The web browser has increasingly become the central application on computers. Today, users open not only websites but also office programs like Word and Excel or Google Docs, stream videos, movies, and series, and even quickly edit photos and videos.
The operating system you use is less relevant now. What matters more is which browser you choose.
The choice of browser determines how securely users can navigate the internet and how well their privacy is protected. It also affects how quickly websites appear on the screen.
Finally, browsers differ in terms of functionality. For instance, Microsoft has equipped its Edge browser with the AI assistant Copilot, while Opera offers a VPN service as a free extension. However, experts debate whether this free VPN is just a proxy server.
Two Major Browser Families Dominate the Market
The leading browsers are comparable in terms of functionality and performance. This is partly due to the fierce competition among manufacturers but also because the market is almost entirely divided between two technological concepts.
On one side are browsers based on Chromium, an open-source project from Google, Intel, Opera, and Samsung. On the other side are browsers built on Firefox, a browser with its own open source.
The main Chromium-based browsers are Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave. Among Firefox-based browsers, we find Firefox itself, the Tor browser, and Librewolf.
Chromium browsers use the Blink rendering engine, while Firefox programs use Gecko. Since Microsoft and Opera have abandoned their self-developed engines, Edge HTML and Presto, only Blink and Gecko remain. The rendering engine is responsible for visualizing the graphical part of the HTML code on a website.
In our comparison, we examined the browsers Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Vivaldi more closely.
| Web browser | Google Chrome | Microsoft Edge | Mozilla Firefox | Opera | Vivaldi |
| Automatic updates | + | + | + | + | + |
| Sandbox | + | + | + | + | + |
| Password Manager | + | + | + | + | + |
| Anti-phishing and anti-malware protection | + | + | + | + | + |
| Vpn | – | max. 5 GB/month | from 4,99 €/month | Free | – |
| Incognito mode | + | + | + | + | + |
| “Do-not-track” message | + | + | + | + | + |
| Tracking blocker | + | + | + | + | via tracking URLs |
| Blocking “fingerprints” | Only via add-ons | Only via add-ons | integrated | Only via add-ons | Only via add-ons |
| Synchronization | + | + | + | + | + |
| Encryption of sync data | + | + | + | + | via extra password |
| Android version | + | + | + | + | + |
| iOS version | + | + | + | + | + |
| Integrated AI | – | + | – | + | – |
| Speedometer test score (higher number is better) | 15,2 | 5,7 | 4,53 | 11,6 | 15,1 |
| RAM load in MB (lower number is better) | 904 | 482 | 966 | 949 | 399 |
A Comparison of Security Concepts
Protection against malware and hacker attacks has been a significant topic in IT for years. Therefore, browser developers have incorporated features like sandboxing into their programs.
This ensures that malware cannot jump from a website to your computer. Additionally, all our test candidates have automatic updates, integrated password managers, and protection against phishing and malware that warns you when you are about to visit suspicious, blacklisted websites.
Opera, moreover, has offered a free and unlimited VPN service for several years, making the use of unsecured WLAN connections safer. With VPN Pro, costing around 40 SEK per month, users can choose from about 3,000 VPN server locations worldwide.
Microsoft has now followed in Opera’s footsteps and also offers integrated VPN protection with its Edge Secure Network. However, it is limited to 5 GB of data per month and does not allow users to choose a specific region or location.
With Mozilla, you can subscribe to a VPN for about 100 SEK per month or 600 SEK per year, and there are also several VPN extensions for the browser. For Chrome and Vivaldi, VPN services are only available as extensions from third-party providers.
Conclusion: With its free, unlimited VPN, Opera is always a step ahead of other browsers. Since the program also offers all the security features of a modern browser, Opera would indeed get our recommendation for security. However, security updates from Chrome or Chromium usually take a long time to reach Opera. From a security perspective, Chrome is probably the better choice. Alternatively, you might simply choose Firefox.
Privacy Protection
Another current issue is the privacy protection that browsers offer users. All five candidates send a “do-not-track” instruction to websites upon request, indicating that the visitor does not wish to be tracked online. However, this is not mandatory for website operators.
An incognito mode, which automatically deletes the user’s locally stored activities when the browser is closed, is also standard in browsers.
Otherwise, all programs have features to prevent tracking and storage of third-party cookies. The configuration is often only visible if you take a closer look. Edge and Firefox summarize these features in several profiles, which is somewhat detrimental to clarity.
The categorization and explanation of these features in Chrome could also be improved. We like the corresponding settings in Opera and Vivaldi.
Google has a particular interest in discovering as much as possible about users’ browsing habits and which websites they visit. This allows the company to offer targeted ads to its advertising customers. This tracking is active in Chrome’s default settings but can be turned off.
Edge can also track its users’ activities, but this feature is disabled by default.
In Opera, tracking for advertising purposes is enabled after installation. Vivaldi suggests blocking trackers during installation but can also hide ads. Tracker blocking uses lists from DuckDuckGo and EasyPrivacy, which contain lists of known tracking addresses. Therefore, unknown tracking sources are not rejected.
Firefox already blocks tracking scripts by default, such as those used by some social networks. Third-party cookies are also rejected.
Firefox is also the only browser in the test that largely prevents your “fingerprints” from being visible on the websites you visit. Fingerprinting is a technique that allows users to be identified based on various factors, including the browser used and its individual configuration, the Windows version running, the screen resolution set, and many other software and hardware details.
In practice, this cannot be completely turned off, but it can be significantly limited. On other browsers, you need to install extensions to avoid being tracked via “fingerprints.”
Conclusion: Comprehensive and easy to understand—these are the words that best describe Firefox’s privacy settings. The open-source browser therefore receives a recommendation in this area.
Other Features and Versions
All the tested browsers offer synchronization with other computers via the internet. This requires free registration with an account. For Edge and Chrome, this is naturally a Microsoft or Google account, while Firefox, Opera, and Vivaldi have their own account services for synchronization.
The transfer and storage of synchronized passwords, bookmarks, and similar data are encrypted by all providers using the user’s account password. Only Vivaldi adds an additional layer of security and requires a separate password to encrypt the synchronized data.
There are mobile versions of all five browsers for both Android and iOS. They all support the synchronization features of the PC versions, allowing access to bookmarks and saved passwords even on mobile devices.
Microsoft has integrated its AI feature Copilot into Edge, which bases its responses on the Bing search engine. But now Opera also has an AI feature: Aria, an AI developed internally by the Norwegian manufacturer, designed primarily to assist users while browsing the web.
Users can, for example, highlight a term on a website and request an explanation from Aria after right-clicking. The AI also accepts free-form prompts. Opera also offers direct links to Chat GPT and Chatsonic in the sidebar.
Google Chrome has had an AI assistant since the browser was updated to version Chrome 128.
Conclusion: Edge wins in terms of additional features. The browser not only offers a well-functioning synchronization feature but also additional functions like an AI, a personal information wallet, and a feature to create a desktop app from an open website.
Speed and Resource Usage
For this test, we reinstalled all five browsers with default settings and without extensions or bookmarks. Our test computer was an office computer with an Intel Core i5-8600 and a clock speed of 3.1 GHz, 16 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GTX Geforce 1050 graphics card.
We measured the browsers’ speed using the online test Speedometer 3.0, which measures browser performance in simulated test environments where a to-do list is created and edited, texts are edited, charts are rendered, and articles are read on a news page.
Speedometer calculates a score from the results. The higher the number, the better.
To assess the browsers’ resource needs, we then opened our homepage and checked the Windows Task Manager to see how much memory the programs require. The measurement results are displayed in the overview table.
Conclusion
Vivaldi is the clear winner in this test. The software is not only resource-efficient but also ranks high in the speed test alongside Chrome.
Although Edge, also based on Chromium, requires relatively little RAM, it falls significantly behind in terms of speed.
Opera ranks 4th with a completely acceptable result, while Firefox cannot keep up with the other browsers. However, Opera must be criticized for usually implementing Chrome’s security updates too late.
