The best web browsers, according to hackers
53 web browsers were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 19 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended web browsers with the badge. Each figure is 10 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Arc replacement on Firefox
A Firefox-based, open-source browser with Arc-style vertical tabs, workspaces and split view, popular with former Arc users; critics report frequent bugs and heavy memory use.
Privacy-respecting defaults out of box
A Firefox fork with privacy-respecting defaults, uBlock Origin built in, and Mozilla's AI and telemetry stripped out; strict anti-fingerprinting can break some sites.
Strips out Mozilla extras and AI features
Firefox-based browser people switch to for removing Mozilla extras, privacy-minded defaults and no AI features. Critics note it lags Firefox on security fixes.
All 53 web browsers, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Firefox | 1,572 | 1,371 | 53% | 12 | 16 yrs125 owners | — |
| 2 | Google Chrome | 503 | 1,086 | 32% | 12 | 10 yrs11 owners | — |
| 3 | Brave | 397 | 248 | 62% | 12 | 4.9 yrs16 owners | — |
| 4 | Safari | 307 | 577 | 35% | 12 | 13 yrs27 owners | — |
| 5 | Orion Browser by Kagi | 206 | 165 | 56% | 12 | 1 yr27 owners | — |
| 6 | Ladybird browser | 155 | 93 | 63% | 12 | — | — |
| 7 | Zen Browser | 141 | 35 | 80% | 12 | 1 yr15 owners | Approved |
| 8 | Vivaldi | 134 | 85 | 61% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | — |
| 9 | Chromium | 126 | 159 | 44% | 12 | — | — |
| 10 | LibreWolf | 113 | 17 | 87% | 12 | — | Approved |
| 11 | Microsoft Edge | 102 | 226 | 31% | 12 | — | — |
| 12 | Arc browser | 78 | 64 | 55% | 11 | — | — |
| 13 | Firefox for Android | 76 | 60 | 56% | 12 | — | — |
| 14 | Waterfox | 75 | 22 | 77% | 12 | 1 yr7 owners | Approved |
| 15 | Opera browser | 70 | 40 | 64% | 12 | — | — |
| 16 | Helium browser | 51 | 11 | 82% | 11 | 6 mo3 owners | Approved |
| 17 | Dillo | 49 | 6 | 89% | 10 | 20 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| 18 | Mullvad Browser | 38 | 5 | 88% | 12 | — | Approved |
| 19 | Ungoogled Chromium | 32 | 7 | 82% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 20 | Vanadium browser | 23 | 10 | 70% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Tied 21 | Pale Moon | 18 | 4 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Tied 21 | Firefox for iOS | 18 | 47 | 28% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 23 | IronFox | 17 | 1 | 94% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Tied 23 | NetSurf | 17 | 2 | 89% | 9 | — | Approved |
| 25 | Firefox Focus | 16 | 5 | 76% | 9 | — | Approved |
| 26 | Dia browser | 14 | 32 | 30% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 27 | Floorp Browser | 13 | 7 | 65% | 10 | — | — |
| Tied 27 | DuckDuckGo Browser | 13 | 3 | 81% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 29 | Konqueror | 12 | 6 | 67% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Tied 29 | Fennec browser | 12 | 3 | 80% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 29 | Reynard browser | 12 | 2 | 86% | 5 | — | Approved |
| Tied 29 | MacSurf | 12 | 2 | 86% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 29 | Firefox in WebAssembly | 12 | 14 | 46% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 34 | qutebrowser | 11 | 2 | 85% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 34 | GNOME Web (Epiphany) | 11 | 1 | 92% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 34 | Glide Browser | 11 | 2 | 85% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 37 | Firefox Mobile | 10 | 10 | 50% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 38 | Cromite | 9 | 3 | 75% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 38 | Perplexity Comet | 9 | 14 | 39% | 5 | — | — |
| 40 | GNOME Web | 8 | 6 | 57% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 41 | SeaMonkey | 7 | 3 | 70% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 41 | Basilisk browser | 7 | 2 | 78% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 41 | BrowserOS | 7 | 1 | 88% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 41 | Mistral X Mozilla private multilingual AI browsing | 7 | 7 | 50% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 45 | ChatGPT Atlas | 6 | 14 | 30% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 45 | TenFourFox | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 45 | Gemini in Chrome | 6 | 16 | 27% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 45 | Firefox AI sidebar | 6 | 8 | 43% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 45 | FastRender | 6 | 19 | 24% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 45 | Crest browser | 6 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 51 | Kiwi Browser | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 51 | PowerFox Browser | 5 | 2 | 71% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 51 | Search browser for macOS | 5 | 2 | 71% | 1 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same web browser in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to web browsers that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.