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Authors: JordanMost of us tend to choose a web browser and stick with it for years.
It can be hard to break away from your comfort zone – especially when you've become used to its quirks – but trying a different browser can greatly improve your experience on the web.Whether you’re looking for enhanced security, improved speed, or greater flexibility through customizable options and plugins, the best web browser can have a huge effect on your online life.
Here, we’ve put the biggest browsers through their paces (plus some that you may not be familiar with) to identify the browser that best ticks all of these boxes.
And, if you have a particular concern, then read on to see if there’s an alternative that might be better suited to your needs.After several years dropping behind the competition in terms of speed, Firefox is back in the game with a fully updated code base1.
Mozilla FirefoxFirefox is back after a total overhaul, and has retaken its crownVery fastLight on system resourcesStrong privacy toolsFirefox recently received its biggest update in 13 years, and it's so impressive, it's propelled the browser to the top of our list. Firefox has always been known for its flexibility and support for extensions, but in recent years it had started to lag behind the competition in terms of speed.
Firefox Quantum, first released last year, represented a total overhaul of the browser's code base, with speeds now comparable with Google Chrome.
That's not just on top-end computers, either – the new Firefox makes frugal use of RAM, even with masses of tabs open.Firefox also scores serious points when it comes to privacy.
Mozilla is non-profit, which means it doesn't have the same impetus to sell your data as some other browser developers.
The organization also makes regular updates to help protect its users' privacy as internet companies come under increasing scrutiny over the way they treat people's data.Quantum also introduced a new system for extensions that prevents rogue developers making malicious changes to the browser's internal code. It's not always the absolute fastest – for some pages Chrome still has the edge, as Mozilla's own video demonstrates – but the new Firefox has come out swinging and is our pick for the best web browser of 2018 so far.Chrome is a superb browser - fast and adaptable - if you aren't bothered by letting Google handle all your online activity2.
Google ChromeIf your system has the resources, Chrome is 2018's best browserFast performanceInfinitely expandableResource-hungryWith Chrome, Google has built an extendable, efficient browser that deserves its place at the top of the browser rankings.
According to w3schools' browser trend analysis its user base is only rising, even as Microsoft Edge's install numbers are presumably growing.
Why Well, it's cross-platform, incredibly stable, brilliantly presented to take up the minimum of screen space, and just about the nicest browser there is to use.Its wide range of easily-obtained and installed extensions mean you can really make it your own, and there's support for parental controls and a huge range of tweaks and settings to ensure maximum efficiency.However, Chrome isn’t without its downsides.
It’s one of the heaviest browsers in terms of resource use, so it’s not brilliant on machines with limited RAM, and its performance doesn’t quite match up to others as far as benchmarking is concerned.
And, with Google’s tentacles running through it, you may be uncomfortable with how your browsing data is used.Opera is a superb browser with a clean interface and built-in ad-blocker, plus a Turbo mode that makes slow connections more useable3.
OperaAn underrated browser that's a great choice for slow connectionsExcellent Turbo modeIntegrated ad-blockerFewer plugins than rivalsIt's sad that Opera makes up only around 1% of the browser market, because it really is a quality browser.
It launches fast, the UI is brilliantly clean, and it does everything its rivals can do with a couple of extras thrown in for good measure.The key reason we'd at least recommend having Opera installed alongside your main browser is its Opera Turbo feature.
This compresses your web traffic, routing it through Opera's servers, which makes a huge difference to browsing speed if you're stuck on rural dial-up or your broadband connection is having a moment.It reduces the amount of data transferred too, handy if you're using a mobile connection, and this re-routing also dodges any content restrictions your ISP might place on your browsing, which can be mighty handy.
Opera automatically ducks out of the way if you're using secure sites like banks so your traffic is free and clear of any potential privacy violation.There's also an integrated ad-blocker – which can be switched off if you're morally inclined in that direction – and a battery-saving mode which promises to keep your laptop going for longer.Edge works on all your Windows 10 devices, with sandboxing for security and a special reading mode to isolate the important content on pages4.
Microsoft EdgeMicrosoft's new browser offers full integration with Windows 10Very fastBuilt-in reading modeNot backwards compatibleThe default 'browsing experience' on Windows 10, and unavailable for older operating systems, Edge is an odd one.
Quite why Microsoft needs to be running a pair of browser products in tandem rather than making Edge backwards compatible is beyond us.
The company's reason, it seems, is that Edge represents the more user-friendly end of Redmond's offering while Internet Explorer scales a little better for enterprise.Integration with Windows 10's core gimmicks seems to be Edge's main strong point.
It happily runs as a modern-skinned app on Windows 10's tablet mode, and works with Cortana.
It's also highly streamlined for the current web age, doing away with insecure protocols like ActiveX and forcing you into Internet Explorer if you want to use them.
We're more used to browsers failing to render newer pages than we are to being told off for visiting older corners of the web.Curmudgeonly grumbles aside, actually using Edge is a perfectly pleasant experience.
It's super-quick, hammers through benchmarks, its integrated reading mode makes complex sites more palatable, and by sandboxing it away from the rest of the operating system Microsoft has ensured that Edge won't suffer the security breaches of its older brother.It's just a shame that Microsoft is quite so insistent on forcing Edge upon Windows 10 users, making it the default browser for links opened in the Mail app, adding shortcuts to your desktop after major OS updates, and presenting it as a potential result if you start typing 'Firefox' in the Cortana search box.Microsoft Internet Explorer is a fast and powerful browser, and makes modest use of your system resources, though it lacks the flexibility of Firefox and Chrome5.
Microsoft Internet ExplorerFast and efficient, but less expandable than Firefox and ChromeMake frugal use of resourcesClean designPoor plugin supportMicrosoft Internet Explorer has seen some ups and downs in its long tenure, from dominating the browser charts to languishing behind its main two competitors.
This is partly an issue of choice – particularly the browser choice that Microsoft was forced to give customers after a court ruling – and partially because older versions fell behind the rendering and compatibility curve.There are no such issues with Internet Explorer 11.
It's clean, powerful, highly compatible, and it demands less of your RAM and CPU than equivalent pages would on Chrome or Firefox.
Plus it one-ups both of them on WebKit's Sunspider benchmark.That's not to say this browser is perfect.
Google's V8 benchmark sees it struggling, and IE isn't quite as able to handle add-ons and extensions as many of its competitors.
So while there's no reason to avoid IE like there might once have been, if you're looking for a more customised browsing experience you're out of luck.Vivaldi is a relatively new browser that's bound to see more development soon.
Its interface is fully customizable, though it doesn't officially support extensions yet6.
VivaldiBuild your own browser with unique docking and tab-stackingIncredibly customizableCreative interface featuresNot the fastestHere's something a bit different.
We all spend probably far too much time sitting in front of our web browsers, and up-and-comer Vivaldi wants to make that as pleasant and personal an experience as possible.The whole style and structure of its interface is entirely up to you.
There's a built-in note-taking system, you can dock websites as side panels while using the main window to do your main browsing, and we love its innovative tab stacking tech, which allows you to group up tabs and move them around to avoid the crowding that so often plagues other browsers.Vivaldi is built on Chromium, which means you can expand it even further with extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
Just pick your preferred plugin and click 'Add to Chrome'.
Some extensions might behave slightly differently in Vivaldi, but most work perfectly.Vivaldi is a refreshing and creative take on web browsing, and one to watch in the next couple of years as more features are added.Tor Browser is a heavily modified version of Firefox that re-routed web traffic via random nodes worldwide7.
Tor BrowserMore than just a browser – a whole suite of online security toolsKeeps browsing privateBlocks tracking cookiesPerformance is slowTor Browser is, perhaps unjustly, most regularly associated with the seedy underworld of the dark web.
While it's true that you can use this web browser to access otherwise unlisted sites, Tor's privacy aspects – where your traffic is routed through random nodes the world over, making it very hard to track - are its real asset.Tor Browser is really a package of tools; Tor itself, a heavily modified version of the Firefox Extended Support release, and a number of other privacy packages that combine to make it the most secure browsing experience you're likely to find.
Nothing is tracked, nothing is stored, and you can forget about bookmarks and cookies.You'll need to alter your browsing habits to ensure that you don't perform actions online that reveal your identity – Tor Browser is just a tool, after all – but for a secondary browser useful for those private moments it's a great choice.
Run it from a USB stick and nobody need even know you have it at all.u9cQHPv5LdMdoNd8wuP28E.jpg#
