Which browser to use?

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Here we are with a different article than usual, for the first time in fact we present a interactive article! This article wants to help all people in difficulty in choosing their own Browsers and who ask themselves Which Browsers should I use?

We leave you immediately with the interactive table, below if you are interested you will find some useful information and we also explain how the various criteria were designed and selected.

Which Browsers use?

Click on the various options to select i Browsers that are part of that category.

■ Desktop (Windows, Linux, macOS)

■ Android

■ iOS

As you have seen, we wanted to create this simple summary table to help you as much as possible in choosing the Browsers to use. Bear that in mind the list is made manually and all Browsers they were checked one by one but: we may be wrong and in this case please let us know, especially with regards to macOS and iOS as it is not always possible to test them. Furthermore, something can change between the time the article comes out and the time you read it.

Therefore, as always happens with online tests, always take them with a grain of salt and as a simple aid and not your only source of information and choice.

Because some Browsers Haven't they been added?

Why do some only appear in their desktop version and not in the Android version and vice versa?

A choice had to be made as to which ones Browsers insert. Meanwhile, those of large monopolistic companies such as Chrome, Edge and similar. Others, however, such as Opera and Vivaldi, have been included despite not being at 100% Open source but at least they offer, in their desktop version, something truly extra and above all unique compared to the others. Vivaldi for Android, however, has nothing particularly different and for this reason it has been left out for now.

If you think there is something to add, modify or remove, as always we ask you to let us know!

How were the criteria chosen?

We have been observing for months what was most requested in the Telegram group and in the Matrix room. We have written down the various questions received and the various discussions. And we tried to see what the biggest needs are when you go looking for a Browsers. Which Browsers choose It is intended to be a starting point for choosing your own Browsers preferred based on certain assumptions. Here are the ones we have selected and here is also a brief description of the individual items:

• 100% Open source, The source code of the Browsers it's at open code;
• Windows, macOS, Linux, Android And iOS these are obviously the availability for the various operating systems;
• F-Droid, it was decided to add this entry only for i Browsers which are available on the official store of F-Droid. The official store of F-Droid has criteria that the others Repositories they may not have and therefore it seems important to us to report only those that are present in the official one;
• AdBlock integrated, as you can imagine in this case only the Browsers that have some sort of advertising protection system.

Telemetry yes, telemetry no, telemetry maybe

• No telemetry, here we wanted to insert i Browsers which do not have any type of telemetry. Telemetry, in this case, is the often anonymous usage statistics.
• telemetry can be deactivated; in some cases, as you can see in the screenshots above, telemetry can be easily (some more, some less) deactivated. DuckDuckGo Browsers, however, seems to often connect to improving.duckduckgo.com and there is no way around it;
• sync favorites, it's for Browsers which allow the synchronization of favorites (and often other things too);
• password manager, identifies the Browsers which allow you to save passwords with minimal management;
• block scripts with one click, is to identify the Browsers which allow you to block scripts without too much effort, generally with a simple click.

Some interesting extra and unique features

• Visit .onion sites, Browsers which allow access to sites with the .onion suffix (Guide to using Tor Browsers);
• IPFS protocol, Browsers which allow access to this new peer-to-peer communication protocol;
• VPN, those who have an integrated VPN (although as you know we recommend that you use ProtonVPN);
• email client, exist Browsers which have integrated email clients, it is a function that can be useful to many;
• cryptocurrencies, Browsers that integrate cryptocurrencies in some way, cryptocurrency wallets or that have their own cryptocurrency.

Rendering engine

This is perhaps the most technical part of the list, which is also why we decided to leave this choice until the end. The rendering engine Browsers it is, to make you understand, the “skeleton” of the Browsers.

• Blink it is the one created by Google from which all the Browsers Chromium (the best known ones are for example Chrome and Edge). On Android the pre-installed one is also based on Blink and is called WebView ¹;
• then there is the engine of Firefox, called Gecko and for Android the equivalent GeckoView;
• with regard to Apple instead on all its smartphones it is mandatory to use Apple's rendering engine called WebKit ²;
• finally it also exists Goanna, a Fork independent of Gecko which is only used by Pale Moon And Basilisk.

That's all. Now you will definitely be able to find out Which Browsers use or at least the one best suited to your needs and closest to your principles!

We conclude by saying that we hope you liked this type of interactive table because, in this case, we can also propose it for other alternatives such as those for Gmail or Whatsapp.

1. WebView for Android[↩]
2. 2.5.6 Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript[↩]

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