Browser speed showdown: Chrome vs. Edge vs. Firefox and more

The most popular browsers in a speed duel: Who will win the race?

Waiting — nobody likes it. Especially not on the web: With slow page loading and long loading times, you quickly lose interest in any content. To avoid such tests of patience, however, it’s not just a matter of having a good broadband connection — your surfing speed also depends on the browser you use.

When interpreting HTML, executing scripts, or loading graphics and videos, browsers like Chrome, Edge, or Firefox often perform differently. We want to get to the bottom of these differences in performance: We let the most popular browsers battle it out for the winner’s podium in a benchmark duel.

The environment: Test system and browser candidates

We ran the benchmarks on a mid-range system with the following specifications:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600, 3.6GHz
• RAM: 16GB, DDR4, 1,600MHz
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, 8GB VRAM
• Hard drive: 970 EVO Plus, M.2 SSD
• Operating system: Windows 10, version 22H2

The browsers we’re testing for speed:

• Google Chrome: The most widely used browser in the world since 2012. Google makes most of the source code publicly available. (Download Chrome)
• Mozilla Firefox: Firefox has been available since 2002, but has since lost its former dominance of over 70 percent — to a market share of around 4 percent. The open-source browser can be flexibly configured with numerous add-ons. (Download Firefox)
• Opera: This proprietary browser is also available free of charge and now relies on the HTML renderer of the latest Chromium. (Download Opera)
• Microsoft Edge: Microsoft’s new browser was first released in 2015 and is usually an integral part of Windows. (Download Edge)
• Brave Browser: This open-source browser is available for many operating systems from Windows to Android to macOS. The developers attach particular importance to security and privacy. (Download Brave)
• Vivaldi: Originates from Norway and is developed by one of the founders of Opera Software. The browser scores with good ideas and flexibility. (Download Vivaldi)

These benchmarks demand everything from browsers

Put through its paces: When running through these three benchmarks, our browsers have to give their best in everyday applications.

Foundry

Three demanding browser benchmarks are available free of charge on the browserbench.org website. Browsers are pushed to their performance limits in disciplines such as page loading, response speed, JavaScript or web assembly, and graphics performance. The focus of these evaluation procedures is on different areas in each case:

• Speedometer 3.0: This benchmark measures the response speed of web applications. Demo scenarios are used to simulate user interactions.
• Jetstream2: This tests the performance of web assembly and Javascript. To perform well in this test, browsers must start quickly and not waste time executing code.
• Motionmark 1.3: In this graphics benchmark, browsers have to fulfill complex tasks and achieve a certain frame rate in complex animations (60 hertz on our test system).

Which is the fastest browser?

The six browsers now have to assert themselves one after the other in the selected benchmarks. The requirements are always the same: We use the latest versions without extensions or add-ons.

Benchmark 1: Speedometer

We use the Speedometer to measure the response speed of the browser in various (simulated) web applications.

Foundry

• 1st place: Chrome with 18.5 points
• 2nd place: Firefox with 17.2 points
• 3rd place: Brave with 17.0 points
• 4th place: Vivaldi with 16.8 points
• 5th place: Edge with 16.3 points
• 6th place: Opera with 13.9 points

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Benchmark 2: JetSsream2

In this benchmark, browsers have to assert themselves with fast code processing such as the execution of Javascript, among other things.

Foundry

• 1st place: Opera with 223,719 points
• 2nd place: Chrome with 223,631 points
• 3rd place: Brave with 222,616 points
• 4th place: Vivaldi with 219,628 points
• 5th place: Edge with 217,623 points
• 6th place: Firefox with 154,365 points

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Benchmark 3: Motionmark

High demands: In the graphics benchmark, a browser has to animate hundreds of objects in parallel.

Foundry

• 1st place: Edge with 2054.54 points
• 2nd place: Chrome with 2033.72 points
• 3rd place: Opera with 1817.31 points
• 4th place: Vivaldi, with 1816.79 points
• 5th place: Brave with 1763.51 points
• 6th place: Firefox with 113.69 points

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Conclusion: Chrome wins the race

First place once and second place twice: According to our browser race, Chrome is the clear winner — especially as Google’s web browser is only a few points short of taking first place three times.

Whether you’re a normal user or a power user, Chrome is almost always faster online. However, the high-speed browser also has a few disadvantages that go beyond its speed: Google’s business model is based on data processing and the company is repeatedly criticized for collecting a disproportionate amount of user data.

Further reading: I got sick of Chrome’s BS and switched to Vivaldi. Here’s what happened

The situation is very different for the last-placed browser in this comparison — Firefox, which makes data protection a priority, comes in last place for Jetstream and the graphics benchmark, by some distance. To its credit, Firefox can be said to have achieved a good second place in the processing of web applications (Speedometer), but overall its performance falls behind the competition.

However, the extent this is noticeable in everyday use also depends on individual user behavior. Anyone looking for a suitable browser with more than just theoretical top speeds in mind will also find good arguments in favor of Firefox: countless add-ons and many configuration options, for example. This means that Mozilla can also impress when browsing beyond the accelerator pedal — but you can only dream of the working speed of Google Chrome with Mozilla.

This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2390201/browser-speed-2024-this-is-how-fast-chrome-firefox-edge-co.html

The Best Web Browser in 2024

Choosing the best web browser can significantly impact your online experience, from how fast your favourite websites load to how secure your personal data remains. With each browser bringing their own set of strengths and features to the table, it can be challenging to determine which one aligns best with your specific needs.


To help with this, we’ve objectively tested Safari, Chrome and Firefox to discover the best web browser across speed, standards compliance, graphics performance, energy efficiency and privacy safeguards.

These browsers are regularly updated, so what was once a browser’s competitive advantage can quickly become its achilles heel.

Whether you’re a tech lover, a casual surfer, or just looking to improve your browsing experience, our detailed comparison will help you find the best browser for your needs.
On this pageFastest Web Browser
Most Standards Compliant Web Browser
Best Graphics Performance
Most Energy Efficient Web Browser
Most Privacy Compliant Web Browser
Overall Winner
Fastest Web Browser

The speed of your web browser has the biggest impact on your online experience. We’ve tested which browser offers the quickest load times, best responsiveness, and overall performance, helping you choose the one that delivers the smoothest and most efficient browsing.

Speed RankBrowserSpeedometer Score (Avg)
1st Safari 38.1
2nd Chrome 34.3
3rd Firefox 33.9


By using the Speedometer v3.0 test suite, we see that Safari ranks first for page rendering speed.

Three tests were conducted for each browser, with the average of results used for the ranking. Speedometer measures Web application responsiveness by timing simulated user interactions on various workloads.

We can see that in this test, Safari has leapt ahead in terms of web browsing speed. It is approximately 11% faster than its nearest competitor Chrome while, as historically been the case, Firefox lags behind.

However Firefox is closer in web browsing speed to Chrome than Chrome is to Safari, so with more optimisation work Firefox could get to second place.
Most Standards Compliant Web Browser

Standards compliance ensures websites function seamlessly across different browsers.

We’ve examined how well each browser adheres to contemporary web standards, focusing on reliability and consistency in website rendering for both developers and everyday users.
Standards RankBrowserInterop 2024 scoreCaniuse scoreAverage score
1st Chrome 90 461 275.5
2nd Safari 90 437 263.5
3rd Firefox 87 439 263


To properly rank standards compliance, we have used two different tests and then averaged the results from both.

First we took the score from the Interop 2024 (Stable) standards compliance suite. This scores browsers on their current conformance to the set of priority standards which all browser makers, as part of the WHATWG group, have agreed should be the focus for implementation in the current year.

Secondly we used the caniuse.com browser scores which are tallies of all features tracked on caniuse, excluding those marked as “unofficial”. Note that while caniuse tracks a wide variety of features, it only covers a subset of all web technologies so the scores are not 100% representative of any browser’s capabilities. Caniuse may also track features which are not deemed priority, privacy compliant or necessary by all browser vendors.

From a standards compliance perspective, Chrome is the clear leader. It is currently equal first in Interop compliance and far ahead in its breadth of feature support according to Caniuse.

In second and third place is Safari and Firefox, with nary half a point separating them. If standards compliance is your key consideration in a browser, Chrome is currently your best choice.
Web Browser with the Best Graphics Performance

Graphics performance can greatly enhance your web experience.

For today’s complex applications and games, smooth visuals and animations are essential. By testing graphics performance, we’ll identify which browser handles these tasks best.
Graphics Performance RankBrowserMotion Mark score (Avg)
1st Safari 7226.37
2nd Chrome 5989.24
3rd Firefox 1749.50


Using the Motion Mark v1.3.1 test suite at 60 fps, we see that it is far from a close race as Safari easily ranks first for web browser graphics performance.

Once again, Firefox lags in the performance department, trailing both Chrome and Safari for graphics rendering speed by a large margin.

Historically Chrome was the leader in the graphics rendering field but over the last couple of major releases, Safari has improved considerably. Safari is now head and shoulders the leader with a 20% graphics performance lead over Chrome.
Most Energy Efficient Web Browser

Energy-efficient browsers can significantly enhance your web experience by extending battery life on portable devices and minimizing heat and fan noise.

For eco-conscious users, choosing a browser that consumes less energy also contributes to a more sustainable environment.
Energy Efficiency RankBrowserAverage Energy Impact
1st Firefox 3593.87
2nd Safari 4827.48
3rd Chrome 4962.16


Energy efficiency testing relies on the macOS Activity Monitor to track the total energy usage of each browser since the device started, represented by the 12 hrs Power figure. In this test, lower figures are better. Each browser underwent one round of the Speedometer and Motion Mark benchmarks to assess their energy impact.

In this round of testing, Firefox emerged as the clear energy efficiency champion, consuming about 25% less energy than its closest competitor, Safari, and significantly outpacing Chrome.

While Safari has long touted its energy efficiency, Firefox’s advantage may be attributed to the benchmarks running less efficiently on this browser, resulting in lower energy consumption. If Firefox’s browsing speed and graphics performance was to improve it may come at the cost of more energy usage.
Most Privacy Compliant Web Browser

Privacy is crucial, and your browser plays a key role in protecting your data.

We’ve evaluated which option provides the strongest privacy features and best safeguards for your online activities.
Privacy featureSafariFirefoxChromeTrackers blocked by default ✔ ✔ -
Third Party Cookies blocked by default ✔ ✔ -
Fingerprinting defences included ✔ ✔ -
Default search engine is private - - -

Overall Privacy score 3 3 0
Privacy Compliance Rank 1st 1st 3rd


Unlike the other tests, privacy compliance ranking is based upon a browsers compliance with a set of privacy features, not via a benchmark. Each of these features has been identified as particularly useful in ensuring that your browsing is as private as possible while minimising the amount of data that a website may be able to gather: reducing potential for personal identification.

The overall Privacy score is the sum of the number of features that each browser provides as an in-built, default enabled inclusion.

Despite performing well in other categories, privacy is an area where Chrome is significantly lagging behind. On the features tested, it scored a zero.

Both Safari and Firefox supported the same set of included privacy features, making it an equal first ranking for this category.

A potential area for improvement for all browsers is to include a privacy focused search engine as the default option. At the moment, all three browsers tested use Google as the default search engine, which is notorious for its collection and tracking of user data.

The Overall Best Web Browser

The overall winner is the browser which has performed best across all of the categories: speed, standards compliance, graphics performance, energy efficiency and privacy protections.

As of October 2024, the best browser we tested is Safari. For all of the tests, Safari ranked either first or second.

It has amazing browsing speed, great graphics performance and improving standards compliance. Also, if you’re at all concerned with your privacy, then Safari is a great choice.

Safari blocks trackers and third party cookies by default and reduces the potential for personal identification via fingerprinting defences.

All Rankings   SafariChromeFirefoxSpeed 1 2 3
Standards Compliance 2 1 3
Graphics Performance 1 2 3
Energy Efficiency 2 3 1
Privacy Protections 1 3 1

Total score (lower is better) 7 11 11
Overall Rank 1st 2nd 2nd


Coming in equal second were Chrome and Firefox.

Overall Chrome performed well, but falls down when it comes to energy efficiency and privacy protections.

If you care about your privacy, then we cannot recommend Chrome.

By lacking basic privacy safeguards, Chrome fails to meet the privacy expectations of users in 2024. If this is not a concern for you, then Chrome does manage to deliver the most standards compliant browser we tested and performed generally well in browsing speed and graphics performance.

If you do care about your privacy, and don’t want to use Safari, then Firefox is a good third option.

However, Firefox is lacking in browsing speed and graphics performance but – perhaps due to this – is relatively energy efficient. It is also the only cross platform, privacy compliant browser included in our tests, so from that perspective it may fill a certain niche for some users.

This comparison was last updated in September 2024 and compares Safari v18.0 (20619.1.26.31.6), Chrome v129.0.6668.59 and Firefox v130.0.1 all running on macOS Sequoia 15.0.

The test machine was an M2 MacBook Air 15” with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Source: https://www.magiclasso.co/insights/best-web-browser/

Best Web Browser of 2024 - 11-2024

The best web browsers should provide an excellent user experience, combining simplicity with an intuitive layout, and should also provide useful answers to all your questions without impacting the performance of your device, or your security. However, finding the best browser for you is often a balancing act of all these factors.

We have tested and compared many different browsers on their interface, security protections, performance impact, cross-device compatibility, additional features and customization. Microsoft Edge remains in our number one spot for its speed, clear privacy settings, and the ability to save sites as apps to make accessing your favorite web pages easier than ever.

For those of a more security-oriented nature, the best anonymous browsers may be more your speed, as they can provide additional antivirus protection to keep you safe and help shield you from identity theft.

In order to improve the best browsers, you may also want to consider some additional security add-ons such as the best parental controls to keep your family safe, or the best password managers to stop cyber crooks from stealing your credentials. Here are our recommendations:

Best web browser overall

(Image credit: Microsoft)

1. Microsoft Edge

Best web browser if you need clear privacy tools

Specifications

Operating system: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux coming soon

Reasons to buy

+

Very, very fast

+

Crystal clear privacy tools

+

Can save sites as apps

Reasons to avoid

-

Windows really wants it to be the default

-

Will not support older computers with less than 1 GHz of processing capability

Older readers will remember Microsoft as the villains of the Browser Wars that ultimately led to the fall of Netscape and the rise of Firefox, and later on Chrome. But Microsoft is on the side of the angels now and its Edge browser has been rebuilt with Chromium at its heart. It’s Windows’ default browser and there are also versions for iOS, Android, and Mac.

The latest Edge is considerably faster than its predecessor and includes some useful features including Read Aloud, the ability to cast media such as inline videos to Chromecast devices, integrated AI tools including Bing Chat and Image Creator, and a good selection of add-ons such as password managers, ad-blockers, and so on. You can also download web pages as apps which then run as stand-alone applications without having to launch the whole browser. That’s useful for the likes of Google Docs or Twitter.

There are lots of customization options and we particularly liked the Privacy and Services page, which makes potentially confusing settings crystal clear. Elsewhere, the Site Permissions page gives you fine-grained control over what specific sites can do, including everything from pop-ups and ad blocking to MIDI device access and media autoplay.

Edge looks like Chrome and works like Chrome, but we like it more than Chrome: it’s noticeably faster on our Mac and the customization options are superb.

Read our full Microsoft Edge review.

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Best web browser for security

(Image credit: Mozilla)

2. Mozilla Firefox

The best web browser for power users and privacy protection

Specifications

Operating system: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

Reasons to buy

+

Incredibly flexible

+

Cross-platform sync

+

Good privacy protection

Reasons to avoid

-

A bit slower than rivals

-

Requires a large amount of system memory

Firefox has long been the Swiss Army Knife of the internet and one of our favorite browsers. It can alert you if your email address is included in a known data breach, it blocks those annoying allow-notifications popups, it blocks “fingerprinting” browser tracking and it brings its picture in picture video mode to the Mac version.

As before it’s endlessly customizable both in terms of its appearance and in the range of extensions and plugins you can use. Last year’s overhaul dramatically improved its performance, which was starting to lag behind the likes of Chrome, and it’s smooth and solid even on fairly modest hardware.

Firefox, one of the best browsers for a long time, is certainly a great choice for any internet user. It comes with a diverse range of features, beats Chrome in terms of privacy, is easy to use, and is also lightning-quick.

Plus, it doesn't ask for too much space either, so you don't have to think twice before installing it. What's more, Firefox also has multiple customization options — whether you want to stick to the default theme or experiment with a thousand other themes, the choice is yours.

Read our full Mozilla Firefox review.

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Best web browser for collecting content

(Image credit: Opera)

3. Opera

Best web browser for collecting content

Specifications

Operating system: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

Reasons to buy

+

Built-in proxy

+

Great security features

+

Really nice interface

Reasons to avoid

-

No more Opera Turbo

-

Not the fastest browser in the market

Opera sets out its stall the moment you first run it: its splash screen enables you to turn on its built-in ad blocker, use its built-in VPN, turn on its Crypto Wallet for cryptocurrency, enable in-browser messaging from the sidebar, and move between light or dark modes.

It’s a great introduction to a really good browser, although if you’re a gamer you should check out Opera GX instead: that’s designed specifically for gamers and features Twitch integration and Razer Chroma support.

Opera is yet another Chromium-based browser, so performance is speedy and you can use add-ons from the Chrome library. It also has some interesting ideas of its own such as My Flow: if you’re constantly emailing or messaging interesting links to yourself, Flow enables you to do that more elegantly by making it easy to share content from Opera on your phone to Opera on your computer.

But that's just the start. Opera's more advanced features include Aria, a powerful OpenAI-powered assistant which makes it easy to explain or summarize complex content, generate ideas and recommendations, translate text, or create new content of your own: emails, blog posts, letters, even poems or songs.

Although some people still see Opera as an also-ran in the browser world, it's improved in leaps and bounds in recent years, and the latest innovations ensure it's a browser to watch both now and in the future.

Read our full Opera browser review.

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Best web browser for a mix of everything

(Image credit: Google)

4. Google Chrome

Best all-round web browser

Specifications

Operating system: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS

Reasons to buy

+

Speedy performance

+

Very expandable

+

Cross-platform

+

Majority of browser extensions are compatible with Chrome

Reasons to avoid

-

Can be resource-hungry

If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery then Microsoft’s adoption of the Chromium engine for its own Edge browser must be making Google feel pretty good about itself.

But there are some areas in which Microsoft’s contender actually beats the big G, most noticeably in resource usage: Chrome is infamous for its hefty resource demands and it can run really slow on lower-end hardware and RAM (albeit more on Windows than ChromeOS, queue conspiracy theories).

The Memory Saver mode is designed to address that by freeing up resources from tabs you're not currently using, but Chrome remains pretty hardware-hungry.

Chrome is by no means a bad browser. Quite the contrary: it’s a brilliant browser with a superb library of add-ons, cross-platform support and sync, excellent autofill features, and some great tools for web developers.

It can warn you if your email’s been compromised, it has secure DNS lookup for compatible providers (Google’s own Public DNS is one of them) and it blocks lots of dangerous mixed content such as scripts and images on otherwise secure connections.

Perhaps best of all, if you're tired of suspicious websites asking you to 'click every tile containing a bicycle', Chrome now includes new ways to tell sites you're a human, not a bot, hopefully reducing the number of annoying captchas you'll see.

However, all this kind of gets rolled back by the fact that Chrome is owned and operated by Google as a means of collecting data from its users, regardless of what the company says about privacy. Secure it is, private it isn't.

Read our full Google Chrome review.

Best web browser for customization

(Image credit: Vivaldi)

5. Vivaldi

Best build your own web browser with unique docking and tab-stacking

Specifications

Operating system: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android (beta)

Reasons to buy

+

Incredibly customizable

+

Creative interface features

+

Supports Chrome extensions

Reasons to avoid

-

Bad for procrastinators

Vivaldi is the brainchild of former Opera developers, and like Opera, it does things differently from the big-name browsers. In this case, very differently. Vivaldi is all about customization, and you can tweak pretty much everything from the way navigation works to how the user interface looks.

Chromium is once again under the surface here (which means you can use most Chrome add-ons), but what’s on top is very different from other Chromium-based browsers. You can pin sites to the sidebar, stick toolbars wherever suits and adjust pages’ fonts and color schemes; have a notes panel as well as the usual history and bookmarks bits; customize the way search works and give search engines nicknames; change how tabs work and get grouped and much, much more.

You can even view your history in graph form to see just how much of your time you’ve been spending on particular sites. We particularly like the tab stacks, which are a boon for anyone who tends to end up trying to keep track of dozens of open tabs.

If you’re the kind of person who likes to fiddle with interfaces instead of getting on with stuff, it’s a potential productivity nightmare – but it’s fantastic for power users who know exactly what they want and how they want it to work.

Read our full Vivaldi browser review.

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Best web browser FAQs

What is a web browser?

A web browser is a tool that enables users to surf and access websites that are on the internet.

There are plenty of web browsers, but the most popular options are Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari, and Opera.

How to choose the best web browsers for you?

Selecting a web browser to use for the long term is a very personal thing, and will depend on your individual browsing security, privacy and accessibility needs. From a technical perspective, it will also depend on what your computer is able to handle in terms of processing speed, and memory capacity.

For example, if privacy is your primary deciding factor in a browser, Firefox or Brave browser will be your best bet. Although if you're used to using Google software and products, opting for Chrome may be a better option.

How we test

We've tested the best web browsers on factors like interface, speed, security, and other accessibility features. We evaluated their customizability, cross-platform support, and system requirements. 

We also mentioned if the browsers had additional security features like VPN or proxy.

Read how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.

Source: https://www.techradar.com/best/browser