# Brave 397 Hacker News commenters recommended Brave and 248 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 4.9 years (16 owners). **Verdict:** A Chromium browser with strong built-in ad blocking, privacy hardening and Chrome extension support, though many distrust its crypto features and past donation and affiliate controversies. ## Why people recommend it - Excellent built-in ad blocking (13 comments): "Brave is a very good YouTube app. You can download videos for offline viewing, build a local playlist of said videos, and bypass ads all in one go." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47175515)) "I use brave on my phone and I can't really tell the difference from desktop browser+UO, so I guess it works well enough." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48472706)) "The browser works properly, it has ad-blocking built in and it is trivial to turn off the other nonsense in the browser." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46056952)) - More private and hardened than Chrome (7 comments): "If anything, Brave has done more to harden Chromium than Mozilla has with Firefox, even though it comes with its own set of problems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46602602)) "if you want to maximally protect yourself, use Vanadium or Brave Browser and GrapheneOS and no privacy invasive apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50107315)) "Their browser's security is better than Google Chrome thanks to them disabling a lot of the stuff that Google ships" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48267179)) - Extras are easy to disable (5 comments): "I've been using Brave for years, and after spending like 20 seconds to turn off the 'show on new tab' things, I get a blank page" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49520243)) "The browser works properly, it has ad-blocking built in and it is trivial to turn off the other nonsense in the browser." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46056952)) "I switched to Brave. Even with its cryptocurrency stuff bundled, it's easily disabled and not in your face at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46296538)) - Great on mobile (5 comments): "Brave is a very good YouTube app. You can download videos for offline viewing, build a local playlist of said videos, and bypass ads all in one go." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47175515)) "I use brave on my phone and I can't really tell the difference from desktop browser+UO, so I guess it works well enough." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48472706)) "Brave is still faster on Android. It probably helps that it has adblocking built-in, instead of a separate extension." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46048450)) ## What people warn about - Past donation and affiliate controversies (8 comments): "This, the "Brave was putting ads of their own on other pages" and "adding the referrer code for Binance" stories get thrown around" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46085004)) "Brave strips out the ads that the creators put on their site, puts their own ads there, then gives the creators some of that money if and only if the creator realizes they have to sign up for Brave's cryptoshit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46017937)) "If Brave put my name and picture on an advertisement shown to Brave users, said that I was soliciting donations and would receive the money, and then took the money" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46085040)) - Crypto and trend-chasing bloat (5 comments): "not only is it a wrapper around Chromium, but their crypto stuff and some dodgy affiliate injection in the past paints them as untrustworthy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49311400)) "Isn't Brave backed by Peter Thiel? That alone would make me not trust it but they also have baked in crypto and other weird stuff." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47616237)) "a browser (a set of Chromium patches, rather) with cryptocurrencies, NFTs, LLM integrations, and all other trend-chasing junk" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46122178)) - Still depends on Google's Chromium (5 comments): "It does nothing to protect against the future when Google decides they are sick of people trying to get around their Ad Block ban" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46289261)) "Sure, Brave is great, but it's still chromium, making Google have outsized say over how the web behaves." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076727)) "not only is it a wrapper around Chromium, but their crypto stuff and some dodgy affiliate injection in the past paints them as untrustworthy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49311400)) - Self-promotion and dark patterns (3 comments): "I would not recommend Brave to less-technical friends and family knowing that they would surely be duped by some dark patterns" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46509377)) "Brave: Crypto nonsense, all kinds of advertising for their crap everywhere unless you go through many hoops to turn it off." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49884572)) "try to find any detail about the specific information collected by the brave browser and how it is used to serve ads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49894566)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Firefox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firefox.md): 1572 recommend - [Safari](https://hackerapproved.com/p/safari.md): 307 recommend - [Orion Browser by Kagi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/orion-browser.md): 206 recommend - [LibreWolf](https://hackerapproved.com/p/librewolf.md): 113 recommend - [Waterfox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/waterfox.md): 75 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Brave", https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-browser/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).