# Pale Moon

18 Hacker News commenters recommended Pale Moon and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Independent browser fork people recommend as a non-mainstream alternative to the big browsers; critics note it lacks WebExtensions support and some sites block it.

## Why people recommend it

- Independent alternative to mainstream browsers (5 comments): "If you want something truly different, try a Goanna-based browser like Pale Moon or Basilisk" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49540107)) "Properly deshittifying browser takes effort, such as Ungoogled Chromium or Pale Moon." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46648438)) "Like Palemoon, LibreWolf and maybe Mullvard." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48022200))
- Runs Flash via plug-in (2 comments): "Or you can just use PaleMoon browser and install the original Flash player plug-in in it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48536990)) "Palemoon & Clean Flash are another option" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48083583))
- Actively maintained independent fork (2 comments): "Pale Moon is actively maintained." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46327847)) "instead of creating another fork" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49780400))

## What people warn about

- Weak extension support, rendering problems (2 comments): "a modern browser, though it doesn't support webextensions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322960)) "obscure Pale Moon that IIRC still tries to provide old XUL/XPCOM extensions - which often leads to pages rendering issues" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47793784))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Arc browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/arc-browser.md): 78 recommend
- [Helium browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/helium-browser.md): 51 recommend
- [Dillo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dillo.md): 49 recommend
- [MacSurf](https://hackerapproved.com/p/macsurf.md): 12 recommend
- [Glide Browser](https://hackerapproved.com/p/glide-browser.md): 11 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Pale Moon", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pale-moon/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).