Vanadium browser
Hacker ApprovedRanked 20 of 53 web browsers by recommenders
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.
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.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 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
More secure than standard Chromium
“Finding an exploit that works in Vanadium on GrapheneOS is significantly harder than on standard Android running Chrome.”
Comment from 11 Apr 2026 in “Has Mythos just broken the deal that kept the internet safe?” “GrapheneOS largely prevented it for Vanadium before this came to light and fully fixed it long before Chromium did.”
Comment from 26 Jul 2026 in “Fairphone 6 wide camera experimental Linux support” “On GrapheneOS they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” - Comment from 26 May 2026 in “Exit IP VPN servers mitigation rollout”
- Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”
- Comment from 4 Sep 2026 in “Actively exploited sandbox RCE in all Chromium versions”
- Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”
Built and recommended by GrapheneOS
“You can use GOS' own distribution of chromium, Vanadium, if you have a GOS device and you want to avoid Chrome.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “WebUSB Extension for Firefox” “On GrapheneOS they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” - Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “LinkedIn uses 2.4 GB RAM across two tabs”
- Comment from 1 Sep 2026 in “Microsoft defines which Linux distros "officially" support Edge”
Works well for everyday browsing
“it's perfect on Vanadium with the zoom set to 125%”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “Starlink roam 50GB is now 100GB with unlimited slow speed after that” “work perfectly fine in Vanadium”
Comment from 19 Dec 2025 in “Is Firefox Firefucked?” “it's fine basically everywhere”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “Today, we hacked what we'd set out to hack: the iPhone” Built-in ad blocker and extensions
“Vanadium has a default enabled ad blocker which uses EasyList, EasyPrivacy, EasyList's Adblock Warning Removal List”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple” “Being able to install browser extensions in Vanadium.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Easily fingerprintable by trackers
“Vanadium is very usable, but it seems to be quite easily fingerprintable.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple” “Even behind a VPN, Vanadium is fingerprintable by commercial trackers like fingerprint.com.”
Comment from 19 Sep 2026 in “Android 17 is the first since 3.x to add new APIs without releasing to the AOSP” Lacks ad blocker or extensions
“Their Vanadium web browser is based on Chromium, which is controlled by Google. It also does not have an ad blocker or support extensions.”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple” “the Vanadium browser doesn't support extensions”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “GrapheneOS – Break Free from Google and Apple”
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 | — |
| Vanadium browserThis page | 23 | 10 | 70% | 11 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 47 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's fine basically everywhere”
“if you want to maximally protect yourself, use Vanadium or Brave Browser and GrapheneOS and no privacy invasive apps”
“I like Vanadium (Chromium) a lot more than Safari.”
“Even behind a VPN, Vanadium is fingerprintable by commercial trackers like fingerprint.com.”
“Vanadium was able to deal with it swiftly”
“I think those are the best options.”
“Vanadium makes improvements on Chromium.”
“I trust it because of GrapheneOS”
“Vanadium is a good browser but I wish it had Firefox's Private Mode toggle, for permanent private mode”
“They are more secure and private which is why I like them.”
“The browser itself should ideally be handling ad blocking as it's more effective and efficient at it”
“GrapheneOS largely prevented it for Vanadium before this came to light and fully fixed it long before Chromium did.”
“Chrome and vanadium has a custom backup agent that only dumps out settings, so browsing history and bookmarks aren't backed up at all.”
“I like Vanadium a lot more than Safari”
“We disabled DRM provisioning and usage by default in Vanadium years ago”
“Vanadium is the only browser that improves on Chrome's security”
“they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork”
“On GrapheneOS they recommend Vanadium - a more secure Chromium fork”
“You can use GOS' own distribution of chromium, Vanadium, if you have a GOS device and you want to avoid Chrome.”
“Finding an exploit that works in Vanadium on GrapheneOS is significantly harder than on standard Android running Chrome.”
“Vanadium, Chrome and Firefox (all for Android) all accept all the revoked certificates”
“which I also trust to give security recommendations”
“Vanadium annoyingly has no option to automatically delete history nor always use Incognito.”
“Vanadium as the default browser works well, except it doesn't have adblock plus for youtube”
“the lack of forced updates and nag buttons”
“neither are semi-abandoned”
“Vanadium does disable third party cookies but that doesn't really do as much as you'd think”
“We're in the process of hiring a bunch of full time developers and will have more people working on Vanadium soon.”
“Vanadium does provide good protection against instances of Vanadium being distinguished from each other”
“Vanadium is said to be safer.”
“Vanadium is very usable, but it seems to be quite easily fingerprintable.”
“Vanadium is much more secure than standard Chromium”
“Vanadium has a default enabled ad blocker which uses EasyList, EasyPrivacy, EasyList's Adblock Warning Removal List”
“Being able to install browser extensions in Vanadium.”
“Their Vanadium web browser is based on Chromium, which is controlled by Google. It also does not have an ad blocker or support extensions.”
“the Vanadium browser doesn't support extensions”
“it's perfect on Vanadium with the zoom set to 125%”
“work perfectly fine in Vanadium”
“Never had that issue on Vanadium browser”
“Vanadium is pretty good but I agree there are problems I can circumvent only by using another one”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.