Best browsers 2024

A browser is one of the most important and most frequently used programs on your computer. It is your window to the Internet. Among the application’s main tasks: to quickly open sites, be able to work with a large number of tabs, save bookmarks, and download files. Let’s see how popular browsers can handle this, and what additional options they have.

To get a better idea of which browser is right for you, check out our top 10 browsers of 2024. In this review, we’ve evaluated browsers based on key criteria such as functionality, interface, speed, anonymity, extensions, and compatibility with different operating systems. The better a particular browser performed in these categories, the higher its score.

Google Chrome

Chrome is by far the most popular browser in the world, with 3.2 billion users. Does that mean Chrome is the best browser? Not necessarily, but it does mean it has everything most users need:

• unlimited number of tabs and bookmarks,
• password manager,
• giant store of extensions,
• built-in translator that works in more than 160 languages and can translate pages both automatically and on demand.

A distinctive feature of Chrome is its integration with Google services. By logging into the browser with your Google account, you can use Gmail, Google Docs, your YouTube account, etc. There are quick access buttons for to each of the services on the Chrome home page.

How Chrome takes care of your security:

• chrome://settings/cleanup – malware cleanup,
• chrome://settings/passwords/check?start=true – search for compromised passwords.

The browser also warns you about sites with potentially dangerous content and blocks the download of suspicious files.

Opera

Opera has always been the flagship of innovation. Many of its innovations have subsequently become the standard for all browsers. These include:

• picture-in-picture video viewing,
• speed dial for quick access to favorite or frequently visited sites,
• dark mode (dark theme),
• built-in ad blocker,
• combined address and search box.

Now Opera, in addition to the common features (tabs, bookmarks, password manager, read mode – almost all browsers have these), provides several unique options:

• built-in VPN,
• button for screenshots (sounds simple, but there is no such button in Chrome by default, it must be installed additionally as an extension),
• quick access to messengers and social networks (WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter, etc.),
• built-in music player.

The player button is placed on the sidebar, there is no need to open a separate tab for music. The music source can be Apple Music, YouTube and other popular services. Your music will pause automatically if you playback audio in any of the open tabs.

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox is a comfortable and functional browser that has everything you need:

• its own extension store,
• password and bookmark managers,
• “Pocket” button to save interesting content,
• reading mode and anonymous browsing mode,
• smart search box with autofill,
• various tools for working with tabs: pin, duplicate, mute, tab search.

Firefox uses its own engine, unlike many other browsers, based on the Google Chrome’s engine. At the same time, Firefox perfectly cooperates with Chrome: in particular, it can export and import bookmarks and passwords, and supports work with Google Docs and Gmail.

One of the distinctive features of Mozilla Firefox is taking care of your security. To this end, the browser applies:

• cryptominer blocking,
• alerting on compromised passwords,
• blocking digital prints tracking,
• blocking all kinds of trackers, including social network trackers.

Trackers are scripts that track your actions on the Internet (often even long after visiting a site with trackers). Trackers can also slow down the loading of pages. It is good that Firefox blocks them.

Tor Browser

The Tor Browser is a browser based on Mozilla Firefox that uses onion routing to encrypt messages. In simple terms, Tor is the most anonymous browser, it’s as anonymous as it gets.

How onion routing works: each message is encrypted multiple times and passed from sender to receiver not directly, but through a network of routers, each of which removes one layer of encryption (like an onion layer) and passes the message on.

The routers know neither the sender nor the recipient, nor the content of the message.

Thus, Tor Browser provides the highest possible level of anonymity. Also to protect personal data user applies the following measures:

• automatic change of IP every 10 minutes,
• automatic clearing of cookies,
• prohibiting the installation of a number of extensions and blocking their operation (especially Flash, RealPlayer and QuickTime),
• blocking trackers,
• the default search engine is DuckDuckGo.

In addition, Tor Browser allows you to overcome Internet censorship, and there are quite a few sites that can be accessed only through this browser.

Safari

Safari is the second most popular browser in the world after Chrome. Safari is tailored for Apple devices, and in its native environment (macOS, iOS, iPadOS) it’s unmatched:

• frequently visited pages load 50% faster in Safari than in Chrome,
• lower battery consumption: Safari lasts up to 90 minutes longer than Chrome, Edge or Firefox,
• with iCloud+ you can sign up to any site without giving them your email address.

In response speed, rendering speed, and other metrics measured by Jetstream, MotionMark, and Speedometer benchmarks, Safari proved to be the fastest browser in the world.

Another trump card of Safari, apart from speed, is its elaborate design. The designers were not afraid of non-standard solutions. Is putting the tabs in the center (instead of on the left, like everyone else) bold and interesting, or is it awkward? It is up to the user to decide. The user has lots of options within a flexible interface with a lot of tools for comfortable display of content:

• add or remove extra buttons,
• change the arrangement of elements, drag and drop them, change the distance between them,
• set the background, font and letter size for each page,
• translate selected items or whole pages with a single click,
• leave notes and share bookmarks,
• save pages as PDF files, highlight what’s important, and send them via email.

Many actions in the browser can be done in different ways: single-click, double-click, hotkeys – whatever suits you best.

Vivaldi

Vivaldi is the spiritual successor of Opera 12, the last “real” Opera before the migration to Chromium. Vivaldi browser was created by one of the Opera founders, and in the first 10 days after its release, the app was downloaded half a million times. And now Vivaldi has about 2.5 million users in all.

In terms of its functionality Vivaldi is not inferior to more famous and popular browsers, it has:

• its own translator, which works with 100 languages and can translate texts from websites or manually entered,
• easy controls: the browser supports mouse clicks, mouse gestures and customizable keyboard shortcuts,
• handy content organization system: with bookmarks, speed dial, tabs grouping by domain, tabs tiling to view 2 or more tabs in 1 window,
• ads and trackers blocking.

The main feature of Vivaldi is a flexible interface, where you can set up everything, from the color scheme of the browser to the number of buttons on the sidebar. As the developers say: “Extreme customization. Better organization”:

• tabs can be placed at the top, bottom, right or left,
• panels can be added or removed: status, bookmarks, downloads, reading list, etc.,
• favorite sites can be saved to the speed dial, the top bookmarks panel, or the sidebar,
• you can add and remove buttons, choose type of controls (for example, sliders instead of buttons),
• if you have too many tabs open, you can arrange them in two tiers or collapse all pages from one site into a stack to free up space and make it easier to navigate.

Thus, Vivaldi is a browser-constructor where everything can be customized to your comfort.