Comparison between web browsers

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It's important to notice that because web browsers and the services they access are built on top of using the spyware protocol HTTP, they CANNOT respect your privacy. But beyond that, because we have to use web browsers, it's useful to list them by how much spyware they have in them. This purpose of this article is not to rate each web browser in a vaccum, like articles on this website that focus on one specific web browser, but rather to compare all of the web browsers that have been rated on this website against each other. This is a ranking that is based on how much Pirvacy a browser offers by default, as well as, how much privacy can be gained by configuring it.

Top Tier - Best Privacy

These are all browsers that require a minimal amount of configuration and can achive the required level of privacy needed to browse the modern web- compatibility with a comperhensive suite of content-blocking extensions that can block spyware providers correctly and fully. Iridium and Pale Moon both are configured in a way that leaks user information and thus require additional configuration.

TOR Logo
GNU IceCat Logo
Ungoogled Chromium Logo
Iridium Logo
Pale Moon Logo
TOR Browser
GNU IceCat
Ungoogled Chromium
Iridium Browser
Configuration Guide
Pale Moon
Configuration Guide

High Tier - Good Privacy

These browsers do not have privacy issues, but they also do not have enough privacy features to make it to the highest tier. These browsers both have simple ad-blockers, and do not have any privacy issues, however, these tools are not as good as the comperhensive privacy tools that Top Tier browsers offer.

Otter Browser Logo
Falkon Logo
Otter Browser
Falkon

Mid Tier - Ok Privacy

These browsers do not have any big privacy flaws, but they also do not have sufficent privacy protections. Qutebrowser has a very basic adblocker in it. Both browsers don't have access to extensions either. So, it's just not enough to be able to browse the modern web privately, despite the developers not putting spyware into their browsers.

Qutebrowser Logo
SphereLogo
Qutebrowser
Sphere Browser

Low Tier - Poor Privacy

These browsers do not protect your privacy, but they are not in the lowest tier since they still have something to offer, although, they should not be used in general. Vivaldi does not let you disable all of the spyware features, Brave whitelists trackers and has forced updates, and Firefox and Waterfox are loaded with spyware, to the point where configuring them is so non-trivial that you might as well use a version of Firefox that respects your privacy by default, rather than diving into the uncertainty of digging out all of the spyware features (and repeating the process every time the browser is updated). It's awalys going to be better to pick a browser higher on this list.

Waterfox Logo
Brave logo firefox Logo vivaldi Logo Dissenter Logo
Waterfox
Brave
Firefox
Vivaldi
Dissenter

Shit tier - No Privacy

These browsers are unashamedly designed to collect as much information about the user as possible (all are rated EXTREMELY HIGH by the site). Only SRWare Iron has it's source code availible, and all the developers have mistreated their users (complete disregard for privacy and / or false advertising) for a long time. These browsers are actively hostile against their users and thus should not be used at all.

chrome logo opera logo SlimJet logo WebDiscover logo Iron logo
Google Chrome
Opera
SlimJet
WebDiscover
SRWare Iron

Further Reading

This isn't the only guide on what web browser to pick, with an emphasis on privacy, to exist, and many other people, with their own knowlege and prespectives, have written their own guides. It would be a waste to only read one guide to make your decision, so, you should probably read a few more, these are some good ones.

Digdeeper - How to choose a browser for everyday use?
Clarkycat - Browser Recommendation and Addons

This article was last edited on 2/20/2019

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