Firefox in WebAssembly
Shares rank 29 of 53 web browsers by recommenders
A free demo that runs Firefox inside WebAssembly in the browser, praised as fast and impressive for its tech; critics note it runs without multiprocess isolation and fails on some machines.
A free demo that runs Firefox inside WebAssembly in the browser, praised as fast and impressive for its tech; critics note it runs without multiprocess isolation and fails on some machines.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 46%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
Fast performance for a browser demo
“didn't expect this to be either possible or this perform so well”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “seems it runs quite fast on my macmini m1”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “Impressive and surprisingly performant”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” Impressive demo of browser technology
“This is a fun browser demo to show how far we've come in terms of browser technology”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “this is really impressive !”
Comment from 17 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” Works on Steam Deck and Macs
“Worked in my Firefox on Steam Deck. I was amazed it could run YouTube.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “seems it runs quite fast on my macmini m1”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Rendering and GPU problems on Macs
“This is amazing -- but there is something wrong with (maybe) the WebGL or color rendering.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “Apple M5 and prior chips on tahoe, bad due to a known GPU regression”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” Freezes, hangs or crashes
“Sadly it seemed to hang out on my M4 Mac.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “it does crash on Firefox mobile, (well first frame loads)”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “I couldn't get it to work. The whole thing froze.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” Needs specific browser setup or features
“This browser doesn't support WebAssembly JSPI, which Firefox WASM needs to run.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “Can’t get it running on Firefox 152.0.6 (aarch64), no extensions.”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “It worked for me but I had to enable something in about:config”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” Weaker sandboxing, single-process mode
“this 100% degrades firefox sandboxing since fission cant run and its running in singleprocess mode”
Comment from 15 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly” “multiprocess isolation is disabled here”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Firefox in WebAssembly”
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 in WebAssemblyThis page | 12 | 14 | 46% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“this is really impressive !”
“This is amazing -- but there is something wrong with (maybe) the WebGL or color rendering.”
“This is a fun browser demo to show how far we've come in terms of browser technology”
“Apple M5 and prior chips on tahoe, bad due to a known GPU regression”
“should check if my browser is compatible before downloading 50+ mb”
“didn't expect this to be either possible or this perform so well”
“inside wasm its 10x slower”
“I couldn't get it to work. The whole thing froze.”
“largely edited by AI as a fun project. Finding a bug in that firefox probably is a lot easier than usual.”
“Impressive and surprisingly performant”
“It worked for me but I had to enable something in about:config”
“multiprocess isolation is disabled here”
“Great, looking forward to needing 16GB RAM to watch youtube”
“Worked in my Firefox on Steam Deck. I was amazed it could run YouTube.”
“seems it runs quite fast on my macmini m1”
“this doesn't work in Firefox”
“This is so sick great work”
“Sadly it seemed to hang out on my M4 Mac.”
“it does crash on Firefox mobile, (well first frame loads)”
“Someone could use this to cloak their IP address and do some damage.”
“this 100% degrades firefox sandboxing since fission cant run and its running in singleprocess mode”
“Can’t get it running on Firefox 152.0.6 (aarch64), no extensions.”
“I'm a huge fan of the project, but I have to ask.”
“I would actually feel remarkably safe running this thing”
“All the network traffic from that browser is routed through a server.”
“This browser doesn't support WebAssembly JSPI, which Firefox WASM needs to run.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.