Pale Moon
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 21 of 53 web browsers by recommenders
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.
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.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 18
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 82%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 18 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 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
Independent alternative to mainstream browsers
“If you want something truly different, try a Goanna-based browser like Pale Moon or Basilisk”
Comment from 2 Sep 2026 in “Hang on to Your Firefox” “Properly deshittifying browser takes effort, such as Ungoogled Chromium or Pale Moon.”
Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Just the Browser” “Like Palemoon, LibreWolf and maybe Mullvard.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” - Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP”
- Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Hang on to Your Firefox”
Runs Flash via plug-in
“Or you can just use PaleMoon browser and install the original Flash player plug-in in it.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Your ePub Is Fine. Kobo Disagrees. Blame Adobe” “Palemoon & Clean Flash are another option”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Cartoon Network Flash Games” Actively maintained independent fork
“Pale Moon is actively maintained.”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Is Firefox Firefucked?” “instead of creating another fork”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Base Browser: A hard fork of Firefox with no AI slop”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Weak extension support, rendering problems
“a modern browser, though it doesn't support webextensions”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features” “obscure Pale Moon that IIRC still tries to provide old XUL/XPCOM extensions - which often leads to pages rendering issues”
Comment from 16 Apr 2026 in “Mozilla Thunderbolt”
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 | — |
| Pale MoonThis page | 18 | 4 | 82% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
24 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“There are already decent hard ( e.g. http://www.palemoon.org/ ) and soft”
“instead of creating another fork”
“That browser is a security nightmare IIRC.”
“Zen or Librewolf or PaleMoon clears it.”
“they all give me endless captchas”
“If you want something truly different, try a Goanna-based browser like Pale Moon or Basilisk”
“There have been browsers for a long time that just browsed...”
“the only independent browser”
“it is the version meant for "modern" OSes”
“Or you can just use PaleMoon browser and install the original Flash player plug-in in it.”
“Palemoon and Netsurf are available as graphical Web browsers”
“Palemoon & Clean Flash are another option”
“Like Palemoon, LibreWolf and maybe Mullvard.”
“pale moon 33.5: 26/32(-6 exp. feat.)”
“obscure Pale Moon that IIRC still tries to provide old XUL/XPCOM extensions - which often leads to pages rendering issues”
“blocks any alternative browsers (like palemoon)”
“it's the best available on my computer with the good screen reader and text to speech setup”
“Works great on PaleMoon, one of the earliest browsers to support JPEG XL”
“Properly deshittifying browser takes effort, such as Ungoogled Chromium or Pale Moon.”
“Pale Moon is actively maintained.”
“CompileError: wasm validation error: at offset 35: too many returns in signature”
“a modern browser, though it doesn't support webextensions”
“I have most of these running in front of me now”
“it was the only way I could achieve operational stability”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.