7 Chromium Based Browsers With Extra Features
One of the most important pieces of software you will use on your computer is going to be the web browser. There are really three main browser brand names, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer/Edge, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome/Chromium. There’s also dozens of smaller third party browsers around to try out. Although Firefox and Chromium are both open source, the majority of third party browsers are based around Chromium and the Blink engine.
Chromium is the browser project from Google that Chrome is based around. The two are very similar but Chrome is more like the public version as Chromium is never officially released as a standalone browser. Chrome has extras like a PDF reader, Flash player, auto updater and multimedia codecs. Each third party browser developer has its own ideas and either takes things out of Chromium or adds new functions and features in. There are several functions built into Chromium and Chrome already but today’s internet user often needs more, which has to be taken care of with extensions.
A number of third party Chromium based browsers are really pretty similar to standard and offer a few security or privacy tweaks such as removing communication with Google servers. We’re more interested in looking at a browser that enhances the features and functions over and above the standard Chromium, such as built in ad blocking, mouse gestures, better tab/download/bookmark management or even something unique like a built in VPN or DNS encryption.
Here we list seven browsers based on Chromium and the Blink engine that have a bigger feature set and more options than the browser they are developed around. Importantly, the browsers can still directly or indirectly install extensions from the Chrome store, any that can’t were not included.
1. VivaldiVivaldi is the newest big player in the browser market with the stable version released in April 2016. It was created by a former founder and CEO of the original Opera. Unhappy with the direction Opera took after moving from its own Presto engine to Chromium’s Blink, they decided to create a new browser that reintroduces many of the features and functions removed from Opera. As a result, Vivaldi is currently popular among advanced users and geeks.
Perhaps the most striking difference Vivaldi has over other browsers is the color changing theme which alters the UI color to match the general color of the current web page. A very useful space saving feature is the tab stacking which allows you to drop one tab on top of another to group them together. What Vivaldi has in abundance is tons of options to tweak things like appearance, tabs and the address bar to your preference. As it’s still pretty new, Vivaldi should improve further and pick up more options and features as time goes on.
Selected Features:
- Customizable Speed Dial/Start page with folder groups
- Auto Color changing UI to match the website you’re viewing
- Custom themes with scheduling for day and night time themes
- Mouse and rocker gestures
- Tab stacking, tiling, cycling, hibernating and preview options
- Page actions including CSS debugger, content blocker, color filters
- Side Panel to view bookmarks, notes, downloads and web pages
- Vivaldi button or horizontal options menu
- Customize tab bar position, display, handling, cycling, stacking and pinned tabs
- Custom keyboard shortcuts and quick commands
- Save and load all tabs in a custom session
- Reading view mode
- Bookmark system with thumbnails and nickname shortcuts
- Quick commands (F2) to quickly find the function or keyboard shortcut
2. Yandex Browser
Yandex is the Russian internet services giant with one of the biggest search engines in the world. Their Chromium based browser has been around since 2012 and within that time it’s gained many users and some interesting features. The user interface is somewhat different to standard but it still looks and behaves like you’re using a Chromium browser. Yandex Browser is also available for Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Linux.
One of the most talked about and currently unique features in Yandex Browser is DNSCrypt which sends to and receives encrypted requests from a DNS server. The Tableau is a fancy name for a start or new tab page but is nicely done with a default full window animated background, optional personal news feed and a speed dial of your favorite websites. Although the website doesn’t specifically say, the Protect security system supposedly scans downloaded files with Kaspersky. On install, you will be offered the choice of Google, Bing or Yandex.ru as the default search engine.
Selected Features:
- Mouse and rocker gestures (not customizable)
- Tab position top or bottom with colored tabs to match website theme
- Disable all notifications for 3 hours
- Opera based Turbo mode to compress pages and video on slow connections
- Tableau URL shortcuts for Start page/new tab with Yandex Zen personalized news stories
- Smart box with advanced search and share to email/Facebook/Twitter
- Antishock blocks fraudulent or unpleasant ads and popups
- One click extension install for Evernote, LastPass, Adguard, Lightshot, Pocket, Turn off the lights
- DNSCrypt sends encrypted requests to a DNSCrypt enabled DNS server
- Protected mode for banking and payment systems applies stricter security policy
- Protect security system scans downloads with antivirus and secures webpages/WiFi/settings
- Ebook and document viewer can read epub, fb2, doc, docx, ppt, pptx, rtf as well as pdf
3. Cent Browser
Cent is a Chromium based browser from a small group of developers in China which first appeared in early 2015. If you are someone who wants a more feature rich browser but likes the minimalist user interface of Chromium and Chrome, Cent maybe just what you are looking for. Unlike some other browsers here, Cent sticks more closely to the original look and feel of Chromium with most of its power coming from the array of extra options found in the Settings window.
Cent is not the type of browser that is loaded with tons of big features but instead includes loads of tweaks, improvements and functions that accumulate to make a big improvement over the standard Chromium. For example, a few changes to the default new tab page, bookmark layout, toolbar buttons and how tabs look and behave make a difference. The single extension process memory saving feature could potentially reduce memory usage if you use multiple extensions. The drawback is one extension crashing will likely crash the other extensions as well.
Selected Features:
- Changeable tab shape and new tab button. Remove avatar button
- Toolbar buttons for restore closed tabs, downloads, mute, bookmarks
- Custom new tab page or edit the default Google new tab page
- Scrollable tab bar with tab menu to select, close or unload tabs
- Multiple open/close tab options with custom width and hover activate
- Hideable bookmarks bar, multiple bookmark columns, left edge bookmarks
- Custom stylesheet, cache directory and startup command line box
- Built-in download manager accessible from the toolbar
- Memory optimizations with auto purge and use a single extension process
- Mouse gestures, rocker gestures and Super Drag
- QR code generator in address bar
- Custom keyboard accelerators and shortcuts including Boss key
- Fast image saver, auto scroll, custom background color for all web pages
- Video popup with play in window, enlarge to page, download video/audio
- Official portable version
4. Opera
The Opera browser is now over 20 years old and in 2016 was sold to Chinese internet security company Qihoo 360. Opera is still owned and run in Norway though, which has to adhere to local and European laws regarding privacy and data. Back in 2013 Opera made a decision to discontinue its Presto engine based browser and instead go with a Blink based Chromium version. Opera has been introducing some interesting features in recent times which is helping to put it back up there as one of the most used Windows web browsers.
The currently most talked about feature in Opera is the new VPN which goes through Opera owned SurfEasy servers. Over 2 million users were added to Opera’s user base within a week of its release. The other recent addition of an ad blocker is very useful. The Speed Dial has been present for a long time and is one of the most polished around. Opera cannot install extensions direct from the Chrome Store, only the Opera extensions site. To get around this install “Download Chrome Extension“, it can’t install Chrome store themes or apps but should support just about all extensions.
Selected Features:
- Built in unlimited SurfEasy VPN with 5 global locations
- Built in ad blocker with exceptions list and custom block lists
- Battery saver mode to reduce battery drain while unplugged
- Opera Turbo pre-compresses pages on Opera servers
- Video popout enables floating video window
- Customizable Speed Dial/Start page with folder grouping and news
- Full window tab previews
- Mouse and rocker gestures (not configurable)
- Custom keyboard shortcuts
- Personal news reader with RSS support
- Highlight text quick menu with search and copy buttons
- Enhanced Bookmarks with page previews and customizable thumbnails
- Fast startup sequence loads multiple tabs quicker when starting the browser
5. Slimjet
The Slimjet browser is made by Flashpeak who also make the Trident engined SlimBrowser and Slimjet’s predecessor, SlimBoat. Slimjet has been around since 2014 and during that time has developed into one of the most feature and function rich Chromium based browsers available. In addition to the main Windows 7 – 10 version, there’s also versions for Linux and a special version for Windows XP and Vista users.
While Slimjet doesn’t contain anything groundbreaking, it is stuffed full of very useful features that aren’t in the standard Chrome/Chromium. All of these add up to make a browser which should have something for average and advanced users alike. The built-in ad blocker is a welcome inclusion and should have broad appeal as will the memory optimization functions, which actually do seem to work. The proxy manager is good for quickly changing between different proxy addresses and the resumable download manager is a handy addition.
Selected Features:
- Built in ad blocker with whitelisting and additional filter lists
- Multiple connections download manager with resume
- Video downloader with audio extraction
- Screenshot capture including selected area mode
- Built-in video recording of current tab via Screencastify extension
- Customizable toolbar with 21 buttons and profile switch button remover
- Enhanced tab options
- Mouse gestures with basic super drag to search and open links
- Photo shrink and upload with photo enhancer and clipboard upload
- Tracking prevention with social network javascript and Google ad blocking
- Custom cache directory and size
- Memory management with idle tab unload and auto optimize memory
- Facebook integration with one click share text/image/link
- Customizable new tab/Start page with built-in weather forecast
- Smart form filler with quick fill and auto fill
- Url alias shortcuts
- Proxy manager with quick switcher toolbar button
- Save web page as PDF
- Profile switch button remove, hide/auto hide bookmarks bar
- Auto refresh current or all tabs at specified intervals
- Tracking prevention with remove search engine indirect links and block third party content
- Official portable version
6. UC Browser
UCWeb’s browser is one of the most well known and popular on mobile platforms but they also have a Windows web browser that’s been around since 2015. The UC Browser user interface is visually quite different from most other Chromium based browsers and the extra themes that can be applied are quite striking. We find the default theme is probably the best looking though. One issue with UC Browser is it’s often three or four major versions behind the current Chromium which means it’s also behind on security updates.
One of UC Browser’s most interesting features is the free WiFi option. In reality you don’t really get anything for free and the option will simply turn a wireless enabled computer into a WiFi hotspot. It’s quite simple to do anyway in Windows 7 and above but the browser makes it easier to setup for non techies. Many of UC Browser’s features are media related with the built-in screenshot tool, resource downloader, video popup and image previewer. The included ad blocker and download manager are something all users should find useful.
Selected Features:
- Custom layout with theme support
- Screenshot tool with built-in editing functions
- Free WiFi quickly turns your computer into a wireless hotspot
- Link preloading, next page preloading, auto page scroll
- Cloud Boost compresses images before loading
- Mouse gestures and Super drag
- Customizable keyboard shortcuts, Boss key function
- Built in ad/popup blocker with custom filter lists and exceptions
- Built in resource downloader extension to grab on page images, video or audio
- Online video popup to play video in pop-out window or download video/audio
- Full window opened tabs viewer with thumbnails
- Custom user data folder location
- Customizable new tab/speed dial page with 2 different styles
- Download manager with Thunder high-speed downloads
- Image Previewer to see full-size images while hovering over thumbnails
- Brightness adjustment with auto UI night mode
7. Sleipnir
Sleipnir is a browser from Japan, which is a bit of a pain on the website as most web pages redirect to Japanese pages. Luckily the browser itself is fully multi-language. Sleipnir has two different maintained versions of their Windows browser, 6 and 4. While the version 6 user interface is pretty looking but somewhat of an acquired taste, Sleipnir’s version 4 is the one we are looking at because it more closely resembles a Chromium based browser. We’ve also read several reports of version 6 being quite sluggish to use although feature wise they are quite similar.
One of Sleipnir’s most prominent features is tab grouping. The Groups button is to the left of the opened tabs and pressing it will open a new grouped tabs area above. The feed reader is very useful for users that need one as few other browsers include such a feature. Being able to switch between Internet Explorer and Blink rendering engines is good to expand page compatibility while extras like Supersearch, smart search bar, quick security switcher and tab preview help to enhance the browsing experience.
Selected Features:
- Choose from 16 different user agent strings or create your own
- Includes Internet Explorer Trident rendering engine with per site switching
- Mouse gestures, mouse aliases and super drag extension
- Customize keyboard shortcuts
- SnapCrab window and desktop image snapshot tool
- Quick security switcher allows default, secure or full access modes
- Tab groups allows you to create separate sets of color coded tabs
- Integrated Feed reader
- Side panel shows bookmarks, history and feeds
- Clear history, cookies, cache etc on exit
- Customize user interface by editing toolbar items and buttons
- Smart search bar popup on highlighting text
- Auto refresh selected tabs at intervals, refresh all or stop all tabs loading
- Restore data mode to restore previous bookmarks and opened tabs
- Supersearch searches the web, search history, bookmarks, history, tabs and actions
- Tab preview on hover with mini toolbar to bookmark, close or pin page
- Open tab in SuperView which is a floating window with just the page content and no controls
- Official portable version
Download Sleipnir 4 | Download Sleipnir 6
Note: There are dozens of other Chromium based browsers available and some have useful or interesting features. For instance, Brave Browser has the very good Bravery security/privacy panel and a rather unique ad payments option. Epic Browser has a built in US proxy and the Umbrella button to turn on or off ad blocking and privacy options. Unfortunately, neither support extensions. Avant Ultimate is a triple engine browser which does support Chrome extensions but they are not completely implemented because there is no toolbar with icons to control them.
Some Observations About Browser Performance
Because all these are Chromium based browsers, they should perform pretty much the same. Of course, included features might consume more or less system resources depending on what that feature is designed to do. While this is not a controlled speed or memory benchmark test, we did make a few notes about anything that stood out performance wise while testing.
The memory tweaks in Slimjet really do appear to work and it used far less memory than anything else. Conversely, Vivaldi was the biggest memory consumer by some margin. With seven tabs open it used nearly twice as much RAM as Slimjet. The other browsers were similar to each other but when you take into account some have built in features like an ad blocker, memory usage will not be as high compared to browsers that need an extension to perform the same task. If you have a computer with low memory, Slimjet as a good place to start.
We noticed no huge differences in general page load speed (excluding ad blocker usage). Cent launched itself and loaded a predefined set of pages a bit faster than the others though. The difference wasn’t massive but noticeable (2-3 seconds better than average). With a handful of extensions added Vivaldi really slowed down in launch time. In fact, with the same extensions installed Cent could launch and almost load its pages before Vivaldi even opened its window.
Chromium releases a new major version around every six weeks or so. As a consequence, the browsers based on it are being updated almost as fast with new features, functions, fixes and tweaks. Although during general testing a few browsers stood out performance wise, it really comes down to whether the browser in question has an appealing feature set that will likely decide whether it’s right for you.
And if you want to give Chrome a last chance, it’s essential to ensure your profiles are well-managed, especially if you plan to switch between browsers. Creating, backing up, and restoring Chrome profiles can help streamline the process, making it easier to maintain your settings even if you decide to return to Chrome later.
Slimjet may be one of the best browsers in the world, but…
Even after complete uninstallation, you can’t eliminate countless listenings to the Fpseek.com malware, which is then still systematically found on services like Svchost, Spooler etc, on Chrome-based browsers, even on utilities like Logitech, Avast, etc… despite the absence of any trace of Slimjet or Fpseek in the Registry after uninstallation, including manual search.
Use Nirsoft utilities, Process Explorer or MooO ConnectionWatcher to view listenings.
I also did a browser search engines reset, with no results. No effective solution is seen on the Web and the use of anti-virus and anti-spyware known as Malwarebytes and others give nothing. The only solution found is to block internet access to Fpseek.com via a firewall or with the Hosts file..
Too bad, because Slimjet is an excellent browser!
borncity.com/win/2018/03/27/slimjet-browser-beware-of-bing-search-engine/
spyware.neocities.org/articles/slimjet.html
I had installed cent and slimjet seeing this post almost 4 years ago. Later after 1 month, i decide to uninstall slimjet and continue with cent only since slimjet is visually un-appealing. So i have been using it now for almost 4 years and it has never crashed on me. I use more than 8 windows of browser all the time with 5 extensions continuously. And yeah i have never found anything suspicious in it. All my friends have praised it for being so light on resources. Its actually what saved my laptop which has 4 GB of non-extended RAM. Chrome and Opera were not able to open more than 3 windows of browser and hanged after that.
I do agree that cent needs to increase its update regime but apart from that there is nothing i can complain about it. So unfair to see people commenting bad about it without even using it just saying Chinese browser and knowing little.
Iridium and Dissenter are also less known but are they bad? No because they are not Chinese according to you?
Its time to try out Brave Browser!
Actually I was searching for private browser and private search engines for Android. And honestly have no idea How to turn on a computer. But after reading the comments left about the browser”Cent” I asked a tech that works with one of my sister’s. After he did what he does, what he advised was some back ground activity consider”suspicious.” Also said was pretty good browser. With the suspicious activity, it’s being forwarded to higher technicians. About All I was allowed to say about it. Did I mention sister works for a extreme security company that has only one employer? Might have heard of them.
US Government. Sucks trying to visit her there. Always has couple big”Goons” with her.
If there is actual evidence of something suspicious going on, then fine and we can look at it. But so far, it’s all just been hot air and silly comments rather than anyone coming up with useful information.
One area where I do think Cent could be a problem is in its terrible update schedule. Sometimes it’s 4 or 5 major Chromium versions and several months behind other browsers. While that’s not Cent being intentionally malicious, it is a potential security issue for end users.
I’m late to this game but here’s my 2 cents. I work in the cyber-intel field for the USG. I’m fortunate to have access to gobs of classified reports and studies regarding our adversaries. I realize this is “unscientific”, but I recommend not using any Chinese software (be careful with hardware) for security reasons. Basically use software from the U.S. and our “closest” allies. I say “closest allies” to distinguish them from our “fair weather” allies. Now if you’re running a system that does not contain any personal and sensitive information, then play away.
“I recommend not using any Chinese software for security reasons”, the problem is a lot of people would say the same about US or “western” based software. They are certainly not angels either and there are no perfect options in this area. Sometimes it’s a case of trying to decide on the “least worst” option.
Hardware is even worse because something might have “made in the USA” stuck on it but components inside could have come from all over the world (probably Chinese parts in there somewhere).
ive been using chinese browsers for years. 360, uc, sogou, qq, baidu, and dont really have a big problem with them. i even use chinese operating system
So you should know that US government was found spying all his allies and even governments ? I don’t see why it would be worst for me to be spied by Chinese than USA.
Take care with Cent. If you do an internet search of “Complete list of browsers,” you will find quite a few, and you will see Cent nowhere, including Wikipedia. I asked about this on Cent’s forum, and my account was disabled. If you check your Task Manager while running Cent, you will find lots of things running quietly on your machine, as many as you will find if you’re running Chrome, and that is saying something. I decided to uninstall Cent — a pity because I did like it — and that was no easy chore either.
In short, beware.
Because it’s not on someone’s browser list that is somehow a problem? Loads of other browsers are also harder to find but that doesn’t mean they are somehow dodgy or untrustworthy. A cursory search for Cent Browser shows you there are plenty of reviews and topics for it online. Loads of other good but niche browsers around that don’t get the press like the major names.
“If you check your Task Manager while running Cent, you will find lots of things running quietly on your machine, as many as you will find if you’re running Chrome”, they’re called processes and every version of Chromium has them. If fact, Cent can have fewer processes than other browsers because it can merge all extensions into a single process.
As a Cent user, I really can’t see there is anything to beware of apart from it can sometimes get behind in updates or unless you don’t like Chromium browsers in general.
There are very, very few mentions of Cent online, certainly not “plenty.” I think I found two after two days of extensive searching. I’m something of a browser junkie. I like to check them out. I’ve encountered none with so many things running on my Task Manager. Except the infamous Chrome, of course.
My worries may be overblown, but who knows?
If you search for Cent Browser you get two results? You are certainly doing something wrong if that’s all you get, I get ~400 results in Google including reviews by a few major websites. Kinza Browser is another that falls into a similar bracket as Cent, with even fewer results. But again, should you ignore that as well, even though good things are being said about it?.
As a self confessed browser junkie, I don’t think you understand how Chromium based browsers work. They have separate processes for each open tab and for each extension. The more of each you have, the more processes appear in Task Manager. That is the same for all of them, Cent, Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, the new MS Edge, and anything else based on Chromium.
Whichever way you want to look at this, it is unfair to single out Cent for criticism when it is no worse and in most cases better than similar browsers for process usage.
@HAL9000 I don’t think you got his point. The running processes are one thing but there are other suspicious things running on the background or that get launched during Windows startup.
This is common to most of the ”chinese” web browsers…. just to name a few that have a GUI in english (Maxthon, 360chrome, UC, TS, DC…)
My main browsers are based on Firefox I don’t like to feed the giant monopoly in this regard for several good reasons.
here is a list of excellent alternatives alternativeto.net/list/10108/browsers
I do get the point, Cent browser is the browser being criticized specifically and I have used it for years and never seen anything remotely “suspicious” about it. I have never ever heard or read of anyone else that uses it complain about suspicious processes or anything else. You’ll have to do better than “it’s a Chinese browser, therefore….” or it’s just silly talk that doesn’t deserve to be taken seriously.
the china made browser I often use was repacked by a russian and all the telemetry bits have been disabled for obvious reasons. believe it or not.
Haha, that’s pretty ironic. How would you know the Chinese telemetry hasn’t been replaced by a bit of Russian telemetry? ;)
As I said earlier, this comment thread was about criticism of Cent Browser, which was wholly unfair in my view.
the whole point of people looking for alternatives is that they are not necesarily looking for browsers with a lot of mention. in fact, i’d say you ended up on this page because you are specifically looking for something thats lesser known, and talked about. if you wanted to use browsers that receive alot of attention, then use chrome
There are probably some good browsers out there that nobody commenting here have ever even heard of. It doesn’t make them bad browsers because they are not on a list somewhere.
Thank you for the warning. If it anything my computer doesn’t need is suspicious and unnecessary processes. I even have my anti-virus/malware streamlined to Microsoft alone.
The user made an unfounded accusation, provided no evidence to backup his claims that there are malicious or suspect processes, but you choose to believe him anyway?
You do realize Microsoft’s own Edge will show a load of processes like Cent does and in most cases more. How are you going to get around that?
You wrote, “The two are very similar but Chrome is more like the public version as Chromium is never officially released as a standalone browser.”
Chromium is installed on my UBUNTU desktop, although I rarely use it as I prefer Firefox.
I just discovered your site. If I were still mainly using a Windows desktop, then this information would be indispensable and your site would be a favorite of mine. You have produced some very good stuff tutorials that I’m sure that I’ll be referencing when it’s time to help my friends.
That’s right, Chromium is installed on some Linux distros. I’m pretty sure it’s not an official release by the Chromium project though and done by the Linux developers themselves (or some other third party).
Brave Browser?
Brave Browser will be added next time we update the article. When we wrote this, Brave was quite young and didn’t support extensions, which was required for us to include it.
aint no body got time for that
comodo dragon
i don’t have specifics how it compares to others
but it’s definietely better than google chrome
mainly because it has no bullcrap apps that come with chrome
it has some security options which arent obstrusive
has it’s own dns service which helps me bypass some site restrictions also blocks the actual bad sites
loads up much faster than chrome and opens new pages faster
they offer an anti virus which is bad so just decline that
Comodo Dragon is an interesting browser but doesn’t really have much in terms of features worth shouting about. The few things it does have are through bolted on extensions.
“it’s definitely better than google chrome mainly because it has no bullcrap apps that come with chrome”. A strange thing to say, Chrome has 1 pre-installed extension and 3 apps and none are constantly in use. Comodo Dragon has 6 installed extensions and all are in use all the time. A vanilla Chrome will load the same or faster most of the time because of that fact alone.
i dont ‘t know about that, chrome has other addons too, i seen several times they added pdf readers and google services, stuff i wouldn’t normally need
not sure why then, but my old chrome was very sluggish, i fill it with bookmarks and some addons but still, i synched into dragon the same things and was way faster
but i gotta say that some sites don’t work in comodo and it wont even give error message about it
i noticed it with just-eat site, i couldnt look a page
same happened with blockchain site
it just stops without any feedback
not sure it’s because it’s behind chrome builds or other reasons but i think i will change to other browser
You could always try Chromium itself which is what Dragon is built on. It comes without the Google added extras.
chromium.woolyss.com
Still no chrome browser has a decent history management ! Why ? I use it as my secondary bookmark as to much work to do to bookmark ever web page ! Here problems occurs ! U cant group, select group, open group and or delete parts of chrome history (like in old Presto Opera based browser) ! Geniuses at google (most of chrome based browsers use that from google) do not give a shit about that they already have all our data, but we have to be in stone age and click damn links one by one ! I do a lot on internet and this is not only tedious its killing me ! Things getting worse not better ! Google chrome designed to be surveillance soft and to keep user on google search engine !
I completely agree. The history management in Chrome/Chromium is super basic and when I’m trying to go back and find certain sites I often find a bunch of history missing or just won’t even load. There are some extensions that you can download that make history management much better though. But as far as I’m aware you *have* to use Chrome for them to work. They don’t seem to work on two Chromium-based browsers I’ve tried them on (Opera and the new Microsoft Edge).
There is also a really awesome extension that I found that works on all browsers called “History Search”. It basically indexes all the websites you visit and lets you search for terms *inside* the web pages themselves rather than just searching the titles. There is a certain limit for how many pages it will index for free though, so if you want very long-term capability you have to pay for it.
I like this article….
360 browser finally came out in english
Great suggestions!
maxthon is my browser for many years and i can’t see here anything to change my mind.
gilles
I just cant believe that chromium tab management is not an issue for You. That problem is known for years. When asked about limited number of tabs you can open and have a meaningful view of them, Google geniuses replied to users to buy bigger monitors. They are unable/uninterested to add scroll bar/arrows so tabs can fill more than screen width. VIVALDI is THE ONLY Chromium based browser on planet Earth that solved the issue by offering vertical tab position (which is logical solution for wide screen monitors). When filled it offers scroll bar. You can achieve this in new Firefox via hack.
Tab management is essential requirement for me and browsers without it, in my opinion, don’t have any usable value.
It depends how many tabs you open at once that decides whether this is a big issue or not. For me, it’s a minor inconvenience sometimes and you find it a big problem, everyone has different priorities.
Thanks a lot… I was struggling with firefox.And because i wanted to sync my android chrome browser with my pc browser i had to seek an alternate chromium based browser.And after reading this post and all comments,I decided to give SLIMJET and CENT a try and just wow… I like both.. SLIMJET is my default browser now.it syncs my pc tabs to my android so well and it also installs chrome extensions with ease.And the best part.It starts instantly right after clicking on my slow 2GB ram pc and works fine even with 15-20 tabs open at which point firefox and chrome freeze for me.
I suggest you make a new list with 2018 updates to above browsers and anything new if you find.
Cheers .Thanks :)
Thanks, I don’t think there are many major changes in the listed browsers and I haven’t heard of any new browsers that are in the same category as these. If there is something that is definitely worth adding, we will add it.
Hii,Thanks for reply.I was thinking..that i like the Multifunctionality of Vivaldi browser and extra but useful features of UC browser.(Like cricket score and virtual wifi)
But the problem is ..these two are just so resource heavy that my old PC cannot handle them….Do you know is there any way to make them work on a slow pc (may be a lite version of these) or any tweaks?
I aslo gave Comodo Dragon a try but there is no new tab page….
by the way ay present Cent and Slimjet are working pretty good for me.
i also heard of Iridium browser (its paid) is it any good?
Have a look at Brave… it’s pretty awesome IMO.
Brave Browser, SWare Iron Browser and Mozilla FireFox are the three best web browsers to use for privacy.
:D
Brave will probably get included in our next update because it now supports extensions, but the other two are completely unrelated to the article.
UC Browser is giving me a malware warning on ESET Smart Security.
You probably have the “Potentially unwanted application” option turned on. That is very different to UC being malware. I have ESET as well and that option is the first thing I turn off during install, it does nothing but get in the way and flag perfectly legitimate software.
get rid of eset. keep uc
This sites clock seems to be broken. Note that the version # of browsers are from at least a half decade ago. So the information, and probably most comments, is outdated.
Incorrect, the article was written about a year ago and the browsers were the latest versions at the time. For example, Vivaldi, UC or Cent weren’t around 5 years ago, neither was the Opera VPN in the screenshot.
Is there such a thing as a Chromium based browser that, at the very top, has a drop down Bookmarks menu like Firefox has?
What you are looking for is normally called “menu bar”.
Yes, many of the mentioned in the article have it. Vivaldi and Sleipnir, for example.
In Vivaldi, you just have to click the Vivaldi icon (left to the tabs), and go to “View” -> “Horizontal Main Menu”.
Cent Browser has a button for the menu bookmark like the Firefox.
Raymond, any suggestion for lightweight Chromium based browser that is able to use extensions?
Currently, I’m using Yandex browser.. It’s working fine, but i dislike the UNREMOVABLE/Unable to uninstall extensions that come bundled into the browser and i barely use it. Plus, what make it bad is Yandex browser is silently auto update it ( Including silently download “Adobe Flash” into the browser, despite i always deny browser request to download “Adobe Flash” ). I dislike to use “Adobe Flash” for security reason.
Sorry for bad English, since English is not my native language.
I just installed an Open Source Iridium Browser after browsing and googling several website and doing my own search.
What i like most is, this browser is able to install Extension from Chrome Web Store and there is no bloatware bundled and pre-install together. Althought i can’t say much about the browser since i just use it. They claimed that this browser is “to enhance the privacy of the user and make sure that the latest and best secure technologies are used”, thought i feel it’s just same as using normal Chrome.
What i like most is, this browser is able to install Extension from Chrome Web Store, but all the other chromium browsers can also install Extension from Chrome Web Store.
Give Slimjet a go. It is very light on resources and runs great.
John
Vivaldi caused massive memory issues for my Linux laptop build (good hardware). A few times I had to hard reboot because it locked everything up.
Very nice browser to look at but runs horribly.
I use Maxthon for many years already. But 4, 4.9… not their 5, 5… newest version which I really don`t like and is completely different looking – a kind of heavy X-mas tree without air and with too much useless functions. I noticed they press now to switch to 5 and the older 4 starting sometimes to freeze… But it`s really fast, customizable, cloud syncronization too etc. Even if based on older chrome version – I think there are antiviruses for protection too… Of course, I read many will avoid it keeping their private data on it since it`s based in China (although is not the only one, there are a lot used and based there!). In general these Chromium browsers, from some mentioned here I use sometimes yandex, used vivaldi too (but noticed has not any mail option there like in old Opera presto), I noticed they spend too much CPU. Citrio, by the way, is treated like spam – you can find on internet about. The same about web UC Browser, installation is blocked by Eset Nod antivirus. Sleipnir is really too heavy for me – I like their old version when was half Trident, half Mozilla and had a valid RSS ticker! Slimjet crashes often and Opera became really bad, is not anymore what was before – without to announce, they even deleted my account on their forum I used to login in Opera Link, syncronize bookmarks and had it from the time of their web operamail!. Instead, I prefer and liked a lot presto based Opera, even now many pages may look incompatible with newest standards.. Thanks
I agree on Maxthon. After a year or two of growing increasingly frustrated with Firefox and Chrome (as well as my usual AV) I realized I’d been married to certain programs for no real reason other than my hatred of IE, Mcafee, Norton, etc. and I would just kinda put up with them because they were better by comparison.
Every few months or so I reset my laptop to factory so I decided I would take that state as an opportunity to try something different.
My intent was to download nothing but new browsers, av, utilities, etc. each time and keep them for the entire few months, never repeating programs until I’d tested everything that wasn’t straight-up scamware. Maxthon ruined that pretty fast. I loved it during the cycle I had it and didn’t care for any of the 3 browsers I had downloaded on the next one. After I couple weeks I decided I needed Maxthon back. It never crashed (nor did Shockwave, a daily occurence on Chrome at the time) never ate up memory and the “resource sniffer” was indispensable.
Plus, certain flash games that chugged along with literally EVERY browser I tried (and we’re talking around 30) ran so fast on Maxthon I felt like I was playing them on fast forward!
Unfortunately it has gone waaaaay downhill the past year or 2, with constant crashes and really bizarre lockups. I don’t even bother installing it anymore but it never occurred to me to go back to an older build. I think I will try that now as this current lineup (Chromium, Citrio and Waterfox) isn’t cutting it.
Nice roundup! For the criteria of unique features, tab management and Chrome extension integration, I’d offer Ghost Browser as well.. (disclaimer: I’m the founder). Every tab can have an isolated cookie jar (and more) so you can log into multiple accounts of one web site for pretty much any site. Additionally the Projects feature is a nice weapon in the battle against tab bloat.
Cliqz is latest browser with privacy concern. There is no need to installed 3rd party ads-blocker or anti-tracker. They won’t sell history or any thing. It is Mozilla company.
I love it Brain search [AI] and send tab to mobile.
Thanks and have a nice day.
Are there any browsers that can handle having many tabs(ie:50+) open. Palemoon just locks up after a while, Firefox does a similar thing. It seems like once Firefox is using 900,000k+ memory, it will just stop responding. Palemoon will do the same around 1,200,000k+.
I’d like to find a browser that can continue to work normally, assuming the computer has plenty of RAM, with that kind of load.
Try Opera or Firefox Nightly.
Currently I am using Sleipnir 6 on both Windows 10 & Android.
I like Rectangular shaped tabs,
Tab groups,
Chrome extensions; my favorite Adguard,
Lovely bookmark bar,
Double click on any word and search this or within given page,
Best synchronizing on both platforms,
Best UI, better than Edge,
Less memory consumption than Opera, Chrome or Firefox.
Thanks.
Really annoyed by Yandex and its hidden auto update scam.
Tried everything, task scheduler, services, task manaher, renominating update folder, NOTHING the bloody browser keeps auto updating and slowing the computer down during moments I need to manage computer and internet connection.
Strange no one here mentioned Iron Browser by SRware?
Sorry to hear Yandex is misbehaving. There is an option in settings to not update the browser when it’s closed, not sure if it will help.
I’ve made it quite clear in the article and the comments why browsers like Iron were not included.
The only good thing about Yandex browser is that when you send a request for support they replay within 1-2 days (though you”re helping them) but when you complain about the scam updating service, they remain silent :)
As I said I tried everything but the hidden update kicks in and distrups what a conputer administrator is doing, time to look for an alternative.
I would recommend Citrio Browser…… better for youtube
“Upload image from Clipboard” is an unbeatable feature which Slimjet boasts of! I have made a permanent switch to this Browser on account of above &i its Turbo-charged download manager! I would like to see this “Upload from Clipboard” getting extended to other file-types as well— such as .doc, .pdf etc.
Hi Raymond, thanks for the informative article. I’ll definitely try some of them.
cool. love it
I like Iridium. It’s Chrome based, has somewhat restricted customization optons, is not very feature rich, instead it is quick and lightweight on resourses.
Hi all,
is there a Chromium based browser that can have the tabs in the sidebar, but as THUMBNAILS (for previewing the page)?
Thanks
David
Hey DavidGP,
Yeah, Vivaldi does have that option in the Settings>Tabs page, if I remember correctly…
Cheers
@HAL9000
Thanks very much for your informative article.
Before I read this , I had just switched to Slimjet and couldn’t be happier.
For me Chrome had become a hog despite their recent efforts to minimize memory..
It;s interesting that you showed the screenshots of Taskmanager
comparing Vivaldi and Slimjet, because I compared most of them that way
and Slimjet came out as using the least amount of memeory.
In fact – for me -almost 1/3 compared to Chrome.
I’ve tried most browsers listed except for UC and for now – for me-
it’s Slimjet all the way..
I know , other people will have different requirements, but for me
the difference in speed is very noticeable.
Slimjet is indeed a very nice browser with lots of features, the icing on the cake is the low memory usage compared to similar browsers.
What stops me using it more is the very slow update schedule, sometimes Slimjet is 3 versions behind Chromium. Security starts to become a concern when it’s getting that out of date.
I agree with the fact that nobody is going to pay for a browser. So Ghost, is this a joke? And you charge people for using incognito?
Vivaldi all the way. Every single person to whom I have shown it, has gone home, uninstalled the data-stealing, privacy ignoring Chrome and installed Vivaldi instead. These are not ‘power users’ or ‘geeks’, they are ordinary people whom are fed up with companies such as Google from monetising their lives. I do not understand why you (and others) keep referring to Vivaldi as a browser for ‘geeks’ and ‘power-users’. If having a few extra options available to change your browsing experience is ‘geeky’ then we’re all in trouble as our collective IQ has obviously dropped by several points ;-)
Also worth noting that it was ‘geeks’ whom first brought Chrome to the general populace’s attention (I was one of those whom was at that time fooled by Google’s declaration of ‘do no evil’), but very few people (including yourselves describe it as a geek’s browser!
p.s. I’m not claiming that Google doesn’t have a right to fund itself, but as what is basically the largest advertising entity on the planet, it’s not short of a dollar or two. Focused specific advertising is a dangerous thing in my view, more akin to brainwashing than notifying somebody of your product. But I’m old-fashioned – I still believe in an individual’s rights.
As far as I’m aware, Vivaldi has similar privacy settings to Chromium, and Chromium in turn has similar privacy settings to Chrome. I’d be interested to know what you think is so great about Vivaldi’s privacy settings and what is so bad about Chrome’s when they appear to be quite similar…
Vivaldi is called by myself and many others a browser more for power users and geeks because the average user really doesn’t care that much for customizing things. Vivaldi is advertized as a feature rich and highly customizable browser. I would bet that ordinary people or those you know that have installed it, either don’t go home and fully customize it or don’t even use most of the features available. Sure, anyone can simply install Vivaldi and leave it at default settings and it will work fine, but you and I both know that is not what the browser was designed for. ;)
uc is the only one that works with xp by the way
Both Sleipnir 4 and Slimjet work on XP. Slimjet is a slightly older but still actively maintained version 10.
wrong. slimjet no longer works on xp. Sleipnir is not very friendly to english users. their website is in some foreign language
Like I said above, Slimjet version 10 is designed to work on XP and Vista and does so quite nicely. It’s based on an older version of Chromium but is still maintained and supported by Flashpeak.
The Sleipnir website being in Japanese does not stop anyone from running the browser in XP.
slimjet is probably running on chrome v49 while 360 is running on chrome v78. alot of websites will not load on chrome 49
Is it true that when You open plenty of tabs in Chromium Clones You have to buy new, wider monitor to be able to read tab titles? Smart.
And there’s this thing in Firefox/Pale Moon called Panorama…
LOL.
p.s. FF/PM got their tab functionality ideas from an old version of Opera – the same place where they found most of their ‘innovations’. (speed-dial, tabbed browsing, address bar search and many, many more.). It would be nice of them to make it clear that very few of Mozilla’s ‘innovations’ actually came from in-house. Regards PM, I haven’t used it in a while, does it still leak memory like a sieve? And did they fix those security issues they were having surrounding online purchases made through their browser? Apart from that I kind of liked it. You know, until something much, much better came on the scene. I’ve been using Vivaldi ever since :-)
Tree Style Tab addon, applied to GNU IceCat, seems to be a decent MULTI-ROW tabs support as requested by Marcus.
None of that browsers support MULTI-ROW tabs like Firefox, personally without that functionality I don’t see why I should move from Firefox.
I’m trying GNU IceCat now. Not so bad !
Hello may I suggest some new browsers for the list :
ghostbrowser.com (beta out)
opera.com/fr/computer/neon
I haven’t tried Opera Neon yet but I have tried Ghost Browser recently.
It’s got one or two potentially useful features but charging a premium for a browser or using a cutdown free version really isn’t going to work, in my opinion. People are not going to pay any money for a browser, let alone the completely outrageous $250+ per year I’ve seen mentioned.
Hi Hal. Thanks for trying Ghost. Current pricing is $10/month or $60/year. Free version is not cut down. It’s actually fully featured with limitations – not uncommon for productivity tools.
We’ve decided to use a freemium model, like most productivity tools do, rather than monetizing by tracking your every move on line or stuffing ads into your browsing experience, like most free browsers do. We feel that being beholden to our user-customers, we can build a better product than if we are beholden to our advertiser-customers.
Since it saves you 10-15 minutes a few times a day, the productivity gains for anyone charging over $5/hour for their professional services that are performed in a browser, are definitely recouped. We think it’s fair and so do all of our premium users. Turns out “People are not going to pay any money for a browser” isn’t really true…it’s a challenge changing the mindset for sure. But people are starting to see the value. We’re not the only ones with a premium version so I think this is more of a shift than an impossible.
Thanks for the mention @Its-A Me
Thanks for your input Larry, your free version is cut down because it is a restricted version of a full product, that by its very nature means a “cut down” version.
Err, which free browsers stuff ads into your browsing experience?
While I applaud your efforts to create a different product, by charging a not inconsiderable fee of between $60-$120 per year (your browser itself quoted me $250) rules out 99.999% of users. There’s also free and much cheaper paid Chrome addons that do a similar thing to your multi login.
Your talk of saving professional people xx amount of minutes or money per day is highly subjective and only a small fraction of people will likely find any real value in paying for it. If that is what you are aiming for, then great and good luck to you. But IMO, a paid browser is not going to reach mainstream in this day and age and will remain a niche browser with a small (and possibly loyal) following.
Any significant reason for not reviewing SW Iron. It claims to be a superior privacy oriented browser than Google Chrome and does update often. A 64 bit version is also available, and is compatable with the utitilities offered at the Google Store..
We made very clear at the top of the article we’re not interested in looking at browsers which offer nothing but a couple of minor privacy tweaks, there are dozens which do that. Iron falls into that category and is the same as Chromium apart from stopping a few calls to Google, you can stop most of those calls to Google yourself from within Chromium anyway.
This article is about Chromium based browsers that offer interesting and useful features Chromium doesn’t have.
Torch browser pretty much the same with UC browser.. the thing is’ im not sure if its still maintain properly by developers..
Torch and UC browser are nothing alike, the only similarity they share is the Chromium engine, everything after that is quite different.
Beware of Torch. My other browsers behaved very oddly the last time I had Torch. Eventually found the .exe had hooked into the system after uninstalling the program. Wish I’d taken a screenshot but basically Torch was ground zero on all network traffic. Regardless of the browser I had open, it was going “through” Torch!
A shame too cuz it’s actually a really nice browser. :(
Very good.
I was looking for options based on Chromium to replace a Firefox that is getting worse but consuming less than Chrome.
I tried some of those mentioned and although Opera works very well, you have to take into account the rest. I’ll try them a little.
Congratulations for the post.
Thanks very much for interesting, informative article. I have tried most of the browsers mentioned over the last few years. My favourite for a year or so is “Slimjet”. A straight forward, trouble free browser!
Opera is still owned and run in Norway though, which has to adhere to local and European laws regarding privacy and data. In other words, all your data goes straight to the ClA
you forgot to mention comodo dragon :3
We didn’t forget Comodo Dragon. Apart from the few privacy tweaks, we don’t consider it to have much else in the way of useful or interesting features over Chrome/Chromium.
ghostbrowser.com
Looks interesting although there’s not much in the way of extra features apart from one or two things. It’s also not available to the public yet…
@HAL9000 Thanks for the review, it’s definitely a great list of Chromium-based browsers. Just wanted to let you know that Ghost Browser is indeed available to the public and is free to download. Check it out at ghostbrowser.com and let us know what you think.
@HAL9000, thanks for the review.
Chromium developers had removed the Disable DirectWrite since v53.. Therefore, all fonts now renders only by DirectWrite. Existed the “#disable-direct-write” flag’s the last build is 52.0.2718 or before builds.
Many based-Chromium browsers did impressed by removing Disable DirectWrite. just as I guessed, many users has been react to this revert. If you can take a peek to Google-Opera-Vivaldi forums, you should read out there which it’s negative comments and “bring back to Disable DirectWrite” requests. Neither Chromium developers nor Opera nor Vivaldi care about requests, complaints by users.
Why I don’t like DirectWrite rendering. It’s fonts tasterized as anti-aliasing style which it is fuzzy, blurry and hurts my eyes (not only me!). Therefore, I’d stuck at old version of Chrome. After I discovered Cent Browser. In this browser “added back disabling Direct Write”. Of course, the Browser’s contains many useful features but for me, above all main priorirty is DisableDirectWrite feature. I try to inform everyone about the Cent Browser. I wish, its would be often update but implementing of the features to last stable Chromium engine couldn’t easy.
Yes, i confirm, that
“disable-direct-write” and disable WebRTC
are must have features in Browsers. I can not understand, why this 2 Features are removed.
And the next big problem is the removed XP support.
The best of all them is Slimjet definitly.. has the option to disabl fully WebRTC settins for flashplayer and many others
Opera with its latest update (41.0.2353.5) appears to have gone in the crapper. I had been using it past 2 years no issue, but just last weekend I got a new SSD and did a fresh install of Windows 7 and after all the updates installed Opera. Right away it would crash seconds after loading a page and would constantly ask if I wanted to make it default and checking yes or dont ask again had no effect. Removing, cleaning the registry and reinstalling fixed nothing. Rolling back to the previous version worked fine and Chrome also worked fine. Sad because I much prefer it to Chrome. Hopefully they can get back on track
You left out Torch (torchbrowser.com)?
It has 3 built-in features – an excellent torrent downloader (without the need of a dedicated torrent client), media grabber and a player. I use it daily and highly recommend it.
Yes, Torch was intentionally left out because there are some things about it I just don’t like.
Firstly it gets flagged by a lot of security software as malicious because it contains an adware extension. Although it can be removed people shouldn’t have to disable their antivirus to be able to download a browser.
Secondly I’m just not sure about the music and games add-ons. The music especially looks a bit iffy on its content. I realise it comes from sites like YouTube but just about all of it looks like copyrighted material to me.
Comodo Dragon (Now Chromodo) anyone?
If you read what the article is about, we’re not interested in listing browsers which are basically Chromium with a few privacy tweaks here and there, there’s dozens around that do the same thing.
We’re looking at browsers that have some truly interesting or useful features that Chrome or Chromium don’t.
Vivldi browser an interesting one. Which I need to try out. I use Chrome as my regular browser and for downloading opera which is now using chromium, opera is one of the best as it has so many different functions but chrome of decent hardware configuration is best among the lot.
As Chrome is identical to Chromium apart from a few things bolted on, they perform the same. As, like Chrome, these browsers are all based on Chromium they “should” perform similarly, and for the most part they do.
Personally, I thought Vivaldi was the overall worst performing out of all 7, for both memory usage and load times in certain scenarios.
When i had trouble with my computer, a person from telstra australia told me that telstra did not support mozilla firefox and that i should delete it and install chrome. and just a note as well the same person informed me that avast was not a recomended anti virus to use and i should delete it as well. interesting information from telstra, i installed chrome as suggested by them
SRware’s Iron is another solid Chromium-based browser that works very well and has better built-in privacy than Chrome.
SRWare Iron is virtually identical to Chromium apart from a few calls to Google. A lot has been written about Iron and the claims it has made about privacy. There are dozens of other browsers that do a similar thing.
What this article is about is browsers with interesting features over and above Chrome/Chromium.
Another alternative browser I’ve been using is Brave. Its main special feature is built in ad-blocking.
Brave is mentioned near the end of the article, it’s quite interesting but doesn’t support extensions, and that rules it out of our list.
What about citrio ;)
welcome
Very nice and informative post. :)
Thanks, and nice to hear from you again Sujay!
The post does show there are some really interesting alternatives to Chrome/Chromium around, and many are loaded with useful features.