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Microsoft Edge

Ranked 11 of 53 web browsers by recommenders

A Chromium browser that keeps Chrome compatibility while adding strong vertical tabs, good speed and uBlock-friendly extensions, though Microsoft pushes Bing, Copilot and telemetry hard.

A Chromium browser that keeps Chrome compatibility while adding strong vertical tabs, good speed and uBlock-friendly extensions, though Microsoft pushes Bing, Copilot and telemetry hard.

328 people gave an opinion

recommend it
102
criticize it
226
approval share
31%
Each figure is 5 people. RecommendsCriticizes

Recommended in 12 of 13 months

  1. November 2025: recommended
  2. December 2025: recommended
  3. January 2026: recommended
  4. February 2026: recommended
  5. March 2026: recommended
  6. April 2026: recommended
  7. May 2026: recommended
  8. June 2026: recommended
  9. July 2026: recommended
  10. August 2026: recommended
  11. September 2026: recommended
  12. October 2026: recommended
  13. November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)

Why it doesn’t carry the badge

  • 102 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
  • 0.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
  • Recommended in 12 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

  • Chrome compatibility without Google

    “with Chrome and Edge I have support of newest web APIs rather with Firefox and Safari don't”

    Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Chrome had the highest idle CPU and RAM usage in a 5-browser benchmark”

    “It's basically chrome but without the 'make this your default browser' shenanigans.”

    Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Google Has Removed MV2 Extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Including UBO”

    “Edge is actually decent product and viable replacement for Chromium based browsers”

    Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft's Pivotal AI Product Is Running into Big Problems”
  • Ad blocking and extensions work

    “The Edge browser for has the best ad-free experience I've found so far on Android.”

    Comment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin”

    “I use Edge as my default browser, with uBlock installed and it all seems to work.”

    Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating”

    “I switched from chrome to edge so I can continue using ublock origin”

    Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Edge, Opera to follow”
  • Fast performance

    “I liked a few of its built-in features, and it felt pretty fast. But then they started tricking me into changing my default search engine to Bing.”

    Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo”

    “a proof of concept port of Microsoft edge to IOS significantly outperformed safari”

    Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple: Switch to Safari (From Chrome)”

    “It was faster than Google Chrome and had some unique features”

    Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race”
  • Best vertical tabs implementation

    “The sweet spot for me is vertical tabs that autohide into a narrow strip of icons until hovered over”

    Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Why I had to stop using vertical tabs”

    “They have what I think is the best implementation of vertical tabs”

    Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Microsoft Edge stores all passwords in memory in clear text, even when unused”

What people warn about

Each mark is one comment

  • Pushes Bing, Copilot and services

    “Edge is better, with only downside is that MS keep pushing Bing on its users.”

    Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: How to escalate a rejected Google extension?”

    “I liked a few of its built-in features, and it felt pretty fast. But then they started tricking me into changing my default search engine to Bing.”

    Comment from 12 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo”

    “Whoever curates the Edge homepage knows they have mere seconds to capture a new recruit before they manage to escape to a different browser.”

    Comment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Windows 11½”
  • Telemetry and privacy concerns

    “all your searches, preferences and and browsing history is linked to your Microsoft + Windows account so you can be targeted by ads better”

    Comment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: How to escalate a rejected Google extension?”

    “Microsoft repurposed Google's adware in Chrome into Edge telemetry/spyware to feed your browsing directly into windows telemetry”

    Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did”

    “Allow Microsoft to save your browsing activity including history, usage, favourites, web content, and other browsing data”

    Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID”
  • Forced on Windows and work users

    “i cannot even enable Backspace = go back on Edge. I am forced to use Edge on my work computer and i hate that this feature is gone.”

    Comment from 28 Aug 2026 in “GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven”

    “Microsoft has also tried hard to push Edge, annoying nearly every Windows user on the planet, with no real success.”

    Comment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft's Pivotal AI Product Is Running into Big Problems”

    “forcing edge on me constantly to the point where even when I change the default browser, things still load in edge”

    Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload”

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.

Microsoft Edge compared with 4 alternatives
ProductRecommendCriticizeApprovalMonthsOwnedBadge
Firefox1,5721,37153%1216 yrs125 owners—
Google Chrome5031,08632%1210 yrs11 owners—
Brave39724862%124.9 yrs16 owners—
Safari30757735%1213 yrs27 owners—
Microsoft EdgeThis page10222631%12——
See all 53 web browsers, ranked

What people said

40 of the 366 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.

“a proof of concept port of Microsoft edge to IOS significantly outperformed safari”

RecommendsComment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Apple: Switch to Safari (From Chrome)”

“forcing edge on me constantly to the point where even when I change the default browser, things still load in edge”

CriticizesComment from 10 Oct 2026 in “WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload”

“MS Edge (basing on chromium, same extensions, same dev platform)”

RecommendsComment from 10 Oct 2026 in “WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload”

“the firefox people refuse to implement the memory limits logic that say Edge has”

RecommendsComment from 1 Oct 2026 in “Micron CEO Says Memory Supply Will Be Much Tighter in 2027 and 2028 Than in 2026”

“Whoever curates the Edge homepage knows they have mere seconds to capture a new recruit before they manage to escape to a different browser.”

CriticizesComment from 28 Sep 2026 in “Windows 11½”

“Not what I would usually recommend, but when work only allows those two options...”

MixedComment from 28 Sep 2026 in “When did Google get so weird?”

“practices similar to those Microsoft gets lampooned for doing the same with Edge”

MixedComment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP”

“Brave, Opera, Edge, etc are all Chromium and will all deprecate Manifest V2 eventually”

MixedComment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Hang on to Your Firefox”

“It's basically chrome but without the 'make this your default browser' shenanigans.”

RecommendsComment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Google Has Removed MV2 Extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Including UBO”

“i cannot even enable Backspace = go back on Edge. I am forced to use Edge on my work computer and i hate that this feature is gone.”

CriticizesComment from 28 Aug 2026 in “GUIs should be fully keyboard-driven”

“The Edge browser for has the best ad-free experience I've found so far on Android.”

RecommendsComment from 15 Aug 2026 in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin”

“Microsoft has lobbied our company to remove firefox and chrome from all computers so we must use edge everywhere”

CriticizesComment from 10 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did”

“Microsoft repurposed Google's adware in Chrome into Edge telemetry/spyware to feed your browsing directly into windows telemetry”

CriticizesComment from 8 Aug 2026 in “Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did”

“Simple, easy tools are already there, such as the Clear Browsing Data menu item in Chrome, Edge, and Safari.”

RecommendsComment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Kill The Cookie Banner”

“Allow Microsoft to save your browsing activity including history, usage, favourites, web content, and other browsing data”

CriticizesComment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Microsoft Can Track Users via a Windows Device ID”

“The sweet spot for me is vertical tabs that autohide into a narrow strip of icons until hovered over”

RecommendsComment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Why I had to stop using vertical tabs”

“with Chrome and Edge I have support of newest web APIs rather with Firefox and Safari don't”

RecommendsComment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Chrome had the highest idle CPU and RAM usage in a 5-browser benchmark”

“all your searches, preferences and and browsing history is linked to your Microsoft + Windows account so you can be targeted by ads better”

CriticizesComment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: How to escalate a rejected Google extension?”

“I switched from chrome to edge so I can continue using ublock origin”

RecommendsComment from 10 Jun 2026 in “Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Edge, Opera to follow”

“Edge is better, with only downside is that MS keep pushing Bing on its users.”

MixedComment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: How to escalate a rejected Google extension?”

“Edge and Chrome could both be eliminated tomorrow and those trillions would be safe.”

MixedComment from 7 May 2026 in “Chrome removes claim of On-device Al not sending data to Google Servers”

“User privacy is not a thing at MS and hasnt been for decades. Plaintext passwords in a MS product is just another monday.”

CriticizesComment from 5 May 2026 in “Microsoft Edge stores all passwords in memory in clear text, even when unused”

“They have what I think is the best implementation of vertical tabs”

RecommendsComment from 5 May 2026 in “Microsoft Edge stores all passwords in memory in clear text, even when unused”

“Edge has done a lot to improve credential security, even DPAPI's existence itself is huge.”

MixedComment from 4 May 2026 in “Microsoft Edge stores all passwords in memory in clear text, even when unused”

“nearly impossible to avoid 'services' you realy do not want but will keep popping up regardless of your wishes”

CriticizesComment from 3 May 2026 in “Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March”

“I use Edge as my default browser, with uBlock installed and it all seems to work.”

MixedComment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Microsoft's "Fix" for Windows 11: Flowers After the Beating”

“Even F9 on Edge is pretty good at figuring out what you really want to see/read”

RecommendsComment from 19 Mar 2026 in “'Your Frustration Is the Product'”

“I liked a few of its built-in features, and it felt pretty fast. But then they started tricking me into changing my default search engine to Bing.”

MixedComment from 12 Mar 2026 in “MacBook Neo”

“I also adopted it as a personal alternative to Safari for when I need Chromium”

RecommendsComment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Leaving Google has actively improved my life”

“Edge is actually decent product and viable replacement for Chromium based browsers”

RecommendsComment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft's Pivotal AI Product Is Running into Big Problems”

“Microsoft has also tried hard to push Edge, annoying nearly every Windows user on the planet, with no real success.”

CriticizesComment from 4 Feb 2026 in “Microsoft's Pivotal AI Product Is Running into Big Problems”

“I am sometimes using Edge browser on android and when I want to put in a website adress I'm blasted with copilot instead.”

CriticizesComment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft CEO warns AI must 'do something useful' or lose 'social permission'”

“Edge is a slightly worse version of it due to Microsoft incompetence/lack of taste”

MixedComment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Latest SteamOS Beta Now Includes Ntsync Kernel Driver”

“Edge has by far the best encrypted streaming playback using their PlayReady DRM”

RecommendsComment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Kagi releases alpha version of Orion for Linux”

“Edge also OCR'd everything very well - just didn't do the translation part automatically.”

MixedComment from 20 Dec 2025 in “Mistral OCR 3”

“It is probably the most no-code configurable browser out there if you go through Group Policy”

RecommendsComment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo”

“the Chromium browser with good extension support on Android is Edge”

RecommendsComment from 17 Dec 2025 in “Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo”

“It was faster than Google Chrome and had some unique features”

RecommendsComment from 4 Dec 2025 in “OpenAI declares 'code red' as Google catches up in AI race”

“My Teams client for Linux is MS Edge for Linux with the web app, works pretty well except for slow navigation.”

RecommendsComment from 15 Nov 2025 in “Unofficial Microsoft Teams client for Linux”

“There's deeper Windows-specific platform integration (including audio) that makes it a better option”

RecommendsComment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Google claims Microsoft 'bribes' people to use Edge”

Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.