Firefox for iOS
Shares rank 21 of 53 web browsers by recommenders
Free iPhone browser with built-in ad blocking and tab sync with desktop Firefox. Critics say Apple's WebKit engine limits it, and it supports few or no extensions.
Free iPhone browser with built-in ad blocking and tab sync with desktop Firefox. Critics say Apple's WebKit engine limits it, and it supports few or no extensions.
65 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 47
- approval share
- 28%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Built-in ad blocking
“This is awesome and long overdue! I've always argued that ad blockers should be literally built into the browser!”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker” “The only thing I use Firefox on iOS for is its ad blocker.”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome update will close the door on ad blockers” Syncs tabs with desktop
“Allows to sync tabs with desktop”
Comment from 18 Nov 2025 in “WBlock: A New Ad-Blocker for Safari” “sync is the main one for me”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS” Fast and snappy
“How is Firefox on iOS so fast compared to Safari or Orion? It is easily noticeable”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker” “iOS Firefox seems fine to me. Nice and snappy.”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Super Monkey Ball ported to a website” Works without problems
“Working fine on Firefox for IOS.”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “Cameras and Lenses” “did not have any problems”
Comment from 11 Jul 2026 in “War Atlas: An interactive cartography of every named war in human history”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Few or no extensions
“I was disappointed that extensions where not supported on the iOS version of Firefox.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker” “Like they can only run uBlock Origin Lite and many add-ons aren't available.”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “Apple is crossing a Steve Jobs red line” “Firefox on iOS is the only browser that doesn't have a the possibility to run an Adblocker.”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome update will close the door on ad blockers” - Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo”
- Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe”
Limited by Apple's WebKit engine
“Firefox on the App Store is just a reskinned safari and as such, a lot of features cannot be implemented”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “iCloud+ Hide My Email addresses will remain on icloud.com” “The problem is that it has to use the WebKit rendering engine, and not that it happens to.”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “Apple's intentional crippling of Mobile Safari continues” “They replied within a day or two stating it was a "limitation of the web engine"”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker” Freezes and address bar glitches
“Randomly the new tab page stops working. And when the new tab page stops working, all browsing activity stops working until I restart the app.”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS” “The address bar likes to randomly move off the side of the screen and I have to force restart the app to get it back.”
Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS” Mozilla not fixing known problems
“Firefox for iPhone is bad and Mozilla has committed to simply not fixing it.”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “I Fired Google” “I find it stupid that Mozilla won't figure out a way to do it themselves”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker”
Other web browsers people recommend
The four most recommended other web browsers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firefox | 1,572 | 1,371 | 53% | 12 | 16 yrs125 owners | — |
| Google Chrome | 503 | 1,086 | 32% | 12 | 10 yrs11 owners | — |
| Brave | 397 | 248 | 62% | 12 | 4.9 yrs16 owners | — |
| Safari | 307 | 577 | 35% | 12 | 13 yrs27 owners | — |
| Firefox for iOSThis page | 18 | 47 | 28% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 70 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“sync is the main one for me”
“Randomly the new tab page stops working. And when the new tab page stops working, all browsing activity stops working until I restart the app.”
“The address bar likes to randomly move off the side of the screen and I have to force restart the app to get it back.”
“Apparently, you can only block ads if you allow Mozilla telemetry.”
“Firefox on the App Store is just a reskinned safari and as such, a lot of features cannot be implemented”
“I was disappointed that extensions where not supported on the iOS version of Firefox.”
“They replied within a day or two stating it was a "limitation of the web engine"”
“Firefox on iOS still can't automatically clear cookies and cache for all websites except those specifically excluded”
“This is awesome and long overdue! I've always argued that ad blockers should be literally built into the browser!”
“I've never been able to block their phone-home stuff using about:config”
“So handy for junk links or stuff I want to search”
“suddenly, a lot of pages where I didn't see a single ad before became unusably swarmed with them”
“How is Firefox on iOS so fast compared to Safari or Orion? It is easily noticeable”
“Firefox iOS sucks so much.”
“firefox mobile (specially ios) does not have reproducible builds”
“I find it stupid that Mozilla won't figure out a way to do it themselves”
“Well, not bad. But it's not uBlock”
“Mozilla knows not to bite Google’s hand, who is the one that actually feeds them hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“What's the current excuse for not supporting extensions on iOS?”
“If you're on iOS, you're out of luck. FF extensions aren't supported.”
“did not have any problems”
“Firefox for iPhone is bad and Mozilla has committed to simply not fixing it.”
“The only thing I use Firefox on iOS for is its ad blocker.”
“Firefox on iOS is the only browser that doesn't have a the possibility to run an Adblocker.”
“I had a near-instant crash too, but different kind. Firefox iOS.”
“Newer versions of Firefox on iOS are approaching 400MB in download size”
“their app size on iOS ballooned from 35MB in 2015 to 373MB in 2026”
“The developers of Firefox iOS chose to make the app larger and more bloated.”
“Firefox on iOS still doesn't support extensions or adblocking”
“Last time I tried firefox on the iphone it was rubbish compared with safari”
“The problem is that it has to use the WebKit rendering engine, and not that it happens to.”
“iOS Firefox seems fine to me. Nice and snappy.”
“Working fine on Firefox for IOS.”
“Firefox on iOS has 0 support for Adblocking, making it hell to use.”
“there is a reason for the iOS Firefox browser being so bad”
“was thankful they had them during a time where everything had to use the safari renderer”
“Firefox is one of the only that does not have any support for an ad blocker.”
“Allows to sync tabs with desktop”
“It's easy to mis-tap when you're just trying to search for a term on the page.”
“Like they can only run uBlock Origin Lite and many add-ons aren't available.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.