Disable Tablet Mode
• Add a User (Child or Adult)
• Change the Screen Resolution
• Sync Your Settings Across Devices
• Sync iPhone with Windows 10
• Control Windows 10 with Your Voice
• Upgrade to Windows 10 From Windows 7 or 8
• Eliminate Blue Light With Night Light
• Create a New Folder
• Get to the Desktop in Windows 10
• Add a Printer
• All Windows 10 Tips

Stay in the know with Laptop Mag

Get our in-depth reviews, helpful tips, great deals, and the biggest news stories delivered to your inbox.

Google is finally deleting your Incognito mode browsing history — well, some of it

Traditional search engines are broken — can AI help?

Samsung's Galaxy Tab S9 FE Plus drops to lowest price ever in limited time deal

Most Popular

• 2 Get these top 7 must-have FPS titles up to 85% off during Steam FPS Fest
• 3 Best Chromebook deals in April 2024: from $139
• 4 The excellent Asus Zenbook 14 OLED with powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU is just $799!
• 5 Sony reimagines BRAVIA: The ultimate home cinema experience just arrived

Chrome Vs. Edge: Which Chromium Browser Is Best In 2024?

Most people who use the internet are familiar with Chromium — at least in passing. The Chromium project is one of the most impactful code bases in computer history, as it became the platform for Google's Chrome browser. But as Chrome skyrocketed in popularity, other browsers followed suit, adopting Chromium as well. Today, browsers from Arc to Vivaldi are based on Chromium, making it the closest thing to a universal standard for web browsers.

The latest browser to make the jump to Chromium was surprisingly Microsoft Edge, which soft relaunched in 2020 as essentially a brand-new product. It was based on Chromium, but with additional features from Microsoft. While the upgrade didn't move the needle for Edge's market share very far, those who do use Microsoft's browser have come to love the "best of both worlds" approach, with many claiming Edge is now superior to Chrome. However, when we polled our readers in 2022 on their browser of choice , only 6% preferred Edge, whereas 56% said they regularly used Chrome.

Many believe the strong dislike of Edge is due to aggressive OS-level advertisements from Microsoft that push users toward its product, and invokes the bitter history of Microsoft's past attempts at web browser dominance.

So, is Edge the browser you should use to download Chrome, or the one you use day-to-day? Comparing both browsers reveals quite a lot about where the internet is headed, and the real reason Microsoft decided to join the competitor it couldn't beat.

What is Google Chrome?

Since 2013, Google Chrome has been the world's most popular web browser. While it is built atop open-source code from The Chromium Project, Chrome is Google's proprietary software, with Google-specific features developed and maintained by the company. By now, Chrome's dominance is so widespread that its standards have increasingly become the default for web application design. Today, a great many webpages render best on Chrome, and some even warn against using other browsers to access them. Google's browser commands 65% of the worldwide market, and aside from Apple's Safari, none of its competitors surpass about 5%.

Chrome's success is even more incredible when you consider the uphill battle Google had to fight against Microsoft and Apple in the push for mass adoption. The two companies effectively form a duopoly on the desktop OS market, and each has its own proprietary browser: Safari for macOS, and Internet Explorer, and later, Edge, for Microsoft. Even Firefox, currently with only a 2.8% browser share, had 30% of the market in 2011. But people flocked to Chrome for a slew of features previously confined to niche browsers — such as the omnibox that combined search and URL functionality, and a modular tab system that made the competition look dated.

But a decade after it beat the odds to win the hearts and minds of Internet citizens everywhere, is Chrome still king, or is it starting to show its age? No longer is Google's browser the only one to run Chromium, either, and it has powerful competition from a longtime player in the browser wars: Microsoft.

What is Microsoft Edge?

For years after it unseated Internet Explorer as the people's browser of choice, Microsoft pushed against the tide of Chromium. The Redmond giant had been the villain of the browser wars since the late 1990s, when Microsoft drew the ire of the Department of Justice for anticompetitive behaviors alleged to have caused the untimely demise of Netscape. But their efforts hardly mattered. Internet Explorer was so reviled that Chrome had an open lane down center court. In an effort to right ship, Microsoft released a new browser called Edge alongside Windows 10 in 2015. Despite its marked improvements, it was still built on a proprietary engine, and most users continued to distrust or disregard it.

In 2018, a defeated Microsoft made an uncharacteristic announcement: Edge would be redeveloped from the ground up using Chromium, with Microsoft developing extra features for the relaunched browser. It's probably not coincidental that, around the same time, the company was putting Windows Phone out to pasture and beginning to develop Android phones. Early in 2020, the stable build of the new Edge was released.

Since updating to Chromium, those who have switched to Edge have praised it, and many even stick with it. But it hasn't drastically moved the needle for adoption, with only 5% of the global browser market at the time of writing.

Nonetheless, many browser enthusiasts see Edge as the best competitor to Chrome and will even claim that Edge outperforms Chrome on several key metrics. Is Edge secretly supreme, or is Chrome the champion for a reason? Let's dive in and find out.

User interface

Because both Chrome and Edge are built on Chromium, they have similar user interfaces by default. Across the top are your tabs, under which lies the omnibox in line with navigation buttons, extensions, and overflow menus. Below is the bookmark bar. Taking up the majority of the screen is the content window in which webpages are displayed. Both Edge and Chrome get cluttered quickly if extensions aren't properly managed.

Microsoft has clearly put a lot of work into its version of Chromium, and that affects the UI for better or worse. You can enable vertical tabs to move all your pages from the top of the browser to the left-hand side. Once you get used to them, vertical tabs can make horizontal tabs feel clunky. On the downside, Microsoft stuffs Edge full of UI elements that often feel like bloat. Most of these, like the right-hand toolbar that lets you run mobile versions of websites alongside tools like a calculator, can be disabled in settings.

Then there's Copilot, Microsoft's ChatGPT-powered chatbot, and how you feel about it will depend on whether you're someone who finds AI useful. The Copilot button is scaled larger than other icons, and is aesthetically jarring, plus, it takes a central place at the top right of the browser, exactly where you'd expect the overflow menu to be. If you're clicking the Copilot button a lot, maybe you'll find the implementation convenient. If not, you'll want to disable it in settings.

Chrome and Edge are to the Chromium user interface as Coke and Pepsi are to cola: essentially identical, but just different enough to be distinct.

You can build a feature-packed and easy-to-use browser, but none of that will matter if it can't render a webpage quickly. According to research from Google , more than half of users will give up on a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Three seconds may seem like a trivial amount of time, but when staring at a slowly rendering webpage, it feels like ages. Google is well aware of these dynamics, but over the years, Chrome has become something almost like a second operating system for your computer. It runs a host of webapps, and has developed a lot of baggage that slows it down. Is Edge any leaner and meaner, or does it perform like Chrome wearing a Microsoft trench coat?

While the two were almost neck and neck, Edge did generally outperform Chrome in our BrowserBench benchmark tests. In Speedometer, Chrome averaged a score of 15.2, while Edge scored an average of 17.5. In JetStream, Chrome scored its big win: 269.59 against Edge's 262.342. But in MotionMark, which tests graphical performance, Edge pulled out far ahead with a score of 912.6 against Chrome's 806.4. Chrome appeared to use more RAM than Edge in our tests, which hands Microsoft's browser the overall edge-vantage, most notably for those who want to run other programs alongside the browser in their workflow.

Looking at tests from other outlets, results are consistently close. What's clear is that both browsers are among the fastest on the market. While Edge was, for a time, faster than its elder sibling, the two now trade places frequently as they get updated. It's safe to say the two are tied for performance.

When it comes to features, Edge seems designed to flex on the competition, and this is the category in which Chrome takes the biggest backseat to Microsoft's efforts. From shortcuts to tabs, Edge has extra bells and whistles. It appears that Microsoft's strategy is to beat Chrome by making it look comparatively paltry.

Let's start with Edge's greatest strength: tab management. Chrome and Edge both let you rearrange, group, and pin tabs, but Microsoft takes things a step further by letting you switch to vertical tabs, which places them along the left-hand side to free up browsing space. It's one of those features you don't realize you can't live without until you try it because it seems so obvious once you experience it. But whether vertical or horizontal, Edge has more options for tab management, including an AI grouping tool that will sort them all into categories based on content. Chrome offers a similar tab organization feature , but it got things wrong more often than Edge in our tests.

Edge's reading mode also bests Chrome's. Chrome's reader is inexplicably relegated to a sidebar on Chrome's right-hand side , whereas Edge's takes center stage and includes an AI text-to-speech feature that turns any article into an impromptu podcast. And split-screen mode , another Edge-only feature, is helpful for the odd product comparison or research session.

Both browsers have password management, and here, Chrome is far better simply because it syncs more reliably to mobile. Change a password on desktop Edge, and, based on my own experience, there's a coin flip of a chance it'll show up on your phone next time you need it.

Security and privacy

The unfortunate truth is that both Microsoft and Google love to gorge themselves on user data. However, Google is currently in the process of implementing some potentially game-changing adjustments to the way Chrome collects data. That's because the search giant is doing away with cookies — the ubiquitous tracking files that websites install on your browser — in favor of a system it calls Tracking Protection. In simple terms, Google will collect data from you, then dole it out anonymously to websites you visit. Critics have claimed it's an attempt to further leverage Google's dominant position in data-based target advertising, embedding Google even deeper as an intermediary between users and advertisers, while proponents say fewer entities in total will have access to your data. If Tracking Protection is successful, don't be surprised to see Edge implement a similar system. For now, most Chrome users do not have Tracking Protection. It is being rolled out in batches.

Edge may not be shifting the way Internet privacy works, but it does come with more granular privacy controls and extra security tools. There's a VPN client, which is great for those who don't already have a preferred VPN service, though Microsoft will still see your traffic. Also built in is some protection from malicious sites with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen. Of course, both browsers can be further enhanced with privacy and security extensions from the Chrome Web Store.

While both browsers are about as secure as possible, neither are great recommendations for the truly privacy conscious.

Customization

Because everyone's web browsing habits are different, there's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all browser. The more customizable a browser is, the more likely it is that you'll be able to find a configuration that fits your workflow. But the trade-off to customizability is confusion, as having too many options has the potential to overwhelm new users.

Both Chrome and Edge keep the most technical customization options hidden away in Flags , where the average user won't find them, and both browsers have so many flags that it's safe to call things even — especially since many are meant for the most nerdy edge cases. What really matters is the more surface-level customization, and that's where Edge takes the, um, edge. The Appearance section of Edge's settings is granular compared to Chrome's, allowing nearly every UI element to be shown or hidden.

Many Chrome users love its endless extensions, which are available via the Chrome Web Store, and because Edge is also built on Chromium, it can run nearly all the same extensions without any friction. Both browsers also let you manage those extensions, enabling and disabling them or rearranging which ones display their shortcuts alongside the omnibox.

Knowing Microsoft, you also might expect for Edge to lock users into Bing. But while Bing is the default search engine, it's easy to switch over to Google or DuckDuckGo with a few clicks in settings. Of course, Google is the default on Chrome, but that's also easily changeable.

Both browsers have themes, although Chrome has far more options through the web store. Again, Edge supports these as well.

Mobile apps

If it's not the app you use most across desktop and mobile, your web browser is certainly among the most used. That's why both Chrome and Edge offer mobile apps to complement their desktop offerings, so you can keep your bookmarks, web history, passwords, and more synced across devices.

When it comes to Chrome, the mobile version is a no-frills app that still includes the most necessary features like Incognito Mode, page search, and tab management. On the other hand, Edge takes a more maximalist approach on mobile, bringing over some of its most innovative desktop features. Reading mode is here to save you from playing Whack-A-Mole with advertisements, and Drop lets you send text and files between your devices. Additionally, the Edge app can scan pages for downloadable files or add them to collections. Oh, and Microsoft Copilot is also on board for anyone who's into AI features. But the Edge app's most welcome surprise is that it has Adblock Plus built in.

There's no doubt that the Edge app can feel a bit cluttered at times, but it's definitely the better option for people who don't mind mastering interfaces. With that said, Chrome is an extremely clean experience on mobile, making it appealing for those who simply want to browse the web without much fuss.

Odds and ends

Finally, let's address a few odds and ends that don't fit neatly in another category, beginning with the new tab experience.

Microsoft's impulse to treat any blank space as a place to shove junk unfortunately cannot be curtailed, and the default Edge home page is a cluttered mess of spam news. Thankfully, this can be cleaned up quickly by disabling the news feed in settings. Additionally, every time Edge adds a new feature that's more invasive than useful — such as the built-in e-commerce coupon tool, which may actually be a reason not to use Edge at all — you'll have to take time to disable it, which can grow frustrating over time.

Meanwhile, Chrome's general apathy toward meaningful change makes it feel comparatively stale. Microsoft's approach may be occasionally annoying, but at least it consistently adds new features to Edge, some of which are useful. It's hard to recall the last time Chrome got an update that made the user experience significantly better. If you love what Chrome already offers, that's fine. If not, you'll probably feel wanderlust for a change of pace.

Verdict: Edging out the competition

In a showdown between browsers from two of the most mammoth tech companies on the planet, the slight advantage goes to Microsoft Edge, reifying our findings from the same comparison in 2022 . While Chrome remains a reliable, stable, speedy, and secure browser, Edge's efficiency and more robust feature set across desktop and mobile, along with its better implementation of AI, make it the champion for the majority of those choosing between the two in 2024.

Edge shortfalls are in its sync capabilities, which can be spotty when it comes to keeping passwords updated across devices, and it also falls behind in the privacy category. Although neither browser scores well on privacy, Google is trying new ways of managing user data, while Microsoft continues the same old data sponging. And the two browsers tie when it comes to security. Truly, it's the slightly speedier performance, better memory efficiency, and innovative feature additions that give Edge the edge in this head-to-head.

With enthusiast features like vertical tabs, split-screen, Collections, and Drop, Edge simply provides more value than Chrome out of the box. Additionally, Microsoft's GPT-4 powered Copilot is better at features like AI tab grouping and webpage summary compared to Chrome's lackluster AI tools, which the browser still labels as experimental. And since you can use all your Chrome extensions on Edge, it's hard to find a deal-breaker for Microsoft's Chromium implementation. It essentially presents as "Chrome on steroids," which is a hard deal to pass on.

Testing methodology

This comparison was conducted after extensive lifestyle testing of both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, each of which was used as my exclusive browser across all my devices for one week. For speed comparisons, both browsers were tested with Speedometer 3.0, JetStream, and Motion Mark. Tests were run under identical conditions, and each test was run multiple times, with the average of those tests used to calculate an overall score.

Firefox is no longer supported on Windows 8.1 and below.

Please download Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) to use Firefox.

Download Firefox ESR 64-bit

Download Firefox ESR 32-bit

Firefox is no longer supported on macOS 10.14 and below.

Firefox Browser

Get the browser that protects what’s important.

No shady privacy policies or back doors for advertisers. Just a lightning fast browser that doesn’t sell you out.

Latest Firefox features

Pick up where you left off

Firefox View lets you see your tabs open on other devices and recent history.

Edit your PDFs directly

Forget printing a PDF ever again. Start editing forms in Firefox directly.

Browse knowing you’re protected

Firefox’s Total cookie protection gives you outstanding privacy by default.

See Release Notes

Do what you do online. Firefox Browser isn’t watching.

We block the ad trackers. you explore the internet faster..

Ads are distracting and make web pages load slower while their trackers watch every move you make online. The Firefox Browser blocks most trackers automatically, so there’s no need to dig into your security settings.

Firefox is for everyone

Available in over 90 languages, and compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux machines, Firefox works no matter what you’re using or where you are. Make sure your operating system is up to date for the best experience.

Review system requirements

Put Firefox on all your devices

Take your privacy with you everywhere. Firefox Browsers for iOS and Android have the same strong privacy settings to block trackers from following you around the web, no matter where you are.

Do it all with Firefox

Search smarter, faster

• Search from address bar
• Search engine options
• Smart search suggestions
• Bookmark, history and open tab in results

Boost your productivity

Works with google products.

• Built-in screenshot tool
• Bookmarks manager
• Autosuggest URLs
• Sync across devices
• Reader mode
• Spell check
• Pinned Tabs

Stream, share and play

• Block Autoplay of video & audio

Picture-in-Picture

• Curated content on new tab
• Share links

Protect your privacy

• Third Party Cookie Blocking
• Fingerprinter Blocking
• Cryptominer Blocking
• Private Browsing mode
• Individual protections report

Secure your personal info

• Breached website alerts
• Built-in password manager
• Clear history
• Form autofill
• Automatic updates

Customize your browser

• Library of extensions
• Adjust search bar settings
• Change new tab layout

Make Firefox your own

Extensions for every interest

From security to news to gaming, there’s an extension for everyone . Add as many as you want until your browser is just right.

Change up your look

Go from light mode to dark mode depending on your mood or preference, or liven things up with a custom theme (rainbow unicorn, perhaps).

Tweak your settings

There’s no need to settle. Change up the new tab page, search bar, bookmarks and more to explore the internet the way you want.

Backed by the non-profit that puts people first

Challenging the status quo since 1998

Firefox was created by Mozilla as a faster, more private alternative to browsers like Internet Explorer, and now Chrome. Today, our mission-driven company and volunteer community continue to put your privacy above all else.

Your privacy comes first

As the internet grows and changes, Firefox continues to focus on your right to privacy — we call it the Personal Data Promise : Take less. Keep it safe. No secrets. Your data, your web activity, your life online is protected with Firefox.

Keep all your favorite browser features — and discover new ones.

All your favorite Google tools (like Gmail and Docs) work seamlessly in the Firefox Browser.

Facebook Container

Download this browser extension to stop Facebook (and Instagram) from tracking you around the web.

Sync your devices

Firefox is available on all your devices; take your tabs, history and bookmarks with you. All you need is a Mozilla account and you’ll get access to syncing and more Mozilla products.

Screenshots

Grab a high-resolution image of anything online with our screenshot tool built right in the browser

Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP)

Firefox automatically blocks many third party trackers from collecting and selling your web activity.

From watching a web tutorial to keeping an eye on your favorite team, your video follows you while you multitask.

• Compared: Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Edge on macOS in 2022

Recent Posts

• Accesories (7)
• General (154)
• SmartPhones (29)

In this blog post, you will get quality content about Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox on macOS in 2022. Apple fans are well aware of the shortcomings of the current crop of browsers for their devices, which all use the outdated Safari engine. Each of the four most popular browsers for macOS has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, based on the engine that’s used for web rendering.

There are many different browsers for the individual to use and each browser behaves differently on a variety of websites. Some tools can help you optimize your browser to increase its performance and help it perform better than others.  And you can visit our T & E store.

About Our Store:

You may be able to buy from T & E repair store. Our website is a resource for information about electronic devices. At our E-store , you can buy and sell your iPad and smartphones at a reasonable price. We also provide repair services for iPad and other electronic devices. If you are facing any iPhone or Android phone repair you can visit our T & E repair store. T & E repair professionals offer the repair services section. With the services we provide, you can get your phone fixed fast and cheaply .

Your devices will fix as soon as possible and at a low cost. We are signing a new lease today for a new store. This store will serve phoenix Avondale Goodyear Tolleson and buckeye all the mentioned are Arizona state. Our repair service is now available to residents of Glendale , Phoenix , Tolleson , and Avondale Arizona

Browser: Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox

This program is an easy-to-use graphics-intensive browser test. The MotionMark program measures the ability to render complex web pages.

A page with complex graphics and animations should be scored higher, so the speedometer will give a lower score to pages with a slow transition or animations.

The three browsers are equally suited for testing real-world performance across many websites and online services. It’s a good example of comparing the performance of different browsers for the same website.

Safari is the fastest browser in MotionMark benchmarks, and that means that you’ll have a great browsing experience no matter what device you’re using. Firefox and Edge were both faster in testing, but when it comes to the speed of browsing, the choice is up to you!

The performance of Safari is excellent, especially when compared with other browsers. If graphical performance is the main criterion for you, then choose Safari. But if you want the fastest response time, then select Chrome.

For Mac users, Safari is a staple of any Mac user’s computer.  The first time you turn on a new Mac, Safari is already set up and configured for quick, private browsing.

It’s the perfect choice for beginners who don’t want to spend hours downloading and installing the software, and for experts who don’t need all that new stuff.  And, because it’s part of Apple’s family of products, it’s the most tightly integrated of all the browsers.

You can use Continuity to make a seamless handoff between your Mac and any iPhone or iPad you have around. Safari also features strong privacy protections, including mechanisms aimed at mitigating cross-site tracking and ad targeting.

It’s simple, and secure, and will save you countless times by letting you automatically log in to your favorite sites and services. Whether your device is an iPad, iPhone, or MacBook, Safari is the best browser for you.

It’s a good choice if you want something that is very fast and powerful but doesn’t want to use Chrome as your browser.

Pro users may love the new look and feel of Safari, as well as the integration with their other Apple devices.

This version was not quite as fast or as stable as we hoped it would be in Firefox 4.

Google Chrome

It’s faster and more efficient than it was when it was originally released. It has a built-in extension manager, and you can customize your experience to suit your needs.

Microsoft Internet Explorer is a web browser developed by Microsoft to compete with Netscape and Mozilla browsers, such as Firefox and Google Chrome . It is also the only web browser developed by Microsoft that was a complete and finished product (as opposed to an experiment) at the time it was first released.

Create any type of blog that you want and customize it to meet your needs. Choose from several different themes and other customizations. And, with intelligent Google features like automatic site translation and deep integration with online tools and services, it’s great for those who rely on Google’s products, like Gmail, Google Docs, and YouTube.

Google is a good company that relies on collecting information about its users. It takes privacy very seriously and has gone so far as to improve its reputation by taking steps to protect user privacy. Still, it’s a company that’s only in the business of collecting data, and it makes money off of it.

This is a privacy-conscious browser. It’s the world’s most popular web browser, with seamless and customizable workflow options. You can customize your browsing experience to suit your personal preferences.

If you’re a little concerned about online privacy you may want to avoid using an insecure web hosting service.

Safari vs. Chrome vs. Firefox

We love this app because it syncs our Google account across multiple devices, makes it super easy to read articles and lists, and offers a ton of customization options.

It’s not a secret that Google makes its money through ads.

Microsoft Edge is one of the few mainstream browsers that started as an open-source project. Its focus on privacy and security means it could be a good alternative to Chrome. It’s also free and open source, so there’s no financial commitment.

The best web browser is one that gives users complete control over their data, with the option to share their information only with trusted sources. Firefox has a completely open source design that makes it free from any hidden data-harvesters and offers a great number of privacy settings and customizable permissions.

Firefox was the first browser to offer third-party extensions and add-ons. Although it might not have as many extensions as Google Chrome, you’ll still find a fairly large list of options, from privacy tools to customizable themes.

While Firefox is a popular choice among privacy advocates and security junkies, it’s not the fastest browser out there. But if speed is your top priority, then make sure to check out the competition and make the switch.

Open-source browsers are here. For users who are committed to Mozilla’s mission of keeping the internet open and free, they’re a great choice for browsing the web. For the average user, however, there may be another choice that’s a better fit.

It syncs to your Google account, so you can easily access your bookmarks, emails, calendar, and more on other devices.

This is not the fastest or most RAM-efficient.

• Privacy Policy
• Warranty & Policy

© 2022 Tablet & Electronic Repair All rights reserved. All trademarks are properties of their respective holders. T&E Repair does not own or make claim to those trademarks used on this website. [email protected]

Battle of the Browsers: Chrome vs. Firefox vs. Safari

If you’re in search of the most efficient web browser, you’ve landed on the right page. We’re here to offer a comprehensive comparison of the top web browsers, dissecting their speed, security, and unique features. Our goal is to assist you in making an informed choice that perfectly suits your browsing needs. 

Web browsers are more than just a tool for accessing the internet. They’re the gateway to the vast and diverse world of the web. Whether you’re into online gaming, shopping, reading, or working, it’s the quality and performance of your browser that can make all the difference. Hence, choosing the right one matters more than you think.

Introduction: The Battle Begins

Welcome to the battlefield of web browsers, where speed, security, and unique features determine who rides to glory and who bites the dust. If you’ve ever pondered over which browser to use or wondered how they stack up against each other, you’re in the right place. Let us dive deep into this exciting duel, comparing the top contenders and laying out the nitty-gritty, one detail at a time. 

The Need for Speed 

When you’re navigating through the vast realm of the internet, a few extra milliseconds can feel like an agonizing stretch. That’s why fast browsing speed is paramount. We’ve taken the leading web browsers through rigorous speed tests to find the crème de la crème for you. 

In this corner, we’ve got Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge, to name a few. Our tests showed significant differences between them. Google Chrome, known for its zippy speed and reliability, stood out in terms of raw browsing speed. Firefox followed close behind, displaying impressive consistency and speed in loading high-data websites, while Safari scored top marks for quick load times on Apple devices. Last but not least, Microsoft Edge demonstrated admirable speed, slightly lagging behind the pack. 

Security: Your Shield against the Dark (Net) 

Avoiding the perils of the internet requires a strong shield — robust security features. Each browser we reviewed has its unique approach to ensure your digital wellbeing. 

Google Chrome has the Safe Browsing feature, which displays warnings about potentially dangerous sites and downloads. Firefox, on the other hand, counters threats with its Enhanced Tracking Protection, blocking third-party tracking cookies by default. Safari offers robust protection against harmful sites and phishing attempts, while Microsoft Edge employs Microsoft Defender SmartScreen for real-time protection against security threats. 

The Feature-Rich Battlefield 

Amid the clamor of speed and security, let’s not forget the unique features that might tip the scale for you. 

• Google Chrome’s vast collection of browser extensions enhances its utility.
• Firefox’s privacy-focused browsing mode gives you control over your data.
• Safari’s Reading List feature lets you save webpages for offline reading, a boon for data conservation.
• Microsoft Edge’s ‘Read Aloud’ tool, built to improve accessibility, can narrate webpages aloud, making it easier for visually impaired users.

The battlefield of web browsers is vast and dynamic. As technologies advance, so do these titans. Stay tuned as we continue to monitor their evolution, ensuring you have the latest intel to make an informed decision. After all, knowledge is power!

Chrome: The Lightning Fast Giant

Roaring through the internet, Google Chrome holds the coveted position as the world’s most popular web browser. It’s speedy, armed with a robust feature set, and baked into the ecosystem of Google-powered devices. This racing giant of a browser is renowned for its rapid page load times, vast library of extensions, and strong support for progressive web apps. However, let’s dig deeper into what makes this browser stand out. 

Speed and Performance 

Chrome’s most significant selling point lies in its speed. Known for its swift startup time and quick page loading, it offers users a smooth browsing experience. Whether you’re flicking through social media or delving into research, speed isn’t an issue for Chrome. Thanks to the browser’s V8 JavaScript engine, even content-heavy websites load briskly. 

Feature-Packed and Customizable 

The browser also shines when it comes to functionality and customizability. With a deep reservoir of extensions available on Chrome Web Store, users can customize their browsing experience to fit their unique needs. From ad-blockers to productivity tools, the possibilities are almost endless. Plus, Chrome’s simplistic design and clean layout make the customization process straightforward and user-friendly. 

Sync and Compatibility 

Another notable advantage of Chrome is its compatibility. Regardless of the device you’re using – whether it’s a PC, a smartphone, or a tablet – Chrome delivers a consistent and seamless browsing experience. Add to this, the ability to sync your bookmarks, history, and preferences across all devices by simply logging into your Google account is a blessing for tech multi-taskers. 

Resources and Security 

However, Chrome isn’t without its drawbacks. The browser is known for its high resource usage, which can significantly slow down your device if you have multiple tabs or extensions running. On the other hand, Chrome continually receives security updates which makes it one of the most secure browsers available today. It’s built-in malware and phishing protection offers additional security layers while you browse. 

• Chrome is known for its speedy performance and quick startup times
• The browser offers a vast array of customizable features and extensions
• Across different devices, Chrome provides a seamless browsing experience
• An added benefit is the browser’s compatibility; it works equally well on different platforms
• Chrome receives frequent security updates and has built-in malware protection

Safari: Apple’s Streamlined and Resource-Friendly Choice

Are you an Apple aficionado? If so, you’ll enjoy their proprietary browser, Safari. Built into every device Apple makes, from iPhones to iMacs, it is elegantly streamlined and designed for low resource use. But that doesn’t mean it skimps on features or quality. Let’s dive in and see what it brings to the table. 

Efficiency and Speed 

Safari is well loved for its sleek performance. Many users testify that it feels significantly faster than other browsers when used on Apple devices. This is due in large part to its unique Nitro JavaScript engine, which radically speeds up browsing. Furthermore, Safari also does a fantastic job when it comes to battery life. It’s designed to be incredibly power-efficient, letting you browse longer without recharging. 

Security and Privacy 

In terms of security, Safari is a reliable choice. It automatically identifies and blocks suspicious and harmful websites, ensuring your browsing experience remains secure. As for privacy, the Intelligent Tracking Prevention feature helps limit trackers from profiling your behavior. Plus, with Safari, you can easily access privacy reports to see just who’s been blocked from tracking you. 

Ease of Use and Features 

One of the key strengths of Safari is its user-friendly interface. The start page can be easily customized to include your favorite websites, and there’s a handy sidebar for reading lists and bookmarks. Furthermore, the browser boasts a range of useful built-in features. From Apple Pay, making online shopping a breeze, to seamless integration with other Apple devices via iCloud, Safari takes convenience to another level. 

However, one potential downside is that it lacks the vast selection of extensions found in other browsers like Chrome or Firefox. That might limit its appeal if you’re a power user who likes to tailor their browsing experience with specific tools and add-ons.

• Comparing Free vs. Paid Video Editing Softwares
• Cloud-Based vs. Locally-Installed Productivity Software: A Comparative Analysis
• Mac vs PC: A Software Comparison for Designers

Firefox: The Versatile and Secure Choice

When it comes to versatility and robust security, Firefox often springs to mind. This Mozilla-created browser has built a name for itself on user privacy and a collection of tools designed to keep you secure as you browse the internet. Firefox is not only a sturdy choice for security, but its variety of features and customization options also make it a truly appealing choice for numerous internet users. 

Security Features Superior 

Firefox takes your online protection seriously. As the internet becomes a more dangerous place, replete with hackers and malware, Firefox stands as a bulwark against these nefarious elements. For example, Firefox offers automatic updates to ensure you’re using the latest, most secure version. It also has a robust pop-up blocker to stop annoying or potentially harmful pop-up windows and ads, and it regularly updates its phishing and malware protection to guard against the latest threats. 

Customizable to Your Heart’s Content 

No two internet users are alike, and Firefox understands this. Through its extensive personalization features, you can tailor your browsing experience to your own individual needs and preferences. For example, you can customize your toolbar to have the features you use the most, organize your bookmarks, and tweak a multitude of settings to fine-tune your browsing experience. Plus, Firefox boasts a plethora of extensions and add-ons, so you can augment your browser with the functions and features you find most useful. 

Dedicated to Privacy 

In an era where personal data becomes increasingly valuable, Firefox adopts a hardline stance on privacy. Unlike some browsers that sell your data to advertisers or third parties, Firefox keeps your information private. They also include features like ‘Tracking Protection’ to avoid ad trackers, and a private browsing mode that doesn’t store history or cookies. 

Cross-Platform Delight 

Whether you prefer the comfort of home with a desktop computer or the portability of a smartphone, Firefox has got you covered. The browser’s cross-platform compatibility ensures you can browse safely and seamlessly on any device of your choice. It also offers syncing capabilities, allowing you to access your bookmarks, history, and tabs from any device. This makes Firefox an excellent choice for those juggling their online activities across multiple devices.

Safari: Apple’s Sleek and Efficient Option

Imagine a web browser that’s clean, efficient, and designed to operate seamlessly within the Apple ecosystem. That’s Safari for you — Apple’s sleek and snappy browser that integrates effortlessly with your other Apple devices. Bundled with various unique features, superior performance, and a high concern for security, it’s a browser choice you might want to consider. Let’s dive in further to find out more about Safari. 

Sleek Design and User-Friendly Interface 

Safari grants an intuitive browsing experience with its uncluttered and streamlined design. Its top bar has been optimized to maximize screen space and minimize distractions. Moreover, the browser interface adapts color dynamically to match the site being visited, giving an immersive web experience. In addition, Safari encompasses functions like the sidebar, featuring bookmarks, Reading List, and Shared Links to add to the user’s convenience and enhance productivity. 

Performance that Matches Apple’s Reputation 

Given that Safari is tuned to work best with Apple hardware, it exhibits extraordinary performance. Safari’s JavaScript engine — ‘Nitro’ — aids rapid page loading, making it faster than most other browsers on Mac. Besides, the energy-saving technology integrated into Safari ensures your browsing doesn’t drain your battery life, assuring longer browsing sessions without needing a power source. 

Security Features and Privacy 

Safari leads the pack in terms of security and privacy protection. It blocks third-party cookies by default, and grants options to control which sites can access your device location, camera, microphone, etc. Safari’s cross-site tracking prevention feature extends its commitment to privacy. Additionally, it offers a unique privacy report, providing visibility into how websites treat your privacy, and how Safari protects you. 

Device Sync and Ecosystem Integration 

With Safari, your browsing experience flows smoothly across all your Apple devices. Thanks to the iCloud integration, bookmarks, history, open tabs — everything is synced across your Apple devices, making your browsing consistent and seamless. Moreover, the handoff feature allows you to commence your browsing on one device, and continue on the other effortlessly. 

• Safari has an elegant, uncluttered design for easy navigation.
• Nitro engine enables fast page loading and efficient battery usage.
• Security features include third-party cookie blocking and cross-site tracking prevention.
• iCloud syncing and the handoff feature supports continuation of browsing across devices.

Speed Test: Which Browser Comes Out on Top?

Hold on tight, because we’re shifting gears into a full-throttle speed comparison of your favored web browsers. In a world that craves snappy responses and instant gratification, the fleet-footedness of your browser can make all the difference to your online experience. So, which one comes out on top in the cyber relay race? Let’s find out! 

Sprinting Through The Start Line: Initial Load Time 

Initial load time matters, it’s the first impression your browser makes. In these early milliseconds, Chrome sprints ahead delightfully, followed closely by Firefox. Unfortunately, Safari has a difficult time catching up due to more stringent system requirements and slower startup times.

Lappind Pages: Tab Load Speeds 

When it comes to handling multiple tabs, again, Chrome shines with its rapid-fire tab loading, offering a seamless multitasking environment. Firefox also performs admirably here, demonstrating intricate resource management skills. Safari, while a tad slower, still offers an optimized, efficient multitasking experience for Mac users. 

Under The Hood: JavaScript Performance 

The engine driving a large part of your browsing operation is JavaScript. In terms of raw computational JavaScript power, Chrome steals the limelight again, though Firefox’s commendable performance should not be overlooked. Safari, despite its streamlined approach, lags slightly behind in this technical head-to-head. 

• Chrome takes the lead due to its high-speed V8 JavaScript Engine.
• Firefox is hot on Chrome’s tail, employing its SpiderMonkey Engine to keep up the pace.
• Safari, with its Nitro JavaScript engine, does a decent job, but it’s not quite at the forefront of this race.

Speed tests are close races, with no clear ‘one-size-fits-all’ winner. Chrome might seem like the frontrunner, but don’t discount Firefox’s robust performance and Safari’s resource-efficient approach. It’s all a matter of where you place your priorities.

Security Features: Protecting Your Online Experience

Navigating the curious world of the internet safely calls for vital defence mechanisms to counteract lurking threats. These threats can range from potent viruses to the omnipresent specter of digital spying. This is where the role of security features in web browsers comes into play. They are the knights that preserve your online expedition from the risky underbelly of the digital universe.

SSL/TLS Protocol Protection 

These are cryptographic protocols that provide communication security over networks, such as the internet. While SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is the predecessor, most modern web browsers now primarily use TLS (Transport Layer Security) for more robust security. Both Chrome and Firefox are equipped to ensure website communications are secure and tamper-free by warning the user when a website’s SSL certificate is not trusted.

Sandboxing: Staying Ahead of Threats 

Sandboxing is a technique that isolates applications, preventing malicious or malfunctioning programs from damaging or snooping into your system. For example, Google Chrome is well reputed for its effective sandboxing technique. Each tab in Chrome operates as a separate process on your operating system. These individual processes are confined to their sandboxes so they can’t interact directly with your operating system or other processes.

Phishing and Malware Protection 

Phishing protection is fundamental to browser security as it helps to shield your personal and financial information from prying eyes. Web browsers, particularly Chrome and Firefox, employ real-time phishing detection. They check websites against a frequently updated list of phishing and malware sites, and present warnings if these sites are encountered.

Private Browsing and Tracking Protection 

While not a defence against external threats, privacy measures do protect your data from being harvested by companies. Private browsing, for example, allows you to explore the internet without storing local data that could be retrieved at a later date. Firefox’s ‘Enhanced Tracking Protection’ blocks many common forms of trackers right out of the box, offering a level of privacy not usually found in other browsers.

• Google Chrome: Chrome’s Incognito Mode allows users to browse privately, leaving no trace of the browsing experience on their device.
• Firefox: In addition to its private browsing mode, Firefox offers a comprehensive ‘Privacy and Security’ settings page, which lets you control your data and privacy in more detail.
• Safari: Apple’s browser also includes a private browsing feature and intelligent tracking prevention to protect users from invasive ad tracking.

Privacy Matters: How Each Browser Handles Your Data

The online world is a treasure trove of information, but with this wealth of data comes the ever-growing concern of privacy. Each web browser has its unique approach to handling your personal information, and understanding these can greatly influence your choice of which to use. How a browser respects your privacy could potentially be a defining factor in determining the most suitable one for you.

Google Chrome: Observing Your Habits 

Google Chrome is notorious for its extensive data collection practices. It monitors your habits and uses this data to inform its algorithms, often leading to highly personalized ad experiences. While this can feel invasive, it can also streamline your browsing. There are options to limit data collection, but this may affect the browser’s functionality. 

• Collects extensive data on user habits
• Uses data to inform ad generation
• Options to limit data collection are available

Safari: Prioritizing User Privacy 

Safari, under Apple’s jurisdiction, prioritizes user privacy. It blocks cross-site tracking by default and encrypts your data to prevent unauthorized access. This secure environment, however, comes at the expense of strict third-party cookie policies and limited customization options. 

• Blocks cross-site tracking by default
• Encrypts data for added security
• Enforces strict third-party cookie policies

Firefox: The Privacy-Centric Choice 

Firefox is a popular choice for privacy enthusiasts. The browser’s Enhanced Tracking Protection offers a high-level of defense against tracking cookies. It doesn’t sell user data and allows comprehensive control over your privacy settings. Its advanced features, however, may seem overwhelming to casual users. 

• Offers Enhanced Tracking Protection
• Doesn’t sell any user data
• Provides comprehensive controls over privacy settings

User Interface: Aesthetics and Navigation

A compelling user interface is the gateway to a pleasant web browsing experience. The interplay of aesthetics and navigation can profoundly shape the overall usability and accessibility of a browser. We’ll delve deep into how Chrome, Safari, and Firefox present their user interfaces, focusing on their visual design, arrangement of features, and navigational ease.

Visually Pleasing: The Aesthetics at Play 

When it comes to design, each browser has a unique approach. Chrome’s modern and minimalist approach emphasizes a neat, clutter-free space. Safari, synonymous with Apple’s sleek aesthetic vision, adopts an elegant, sophisticated look. Firefox, while maintaining simplicity, favors a more colorful and lively interface that’s visually appealing. 

The Blueprint: Arrangement of Features 

The organization of browser options, menus, and tabs can significantly impact users’ browsing efficiency. Chrome’s layout is straightforward, featuring a prominent URL bar and easily accessible features. Safari organizes its favorite websites elegantly and offers an easy-to-access reading list. Firefox sorts its features and settings in one easily accessible dropdown menu, ensuring smooth navigation. 

A Smooth Sail: Navigation Ease 

Intuitive and easy navigation is just as crucial for a great browser experience. Chrome offers easy switching between incognito and regular tabs and effortless bookmark management. Safari integrates its search and URL bar for simpler use and provides an eye-catching display of your most visited sites. Firefox boasts efficient tab management with a visual overview of all open tabs and a quick search feature. 

Customizability: Making it Your Own 

Lastly, the ability to personalize your browser enhances usability. Chrome stands out with its extensive theme library and customizable toolbar. Safari allows users to personalize their start page and integrate Siri suggestions. Firefox outshines with its flexible toolbar and wide range of unique themes.

Extensions and Add-Ons: Enhancing Your Browsing Experience

One of the distinguishing features that dramatically affect your browsing experience are the nifty extensions and add-ons. They’re like little software programs which improve the standard functionalities, giving you the ability to tailor and enhance your browser according to your needs. Whether you need an ad-blocker, password manager, language translator, or an extension for quick access to your notes — there’s something out there for everybody. But remember, the efficacy and range of these tools can vary greatly across different browsers. 

Enhancing capabilities: The role of extensions and add-ons  

Imagine having miniature software right inside your browser, enhancing its capabilities, and making your online sessions more efficient. That’s exactly the purpose of extensions and add-ons. They bring new features and improve existing ones, making most mundane tasks quicker and more straightforward. For instance, save articles for later reading with Pocket, or manage multiple tasks with the Todoist extension. The options are virtually endless. 

Comparison: Which browser offers better extensions? 

In the world of browsers, quantity and quality of available extensions can significantly influence your choice. Chrome boasts a vast library, characterized by Google’s intensive vetting process that ensures safer, reliable tools. Firefox, on the other hand, is known for its open-source extensions, offering many unique options not found elsewhere. Safari’s extensions are primarily geared towards Apple-users, with the added benefit of seamless integration with iOS applications. 

Proceed with caution: Security implications 

While there’s no denying the convenience and benefits of extensions, it’s still crucial to recognize the potential risks. Malicious extensions can expose you to threats such as data theft, privacy invasion, or worse. Always verify the source and reputation of any extension before installing to ensure it’s secure and reliable. Furthermore, too many active extensions can also affect your browser’s speed and overall performance. 

• Before downloading an extension, check user reviews and ratings for additional insight.
• Regularly update your add-ons, as old versions might contain security vulnerabilities.
• Be aware of the permissions requested by extensions. If they exceed what’s required for its function, you may want to give it a miss.
• Use a reputable security tool to regularly scan your installed extensions and ensure they haven’t turned malicious.

Customization: Tailoring Your Browser to Fit Your Needs

When it comes to your internet experience, personal preferences play a big role. That’s why customization capabilities of a web browser turn out to be a significant factor for many users. After all, you want a space that feels like your own, right? Do you prefer a minimalist design or like to have all your tools at your fingertips? Let’s delve into how these top browsers cater to your tastes and needs.

The Palette: Theme and Appearance Customization 

Whether you like it dark, vibrant, or neutral, the manner in which these browsers allow you to tweak their appearance varies substantially. Google Chrome provides a plethora of themes available for download via its web store, allowing you to completely alter its look. Safari, restricted to Apple’s design aesthetic, offers fewer options, but you can still switch between light and dark modes. Firefox, on the other hand, gives you a balanced mix – easy to use theme settings with options for light, dark, and auto modes, and a considerable selection of downloadable themes.

Functionality: Prioritizing Your Tools 

Customizing your tools and their arrangement significantly impacts how smoothly your browsing experience goes. Chrome excels in this department, supplying a detailed settings menu, easy access to extensions, rearrangement capability for the bookmarks bar, and more.

Apple’s Safari keeps it simple with options to customize the toolbar and manage extensions but lacks more detailed functionality adjustments. Similarly, Firefox offers extensive toolbar customization, preferences arrangements, a significant number of add-ons, resulting in a highly personalized experience.

The Flow: Configuring the Browsing 

As we continue our comparison, let’s consider how these browsers handle the overall flow of your browsing experience. Whether it’s the way they manage tabs and windows, how they handle downloads, or even the way you navigate their settings, this element plays an integral role in making your online ventures as smooth as possible. So, we’ll examine how effectively Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox manage this aspect.

Tab Management: 

Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all provide tabbed browsing, but with different approaches and features. Chrome offers a compact and straightforward tab system. You can group tabs, and even mute individual ones. Safari goes a step further, providing a unique ‘Tab Exposé’ view, showing a preview of all open tabs, which is especially handy when you have multiple tabs open. Firefox reigns superior in terms of control over your tabs. Not only can you pin and mute tabs, but you can also reopen closed ones or quickly search within your open tabs. 

Download Handling: 

When it comes to managing downloads, Chrome provides a simplistic interface outlining the download progress, where you can pause, cancel, or resume downloads directly. Safari offers a similar streamlined experience, automatically organizing downloads by date in its dedicated downloads list. Firefox, once again, provides finer control. You can adjust download actions for different file types, setting an automatic destination, or choosing a specific action for each downloaded file. 

Settings Navigation: 

Google Chrome offers a simplistic, clean menu with a built-in search function, making it easy to find the setting you need. Safari once again focuses on simplicity, providing its settings within a unified preferences window, while its extensive suite of advanced options is tucked away in a separate menu. Firefox’s settings menu is both simple and comprehensive. With a built-in search function and category tabs, finding and adjusting preferences is indeed a breeze.

Cross-Platform Compatibility: Which Browser Works Best on All Devices?

In today’s digital landscape, the ability to switch between devices seamlessly while maintaining the same browsing experience is a critical aspect. Web browsers need to perform consistently and smoothly across multiple platforms, whether you’re using a Windows laptop, an Android smartphone, a macOS desktop, or an iOS tablet. A cross-platform browser offers consistency, convenience, and robust functionality, all of which are important factors when evaluating the top web browsers. Let’s dig deeper into how each browser fares in terms of cross-platform compatibility. 

Google Chrome: A Universal Choice 

Google Chrome stands out as a truly cross-platform browser. It operates on a multitude of devices, such as Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Being linked to a Google account, Chrome allows for a synchronized browsing experience across all your devices. Change your theme or add a bookmark on one device, and it instantly reflects on all others. 

Safari: Limited to Apple Devices 

Safari, designed by Apple, is essentially tied to Apple’s ecosystem. It runs quite seamlessly on macOS and iOS devices. However, a significant disadvantage of Safari is its unavailability on non-Apple devices, limiting its cross-compatibility. 

Firefox: Flexibility at its Core 

Firefox, like Chrome, is another browser offering a consistent experience across various platforms, including Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. One of its unique features is Firefox Sync, which seamlessly synchronizes your bookmarks, history, tabs, and passwords across all your devices. 

Cross-Platform Extensions and Add-ons 

Extensions and add-ons are vital to personalizing your browsing experience. Chrome and Firefox support a vast array of extensions across various platforms. However, Safari users might find their options to be somewhat limited, especially when using iOS devices. 

Consistency in User Interface 

The user interface plays an essential role in creating an intuitive and unified browsing experience. Chrome and Firefox maintain a consistent look and feel across all platforms, making it easier for users to switch devices without the need to adapt. On the other hand, Safari’s user interface changes slightly between macOS and iOS.

Mobile Browsing: How Do They Perform on Smartphones and Tablets?

In today’s digital age, your mobile device is just as important as your computer for browsing the web. This raises the question: how do these top web browsers perform on your smartphones and tablets? Just as you’d expect, this part of our comparison considers how Chrome, Safari, and Firefox hold up when they’re not on a desktop or laptop. 

Mobile Adaptability: How Well Do They Transition? 

It’s crucial that a browser can adapt to the smaller screen sizes and different user interface of a mobile device while maintaining functionality. Chrome consistently provides a seamless experience across devices, with some features even specifically designed for mobile. Safari, while limited to Apple devices, is well-matched to the iOS interface. Firefox, with its focus on customization, allow users to create a mobile browsing experience suited to their preferences. 

Mobile Speed: Does It Mirror the Desktop? 

Speed continues to be a critical factor for any device. How quickly a browser can load pages on a mobile device can significantly impact the user’s browsing experience. Chrome, known for its speed, maintains reputation in the mobile platform as well, while Safari provides a smooth and efficient browsing environment on iOS devices. Firefox also ensures quick loading times, even on mobile devices. 

Mobile Security Features: Are They on Par? 

The security features of a browser should not be compromised just because it’s on a mobile device. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all take mobile security seriously, offering the same robust features as their desktop versions. 

Mobile Features and Plugins: How Many Made the Leap? 

The range of features and plugins available on a browser’s mobile version often differs from the desktop version. While Chrome offers a significant range of Google services on mobile, Safari tends to focus more on user-friendliness on its mobile platform. Firefox offers most of its desktop plugins on its mobile version as well, maintaining its feature-rich reputation.

The quest to find the best web browser often boils down to personal preference. Things such as performance, aesthetics, security, and a plethora of other factors can influence this decision. In the end, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all have their strengths and weaknesses. This comprehensive breakdown equips you with the knowledge needed to pick the browser that’s right for your needs. 

Whether you prioritize speed and efficiency, a vast array of features, privacy protection, or a seamlessly integrated ecosystem, there’s a browser out there for you. So, take this knowledge, choose wisely, and enhance your browsing experience!

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Accessories
• Entertainment
• PCs & Components
• Wi-Fi & Networks
• Newsletters
• Digital Magazine – Subscribe
• Digital Magazine – Log in
• Smart Answers
• Best laptops
• Best antivirus
• Best monitors
• Laptop deals
• Desktop PC deals

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn't affect our editorial independence .

Which browser is best for battery life: We test Edge vs. Chrome vs. Opera vs. Firefox

Lots of claims are made about which browser is better or worse for a device’s battery life. Can a browser really make that much of a difference? Yes indeed, but determining just how much of a difference and whether it even matters to your individual use case is the difficult part.

I began testing the question of different web browsers’ impact on battery life about two months ago, and what I’ve concluded is that there’s a lot of work to be done here.

What’s generally wrong with browsing tests

I’ve read about people using browsing as a rundown test for laptops but I have concerns about how that’s done. As you know, the internet is a dynamic living organism. What I get when I point my browser at PCWorld.com at 2:14 a.m. EDT on August 29, is going to be different than what I get on 8 a.m. on January 1.

Even trying to browse with the same laptop just minutes apart could yield quite a different experience in terms of Flash ads, embedded videos, and other dynamic elements.

That’s not even mentioning that the route the packets take to reach your screen could differ considerably moment to moment. These and other uncontrollable variables are enough to scare me off of running comparative tests using the live internet.

Enter EMBC BrowsingBench

EMBC is a small benchmarking outfit that claims its BrowsingBench test removes the variability in testing browsers. The benchmark runs on Linux from a USB key. You boot into Ubuntu on a laptop that’s connected via ethernet to a wireless router, and then connect your test laptop to that router’s Wi-Fi.

With EMBC’s BrowsingBench, you can test browsers in a controlled environment.

You select between page types, how long you want the test to dwell on a page, and even set the bandwidth you want simulated. The pages are stored and served by the benchmark, which means every single page and every single Flash ad is the same.

I configured BrowsingBench with a rather long “dwell” time on each page, rather than just jamming through a bunch of pages. I figured people don’t browse that way so what’s the value of it.

If you were to watch the benchmark run, it would look like a person went to a site, scrolled down maybe a third of the page, paused, scrolled another third, paused, and so on.

EMBC’s BrowsingBench lets you vary how long the page stays on the screen, so I tried to simulate what I thought was a realistic portrayal of browsing.

It’s so not perfect

As much as I think EMBC’s BrowsingBench is pretty nifty, it’s far from perfect. The test is actually designed to scale to phones, tablets, and even set-top boxes. It includes webpages that are pure mobile sites as well as the desktop versions (I selected only the desktop versions), but the pages are clearly very light workloads for a PC.

The test is also designed for single-tab browsing. That’s just not realistic today. EMBC officials tell me they’re working on heavier page loads for the next version of BrowsingBench, but you have to go with the benchmark you have, not the one you want.

That doesn’t discount the results I’ll show you here today, but you should know that they reflect a light-duty-browsing scenario.  

I used a Toshiba Radius 12 for the bulk of my testing.

The hardware

I used the same Toshiba Radius 12 that I used for my media-player shootout . This laptop has a Core i7 Skylake CPU, 8GB of RAM, an M.2 SSD, and an Ultra HD 4K panel with 10-point touch. With its 41-watt battery, battery life is a little underwhelming. That’s to be expected though, as both 4K resolution and touch can be draining. I ran all of my tests at 155 nits, which is a reasonable brightness for an office environment where you are trying to save power.

The laptop was running Windows 10 Home with the latest updates installed prior to starting the tests. Once I updated the laptop, it stayed off the Internet to keep the OS at a consistent state.

To test the accuracy of the benchmark, I ran repeated tests in Chrome (each of which took several hours) and the results were within four minutes of each other. I used a LInksys 802.11n router for the tests, which was about two feet from the test laptop.

The browsers

Remember, I began my testing about two months ago so the browser versions are what was current at that time. For example, this was started prior to Opera pushing out its power-saving-mode version. The browsers I tested include: Chrome 50, Firefox 46, Edge 13.1, Opera 37, and Internet Explorer 11. (I did try a beta of Opera 39 with its power-saving mode switched on much later but ran into an issue where pages would not load correctly.)

As Firefox and Opera do not include Flash support by default, I installed the Adobe Flash plugin for both. All the browsers were running Flash 21.0.0. The only 64-bit browser was Microsoft’s Edge. The rest were all the 32-bit versions, which is the default browser of choice even if you’re running a 64-bit OS.

The results

This is a lot of lead up to something that’s a little  anticlimactic . My testing with a “light” browser load shows that Microsoft makes the most power-efficient browser, and the most power-inefficient one. 

Yes, Microsoft’s Edge 13.1 browser was clearly the winner here. I hit 385 minutes with the Edge browser, which is almost an hour more than Internet Explorer 11 lasted in browsing. 

Google’s much-maligned Chrome (which has a reputation for being a power hog) pulled into second place with about half an hour less battery life than Edge. Firefox was just about as bad as Internet Explorer, and Opera was on par with Chrome.

Under a light browsing load with some Flash content, Microsoft offers the best and the worst browser for battery life.

Disappointed?

The thing is, you were probably expecting far more dramatic results. Kinda like Microsoft’s own test that it released this week . If you didn’t catch it, Microsoft testers  browsed various websites (on the open Internet apparently) while looking at the power consumption  so the testers could measure power consumption. Microsoft’s tests—conducted on the open internet apparently, and using a special instrumented Surface Book—showed from 36 percent to 53 percent better battery life over the competition when browsing in Edge. In a video test, Edge edged out Opera’s new power-saving mode by 17 percent, bested Firefox by 43 percent, and Chrome by a whopping 70 percent.

The company also showed all four browsers running a streamed video until they tapped out with Edge again taking the lead.

Microsoft further showed telemetry from “millions” of Windows 10 machines that it has captured, which supports its results (umm, does anyone else think it’s creepy that your OS is dutifully reporting anonymous telemetry data to be used for marketing purposes?).

I don’t actually doubt Microsoft’s numbers. In fact, they reinforce my own personal experience using various browsers. Chrome “seems” to cause the battery to plummet, while Edge “seems” to sip power during use.

But that’s just my anecdotal experience and without the ability to measure it reliably, I’ll just leave it at that. And to be perfectly honest, I still use Chrome, except when I’m really trying to maximize battery life. Then I switch to Edge.

Microsoft Edge is more power efficient according to millions of Windows 10 machines, the company says.

So here’s the thing. My own tests shows Edge has a clear power advantage in light browsing chores; it’s just not as dramatic as Microsoft’s own tests. But the truth is actually more complicated because our browsing habits are so different, and can change from day to day.  If you play a game or use Outlook all day, you can make a pretty good guess about how each will impact battery life. A browser though is a window to the unlimited and ever-changing Internet and no one uses it the same way.

Do you sit with 10 tabs of Flash- and video-heavy webpages open all day? Or do you sit in Google Docs for eight hours? Do you park your browser on YouTube or some shady streaming website for long stretches? All three of those use cases will likely have very different effects on battery life and going by anyone’s generic “browser battery-life” figures doesn’t make much sense.

Are browser benchmarks still valuable? Yes, but only to the extent that you understand the scenario being tested. For example, after doing my tests, I’m pretty confident telling you that if you’re just doing very light web browsing with the screen brightness at a medium-to-dim 150 nits, Edge is the most power-efficient choice, but the other’s ain’t so bad either.

Which Browser Is Best? Edge vs. Chrome vs. Opera vs. Firefox

The browser you're using right now may not be the best one for you. The browser arena changes so frequently that your conclusions from comparisons made last year may be completely wrong this year.

We aren't here to start a browser war. The right one for you isn't necessarily the right one for me (personally, I use all of them for this and that) so it would be disingenuous to say that one is absolutely better than the rest.

That being said, the browser you're using right now may not actually be the best one for you. In fact, the browser arena changes so frequently that your conclusions from last year may be completely wrong this year. Plus, we have a new contender in Microsoft Edge .

So forget everything you know about browsers. We're starting with a clean slate and we're going to explore the four biggest browsers on the market to see what exactly they offer. This comparison covers the following browser versions:

• Microsoft Edge (Build 25.10586.0.0)
• Chrome (Build 48.0.2564.103)
• Firefox (Build 44.0.20160123151951)
• Opera (Build 35.0.2066.35)

Category: User Interface

Generally speaking, most browsers these days have the same overall interface design with a few unique tweaks here and there, so in terms of usability, they're all perfectly fine -- but the little details are what might endear you to one browser or drive you away from another.

Microsoft Edge: Edge's interface is impressively slick and minimal, borrowing from the flat aesthetic guidelines that make Windows 10 so easily recognizable. There's no menu bar or status bar. Only the bare essentials are shown and tabs are integrated into the title bar, maximizing screen space while browsing.

There aren't any popup windows or dialogs either. Features and settings are accessed through sidebars that slide in and out from the right, a design decision that was likely influenced by the fact that many Edge users are on a tablet. That's also probably why there aren't any right-clicks in Edge.

Aside from picking between Light and Dark themes and choosing to toggle the Favorites bar, there isn't much you can do to customize the interface in Edge.

Score: 9/10

Chrome: When Chrome debuted in 2008, its clean interface was one of its biggest selling points (in addition to performance and extensions, which we'll cover below). Not much has changed in all the years since then. As far as look and feel is concerned, Chrome is as Chrome always was.

Chrome's most notable differences include a User button along the top (which only shows if you're logged into a Google account) and the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) which opens an actions menu that feels like a simplified File menu. The tabs meld into the title bar only when the browser in maximized.

Overall, a very clean experience. Unfortunately, like Edge, there isn't much you can customize about Chrome's appearance. You can install themes, but they change so little that they're more like wallpapers than actual themes.

Score: 7/10

Firefox: On the whole, Firefox has a softer aesthetic than the other browsers. That could be due to the default icon theme and/or the curvy-but-flat design of the tabs, but regardless, Firefox feels the most pleasant and comfortable to use right out of the box (at least for me).

But if you don't like it, you can change it. Unlike the other browsers, Firefox supports two kinds of appearance customization: Themes, which are akin to basic wallpaper changes, and Complete Themes, which can change how the whole browser looks (e.g. tabs, colors, padding, positions of elements, etc).

In fact, there are Complete Themes that faithfully replicate the looks of browsers like Chrome and Opera, so if the interface is the only thing keeping you from using Firefox, you may want to reconsider.

Score: 8/10

Opera: Opera's interface is closest to Edge: it's tight, compact, with simple icons, not much wasted space, and lots of sharp, flat lines that make it feel clean and minimal. That being said, Opera is based on Chromium so Chrome users will find Opera to feel quite familiar.

Like Chrome, Opera has a single menu that acts like a simplified File menu, except instead of a hamburger icon, there's a Menu button at the top left. It melds with the title bar when maximized, but otherwise takes up unnecessary space. This menu has everything you need to navigate the browser.

Theme-wise, Opera is severely lacking. You can install Themes, but these are literally nothing more than wallpapers for the Speed Dial page, so it's possible that you'll never even see them.

User Interface Winner: Edge

To my surprise, I actually prefer Edge's interface over all the other browsers. It's slick, minimal, and has absolutely no clutter. The way it uses a sliding sidebar for options is smart, and overall it just feels like an evolution in usability. The other three have similar interfaces -- all usable, but nothing special.

Category: Speed & Performance

For most people, speed is the absolute top factor when choosing a browser. Considering how much time we spend browsing the Web these days, even the smallest difference can rack up to a lot of time lost. That's why browsers like Maxthon Nitro get so much attention .

For this comparison, we ran all four browsers through the following browser benchmarks:

Benchmarks were done using a run-of-the-mill, last-generation Toshiba laptop with Windows 10 Home in order to compare performance speeds on the kind of everyday machine that an average user might have. Consider running your own benchmarks to compare!

JetStream is a JavaScript benchmark suite focused on the most advanced web applications. Bigger scores are better.

• Microsoft Edge: 72.132
• Chrome: 60.993
• Firefox: 54.172
• Opera: 57.782

Surprisingly, Edge not only landed in first, but blew past the other browsers in terms of advanced JavaScript execution. Most modern websites involve JavaScript in some form or another, so this has some big implications for page loading speeds.

Chrome, Firefox, and Opera were all in the same ballpark, with Chrome taking the lead among the three and Firefox coming in last. I don't think this is much of a surprise. Anyone who has used all of these browsers probably would've guessed that order just from experience.

Kraken is a JavaScript performance benchmark created by Mozilla that measures the speed of several different test cases extracted from real-world applications and libraries. It uses a test harness based on the SunSpider benchmark. Results are reported in milliseconds (lower is better).

• Microsoft Edge: 3,940.4ms
• Chrome: 3,544.4ms
• Firefox: 3,696.1ms
• Opera: 3,740.1ms

It's interesting to see how these results differ from the JetStream results above, even though both of these benchmarks test for JavaScript performance. According to Kraken, Chrome performs best, followed by Firefox, Opera, and lastly Edge.

RoboHornet isn't like other benchmarks because it encompasses all aspects of browser performance and everything that matters to web developers, like performance of layout and localStorage. The RoboHornet index is normalized to 100.

• Microsoft Edge: 60.41
• Chrome: 82.53
• Firefox: 65.56
• Opera: 76.54

RoboHornet is a good test because it incorporates many different factors that impact one's web browsing experience. For example, how well does a browser handle Animated GIFs? How quickly does it read and write to localStorage? JavaScript isn't everything.

Perhaps you already expected this, but Chrome takes the lead here with Opera coming in second place. Is that because they're both based on Chromium? Maybe. But Firefox and Edge are both lagging behind right now and have a lot of room to improve.

The HTML5 Test isn't exactly a performance benchmark. Rather, it measures how well a particular browser supports the entire HTML5 standard. As HTML5 features are added and changed, the test and scoring criteria are also changed.

• Microsoft Edge: 453 out of 555
• Chrome: 521 out of 555
• Firefox: 478 out of 555
• Opera: 520 out of 555

Microsoft has long been criticized for its unwillingness to adhere to web standards, but they're doing better with Edge. The browser still lags far behind Chrome and Opera, but it's close to Firefox and users seem happy enough with Firefox's HTML5 support, so disregard Edge!

Speed & Performance Winner: Chrome

Chrome came out on top for both the Kraken and RoboHornet tests , which isn't too surprising because Chrome is so fast that you can really feel it just through daily use. It also came in first for HTML5 compatibility, narrowly beating Opera by a single point.

As for second place, I'm going to give it to Opera. It came in second for the RoboHornet test, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a more useful metric than sheer JavaScript performance. Plus, it supports HTML5 almost as well as Chrome, which will be important going forward.

Category: Addons & Extensions

These days, a browser without extensions is a browser that's dead-on-arrival. After all, extensions can provide a slew of extra features and functionality that can make your life easier, such as saving lots of money when shopping or overcoming those urges to procrastinate . Let's see how these browsers stack up.

Note: Installing too many extensions can severely cripple your browser performance , so pick and choose the ones you need with care and caution.

Microsoft Edge: Even though a lot of people really like what Edge brings to the table , if there's one thing that keeps them from making the switch, it would be the lack of extensions. Not just the lack of good extensions, but the lack of extensions altogether . Yikes!

It's incredible that Microsoft thought it was a good idea to release Edge without any extensibility support, but there's some good news on the horizon: Microsoft considers extensions to be a priority feature and will likely have them by Fall 2016.

Score: 0/10

Chrome: There's no way to know how many extensions are available in the Chrome Web Store, but suffice it to say that there are plenty that you'll love. Chrome extensions are one-click installed through the Web Store for your convenience ( but you can also install them manually ).

Extensions are an integral part of the Chrome experience, more so than any other browser -- even to the point where users may hate Chrome but are stuck using it due solely to the extensions. Don't believe me? Check out these essential Chrome extensions , these can't-miss Chrome extensions , and these brilliant Chrome extensions to get a small taste.

To be fair, a lot of the extensions on Chrome are also available on other browsers, but a lot of them aren't. Even if you hate Chrome, nobody can deny that Chrome has the best extension market of all modern browsers .

Firefox: Extensions in Firefox are called addons, but we'll call them extensions in this post for consistency. With over 15,000 extensions available in the Mozilla repository, it's clear that Firefox has a lot of potential for customization.

Yet despite the fact that Firefox has several unique extensions that are awesome , it still falls a bit short of Chrome. Not by much, but enough to make it a point worth considering. Fortunately, Firefox has an ace up its sleeve: it will soon be able to run Chrome extensions !

Opera: Opera is a feature-packed browser with a lot to offer, and it does have support for extensions, but lacks the variety of extensions that you'd find in either Chrome or Firefox. You may be able to find Opera alternatives to popular extensions, but don't count on it.

Like Edge, this is one of Opera's greatest weaknesses . Even if you love everything else about Opera, there's little you can do if you can't find adequate equivalent extensions, and that's a common dealbreaker for people these days.

Update 02/28/16: Opera has an extension called Download Chrome Extension , which allows you to install any -- yes, any! -- Chrome extension inside Opera. Note that it's only compatible with extensions. Apps and themes will not work with this extension. This boosts Opera's score from the previous 7 to a current 9.

Addons & Extensions Winner: Chrome & Opera

It's pretty clear that Chrome outshines the rest when it comes to extensibility . The Chrome Web Store is massive and contains so many unique extensions that can't be found on other browsers. Opera comes in a close second -- a virtual tie -- because it can load Chrome's extensions.

But Firefox may soon gain the ability to run Chrome extensions, and Edge may soon gain the ability to run both Firefox and Chrome extensions, so it's entirely possible that Chrome may soon be dethroned.

Category: Security & Privacy

Over the past few years, online security and privacy have become real issues that deserve your attention. Part of that entails making sure that you're using a good security suite , but it also means knowing all the potential security weaknesses in your browser so you aren't caught off guard.

Microsoft Edge: Edge is a mixed bag when it comes to security and privacy. It's breaking new ground in some ways, but dropping the ball in other ways. Here are some key points to consider:

• Edge is a Windows App, so it runs within a sandbox environment. That means it can't cause harm unless you explicitly give it permission to tamper with your system.
• The built-in SmartScreen feature performs a reputation check on websites you visit and blocks any that are flagged as phishing websites .
• Instead of typing passwords, you can authenticate yourself on websites using Microsoft Passport (formerly known as Windows Live ID).
• No more ActiveX or VBScript, which were the cause of several security vulnerabilities in previous versions of Internet Explorer.
• Be careful when using InPrivate Mode, as Edge may still be storing your private data even though you'd expect it not to.

Chrome: Of all the reasons to break up with Chrome , privacy concerns tend to top the list. It is, after all, developed and maintained by Google, a company that has a questionable past regarding user privacy . If privacy is an utmost issue for you, just skip Chrome. Otherwise:

• Chrome will warn you if it suspects that a website contains malware or is trying to perform a phishing attack.
• Each Chrome tab runs in a sandbox process, which protects against malware installing without your knowledge and prevents websites from stealing data from your computer.
• Automatically updates itself in the background.
• Enable HTTPS for all sites that support it by using the HTTPS Everywhere extension .

Firefox: Firefox has long been considered by many to be the best browser as far as user privacy is concerned, which is certainly an important point, but lags behind when it comes to security. Not that Firefox is insecure by any means, only that it lacks one or two key features.

• Firefox is the only browser in this comparison that is truly open source. That means anyone can review all parts of the code at any time to scour for vulnerabilities or hidden malice.
• Firefox currently has no sandboxing mechanism, but will have one when the Electrolysis feature is implemented (currently under development with no official release date).
• Built-in prevention that keeps websites from tracking you as you browse the Web.
• Firefox will warn you if it suspects that a website contains malware or is trying to perform a phishing attack.
• Enable HTTPS for all sites that support it by using the HTTPS Everywhere extension . Firefox also has several other security-related extensions that everyone should use .

Opera: As much as I like Opera, it's clear that it comes in last place for security. Again, like Firefox, Opera is far from "insecure" and is more than secure enough for the average user. It just lacks some of the more advanced protections that browsers are starting to have.

• Using Badges in the address bar, Opera will warn you if it suspects that a website contains malware or is trying to perform a phishing attack.
• Enable HTTPS for all sites that support it by using the HTTPS Everywhere extension . When browsing an HTTPS site, Opera will block all page elements that are served over HTTP and warn you.

Security & Privacy Winner: Edge, Chrome, Opera

Edge, Chrome, and Opera are actually quite similar, making them tied for best user protection. They all have sandbox environments and they all warn you about potential malware and phishing attacks. Edge also has Microsoft Passport, but it's not that big of a deal.

However, if you're concerned about companies spying on you, then you'll want to go with Firefox. The fact that it's open source should alleviate any worries in that department. And here are some additional tweaks you can make to maximize your online privacy with Firefox .

Category: Other Features

Is there anything else worth mentioning that separates one browser from another? A few things, yeah. In addition to everything mentioned above, each browser has a couple of unique features that may be enough to pull you in (or maybe even push you away).

Microsoft Edge:

• Reading List where you can keep track of webpages you want to read later so you don't have to keep them open in tabs.
• Reading Mode that removes advertisements and sidebars from the page, making articles and posts easier to read.
• Built-in feature that lets you annotate webpages , such as writing with a pen or highlighting useful page elements. Particularly useful if you're on a tablet.
• With Cortana integration , you can search the Web using Cortana without leaving whatever webpage you're currently on. Results are displayed intelligently to fit the webpage's context.
• Supervised User feature lets you set restrictions when a certain user is logged into the browser. For example: block sites, force safe search, and log all visited sites.
• Built-in Task Manager that shows you how much RAM and CPU is used by each tab. Very useful for troubleshooting issues with lag and performance.
• Chrome can create desktop shortcuts that open specific Web links when launched, which is great as an alternative to the browser bookmark.
• When Chrome detects a webpage in a foreign language, it will automatically offer to translate it for you.
• Log into Chrome with a Google account and you can synchronize all of your bookmarks, histories, and settings to your account -- and load them on another computer using that same account.
• Tab Groups allow you to organize your tabs into "sets", allowing you to quickly switch between them at will. This prevents your tab bar from being overwhelmed by too many simultaneous tabs.
• Reading Mode that removes everything from the page except the relevant text from the article or post. Unfortunately, it also removes inline images.
• With Pocket integration , you can save things like articles and videos for later. If you grab the Pocket mobile app, you can even read and watch whatever you've saved any time, anywhere.
• Firefox Hello makes it easy to start a video conversation with anyone else. Firefox gives you a link that you can share. Not only can you use your webcam, but you can also share your screen.
• Log into Firefox with a Firefox account and you can synchronize all of your bookmarks, histories, extensions, and settings to your account -- and load them on another computer using that same account.
• Speed Dial feature that appears whenever you create a new empty tab. You can customize to show frequently-visited websites, so it basically acts as a glorified bookmarks collection.
• Built-In Task Manager that shows you how much RAM and CPU is used by each tab. It's hidden by default, so in order to access it, you have to first enable the Developer Menu.
• Turbo Mode uses Opera's page compression service to trim webpages of extraneous content in order to cut down on bandwidth usage. Does not work over HTTPS.
• Mouse Gestures that you can bind with certain actions. For example, open a new tab by holding down the right mouse button and swiping down. You can even customize them with your own special gestures.
• Log into Opera with an Opera account and you can synchronize all of your bookmarks, tabs, Speed Dial, histories, and settings to your account -- and load them on another computer using that same account.

Other Features Winner: Edge & Chrome

Each browser has its merits here, with key features being Cortana integration in Edge, Task Manager in Chrome, Tab Groups in Firefox, and Turbo Mode in Opera. But it's a hard category to compare, mainly because the features I like may not be the features you like. For me, Edge and Chrome come out on top.

And the Overall Winner Is…

It's impossible to take four complex pieces of software, each of which has its own pros and cons, and distill it all down to a single winner. As we said before, the right browser for you may not be the right browser for me. You have to take everything into account. No summaries.

Personally, I'm using Opera as my primary browser right now because it's simple and I don't use any special extensions. And remember that Opera is available on your smartphone, so check out our tips for using Opera on mobile devices .

The biggest takeaway here, however, is that Edge is surprisingly good, nearly on par with Chrome . Once it gets extension support, it will be a force to be reckoned with. ( Note that you'll need Windows 10 to use Edge .)

Which browser do you use as your main and why? What are the most important features? What are the biggest dealbreakers? How do you like Edge? Share your thoughts and experiences with us in the comments!

Image Credit: Microsoft Edge Welcome by T. Dallas via Shutterstock

Google Chrome vs. Apple Safari: Which browser is better on Mac

• Cross-platform availability can make the switch from Chrome to Safari seamless, with data and preferences intact across devices.
• Safari's user interface impresses with a clean layout, while Google Chrome offers more customization options in its Material You makeover.
• Safari's memory usage advantage over Chrome on Mac with 8GB of RAM is a key factor to consider if performance is a concern.

As the default web browser on Mac, Safari has received a steady stream of updates over the last few years. Apple releases new builds for all its apps and services with yearly OS updates. While we applaud Safari improvements on Mac, the burning question remains the same: is it good enough to prevent users from switching to Chrome? How does it compare to everyone’s favorite web browser out there? Read our comparison post before you change the default browser on your Mac , iPhone, or iPad.

Google Chrome vs Microsoft Edge: Which browser is better?

Cross-platform availability.

Before we pit Safari against Chrome, let’s check their cross-platform availability first. After all, you won’t want to leave your web bookmarks, history, quick links, and other preferences behind when you switch to another platform.

As expected, alternating is a breeze with Chrome, since the browser is available on most smart platforms you can think of. Whether you use Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, or ChromeOS, you are ready to surf the web with all of your personal data and a familiar interface. In contrast, Apple’s walled garden approach has limited Safari’s availability to the company’s devices only.

User interface and theme

Being the first-party app on macOS, Apple has nailed the esthetics of Safari. Let’s start with the homepage. It carries all the essential elements you need when you fire up the browser. You can check your favorites, recently closed tabs, reading list, privacy report, Siri suggestions, and even apply minimal wallpaper to the background. If it’s too busy for you, customize the entire homepage from the bottom menu. Overall, it’s not as busy as Microsoft Edge and doesn’t look as bland as Chrome’s homepage. Safari also offers a cool translucent effect at the top when you scroll through webpages. Unlike Chrome, there is no theme store to change the look and feel with a single click.

Google Chrome recently received a neat Material You makeover on the web. While Material You on Chrome matches the rest of Google services, it does look slightly out of place with other Mac apps.

Tab management

Do you often have dozens of tabs open during long research sessions? Managing and switching between them can be cumbersome after a while. Here’s where Chrome and Safari’s tab groups come into play, where you can organize relevant tabs under different groups. Safari does have a couple of additional tricks up its sleeve though.

When you create several tab groups on Safari, you can check the entire list from the vertical sidebar. Safari also lets you create different profiles to keep your browsing data separate, such as tabs, history, cookies and website data.

You can assign a different symbol, color, and separate extension list for Work, School, or Personal profiles. There is also an option to share a tab group with your iMessage contacts.

Chrome vs. Safari: Features

Let’s compare Safari and Chrome based on extension support, reading mode, and other novelty features.

Reading mode

Apple offers a seamless reading mode on Safari that you can customize with different backgrounds, fonts, and sizes. In comparison, Chrome’s reader mode leaves a lot to be desired. It opens the article in a sidebar and doesn’t necessarily hide all the distracting elements. Safari wins hands down here.

While Safari covers the essential extensions from top VPNs, password managers, and other third-party developers like Grammarly, Pocket, Raindrop, and Notion, the overall collection is still slim compared to Google Chrome.

If your workflow depends on dozens of extensions, think twice before switching from Chrome to Safari.

Seamless sharing

Shared with You is a niche Safari feature that is tightly backed in iMessage. Links shared with you in the Messages app automatically appear in the Share with You section in Safari. It is only useful for those who frequently exchange weblinks in iMessage conversations.

Instant conversion and translation

Both Safari and Chrome support instant currency conversion and basic math equations. For example, you can quickly get a final number when you type $1000 to INR or 45*3 in the address bar. Chrome goes a step further with Google Translate integration - you can simply type Hello in French and get results instantly.

Chrome vs. Safari: Password management

Both browsers offer basic password management to save your login credentials. Safari uses iCloud Passwords that can sync with all your devices. It supports autofill, Passkeys, verification codes, notes, and more.

Google Password Manager also supports notes and checkup. Like security recommendations on Safari, Chrome Password Manager’s checkup tool shows your leaked, reused, and weak passwords.

Privacy and security

The built-in standard protection on Chrome warns you of harmful files, extensions, and corrupt sites. Safari is a step ahead with iCloud Private Relay. It’s a privacy add-on for Apple One and iCloud+ subscribers to hide your IP address from websites you visit. The option is enabled by default and works silently in the background. When you visit a website in Safari, no one, including Apple, can see who you are or which sites you are visiting. It’s not as extreme as a VPN connection and doesn’t break your browsing setup. You can check out our dedicated guide if you'd like to learn more about iCloud Private Relay .

Safari also offers a privacy report that shows the number of trackers it has blocked from profiling you in the last 30 days.

Performance

When it comes to performance, you won’t find any major differences between Chrome and Safari on a high-speed internet connection. However, if your Mac has a slow network connection, you may notice that Safari can load webpages faster than Chrome, something that Avast confirmed in their dedicated speed comparison for major browsers.

While we are on the topic of performance, we should also factor in compatibility. Since Google Chrome (built on Chromium) is the most popular web browser out there, developers test and optimize their offerings for it. You may run into performance issues with specific websites (like Photopea, a web-based Photoshop alternative) on Safari.

Memory usage

Safari is a relatively lightweight web browser compared to Chrome. This is expected, since Chrome has been infamous for high RAM usage. We opened a couple of identical tabs on Chrome and Safari and checked their memory usage from the Activity Monitor. We will let the screenshot below do the talking.

Mac users with 8GB of RAM will surely appreciate Safari’s approach to memory usage.

Chrome vs. Safari: Mobile experience

Both Apple and Google have done a solid job with their iOS apps. They use a bottom bar with all the essential options. You can also use Chrome password manager as the default method to autofill login info. Chrome’s default Discover menu with news articles may irritate some users. Interestingly, Google has done a better job than Apple when it comes to widgets, as Chrome offers more widget options than Safari. Most notably, Chrome offers lock screen widgets which are missing from Safari.

Browse the web in style

Are you still unsure about the pros and cons of Chrome and Safari? Allow us to simplify the situation. Safari shines with better UI, low memory usage, and integration with other Apple apps. Chrome strikes back with cross-platform availability, rich extension support, and Google Translate integration. If you notice performance glitches while browsing the web, check CPU usage on Mac .

• Artificial Intelligence
• Generative AI
• Cloud Computing
• CPUs and Processors
• Data Center
• Edge Computing
• Enterprise Storage
• Virtualization
• Internet of Things
• Network Management Software
• Network Security
• Enterprise Buyer’s Guides
• United States
• Newsletters
• Foundry Careers
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy
• Copyright Notice
• Member Preferences
• About AdChoices
• E-commerce Links
• Your California Privacy Rights

Our Network

• Computerworld

Browser wars: IE vs. Firefox vs. Chrome vs. Safari vs. Opera

Mozilla firefox and google chrome are battling for the no. 2 position; could no. 1 player microsoft eventually be unseated.

All eyes are on Google’s Chrome browser as it battles Mozilla’s Firefox in a tight fight for the No. 2 position behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which is holding onto its market-leading share of the desktop browser market.

“In September 2009, Chrome was at 2.35% for worldwide usage. As of September 2011, it’s now at 23.61%. There’s been a massive increase for Chrome,” says Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, a web analytics firm in Ireland.

HOUSEKEEPING: How Mozilla keeps its MySQL database tidy

MICROSOFT: Don’t hate on IE 10

StatCounter’s monthly statistics for September show IE in the lead with 41.66% of the market, followed by Firefox with 26.79%, Chrome with 23.61%, Safari with 5.6% and Opera with 1.72%.

NETWORK WORLD’S HOTTEST TECH ARGUMENTS: Read them all

CHROME: 21 Chrome apps for serious work

Most of the monthly fluctuations in market share revolve around Chrome, which has hit a number of milestones lately. It exceeded 20% of the global Internet browser market in June for the first time, according to StatCounter. On a country basis, it surpassed Firefox and became the No. 2 browser in Ireland in May and in the UK in July. And for one day in October — Sunday, Oct. 16 — Chrome overtook Firefox on a global basis by a fraction of a percentage point, snaring 26.22% of the global market to Firefox’s 26.16%.

“For one day, on that Sunday, Chrome became the No.2 browser,” Cullen says.

Chrome’s steady increase since its introduction in 2008 has come at the expense of IE, primarily, and Firefox to a lesser degree. If its trajectory continues, Chrome will surpass Firefox on a global basis in the coming months, industry watchers predict.

“Chrome is gaining on Firefox in usage market share. It’s coming on strong. It could certainly overtake Firefox — it seems to be on that path — but, that being said, things tend to change rather quickly in this market so you just never know,” says Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president of marketing and strategic alliances for NetApplications.com.

Chrome’s ascent and Firefox’s staying power beg the bigger question: Is it possible for either one of them to unseat IE as the leader in browsing usage?

“I personally don’t think it is,” Vizzaccaro says.

Chrome’s success has come from its speed, rapid development cycles and ability to constantly release new features, using beta versions to get people to help work out the kinks.

“Chrome is growing without the benefit of a homegrown hardware system. They’re doing it with a rapid development cycle. That’s great for personal usage. But corporations have a very slow process for testing, deployment and implementation of a new browser,” Vizzaccaro says. “I think IE is entrenched as No. 1 for the foreseeable future.”

Indeed, stats from Forrester Research paint a slightly different picture of browser trends, since Forrester’s view is centered on corporate usage. The research firm analyzes the browsers of PCs that visit its web site. By its count, IE dominates the corporate browser landscape with 58.7% market share, which is considerably higher than the 41.66% StatCounter credits to IE. In Forrester’s rankings, IE is followed by Firefox with 17.8%, Chrome with 14.1%, and Safari with 8.8%.

Likewise, Net Applications credits IE with a larger share of the market and shows a bigger gap between Firefox and Chrome: In its numbers for September, Net Applications reported IE with 54.4% of desktop browser usage, Firefox with a 22.5%, and Chrome with 16.2%.

“Chrome has experienced a slow but steady growth in the corporate browser market, thanks largely to tech-savvy, empowered workers clamoring for more control over the applications they run on their work computers,” notes Forrester in its report on corporate desktop browser trends. The firm expects Chrome use to continue its steady increase in the enterprise.

As for Firefox, the open-source browser’s comprehensive extension ecosystem is one reason for its No. 2 hold on corporate desktops. (See: 10 must-have Firefox extensions ) 

“Firefox now holds nearly 17.8% of the browser market share. Why? Because it’s firmly entrenched within many organizations thanks to the proliferation of add-ons that simplify and automate everyday tasks,” Forrester summed up.

FIRST LOOK: Firefox 7 slashes memory usage

Mozilla has handled extensibility very well, agrees Vizzaccaro, who adds that Mozilla is often first to the market with new features and usability improvements. That emphasis on user-friendliness has won a lot of users, he says.

Another aspect that appeals to Firefox advocates is Mozilla’s underdog status and the fact that it’s not an enormous company with the resources of Microsoft, Google or Apple. “There’s a certain appeal to them being this rogue company out there. They’re open, nonprofit. It does appeal to a good portion of people,” Vizzaccaro says.

In the big picture, the beneficiaries of the competition among IE, Firefox and Chrome are the end users. The leading browser makers have been racing to deliver speedier performance, tighter security and usability improvements.

Microsoft used to command more than 90% of the browser market. Then Mozilla in 2004 debuted Firefox, which started grabbing mindshare and put pressure on Microsoft to innovate.

Tech argument: Windows 7 vs. Windows 8

“Microsoft is still a leader, but they’ve got some serious competition now and they’ve devoted a lot of resources to making sure IE stays in that leadership role. You can see it in the product,” Vizzaccaro says.

Browser makers have focused on performance improvements, for instance, boosting page rendering and script-execution speeds and tapping hardware acceleration (a Microsoft tactic). 

Security enhancements have been aimed at blocking malware and phishing attempts, while “do not track” privacy features let users opt out of online tracking by Web sites and advertisers. (Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla have embraced no-tracking, but Google remains a holdout.)

On the mobile front, meanwhile, there’s a different cast of characters vying for market share.

Apple’s Safari dominates mobile browsing with 55.6% of the market, according to NetApplications. Opera Mini is in second place with 18.9%, followed by Android with 16% (even though Android sales outpace iPhone sales), Symbian with 4.7%, and BlackBerry with 2.7%.

Overall, the mobile/tablet browser share represents a small portion of the overall browser market, with just 6% of Web users using mobile browsers, according to Net Applications.

Related content

Cisco marries ai and security with cloud-based data center offering, shredding files on linux with the shred command, intel announces edge ai processors, hpe sues china’s inspur group for server patent infringement, newsletter promo module test.

Ann Bednarz is executive editor of Network World. She also writes, assigns and edits feature articles aimed at enterprise IT pros. She can be reached at [email protected] .

More from this author

2023 global network outage report and internet health check, 2024 global network outage report and internet health check, 10 things to know about data-center outages, data center fires raise concerns about lithium-ion batteries, most popular authors.

Show me more

The apac sovereign cloud surge: how will it impact your business.

Intel builds world's largest neuromorphic system

Gartner: AI to drive 10% jump in data center spending

Has the hype around ‘Internet of Things’ paid off? | Ep. 145

Episode 1: Understanding Cisco’s Converged SDN Transport

Episode 2: Pluggable Optics and the Internet for the Future

Has the hype around ‘Internet of Things’ paid off?

Are unused IPv4 addresses a secret gold mine?

Preparing for a 6G wireless world: Exciting changes coming to the wireless industry

We review products independently , but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. Terms of use .

Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, or Safari: Which Browser Is Best for 2024?

Don't take your browser for granted we help you narrow your options by comparing the best web browsers on speed, privacy, and other important features..

Most people browse the web using Google Chrome without really thinking about their options. Gmail or YouTube or some other site once suggested they use Chrome, and perhaps they never questioned it. The truth is you do have options when it comes to your web browser, and you may find another that serves your needs better. Browsers offer varying levels of privacy, security , performance, and power efficiency. They differ even more when it comes to unique and helpful features beyond merely displaying websites.

Here we examine the top five browsers in the US, in order of popularity. That criterion rules out  Brave  and  Vivaldi , with usage rates hovering near or below 1%, even though they are both first-class browsers. If you're interested in those two, check out our article on the  best alternative web browsers . Or, if your utmost concern is security, see what makes the best private browsers different.

Below are short reviews of the top five browsers. After that, keep reading for more information about the browser landscape, additional details about our testing, and advice on what you should take into consideration when choosing a web browser.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome Web Browser

Most people need no introduction to the search behemoth's browser, Google Chrome. It’s attractively designed and quick at loading pages. Most website codes now target Chrome, so compatibility is seldom an issue. Chrome is available for all major platforms, and the mobile version offers syncing of bookmarks, passwords, and settings.

Chrome doesn't have many unique browsing features, however, and it's the only browser included here that you won't find in the desktop app stores for macOS and Windows. There’s no built-in VPN, no cryptocurrency locker, no note feature, and no screenshot tool. Google has announced a feeble gesture towards adding a reading mode; feeble because it will only be in a sidebar, with the full, noisy distracting page still displaying in the main central browser window. The lack of a true reading mode makes sense for a company that earns its keep through web ads since reading modes hide them. All the other browsers here have full-page reading modes.

Chrome allows multiple user profiles, meaning different users of the same computer can have their own browser settings, history, and favorites. The browser also finally caught up with others by adding a Share icon to the address bar that eases sending sites via social media or email.

A few years ago, Google controversially announced it would be removing the API function that allowed ad-blocker software to fully block ads. As of now, it seems ad blockers may be limited starting at some point in 2024. Some Chrome development, though, has centered around security and privacy, notably among them a plan to kill off tracking cookies in favor of Google's tracking mechanisms. The company's Privacy Sandbox initiative (in development) tries to cater to both  ad targeting and user privacy . Some worry both of these developments will only result in more consolidation of the company's grip on web advertising and user profiling.

Apple Safari

Apple Safari 5

The default Mac and iOS browser is a strong choice, though its interface has some nonstandard elements. Safari was a forerunner in several areas of browser features. For example, it was the first with a Reading mode, which cleared unnecessary clutter like ads and videos from web articles you want to read. That feature debuted in 2010 and has made its way into all other browsers except for Chrome.

Apple has brought up the topic of fingerprinting protection—preventing web trackers from identifying you by your system specs. Unfortunately, the EFF's Cover Your Tracks test site only shows partial protection from trackers in Safari, while several competitors get a result of Strong protection. Other benefits include Apple Pay support and a "Sign in with Apple" feature to replace Facebook and Google as web account authorizers.

In macOS Monterey, the browser gained a compact tab bar with floating tabs like Firefox's and Tab Groups that live in a convenient sidebar, and with Ventura , they become shareable and pinnable. Safari also supports Apple's proprietary Shared with You feature in its proprietary iMessage system. For iCloud+ subscribers, a Private Relay obscures your IP address, similar to a VPN.

If you use an iPhone and a Mac, Safari integration makes a lot of sense, since Apple’s Handoff feature lets you continue your browsing session between devices. Safari trails other browsers on support for emerging HTML features, but we haven’t run into or heard of any major site incompatibilities with it.

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge Web Browser

The latest version of Microsoft Edge uses Chrome’s webpage-rendering code, Chromium, guaranteeing site compatibility and freeing up its developers to add unique features. You won’t run into the site incompatibilities users of the previous incarnation of Edge occasionally encountered, and the browser performs snappily. Edge now runs on Apple macOS and Windows 11 and earlier. Mobile versions for Android and iPhone let you sync history, favorites, and passwords.

Edge is a leader in performance, thrifty memory management, and disk usage. Startup Boost technology reduces the time it takes to open the browser, and sleeping tabs save memory on tabs you're not viewing. Edge's Efficiency mode can extend laptop battery life. The initial focuses for the browser were privacy, the customizable start page, and the intriguing Collections feature for web research. For enterprise customers who still rely on Internet Explorer to run legacy programs, Edge offers an IE Mode .

The Collections feature uses a sidebar onto which you can drag webpages and images, write notes, and then share the whole assemblage to Excel, OneNote, or Word. It's a great organization and planning tool . Edge's Immersive Reader mode not only offers distraction-free web reading, stripping out ads and nonessential eye candy, but it can also read webpage text aloud using lifelike Neural Voices. It's worth trying because it reads with sentence intonation, rather than simply word by word, as we’ve come to expect text-to-speech audio.

Other notable Edge options include built-in web sharing, tabs down the side rather than across the top, a built-in screenshot tool, automatic coupons for shopping sites, and timely themes to dress up your browser. Recent additions include a side panel that integrates the new Bing AI chat search , game controller haptic feedback, and a multitasking side toolbar that lets you access first- and third-party services for social networking, search, messaging, search, and productivity.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox Web Browser

Firefox, an open-source project from the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, has long been a PCMag favorite. The browser has pioneered many web capabilities and the organization that develops it has been a strong advocate for online privacy. It’s also notable for its wealth of available extensions. The unique Multi-Account Containers extension lets you sequester multiple logins to the same site on different tabs. Without it, you'd have to open a private browsing window or another browser to sign out of all your web accounts and start a fresh session.

Mozilla’s browser is in the vanguard of supporting new HTML and CSS capabilities, and the company is working on open-source AR and speech synthesis standards. The organization now offers a full password management service called Lockwise, which can generate complex passwords, sync them between devices, and secure everything under a strong master password. That and the organization's VPN offering are paid extras.

The mobile Firefox apps offer excellent interfaces, and you can send a webpage tab from any device to any others that are logged into your syncing account. That’s right: You can be reading a webpage on your desktop PC, and have it instantly open on your iPhone or vice versa. It's a slick and useful feature.

If that’s not enough, Firefox has a Pocket button in the address bar, letting you save a page for later viewing anywhere with one click. The Reader View button declutters a webpage loaded with ads, promos, and videos, so you can peruse it with no distractions. PiP video supports closed captions and HDR and AV1 video formats. The browser is ultra customizable, letting you select and arrange buttons on the toolbar to taste, as well as select from a large number of Theme add-ons that change window border patterns and colors.

Recent additions include PDF editing and the Firefox View feature, basically a pinned tab of recent sites that syncs between the desktop and mobile versions of the browser.

Opera Web Browser

Perennially hovering around the 2% usage level, the Opera browser has long been a pioneer in the segment, inventing basic browser innovations like tabs, CSS, and the built-in search box. Opera can make a bigger privacy claim than the other browsers here—if you’re a believer in VPNs. It includes a built-in VPN (actually an encrypted proxy server) that protects and reroutes traffic from Opera to cloak your IP address. Opera uses the Chromium page-rendering engine, so you'll rarely run into site incompatibilities, and performance is fast. It's available for all major platforms, and the Opera Touch mobile browser is a beautifully designed app that connects (via quick QR scan) to your desktop.

Beyond the VPN, another unique feature in Opera is its built-in ad blocker, which also blocks crypto-mining scripts and trackers. Ad blocking also means less data consumed, especially of interest to those using metered connections or mobile plans with data caps.

More unique features in Opera include its Speed Dial start and New Tab page, as well as its quick-access sidebar of frequently needed services like WhatsApp or Spotify. My Flow lets you send webpages and notes between devices easily. The browser also includes a video pop-out window, a Pinboard feature similar to Edge's Collections, and a Workspaces feature that lets you create function-based tab views. Opera uniquely offers a cryptocurrency wallet as an option, which supports most popular tokens.

Opera offers a gaming version called Opera GX , and the company recently bought a gaming engine , moving into that specialty even further. The company also offers a futuristic secure Crypto Browser for navigating Web3 . And like Edge, Opera is adding AI ChatGPT capabilities to the browser , starting with a summarizer tool for text you highlight or even full sites.

More Inside PCMag.com

• Stop Trackers Dead: The Best Private Browsers for 2024
• Go Beyond Google: The Best Alternative Search Engines
• Has Chrome Lost Its Shine? These Are the Best Alternative Web Browsers

About Michael Muchmore

PC hardware is nice, but it’s not much use without innovative software. I’ve been reviewing software for PCMag since 2008, and I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine , the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft win and misstep up to the latest Windows 11.

More From Michael Muchmore

• The Best Mobile Video Editing Apps for 2024
• Adobe Acrobat Gets Generative AI in Time for Tax Day
• Adobe Generative AI Tools to Help Editors Add, Remove Objects in Premiere Pro
• Corel VideoStudio Ultimate
• The Best Video Editing Software for 2024

• デジタルな暮らしのヒントとコツ
• ストリーミングを楽しむ
• EXPRESSVPNのニュース

Microsoft EdgeとChrome、どっちがおすすめ？2024年版

プライバシーを考える 特集記事.

すべてを考慮すると、Microsoft Edge（マイクロソフト エッヂ）がGoogle Chrome（グーグル クローム）よりも優れていると私たちは思います。 どちらのブラウザも普段使いには問題ありませんが、EdgeはChromiumベースのブラウザが提供し得る最高のコンポーネントをすべて活用しています（特にリソース管理に関して）。また、Edgeはプライバシー面でもChromeよりも若干優れています。Chromeの方がアップデートが早いかもしれませんが、Edgeもそれほど遅れを取っているわけではありません。

特定のブラウザに忠実である必要はありませんが、みなさんおそらく毎日同じブラウザを使っていることでしょう。特にWindowsユーザーの間で人気が高いのは、EdgeとChromeです。私たちがどのように結論に至ったのか、詳しくは続きをお読みください！

ChromiumベースのEdgeとChrome：二つの違いとは？

EdgeとChromeはどちらも、Googleが開発した 無償のオープンソースソフトウェア であるChromiumをベースに構築されました。

Chromiumは、開発者が他のブラウザを作成するためのコードベースです。これらには、前述したEdgeやChromeをはじめ、 Brave 、Opera、Vivaldiといったメジャーなブラウザが含まれます。どのChromiumベースのブラウザも、開発者が追加したかった機能や特徴によって少しずつ異なっています。

Edgeは当初、独自のブラウザエンジンであるEdgeHTMLで構築されていましたが、2020年1月からはChromiumベースとなっています。EdgeHTMLの最大の問題点は、Windows 10でのパフォーマンスが悪く、その後採用率が非常に低くなったことと、拡張機能の不足が目立ったことでした。

Google Chromeは、ChromiumをベースにGoogleが開発した 独自のウェブブラウザ です。Chromeは他のChromiumベースのブラウザよりも多くの機能を持っています。Chromeはまた、ブラウザ拡張機能の膨大なストアがあることでも知られています。これらのChrome拡張機能は、Edgeを含む他のChromiumベースのブラウザでも利用できるメリットがあります。

Microsoft Edge vs  Google Chrome：基本データ

Edge vs chrome：機能比較, ユーザーインターフェイス.

ユーザーインターフェイスは通常、ブラウザを使うときに最初に目につくものです。驚くには値しませんが、EdgeとChromeの外観はよく似ています。すぐに気づく違いとして、Edgeにはタブを縦に管理するオプションがあります。どちらのブラウザでも、複数のタブをグループにまとめることができます。

さらに、Edgeにはアイデアをまとめて「コレクション」する機能があります。これは、ブックマークとリストの中間的なものだと考えてください。別の言い方をすると、この機能は、休日のToDoリストや買い物リストなど、特定の目的のためにテーマ別にタブをグループ化するために設計されています。

ブックマークとブックマークバーはどちらのブラウザでも同じように機能しますが、Edgeでは “お気に入りバー “と呼ばれています。

勝者： 引き分け！どちらが優れているかを断言するには不十分です。

Chromeが他のどのブラウザよりも優れている点は、豊富な拡張機能です。 現在、Chromeウェブストアには13万以上の拡張機能があり、これらは すべて Chromiumベースのブラウザと互換性があります。

Microsoft Edge には独自のEdge用アドオンストアがありますが、提供されているものはChromeウェブストアで提供されているものと大きな違いはありません。この2つの重要な違いは、Chromeの拡張機能をEdgeにインストールできるのに対し、EdgeのアドオンをChromeにインストールできないことです。

勝者： 引き分け！Edgeを使っていてアドオンのセレクションに興味がない場合でも、Chromeの拡張機能を使うことができます。

EdgeとChromeには、それぞれEdgeアドオンページとChromeウェブストアに多数のテーマ設定オプションが用意されています。デフォルトでは、Chromeの方が外観のカスタマイズが可能で、拡張機能同様、Chromeで利用できるものはEdgeでも利用できますが、その逆はできません。

勝者： これに関してはChromeがリードしています。

どちらのブラウザも、バックアップとデバイスの同期については同じ機能を提供しています。具体的には、以下のようなオプションが含まれます。

• ブックマーク/お気に入り
• 開いているタブ/タブグループ

勝者： 引き分け！繰り返しになりますが、両者が本質的に同じものを提供していることを考慮すると、ここでの比較にはあまり意味がありません。

Microsoft Edgeが使えるOSは、Windows、macOS、Linux、Android、iOSです。Xbox OneおよびシリーズX/Sにも採用されています。

Google Chromeが使えるOSは、Windows、macOS、Linux、Android、iOS、Chrome OSです。

勝者： 引き分け！ どちらのブラウザも、最も人気のあるデバイスのいくつかに対応しています。

Edge vs Chrome：性能比較

どちらのブラウザも高速であることを売りにしていますが、同じコンテンツを読み込んでいても読み込み時間に実質的な違いは見られませんでした。 今回は WebSPRT 4 を使用し、いくつかのブラウザスピードテストを行いましたが、結果は拮抗しています。

勝者： 引き分け！特筆すべきことはありません。

リソースとRAMの使用量

ここから比較結果が違ってきます。 

Google Chromeは リソースが重い という評判があるのは周知の事実です。フォーラムには、ChromeのRAM使用量を最適化する方法に関する質問があふれています。

当然のことながら、この原因の多くは、ブラウザを重くするサードパーティ拡張機能が多すぎることにあります。それとは別に、タブの使いすぎ、キャッシュの削除不足、マルウェアなどの原因も考えられます。

MicrosoftはEdgeで、しばらく使用していないタブをスリープ状態にするスリーピングタブなどの機能を使って、 メモリ使用量の改善 に取り組んできました。ユーザーはChromeよりもEdgeの方がバッテリーの消耗が少ないことに気づいていることでしょう。

GoogleがChromeの改良に取り組んでいないわけでははりませんが、私たちの経験上、Chromeはより多くのシステムリソースを消費しているようです。

勝者： この点においてはEdgeの勝利。

プライバシーとセキュリティ

ここからが本題です！近年、MicrosoftとGoogleの 両社は、それぞれのブラウザが少なくとも必要なレベルのセキュリティーを備えていることを保証するために、歩みを進めてきました。例えば、EdgeとChromeはどちらもデフォルトでHTTPS接続になり、初歩的な悪意のあるサイトの検出やマルウェア検出機能を備えています。

どちらのブラウザもプライバシーとセキュリティに関する十分な機能を備えていますが、Edgeの方が操作が簡単で、ユーザーにより多くのコントロールを提供しています。しかし、Chromeの方が更新スケジュールが安定しているため、マルウェアや詐欺のパッチがEdgeよりも早く適用されます。

EdgeのInPrivateブラウジング、Chromeのシークレットモードなど、どちらのブラウザにもプライベートブラウジングのオプションがあります。ここで重要なのは、プライベートブラウジングは100％プライベートではないということです。つまり、あなたの行動は追跡される可能性があるのです。Googleは過去に、匿名性が低いChromeのシークレットモードについて 非難を浴びた ことがあります。 

さらに詳しく： シークレットモードとは？それは安全？  

とはいえ、決してEdgeやChromeが プライバシーブラウザ だと思われているわけではありません。Chromeはいまだに大量のユーザーデータを収集しているという評判を払拭できないでいます。収集されるデータには、位置情報、検索履歴、ブラウザの履歴、ユーザーの好みなどが含まれます。また、Googleはこのデータを個人とその端末に結びつけることができることでも知られています。

その点では、Tor、 Firefox 、Braveなどの使用を検討すべきです。

勝者： プライバシーはEdge、セキュリティはChrome

Edge vs Chrome：どっちがより優秀？

正直なところ、どこにあなたの優先順位があるかによります。日常的な使用であれば、どちらも問題ありません。MicrosoftはEdgeで、Chromiumベースのブラウザが提供できるすべての優れたコンポーネント、特にリソース管理を活用するために惜しみなく努力してきました。また、EdgeはChromeよりもプライバシー面で若干優れています。Chromeの方がアップデートが早いかもしれませんが、Edgeもそれほど遅れを取っているわけではありません。

現状ではわずかにEdgeが勝っているでしょう。

おまけ：オフラインゲームの比較！

Chromeの恐竜ゲーム.

恐竜ゲームは、インターネットに接続されていない状態でサイトにアクセスしようとすると、Chromeからアクセスできるブラウザ内横スクロールゲームです。The object of the game is to guide a T-Rex across a landscape and safely avoid obstacleゲームの遊び方は、ティラノサウルスを誘導して画面を横切り、進路上の障害物を安全に避けます。

オフラインでプレイできるように設計されていますが、アドレスバーに  chrome://dino と入力すれば、いつでもChrome（および一部のChromiumブラウザ）内でゲームにアクセスできます。

SkiFreeを覚えていますか？SkiFreeは、Windows 3.0、3.1、3.11、95に搭載されていたシングルプレーヤーのスキーゲームです。ゲームの遊び方は、スキーヤーを山の斜面に誘導し、障害物を避け、時には邪悪なスノーマンから逃げます。

2020年、マイクロソフトはEdgeにSkiFreeの精神的な続編であるSurfを追加しました。仕組みはSkiFreeに似ていますが、雪の代わりに水があり、邪悪なスノーマンの代わりにクラーケンが登場します。

恐竜ゲームと同様、Surfはオフラインでプレイできるように設計されていますが、アドレスバーに  edge://surf と入力すれば、いつでもEdge内のゲームにアクセスできます。

勝者： 引き分け！どちらのゲームも正直とても楽しいです。たとえそれが、インターネットが使えないという事実から目をそらすためだけに作られたとしても…。

VPNでオンラインプライバシー保護

30日間返金保証で気軽に試せます

強力なプライバシー保護でオンラインの利用をより安全に

記事はよかったですか？

記事に拍手を送るか、感想をシェアしましょう！

Google ChromeとFirefox、より優れたブラウザは？2024年版

ChromeとSafariどっちが良い？iPhoneとMacに最適なブラウザ比較

【2024年版】ダークウェブ検索エンジンのリスト

DuckDuckGoは安全ですか？

Torとは？Torブラウザ、ダークウェブの解説

VPNでセキュリティを強化しよう

スマホでVPNを使う6つの理由とメリット

自宅でVPNが必要な4つの理由

VPNを使用する10の理由

2024年駐在や留学の海外在住者にVPNが必要な理由

ソーシャルメディア上の故人のアカウント数は、生きている人の数を上回るようになる？

シリコンバレーのスタートアップ企業の映画とテレビ番組20選

現実となった12のSF技術

VPN内蔵ポータブルルーター、Aircove Goのご紹介

VPNを使用しているユーザーの位置情報をGoogleが知る方法とは？

コメントを残す Cancel reply

メールアドレスは公開されません。 * マークは必須項目です。

これらの HTML タグや属性を使用することができます。

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

ExpressVPNは誇りを持ってサポートしています

言語を選択してください

Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, or Safari: Which Browser Is Best for 2024?

Don't take your browser for granted we help you narrow your options by comparing the best web browsers on speed, privacy, and other important features..

Most people browse the web using Google Chrome without really thinking about their options. Gmail or YouTube or some other site once suggested they use Chrome, and perhaps they never questioned it. The truth is you do have options when it comes to your web browser, and you may find another that serves your needs better. Browsers offer varying levels of privacy, security , performance, and power efficiency. They differ even more when it comes to unique and helpful features beyond merely displaying websites.

Here we examine the top five browsers in the US, in order of popularity. That criterion rules out  Brave  and  Vivaldi , with usage rates hovering near or below 1%, even though they are both first-class browsers. If you're interested in those two, check out our article on the  best alternative web browsers . Or, if your utmost concern is security, see what makes the best private browsers different.

Below are short reviews of the top five browsers. After that, keep reading for more information about the browser landscape, additional details about our testing, and advice on what you should take into consideration when choosing a web browser.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome Web Browser

Most people need no introduction to the search behemoth's browser, Google Chrome. It’s attractively designed and quick at loading pages. Most website codes now target Chrome, so compatibility is seldom an issue. Chrome is available for all major platforms, and the mobile version offers syncing of bookmarks, passwords, and settings.

Chrome doesn't have many unique browsing features, however, and it's the only browser included here that you won't find in the desktop app stores for macOS and Windows. There’s no built-in VPN, no cryptocurrency locker, no note feature, and no screenshot tool. Google has announced a feeble gesture towards adding a reading mode; feeble because it will only be in a sidebar, with the full, noisy distracting page still displaying in the main central browser window. The lack of a true reading mode makes sense for a company that earns its keep through web ads since reading modes hide them. All the other browsers here have full-page reading modes.

Chrome allows multiple user profiles, meaning different users of the same computer can have their own browser settings, history, and favorites. The browser also finally caught up with others by adding a Share icon to the address bar that eases sending sites via social media or email.

A few years ago, Google controversially announced it would be removing the API function that allowed ad-blocker software to fully block ads. As of now, it seems ad blockers may be limited starting at some point in 2024. Some Chrome development, though, has centered around security and privacy, notably among them a plan to kill off tracking cookies in favor of Google's tracking mechanisms. The company's Privacy Sandbox initiative (in development) tries to cater to both  ad targeting and user privacy . Some worry both of these developments will only result in more consolidation of the company's grip on web advertising and user profiling.

Apple Safari

Apple Safari 5

The default Mac and iOS browser is a strong choice, though its interface has some nonstandard elements. Safari was a forerunner in several areas of browser features. For example, it was the first with a Reading mode, which cleared unnecessary clutter like ads and videos from web articles you want to read. That feature debuted in 2010 and has made its way into all other browsers except for Chrome.

Apple has brought up the topic of fingerprinting protection—preventing web trackers from identifying you by your system specs. Unfortunately, the EFF's Cover Your Tracks test site only shows partial protection from trackers in Safari, while several competitors get a result of Strong protection. Other benefits include Apple Pay support and a "Sign in with Apple" feature to replace Facebook and Google as web account authorizers.

In macOS Monterey, the browser gained a compact tab bar with floating tabs like Firefox's and Tab Groups that live in a convenient sidebar, and with Ventura , they become shareable and pinnable. Safari also supports Apple's proprietary Shared with You feature in its proprietary iMessage system. For iCloud+ subscribers, a Private Relay obscures your IP address, similar to a VPN.

If you use an iPhone and a Mac, Safari integration makes a lot of sense, since Apple’s Handoff feature lets you continue your browsing session between devices. Safari trails other browsers on support for emerging HTML features, but we haven’t run into or heard of any major site incompatibilities with it.

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge Web Browser

The latest version of Microsoft Edge uses Chrome’s webpage-rendering code, Chromium, guaranteeing site compatibility and freeing up its developers to add unique features. You won’t run into the site incompatibilities users of the previous incarnation of Edge occasionally encountered, and the browser performs snappily. Edge now runs on Apple macOS and Windows 11 and earlier. Mobile versions for Android and iPhone let you sync history, favorites, and passwords.

Edge is a leader in performance, thrifty memory management, and disk usage. Startup Boost technology reduces the time it takes to open the browser, and sleeping tabs save memory on tabs you're not viewing. Edge's Efficiency mode can extend laptop battery life. The initial focuses for the browser were privacy, the customizable start page, and the intriguing Collections feature for web research. For enterprise customers who still rely on Internet Explorer to run legacy programs, Edge offers an IE Mode .

The Collections feature uses a sidebar onto which you can drag webpages and images, write notes, and then share the whole assemblage to Excel, OneNote, or Word. It's a great organization and planning tool . Edge's Immersive Reader mode not only offers distraction-free web reading, stripping out ads and nonessential eye candy, but it can also read webpage text aloud using lifelike Neural Voices. It's worth trying because it reads with sentence intonation, rather than simply word by word, as we’ve come to expect text-to-speech audio.

Other notable Edge options include built-in web sharing, tabs down the side rather than across the top, a built-in screenshot tool, automatic coupons for shopping sites, and timely themes to dress up your browser. Recent additions include a side panel that integrates the new Bing AI chat search , game controller haptic feedback, and a multitasking side toolbar that lets you access first- and third-party services for social networking, search, messaging, search, and productivity.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox Web Browser

Firefox, an open-source project from the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, has long been a PCMag favorite. The browser has pioneered many web capabilities and the organization that develops it has been a strong advocate for online privacy. It’s also notable for its wealth of available extensions. The unique Multi-Account Containers extension lets you sequester multiple logins to the same site on different tabs. Without it, you'd have to open a private browsing window or another browser to sign out of all your web accounts and start a fresh session.

Mozilla’s browser is in the vanguard of supporting new HTML and CSS capabilities, and the company is working on open-source AR and speech synthesis standards. The organization now offers a full password management service called Lockwise, which can generate complex passwords, sync them between devices, and secure everything under a strong master password. That and the organization's VPN offering are paid extras.

The mobile Firefox apps offer excellent interfaces, and you can send a webpage tab from any device to any others that are logged into your syncing account. That’s right: You can be reading a webpage on your desktop PC, and have it instantly open on your iPhone or vice versa. It's a slick and useful feature.

If that’s not enough, Firefox has a Pocket button in the address bar, letting you save a page for later viewing anywhere with one click. The Reader View button declutters a webpage loaded with ads, promos, and videos, so you can peruse it with no distractions. PiP video supports closed captions and HDR and AV1 video formats. The browser is ultra customizable, letting you select and arrange buttons on the toolbar to taste, as well as select from a large number of Theme add-ons that change window border patterns and colors.

Recent additions include PDF editing and the Firefox View feature, basically a pinned tab of recent sites that syncs between the desktop and mobile versions of the browser.

Opera Web Browser

Perennially hovering around the 2% usage level, the Opera browser has long been a pioneer in the segment, inventing basic browser innovations like tabs, CSS, and the built-in search box. Opera can make a bigger privacy claim than the other browsers here—if you’re a believer in VPNs. It includes a built-in VPN (actually an encrypted proxy server) that protects and reroutes traffic from Opera to cloak your IP address. Opera uses the Chromium page-rendering engine, so you'll rarely run into site incompatibilities, and performance is fast. It's available for all major platforms, and the Opera Touch mobile browser is a beautifully designed app that connects (via quick QR scan) to your desktop.

Beyond the VPN, another unique feature in Opera is its built-in ad blocker, which also blocks crypto-mining scripts and trackers. Ad blocking also means less data consumed, especially of interest to those using metered connections or mobile plans with data caps.

More unique features in Opera include its Speed Dial start and New Tab page, as well as its quick-access sidebar of frequently needed services like WhatsApp or Spotify. My Flow lets you send webpages and notes between devices easily. The browser also includes a video pop-out window, a Pinboard feature similar to Edge's Collections, and a Workspaces feature that lets you create function-based tab views. Opera uniquely offers a cryptocurrency wallet as an option, which supports most popular tokens.

Opera offers a gaming version called Opera GX , and the company recently bought a gaming engine , moving into that specialty even further. The company also offers a futuristic secure Crypto Browser for navigating Web3 . And like Edge, Opera is adding AI ChatGPT capabilities to the browser , starting with a summarizer tool for text you highlight or even full sites.

More Inside PCMag.com

• Stop Trackers Dead: The Best Private Browsers for 2024
• Go Beyond Google: The Best Alternative Search Engines
• Has Chrome Lost Its Shine? These Are the Best Alternative Web Browsers

About Michael Muchmore

PC hardware is nice, but it’s not much use without innovative software. I’ve been reviewing software for PCMag since 2008, and I still get a kick out of seeing what's new in video and photo editing software, and how operating systems change over time. I was privileged to byline the cover story of the last print issue of PC Magazine , the Windows 7 review, and I’ve witnessed every Microsoft win and misstep up to the latest Windows 11.

More From Michael Muchmore

• The Best Mobile Video Editing Apps for 2024
• Adobe Acrobat Gets Generative AI in Time for Tax Day
• Adobe Generative AI Tools to Help Editors Add, Remove Objects in Premiere Pro
• Corel VideoStudio Ultimate
• Microsoft Extends Security Updates for Windows 10 Beyond 2025 (for a Price)