The Verdict Web browsers

The objective of this Roundup was to showcase a few alternate, but feature-rich browsers. To that end, we’re quite pleased with our selection. None of these require you to change your browsing habits or require too much time and effort to acclimatise to their way of functioning. Even so, there must always be one project that comes in last.

Falkon was a favourite browsers last time we did a round-up, so it might thus come as quite a surprise for the same browser to now finish last. We have several reasons for this. Chiefly, the other browsers offer far more out of the box, and also through extensions to bolster their position. But what really sealed Falkon’s fate is that the browser hasn’t seen a new release since we last covered it. There’s no mention on the project’s website about potential new release, the roadmap, or if the project is still alive. One had expected more from the project, especially once it became a part of the KDE, but the lack of information about its future is alarming.

Slimjet takes up about the same amount of memory as all the other Chromium-based browsers. It loses out on a podium finish because the other browsers offer more features out of the box, and are generally more pleasurable to work with.

Opera and Vivaldi are wonderful projects, with many useful features. Vivaldi is far more pleasurable to work with, and not just because of the side-scrolling game. Opera on the other hand makes judicious use of the sidebar. The only reason why we didn’t award one of these the first place is because of their proprietary nature. For what it’s worth, this author has long used Opera as a secondary browser because of its free VPN service.

The low-memory usage, coupled with its highly configurable Dashboard and the in-built support for the Tor network, all add up to ensuring Brave secures the first spot. The unique approach to ads, with the Rewards program, while polarising, does keep users safe and adds to its popularity. With the project working towards its own search engine, we’re quite excited to see what future releases might have to offer. 1ST

BRAVE 4.5/5

Web: https://brave.com Licence: MPL 2.0 & others Version: 89.1.22.71

Privacy-conscious browser, with polarising approach to adverts.

2ND

VIVALDI 4/5

Web: https://vivaldi.com Licence: Freeware Incredibly versatile, with many cool features.

Version: 2238.3

3RD

OPERA 4/5

Web: www.opera.com Licence: Freeware Version: 75.0.3969.149

The author’s secondary browser for many years.

4TH

SLIMJET 3.5/5

Web: www.slimjet.com Licence: Freeware Version: 29.0.3.0 Undone by the superior feature set of Vivaldi and Opera.

5TH

FALKON 3/5

Web: www.falkon.org Licence: GPLv3 Version: 3.1.0.75