Wouldn’t it be great if you could open a web browser in the blink of an eye, without having to install anything on your machine, and with each browsing session being completely independent, isolated in its own virtual bubble? Well, you’re in luck—that’s exactly what Puter offers, a very clever online service.
The concept is simple: Puter lets you launch web browsers in virtual machines directly from your usual browser. No need to create an account or provide your email. You just choose the region where you want your session to be hosted (North America, South America, Asia, or Europe), and voilà, a new browser opens in a tab!
Beyond the browser functionality, Puter also provides a desktop environment with a bunch of cool little tools like an IDE for coding, a sort of Paint for drawing, a terminal, a notepad, a video player, games, and more.
Under the hood, it’s all powered by cloud computing to spin up pre-configured virtual machines with a web browser in real-time. Each session is temporary and isolated, which means you always start fresh—with no cookies, no history, and no trace of your previous browsing.
The main advantage of this service and its browser is that you can browse completely anonymously and privately. Since the sessions are hosted on Puter’s servers, not your machine, the sites you visit can’t identify or track you. It’s also handy for testing websites in different environments or accessing services that might be blocked in your country.
However, there are some limitations. First, privacy comes at a price—you need to trust Puter not to record or exploit your activity. Then, using remote servers can slow down browsing and increase latency. Lastly, it only offers one browser (Chromium) for now, and you can’t install extensions or customize the environment.
Despite these limitations, it remains a promising tool. The ability to easily compartmentalize your browsing in disposable virtual machines opens up many possibilities, particularly in terms of security and privacy. You can imagine use cases for testing malware, analyzing suspicious websites, or even creating distinct user profiles.
