This web browsers are not benchmarked, the opinion in this articles is based on personal use and experience. Keep in mind that a browser to be lite it needs to have some things excluded from itself like extensions and plug-ins example.
One more thing! This is not a ranking list. The browser at number 2 should not be considered better than the one at number 3 for example.
A web browser is not the same thing as a search engine, though the two are often confused. A search engine is a website that provides links to other websites. However, to connect to a website’s server and display its web pages, a user must have a web browser installed.
Midori Web Browser
Midori Browser is a light, fast and secure web browser, extremely fast in website loading and file downloading. Midori Browser is cross-platform and you can find it for Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android & will be available on iOS very soon. Join millions of users already using Midori.
Key Features:
- Adblock filter list support.
- Private browsing.
- Manage cookies and scripts.
Otter web browser
Otter Browser is a cross-platform, free and open-source web browser that aims to recreate aspects of Opera 12.x using Qt framework while keeping seamless integration with users’ desktop environments. Otter Browser is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. It works on Linux-based operating systems, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, macOS, and Windows platforms (others in development).
Key Features:
- Password manager
- Addon manager
- Content blocking
- Spell checking
- Customisable GUI
- URL completion
- Speed dial
- Bookmarks and various related features
- Mouse gestures
- User style sheets
Epiphany web browser
Epiphany is a simple yet powerful GNOME web browser. It aims to utilize the simplest interface possible for a browser. Keep in mind that simple does not necessarily mean less powerful.
It is one of a family of web browsers that use the Gecko layout engine from the Mozilla project to display web pages. It provides a GNOME integrated front-end to Gecko, instead of the Mozilla XUL interface.
Epiphany also address simplicity with modularity to make a light and powerful application. If something can be implemented using external applications or components, functionality is not duplicated. Integration is achieved with CORBA, Bonobo, and the ever popular command line.
Key Features:
- Tabbed browsing.
- Smart bookmarks organised by topic:
- Bookmarks can be associated with multiple topics.
- Import bookmarks from Firefox or Galeon.
- History.
- Cookie management.
- Security – block popup windows, refuse cookies, store passwords securely.
- Customizable user interface.
- Full screen mode.
Falkon web browser
Falkon is a KDE web browser using QtWebEngine rendering engine, previously known as QupZilla. It aims to be a lightweight web browser available through all major platforms. This project has been originally started only for educational purposes. But from its start, Falkon has grown into a feature-rich browser.
Falkon has all standard functions you expect from a web browser. It includes bookmarks, history (both also in sidebar) and tabs. Above that, it has by default enabled blocking ads with a built-in AdBlock plugin.
Key Features:
- Customizable user interface
- Availability in more than 60 languages
- Cookie management
- Extensions to execute commands, python scripts, group tabs, select your stylesheet, etc.
Pale Moon web browser
Pale Moon is an open-source web browser with an emphasis on customizability; its motto is “Your browser, Your way”. There are official releases for Microsoft Windows and Linux, as well as contributed builds for various platforms.
Pale Moon originated as a fork of Firefox, but has subsequently diverged. The main differences are the user interface, add-on support, and running in single-process mode. Pale Moon retains the highly customizable user interface of the Firefox version 4–28 era. It also continues to support some types of add-ons and plugins that are no longer supported by Firefox, including NPAPI plugins such as Flash Player, and is served by its own ecosystem of extensions. Since version 29.2.0, Pale Moon has discontinued support for extensions that target Firefox, though this restriction will be reverted in a future release.
Key features:
- Uses the pre-Australis user interface (“Strata”) as carried by Firefox during versions 4-28
- Supports extensions built with XUL and XPCOM, which are no longer supported by Firefox
- Supports “Complete Themes”, add-ons which can customize the entire UI of the browser. Firefox no longer supports this and retains limited options for UI customization.
- Supports NPAPI plugins indiscriminately[9], all of which are no longer supported by Firefox
- Supports an ecosystem of add-ons which exclusively target Pale Moon
- Replaces the Gecko browser engine with the Goanna fork
- Always runs in single-process mode, whereas Firefox became a multi-process program
- Defaults to a customizable start page in cooperation with start.me
- Defaults to DuckDuckGo as the search engine instead of Google or Yahoo!
- Uses the IP-API service instead of Google’s for geolocation
Waterfox web browser
Waterfox is an open-source web browser for x64, ARM64, and PPC64LE systems. It is intended to be ethical[citation needed] and (in Waterfox Classic) maintain support for legacy extensions dropped by Firefox, from which it is forked. There are official releases for Windows (including a portable version), Mac OS, Linux and Android in two versions: Classic (Year.Month) and Current (G.x.x.x).
It is also known for allowing to install web browser extensions from Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera.
Waterfox is based on Firefox (and uses Firefox’s engine) and is compiled using various compilers and using Intel’s Math Kernel Library, Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 and Advanced Vector Extensions.[not verified in body] Linux builds are built with Clang on all architectures other than PPC64LE.
Key Features:
- Compiled with Clang+LLVM on Linux
- Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) is disabled by default
- Web Runtime is disabled (deprecated as of 2015)
- Pocket is removed
- Telemetry is removed
- Data collection is removed
- Startup profiling is removed
- All 64-bit NPAPI plugins are allowed
- Unsigned extensions and legacy add-ons are allowed from the following sources: Archived Add-ons for Firefox, LegacyCollector, Thunderbird Firefox Add-on Archive, Classic Add-on Archive Extension, Add-ons for Firefox, Chrome Webstore and Opera Addons Store
- Sponsored tiles on the new tab page are removed
- A new “Duplicate Tab” command is added
- A locale selector is added to
about:preferences> General (further improved by PandaCodex) - Cookie Prompt has been re-implemented. Firefox later implemented a more advanced cookie control feature as part of its tracking protection initiative
- Passwords and logins manager
- Synchronize bookmarks, history, tabs, passwords, add-ons, and preferences across devices
- Bing is used as the default search engine
- End user CSS theming by default
SeaMonkey web browser
SeaMonkey is a free and open-source Internet suite. It is the continuation of the former Mozilla Application Suite, based on the same source code, which itself grew out of Netscape Communicator and formed the base of Netscape 6 and Netscape 7.
SeaMonkey was created in 2005 after the Mozilla Foundation decided to focus on the standalone projects Firefox and Thunderbird. The development of SeaMonkey is community-driven, in contrast to the Mozilla Application Suite, which until its last released version (1.7.13) was governed by the Mozilla Foundation. The new project-leading group is called the SeaMonkey Council.
Compared to Firefox, the SeaMonkey web browser keeps the more traditional-looking interface of Netscape and the Mozilla Application Suite, notably the XUL architecture. This allows the user to extend SeaMonkey by modifying add-ons for Thunderbird or the add-ons that were formerly compatible with Firefox before the latter switched to WebExtensions.
Key Features:
- The web browser of SeaMonkey contains a lot of features used in new web browsers like tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, e-mail, newsgroups, web editing software, spell checking, and an address book.
- Optionally included in the SeaMonkey suite is an IRC chat application.
Viper web browser
Focusing on privacy, minimalism, and customization, this browser has become a powerful lightweight place where you can do every search you want. It is, in my opinion, an essential navigator with basic features like tab hibernation support, secure AutoFill management, full-screen support, among others.
This is not a regular browser, but if you’re a fan of minimalism, perhaps this one is for you.
Key Features:
- All development is done with a focus on privacy, minimalism, and customization ability
- Bookmark management
- Built-in ad blocker, compatible with AdBlock Plus and uBlock Origin filters
- Cookie viewer, editor, and support for cookie filters (QtWebEngine 5.11+ only)
- Compatible with Pepper Plugin API
- Custom user agent support
- Fast and lightweight
- Fullscreen support
- Granular control over browser settings and web permissions
- Gives the user control over their data, no invasions of privacy like other browsers are known to do..
- GreaseMonkey-style UserScript support
- Multiple options for home page- any URL, blank page, or a card layout page with favorite and most visited websites
- PDF.js embedded into the browser
- Save and restore browsing sessions, local tab history, pinned tabs
- Secure AutoFill manager (disabled by default)
- Tab drag-and-drop support for HTML links, local files, other browser window tabs, etc
- Tab hibernation / wake up support
- Traditional browser UI design instead of WebUI and chromium-based interfaces
Conclusion
Remember, finding the perfect browser will depend on your necessities and resources. Overall, it all comes down to what suits you.
Using lightweight applications is one way to have a better computing experience when your systems is low on the hardware side.
You can check the How To Install Falkon Web Browser On Ubuntu Linux in our Linux section as well.
