Cool ranking, here’s mine (best to worst) based off of my years of trying different browsers. I’ve tried all of these browsers at least once on my current machine which runs Windows 11:
Firefox - The only browser that is to my knowledge entirely open source (while Chromium is open source, Google Chrome isn’t) and owned by a non-profit. It’s very versatile and has a lot of customisation without being overly complicated. Has been my default for years now. There are also great alternatives that use Firefox as a base like the Tor Browser and LibreWolf
Brave - I’ll be honest and say I still am not the biggest fan of Brave overall, the crypto features are annoying and I wish there were off by default tbh. However it performs well and isn’t that much of a hassle. Good choice if you need a Chromium browser without as much spying.
Vivaldi - If you want to tweak everything about your browser this is for you. Has some good privacy features. However performance is slightly worse than other Chrome clones and its a takes a bit to get your head around.
Opera & Opera GX - Used to use the normal browser back in the day, but moved away with all the annoying gimmicky features. GX’s UI is too much for me. Plus trust is hard when they call a proxy a “free VPN”.
Google Chrome - RAM hog, simple and gets the job done but at the expense of your data and privacy. Google having a monopoly on browsing when its a advertising giant is kinda scary.
Microsoft Edge - bloated and annoying.
Desktop browsers, ranked
Note: This is my testing on MacOS on Apple Silicon. May not be applicable for other OSes or platforms.
Chrome: Everyone’s default
+ Pros: Everything is tested in Chrome, so sites always work. Lots of extensions.
- Cons: Uses SO MUCH RAM. Mid developer tools. Chromium is kinda mid in general.
Arc: Basically reskinned Chrome
+ Pros: Well designed, having tabs on the side is so much smarter.
- Cons: Some features are hard to understand and not really needed. Chromium based, so see the cons of Chrome
Firefox: The dark horse
+ Pros: Haven’t tried it much but anything is better than Chromium. Made by a nonprofit. Good dev tools. Lots of extensions. Generally one of the best browsers.
- Cons: I don’t really know.
Opera GX: The weird kid
+ Pros: High performance (got over 400 in speedometer). Cool design. Ram limiter.
- Cons: Bloat. Also, it’s Chromium.
Safari: Overly hated on
+ Pros: Uses almost no energy on Apple silicon Macs. Simple design, no bloat. High performance. The best dev tools of any browser.
- Cons: Sites aren’t always tested for desktop safari (they are tested for mobile though). Not very many extensions (it supports chrome extensions with a rename but you need to have an Apple developer account to publish them).
My final ranking:
Safari (for Mac users)
Firefox (#1 if not using a Mac)
Arc
Chrome
Opera GX
comments
FYI I haven’t tried Arc yet as it isn’t on Windows yet. Also Safari I haven’t tried enough to comment on - the iPad version worked well is all I can really say since I used it a lot then. This is just me covering the main browsers rather than all the forks and side projects because I’d be here for like a million years lol.