Let’s take a look at other available browsing software. We will list it here with no particular order.

Edge

The successor of Internet Explorer did not manage to make a big comeback for Microsoft. It is seriously better than IE, but still falls short.

The design resembles IE 11, but offers smaller borders, fewer icons and a slightly minimalistic aesthetic in par with Windows 10 user interface. There is of course embedded support and compatibility with Cortana, which works well out of the box. The iOS and Android versions get decent support, so keeping passwords and bookmarks synced between devices is finally possible.

Microsoft claims Edge to be the best option for usage in situations where battery life is important – however, there is not enough information on why that would really be true. Moreover, the extensions list is not large enough and its support is also slim. That creates a big down point compared to other internet browsers on this post.

Should I try Edge? Yes, if you feel you want to try something quite different from Chrome and Mozilla. You can always revert to them if it fails to cover your needs, anyway.

Safari

Safari is a very successful internet browser. Being the default browser for Apple devices, it had gained huge popularity – and that is when Chrome showed up.

Nowadays, Apple users switch to other internet browsers and most often Chrome. Still, what is there in Safari that is worth noting?

Safari is a modern browser powered by WebKit engine. It offers a pretty significant level of user convenience using a customizable toolbar, reader view and more. Speculative loading, iCloud sync are also important features. AirDrop allows content sharing among users without leaving the browser.

When it comes to browsing, the Nitro JavaScript engine is fast, and the available extensions are enough for all popular needs, though not nearly as many as Chrome and Firefox can offer.

Is it worth it? If you use an Apple, yes. The way they designed Safari makes it work flawlessly with a trouble-free integration to the operating system. On Windows, you are better off with other internet browsers.

Opera

From the age of Java-powered app in mobile phones, many users probably remember Opera Mini – a browser that worked wonders, being the default choice for millions of faithful users!

Nowadays, Opera has been improving with constant update releases, and has grown to be a decent choice.

Turbo Mode offers significant loading speed even with poor connection, by compressing the web traffic, minimizing the size of images, and more. By routing through their own servers, Opera offers a seamless browsing experience that could surprise users.

The desktop version offers features usually available in mobile – such as data compression and battery saver. Other internet browsers do not focus this much on such.

How about Privacy and Security?

Privacy and security have not been neglected – the browser is designed with a particular attention to detail. For example, it integrates built-in Ad Blocker and predictive preload for websites. They have also added a VPN service to tackle ISP restrictions as well as an algorithm that recognizes cryptomining on websites and attempt to block the scripts. The latter one is very important – in today’s times many websites owners attempt to generate large amounts of money by cryptomining. They allow their website to use the visitors computer system for cryptocurrency mining – so they get the cryptocoins (and the money they bring), and the visitor gets a slow, sometimes crashing computer.

The Personal News feature is a nice addition as well – it allows the reader to view tailored news directly at the browser interface, and the news sources can be customized by the users.

When it comes to the browsing engine, Opera shares some of Chrome’s features. However, it integrates inside the engine capabilities that Chrome prefers to offer through extensions instead. The user experience is similar – with Opera 55, there is even a Chrome add-on available that allows all Chrome extensions to be used with Opera too.

Is Opera worth it? We would say that if you use several internet browsers, Opera should be installed in your system.

Vivaldi

Created by a couple of expatriates of Opera, Vivaldi is a recent, modern browser that is worth a look because of a couple of powerful features under the hood.

When it comes to design, Vivaldi uses an adaptive technology to change itself to match the website color scheme you are visiting. It features the same Opera sidebar at the left, but allows for extreme customization on almost everything – you can add custom keyboard shortcuts, mouse gestures, notes through the integrated Notes tool and a split screen mode.

Similarities with Opera do not end here. The Speed Dial start up screen is present here too, and the tab interface shows the open-source Chromium technology influences. Actually, the Dial is a feature used by many internet browsers nowadays.

There are some really cool features that you will learn to love once you experience them. For example, Tab Stacking allows you to drag and drop tabs on top of other tabs, thus grouping similar tabs together in a neat, very Windows 10 way. There is enough flexibility when tiling tabs and letting them snap at the corners of the window at will. If you like exploring, the settings of Vivaldi allow for a serious wealth of deeper options. You can even Cycle reload between the open tabs. Necessary? Probably not, but still an intuitive addition that other internet browsers do not offer.

Are there enough extensions?

Are you interested in extensions? Vivaldi can get all Chrome extensions directly from the Chrome Store. So, no problem there!

On the technical side – Vivaldi can be slow at times, especially when maintaining active more than 25 tabs at once. Not exactly a resource hog, Vivaldi would still consume normal CPU and RAM until the point when the amount of tabs will start taking their toll. There really seems to be a particular point of usage when Vivaldi seems to start consuming resources in an alarming, almost erratic way.
Especially the Notes feature seems to be coded in a weird way, because it can occasionally make your system crawl. It is bizarre why the same feature in other internet browsers works as it should.

So, how does Vivaldi compare? Do I need it?

If you are into customizing every aspect of your browser and you had enjoyed Opera, Vivaldi might be worth the time. For the rest, the resource consumption and the relative low speed in loading indicate that this might not be the best option for everyday use. Try one of the other internet browsers instead.

Maxthon Cloud Browser

Maxthon is a relatively old browsing alternative, since it appeared in 2002. It is unclear what exactly the developers thought when they named it Cloud Browser. All browsers more or less support cloud data syncing. Initially based on the Internet Explorer engine Trident, now it also offers WebKit engine.

There are things to consider when checking Maxthon. The dual engine does not mean much when it comes to flexibility and compatibility. That is true because the Trident has already been phased out and Edge did not use it. WebKit does offer some decent performance when it comes to loading speed and resource consumption, but nothing extraordinary compared to other internet browsers.

Particular tools have been built-in the browser, such as Night Mode, video capturing from pages, notes tool, an embedded email client and Ad Blocking capabilities.

Its developers update Maxthon relatively often, but still particular websites might consider it Outdated and give the relative warning at their header – that probably happens because nowadays it is based on an older Chromium engine.

Is Maxthon a good choice for me? Probably, due to its built-in features. But if you do not need any of them often, then you can do without Maxthon.

UC Browser

A Chinese-developed browser, UC was probably until few years ago the best Android web browser. It is loosely based, in terms of design, to Edge and its rather minimalistic design. UC comes with password manager, cloud sync and other features that all modern browsers possess.

When it comes to loading speed, UC is not especially fast but it does make up for it with a relatively low power and resources consumption.

The add-ons list is another story; the extensions list is virtually non existent.

Is it a good choice for me? Not really. Without useful extensions a browser cannot handle everyday browsing.

Move to Page 3 for the rest browsers!