Meta note : am not sure if this is on topic for this community, please tell me if it is not. I could not find rules, so I assume it’s okay, but i’ll remove it if its not. So, after the recent Mozilla privacy drama, I saw multiple recommendations of alternative browsers, each one with their pros and cons. I was trying to get a better understanding of which one was good/bad for which reasons, and I thought i might share it here so people with more knowledge can correct my takes. Here is what I could get so far, based mostly on Lemmy comments and Wikipedia pages. This is aimed at browser that share some of Firefox values (foss, independency, (maybe) privacy, etc), so I excluded Chrome, Edge, and others. I’m open to any feedback/infos/browser suggestions to get a more accurate summary ! | Browser | FOSS | Privacy | Features | Engine | Platforms | Notes | |-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-| | Firefox [https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/] | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | Firefox | WMLAI | AI interest | | Brave [https://brave.com/] | ✅ | 🟠[^braveprivacy] | ✅ | Chromium | WMLAI | Crypto interest[^bravecrypto], bigot CEO[^braveceo] | | Vivaldi [https://vivaldi.com/] | 🟠[^vivaldifoss] | 🟠[^vivaldiprivacy] | ✅ | Chromium | WMLAI | Aims to be a better Opera | | Ungoogled Chromium [https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium] | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Chromium | WMLA | Removes Google tracking and specific components | | Cromite [https://github.com/uazo/cromite] | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Chromium | WLA | Removes most Google tracking and keeps some specific components | | Zen Browser [https://zen-browser.app/] | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Firefox | WML | | | Librewolf [https://librewolf.net/] | ✅ | ✅ | 🟠[^lwfeatures] | Firefox | WML | [^lwsecurity]| | Waterfox [https://www.waterfox.net/] | ✅ | 🟠[^wfprivacy] | ✅ | Firefox | WMLA | | | Floorp [https://floorp.app/en] | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Firefox | WML | | | GNU IceCat [https://www.gnu.org/software/gnuzilla/] | ✅ | ❓ | ✅ | Firefox | WML | Firefox without copyrighted content and with a bit more privacy| | Tor Browser [https://torproject.org/] | ✅ | ✅ | 🟠[^torfeatures] | Firefox | WMLA | | | IronFox [https://github.com/ironfox-oss/IronFox] | ✅ | ✅ | ❓ | Firefox | A | | | Mullvad Browser [https://mullvad.net/browser] | ✅ | ✅ | ❌[^mullvadfeatures] | Independent | WML | Made by the Tor team and Mullvad (VPN providers)| | Ladybird [https://ladybird.org/] | ✅ | ❓[^lbprivacy] | 🟠 | Independent | ML | Very early development stage, bigot devs[^lbdev] | | Orion Browser | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | Independent | MAI | In beta, claims to be top browser in terms of tracker blocking, considers making a Windows version, AI interest[^\orionai] | >Notes : Privacy is based on Firefox level, which I considered “bad” for the sake of the comparison. Engine is the browser on which each is browser is based, if there is. Features is to identify barebones browsers and how much risk there is to find websites not compatible with those browsers. Question mark is for when there is a debate or I could not find infos. Platforms is for the platforms on which the browser is available. To keep it tight, only one letter per platform : W for Windows, M for macOS, L for GNU/Linux, A for Android, I for iOS. contributors : [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Edit 1 : added Vivaldi, Floorp and Ironfox, clarify ‘Engine dependency’ column, add ‘Platforms’ column, add bigot warning for ladybird. Edit 2 : added [email protected] table (Tor, Ungoogled chromium, Cromite) and IceCat, updated info on Vivaldi Edit 3 : add Orion Browser, corrects lines to group browser together by engine, added users whose infos I used via edits Edit 4 : corrected Brave and Opera Privacy rating. Edit 5 : removed Opera since both Privacy and FOSS would be bad. Updated Vivaldi Privacy rating. [^braveprivacy]: they have a lot of optional data collecting, from their Privacy Policy [https://brave.com/privacy/browser/] [^bravecrypto]: from Brave’s Wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)]. [^braveceo]: from his personal Wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich]. [^vivaldifoss]: some parts are open source [https://vivaldi.com/source/], but the UI is proprietary [https://vivaldi.com/blog/technology/why-isnt-vivaldi-browser-open-source/] [^vivaldiprivacy]: they collect data for statistics, from their Privacy Policy [https://vivaldi.com/privacy/browser/] [^lwfeatures]: some websites may be blocked due to stricter privacy setups, according to LinuxSecurity’s article [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreWolf#cite_note-:0-6] cited on Wikipedia. [^lwsecurity]: some users seemed to fear [https://lemmy.world/comment/15373725] that having a small team, Librewolf would be late on security patches, but their FAQ [https://librewolf.net/docs/faq/#how-often-do-you-update-librewolf] seems to say it’s ok. [^wfprivacy]: from Waterfox’s Wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfox#Privacy], linking to Exodus report stating that android version of Waterfox uses same trackers as Firefox. [^torfeatures]: some websites might block tor network [^mullvadfeatures]: lemmy users said it is barebones [https://lemmy.world/comment/15374249] and their FAQ [https://mullvad.net/en/help/tag/mullvad-browser] says it has little features by design to prevent fingerprinting. [^lbprivacy]: could not find infos on their website or wikipedia page. Probably not that bad, but since it is in early development, it may evolve in better ways than other. [^lbdev]: from their github [https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity/pull/6814], considering gender neutral wording is politics and does not belong in ladybird. [^\orionai]: from the Kagi Wikipedia page [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagi_(search_engine)#Kagi] and lemmy comments [https://lemmy.world/comment/15388734].