8 ms·

What is the alternative to chrome that doesn’t crash or is not noticeably slower?

mrweasel 1y ago
Firefox? Weird question. I haven't even installed Chrome in the past 7 years. Firefox is fast (but I obviously don't know if Chrome is faster) and it never crashes.
- dartharva 1y ago
  Chrome does feel faster to me; I remember someone here saying that was because of some kind of procedural loading shenanigans or something. But the main hook for me is how websites look. I do a lot of reading on the browser, and fonts on Chrome always look better than on Firefox. I would switch to Firefox in a heartbeat if only things started looking the same on it.
  - 1718627440 1y ago
    I often hear that claim, but for me it was always the opposite. Firefox being fast while Chrome being a slow monster and memory hog. Also when I was using an RPi2b full-time, Firefox was working even though sometimes annoying, while Chrome was a no-go and would led to the OS being unusable.
wyattblue 1y ago
Brave Browser: https://brave.com/ https://brave.com/
- GolfPopper 1y ago
  Brave has some controversies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controvers...
  - guywithahat 1y ago
    I mean those aren't real controversies though, it's more like "we added a VPN feature and included the VPN, but have now removed it". A real controversy would be like Mozilla who was pushing for censorship and silencing "bad actors" in the years after the first Trump election.
    - cheschire 1y ago
      What? "This includes bringing new users to Binance & other exchanges via opt-in trading widgets/other UX that preserves privacy prior to opt-in. It includes search revenue deals, as all major browsers do." Seems pretty relevant to the current topic and not part of the VPN controversy.
slaw 1y ago
Firefox + uBlock Origin
azinman2 1y ago
I feel like people sleep on safari, especially on Macs.
- hk1337 1y ago
  JavaScript Chrome developers did a good job of convincing people that Safari is the new IE. I love Safari on macOS. I love the pinch/zoom with the tabs. I love that private browsing mode, at least seems to, keep things contained to the tab they started with. e.g. if I open facebook in a private tab then open new tab and go to facebook, it’s going to make me login.
  - giraffe_lady 1y ago
    Significantly better battery life too. Like hours.
  - bitpush 1y ago
    You're drinking Apple kool-aid if you think Safari isn't holding web back. Lots of anti-google people dislike Safari. Safari isn't the only non-google option you know.
    - hk1337 1y ago
      Apple is slow to adopt new features, sure but Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented.
      - gcau 1y ago
        >Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented Can you give an example of this?
    - kstrauser 1y ago
      Safari is far from perfect, but I’m glad they don’t implement everything Chrome does. Many of the complaints come down to “Safari doesn’t even support RunBitcoinMinerInBackground.js. It sucks!” And on the plus side, it’s vastly better at power efficiency, meaning I can use my laptop longer without being plugged in.
ramon156 1y ago
What's wrong with FireFox? And if you're not a fan of FireFox, Ladybird is becoming a thing in 2026
- Madmallard 1y ago
  [flagged]
haiku2077 1y ago
Doesn't crash? Firefox/Mullvad Browser is fine. Not slower? Safari or Orion.
wussboy 1y ago
Full time Firefox user. I run hundreds of tabs for days on end and need to restart it every week or so. Well worth it to not use Chrome. Need to open a site in Chrome about once a month
- abhinavk 1y ago
  The upcoming version has "Unload tabs" built in to the context menu. That should result in restarts limited to updates.
  - HelloMcFly 1y ago
    I use the Auto Discard Tabs plug-in, just lets tabs time-out after a set amount of time
- SoftTalker 1y ago
  I've used Firefox for years and it very rarely crashes. Individual tabs will crash occasionally, but rarely the entire browser.
brazzy 1y ago
Firefox.
NexRebular 1y ago
I use Vivaldi[1]. Also has built-in ad-blocker although I'm not sure how good it is compared to Ublock or others. [1] https://vivaldi.com/ https://vivaldi.com/
- dijksterhuis 1y ago
  seconded. been loving vivaldi since i switched.
secondcoming 1y ago
Firefox. It's been my default browser for years but now I'm noticing sites that don't work properly with it. I'm not sure why. It also has a really annoying 'feature' that its update process will sometimes force you to restart the browser.
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
I’m using Firefox and Kagi’s Orion browser [1] on my Mac and Safari on iOS. [1] https://kagi.com/orion/ https://kagi.com/orion/
- m-localhost 1y ago
  Is it easier to build a browser for MacOS? Arc was Mac only for the longest time, until they released a crippled Windows version. DuckDuckGo browser started Mac only.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > Is it easier to build a browser for MacOS? Financially, probably. Apple customers represent a disproportionate share of global consumer disposable income. Technically, I guess Unix-like, BrowserEngineKit and WebKit (Orion uses this) help. Good question, hope someone knowledgeable chimes in!
dismalaf 1y ago
I like Vivaldi myself.
duxup 1y ago
I use firefox full time, it works great for me.
0134340 1y ago
Well, for the past twenty years, Firefox has been a good alternative browser to Chrome, IE, etc.
guywithahat 1y ago
I really like Brave, blocks youtube ads and generally just works where other chrome alternatives don't https://brave.com/download/ https://brave.com/download/
- ronnier 1y ago
  I'm pretty worried about the security of Brave and stopped using it. I'd like to be wrong. But years old patches missing in Chromium not ported over until recently makes me nervous (referring to a recently addressed long time websocket bug in Brave). What else is missing? It just seems to risky to use for me.
voytec 1y ago
Zen Browser works well for me. It's a Firefox fork but privacy-focused whereas Mozilla recently became an ad company and published hostile TOS changes. No issues I had when I was evaluating LibreWolf.
cosmicgadget 1y ago
Any browser that lets you block javascript? It is weird how we now call browsers fast because they can quickly render the most cancerous content.
- 1718627440 1y ago
  In Firefox: about:config -> javascript.enabled = false
password4321 1y ago
I use Chrome for Google workspace, Firefox for ongoing personal logins, and Brave incognito for other browsing (restarting completely for a new session when changing gears). Last week's discussion on a profile management tool offered several insights into how others a bit further down this path use their browsers of choice: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44132752 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44132752
mmooss 1y ago
What experiences have you had with crashing, noticeably slower browsers? I haven't seen that in any modern browsers.

Firefox? Weird question. I haven't even installed Chrome in the past 7 years. Firefox is fast (but I obviously don't know if Chrome is faster) and it never crashes.

dartharva 1y ago
Chrome does feel faster to me; I remember someone here saying that was because of some kind of procedural loading shenanigans or something. But the main hook for me is how websites look. I do a lot of reading on the browser, and fonts on Chrome always look better than on Firefox. I would switch to Firefox in a heartbeat if only things started looking the same on it.
- 1718627440 1y ago
  I often hear that claim, but for me it was always the opposite. Firefox being fast while Chrome being a slow monster and memory hog. Also when I was using an RPi2b full-time, Firefox was working even though sometimes annoying, while Chrome was a no-go and would led to the OS being unusable.

wyattblue 1y ago

Brave Browser: https://brave.com/ https://brave.com/

GolfPopper 1y ago
Brave has some controversies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controversies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_(web_browser)#Controvers...
- guywithahat 1y ago
  I mean those aren't real controversies though, it's more like "we added a VPN feature and included the VPN, but have now removed it". A real controversy would be like Mozilla who was pushing for censorship and silencing "bad actors" in the years after the first Trump election.
  - cheschire 1y ago
    What? "This includes bringing new users to Binance & other exchanges via opt-in trading widgets/other UX that preserves privacy prior to opt-in. It includes search revenue deals, as all major browsers do." Seems pretty relevant to the current topic and not part of the VPN controversy.

slaw 1y ago

Firefox + uBlock Origin

azinman2 1y ago

I feel like people sleep on safari, especially on Macs.

hk1337 1y ago
JavaScript Chrome developers did a good job of convincing people that Safari is the new IE. I love Safari on macOS. I love the pinch/zoom with the tabs. I love that private browsing mode, at least seems to, keep things contained to the tab they started with. e.g. if I open facebook in a private tab then open new tab and go to facebook, it’s going to make me login.
- giraffe_lady 1y ago
  Significantly better battery life too. Like hours.
- bitpush 1y ago
  You're drinking Apple kool-aid if you think Safari isn't holding web back. Lots of anti-google people dislike Safari. Safari isn't the only non-google option you know.
  - hk1337 1y ago
    Apple is slow to adopt new features, sure but Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented.
    - gcau 1y ago
      >Google bulldozes features to be first to market so it can implemented the way they want it implemented Can you give an example of this?
  - kstrauser 1y ago
    Safari is far from perfect, but I’m glad they don’t implement everything Chrome does. Many of the complaints come down to “Safari doesn’t even support RunBitcoinMinerInBackground.js. It sucks!” And on the plus side, it’s vastly better at power efficiency, meaning I can use my laptop longer without being plugged in.

ramon156 1y ago

What's wrong with FireFox? And if you're not a fan of FireFox, Ladybird is becoming a thing in 2026

Madmallard 1y ago
[flagged]

haiku2077 1y ago

Doesn't crash? Firefox/Mullvad Browser is fine. Not slower? Safari or Orion.

wussboy 1y ago

Full time Firefox user. I run hundreds of tabs for days on end and need to restart it every week or so. Well worth it to not use Chrome. Need to open a site in Chrome about once a month

abhinavk 1y ago
The upcoming version has "Unload tabs" built in to the context menu. That should result in restarts limited to updates.
- HelloMcFly 1y ago
  I use the Auto Discard Tabs plug-in, just lets tabs time-out after a set amount of time
SoftTalker 1y ago
I've used Firefox for years and it very rarely crashes. Individual tabs will crash occasionally, but rarely the entire browser.

brazzy 1y ago

Firefox.

NexRebular 1y ago

I use Vivaldi[1]. Also has built-in ad-blocker although I'm not sure how good it is compared to Ublock or others. [1] https://vivaldi.com/ https://vivaldi.com/

dijksterhuis 1y ago
seconded. been loving vivaldi since i switched.

secondcoming 1y ago

Firefox. It's been my default browser for years but now I'm noticing sites that don't work properly with it. I'm not sure why. It also has a really annoying 'feature' that its update process will sometimes force you to restart the browser.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago

I’m using Firefox and Kagi’s Orion browser [1] on my Mac and Safari on iOS. [1] https://kagi.com/orion/ https://kagi.com/orion/

m-localhost 1y ago
Is it easier to build a browser for MacOS? Arc was Mac only for the longest time, until they released a crippled Windows version. DuckDuckGo browser started Mac only.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > Is it easier to build a browser for MacOS? Financially, probably. Apple customers represent a disproportionate share of global consumer disposable income. Technically, I guess Unix-like, BrowserEngineKit and WebKit (Orion uses this) help. Good question, hope someone knowledgeable chimes in!

dismalaf 1y ago

I like Vivaldi myself.

duxup 1y ago

I use firefox full time, it works great for me.

0134340 1y ago

Well, for the past twenty years, Firefox has been a good alternative browser to Chrome, IE, etc.

guywithahat 1y ago

I really like Brave, blocks youtube ads and generally just works where other chrome alternatives don't https://brave.com/download/ https://brave.com/download/

ronnier 1y ago
I'm pretty worried about the security of Brave and stopped using it. I'd like to be wrong. But years old patches missing in Chromium not ported over until recently makes me nervous (referring to a recently addressed long time websocket bug in Brave). What else is missing? It just seems to risky to use for me.

voytec 1y ago

Zen Browser works well for me. It's a Firefox fork but privacy-focused whereas Mozilla recently became an ad company and published hostile TOS changes. No issues I had when I was evaluating LibreWolf.

cosmicgadget 1y ago

Any browser that lets you block javascript? It is weird how we now call browsers fast because they can quickly render the most cancerous content.

1718627440 1y ago
In Firefox: about:config -> javascript.enabled = false

password4321 1y ago

I use Chrome for Google workspace, Firefox for ongoing personal logins, and Brave incognito for other browsing (restarting completely for a new session when changing gears). Last week's discussion on a profile management tool offered several insights into how others a bit further down this path use their browsers of choice: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44132752 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44132752

mmooss 1y ago

What experiences have you had with crashing, noticeably slower browsers? I haven't seen that in any modern browsers.