# Vanadium browser

23 Hacker News commenters recommended Vanadium browser and 10 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Vanadium as a more secure Chromium build, especially on GrapheneOS, where it gets security fixes early. Critics say it is still easy to fingerprint.

## Why people recommend it

- More secure than standard Chromium (7 comments): "Finding an exploit that works in Vanadium on GrapheneOS is significantly harder than on standard Android running Chrome." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47728396)) "GrapheneOS largely prevented it for Vanadium before this came to light and fully fixed it long before Chromium did." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49060126)) "On GrapheneOS they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48019771))
- Built and recommended by GrapheneOS (5 comments): "You can use GOS' own distribution of chromium, Vanadium, if you have a GOS device and you want to avoid Chrome." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47834762)) "On GrapheneOS they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48019771)) "they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48020114))
- Works well for everyday browsing (3 comments): "it's perfect on Vanadium with the zoom set to 125%" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46624314)) "work perfectly fine in Vanadium" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46327517)) "it's fine basically everywhere" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223469))
- Built-in ad blocker and extensions (2 comments): "Vanadium has a default enabled ad blocker which uses EasyList, EasyPrivacy, EasyList's Adblock Warning Removal List" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47051694)) "Being able to install browser extensions in Vanadium." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47050929))

## What people warn about

- Easily fingerprintable by trackers (2 comments): "Vanadium is very usable, but it seems to be quite easily fingerprintable." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47053873)) "Even behind a VPN, Vanadium is fingerprintable by commercial trackers like fingerprint.com." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49763862))
- Lacks ad blocker or extensions (2 comments): "Their Vanadium web browser is based on Chromium, which is controlled by Google. It also does not have an ad blocker or support extensions." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47049045)) "the Vanadium browser doesn't support extensions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47046759))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Firefox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/firefox.md): 1572 recommend
- [Brave](https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-browser.md): 397 recommend
- [Safari](https://hackerapproved.com/p/safari.md): 307 recommend
- [Orion Browser by Kagi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/orion-browser.md): 206 recommend
- [LibreWolf](https://hackerapproved.com/p/librewolf.md): 113 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Vanadium browser", https://hackerapproved.com/p/vanadium/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).