{"id":5606,"date":"2025-04-22T12:56:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T17:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontendmasters.com\/blog\/?p=5606"},"modified":"2025-05-16T15:29:47","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T20:29:47","slug":"newfangled-browser-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontendmasters.com\/blog\/newfangled-browser-alternatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Newfangled Browser Alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You’ve got your classic web browsers with the biggest chunks of market share. The Statcounter<\/a> website gives us a picture of those with what seems like decent methodology<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They’ve all got their fans. A bigger influence on these stats is browsers that are pre-installed or built-in to operating systems. Chrome is default on Android. Safari is default on Apple-anything. Edge is default on Windows. Samsung Internet is default on Samsung phones. Firefox is default on some Linux distributions. People tend to leave defaults alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what else<\/em> is out there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s take a look at browsers with much less than 2% market share. They are based on the open source engines that power these other major browsers (except for a few we’ll mention at the end), but do unique things on top of those engines. It’s an interesting space to watch, as browser software is big business with how many potential users they are, so even niche audiences can build good businesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heads up: <\/strong>Not all of these are particularly new<\/em>, but hey, they might be new to you as some were new to me while poking around at this. I’ve focused here on desktop browsers, although many of them have mobile versions of themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arc<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arc is my personal daily driver. I really like it for a bunch of reasons<\/a>. Turns out I really like the sidebar tab structure, multiple workspaces, split view, and the command bar to name a few. Arc did a great job of showing the world that real UI\/UX innovation could happen around browsers while using an existing engine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Arc, while still getting updates for engine versions, is largely abandon-ware. I tried switching away<\/a> (but failed). The company behind it is now working on another browser called Dia<\/a> of which little is known aside from… more AI?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 Free (“Max”, the AI features used to cost money but not anymore?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Horse Browser<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The big thing with Horse Browser is that your tabs are in a sidebar and nested. <\/em>They call that “Trails”. If that clicks with you, you’ll probably love it. If it doesn’t, there really isn’t any reason to use it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 $60\/year (7 day trial)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Zen Browser<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Zen Browser is essentially a shameless replica of Arc, only free, open-source<\/a>, and Firefox-based instead of Chrome. Hopefully they can keep up the momentum long term, find a business model, innovate beyond what Arc did, and find a way past the inability to stream stuff<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Firefox<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Orion<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

From the team at Kagi<\/a> (the privacy-friendly search engine), this browser also has various privacy-friendly features. Like Horse, it’s going for that nested tabs in a sidebar thing, with new-window based tab groups. Another notable feature<\/a> is that it supports Chrome and Firefox extensions as well as WebKit extensions \u2014 which seems entirely unique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f WebKit<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Vivaldi<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Vivaldi seems to be able lots<\/em> of features and lots<\/em> of customizability. Put your tabs where ever you want them. Full on theming. There is integrated email, calendars, VPN, and even an RSS reader. With stuff like “command chains” and “mouse gestures”, this is power user focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0 Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Wavebox<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It looks like the big play with Wavebox is that it uses big square icons for your tabs (“apps”) and you can group them together “just like your phone!” with notification badges and such. Then you have profiles you can switch between, so the drive is configuring your own job-specific home bases. Other features like “focus mode” and time tracking make is squarely a “this is for work” browser.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0$100\/year (7 day trial)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Not to be confused with Wave browser<\/a> which is weirdly similar?)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Surf<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I haven’t been able to use their alpha, but from the video on their homepage, the UI looks a lot like Arc. It’s “context” instead of “workspace” and “stuff” instead of “library”. The AI feature where you ask questions based on the open stuff in your context seems straightforward and kinda smart. I like where it gets weird and you build your own sloppy homepage full of random rectangles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Unknown<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium? Probably?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Shift<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shift is definitely in the category of “browsers are for work, and work is apps, so here’s your apps.” Like many (most?) of these browser alternatives, it has workspaces, which means you can be logged into all those apps with your work accounts, switch workspaces, and be logged into all those same apps with different accounts (like a different client or your personal life or whatever).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0$149\/year (14-day trial)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Brave<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brave was launched in 2016 making it likely much older than most of these. It’s one of the big classic alternative browsers and has always been a bit controversial. It’s got a commitment to privacy, but isn’t fully open source and literally monetizes through ads<\/a>. It’s got Brendan Eich at the helm who is controversial<\/a>. It’s gotten into crypto stuff with Basic Attention Tokens, Brave Rewards, and Brave Wallet, and clearly not everyone is hyped on crypto. The UI is nicely polished and certainly has a lot of fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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DuckDuckGo Browser<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

DuckDuckGo itself is a privacy focused search engine using Bing’s search index. It seems the entire browser feature set is focused on privacy\/protection and ad blocking (except their own). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f WebKit on macOS \/ Blink on Windows<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Opera GX<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Of course there is Opera<\/a>, which really used to be one of the main browsers, and sort of lost that distinction when it went Chromium sold and generally got weird (long story). Opera GX is “for gamers” which seems largely aesthetic, but hey, I can’t blame them. Seems like a niche worth serving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Colibri<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The whole deal here is no tabs. Like forces<\/em> you not to have tabs, so you’re doing “one thing at at time”. One of those things that’s either going to click with you or it isn’t. The “Links” feature is the additional thing to help you get back to things, which is… just bookmarks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Floorp<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Customizability seems to be the main thrust here. Gestures, vertical tab bar option, and others<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Free<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Firefox<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Muddy<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Muddy is a multiplayer browser that lets you create shared views with your favorite apps. It’s the web, messaging, and intelligence for ambitious teams.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Free?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Chromium, probably?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Min<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Tabs in Min take up less space, giving you more room to browse the web. Pages you haven\u2019t looked at in a while fade out, letting you see what\u2019s important, and Focus Mode hides your other tabs to prevent you from getting distracted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\ud83d\udcb0Free, Open Source<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2699\ufe0f Electron, so Chromium<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Other Notable Entries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n