Common questions

Which browser is best for privacy?
Depends how far you want to go. Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser are built for anonymity but break some sites; LibreWolf and Brave harden a lot while staying usable every day. The quiz weighs how much breakage you'll tolerate before ranking them.
What are the serious alternatives to Chrome?
Keeping the engine and your extensions: Brave, Vivaldi, Thorium or ungoogled-chromium. Leaving Google's engine entirely: Firefox, LibreWolf or Zen.
What's the lightest browser?
On old desktop hardware, NetSurf, Dillo and Falkon stay comfortable where Chrome gives up. In a terminal, Lynx and w3m run on anything with a prompt.
Why do all iPhone browsers feel the same?
Apple requires every iOS browser to use its WebKit engine, so on an iPhone they differ in features and sync — not in speed or site compatibility.
How does the ranking work?
Your answers set weights across 22 criteria; every browser carries a 0–3 score on each. Multiply, sum, sort. Your devices are the only hard filter, and nobody pays for placement.

What could you want from a browser?

Every feature worth wanting, and the browsers that have it. Click a name for details.

Who begat whom

Almost every browser is a fork of something. Trace the lineages — drag to look around, click any browser for details.

The KHTML dynasty

One hobby engine from KDE in 1998 became the ancestor of nearly everything: Apple forked KHTML into WebKit — and WebKit later begat Blink, whose family outgrew this tree.

 Konqueror the original KHTML browser Safari Orion by Kagi SigmaOS Onion Browser iOS WebKit + Tor GNOME Web (Epiphan… Luakit surf Nyxt can also run Blink WebKitGTK the Linux port Blink Google's fork · own tree WebKit Apple fork · 2001 KHTML KDE · 1998

The Chromium empire

Google forked WebKit into Blink in 2013 and built Chromium around it. Today it powers the majority of all browsing — from Chrome itself to gaming browsers, AI browsers, and app frameworks.

 Google Chrome Microsoft Edge Brave Vivaldi Opera GX Opera Arc maintenance mode Dia Arc's AI successor Comet Perplexity ChatGPT Atlas OpenAI Thorium speed fork Ungoogled Chromium C Cromite Bromite 2017–2022 † Yandex Browser Whale Naver Samsung Internet Falkon qutebrowser Otter Browser QtWebEngine Chromium inside Qt Min Polypane Responsively Electron Chromium + Node.js Chromium the open-source base Blink WebKit fork by Google · 2013

The Mozilla family

From Netscape's ashes came Mozilla, then Firefox — and around Firefox, a whole ecosystem of forks: hardened ones, beautiful ones, and one that forked the engine itself.

 SeaMonkey the old suite, continued Mullvad Browser Tor Browser − Tor network Tor Browser Firefox ESR, hardened LibreWolf Waterfox GNU IceCat GNU Zen Browser Midori born on WebKit, reborn on Floorp Floorp Mercury speed fork Firefox Focus mobile IronFox Android · Mull's heir Iceraven Android Pale Moon Basilisk K-Meleon Goanna Gecko fork · 2016 Firefox Gecko engine · 2004 Mozilla born from Netscape · 1998

The independents

Engines written from scratch — nobody's fork, nobody's wrapper. Browsers don't get harder to build than this.

 Lynx since 1992 — the eldest w w3m E ELinks NetSurf Dillo Ladybird pre-alpha · the newest Own engines built from zero

The borrowers

No engine of their own on purpose — they wrap whatever the operating system provides, and inherit its updates.

 DuckDuckGo Browser WebKit on Apple, Blink on Windo… Via Browser Android WebView System WebView the OS's engine

Every browser we know

Mainstream, hardened, hackable, half-forgotten — the whole catalogue.