In the previous editions of the browser comparison series, we compared a few popular browsers, the best Firefox forks, and in this finale edition, we will be comparing some of the best Chromium based browsers based on their performance and features. Details of the performance benchmarks are provided at the end of the article.
Note -> Benchmark scores for some browsers seem to have changed after the latest updates and some optimization on my test device. When comparing, consider scores mentioned in this article as the latest reference.
7. Opera & Opera GX
The UI/UX of Opera & Opera GX is their best part, they have distinct looks appealing to different audiences. But the sheer amount of unnecessary features and instability in certain aspects worsens the experience.
✅ Pros: The built-in adblocker works well, workspaces might be great for a certain type of users. The PIP mode though, is very special when compared to every other browser on this list. It automatically pops out the currently running video when you switch tabs, and you get a progress bar to seek through which is missing from all other Chromium based browsers. The quick dialog that pops up when you try to upload files, helps you quickly select recently downloaded files and is useful at times. You get features like mods (a gimmick, really) as well as the CPU & RAM limiters with Opera GX, which might be useful in certain situations.
❌ Cons: The VPN, which in reality is a proxy, provides really low speeds; in fact, VPN extensions from the chrome store give better speeds. The lucid mode makes videos look oversaturated and oversharpened, HD videos end up looking worse than they originally do. Pinboards are a good concept, but syncing them takes extravagantly long. The AI features feel clunky at times. Some websites like Youtube load slower on Opera, for some reason.
Leaves me with a mixed bag of emotions.
If you want edgy features, be it the UI or the mods or CPU & RAM limited, go for Opera GX, else Opera is a better choice.
Benchmark scores : Opera GX -> 977.09 | Opera -> 957.24
Design: 5/5
Performance: 2/5
Stability: 3/5
Bloat-free experience: 2/5
6. Thorium
Thorium is a marvelous project, kudos to the developer.
✅ Pros: It’s blazing fast, ranking second in performance on this list. Despite the recent controversy clouding the developer, both browsers by them, namely Mercury and Thorium are objectively very performant browsers.
❌ Cons: Stability is always an issue since they are majorly based on a single person for maintenance and updates. Thorium’s design is kinda funny, with the oddly colored icons. (RIP Contrast Ratio on dark mode)
Benchmark score: 1239.81
Design: 3/5
Performance: 5/5
Stability: 2/5
Bloat-free experience: 5/5
5. Chromium & Ungoogled Chromium
There isn’t much of a difference between the features of Chromium & Ungoogled Chromium, hence I grouped them up under one section.
✅ Pros: Both browsers are very performant, but Chromium generally scored higher on the benchmarks. If the Google integration doesn’t bother you, you are good with Chromium. For users who want to go completely off the track, ungoogled Chromium is the way to go. Both house the same features, ungoogled Chromium comes without the intrusion by Google, which might or might not be good for you.
❌ Cons: Both of these projects don’t have any official build from the developers for Windows. So you have to compile the code yourself which is just not for the general user, or rely on community provided builds which might not be as safe as the project itself. Updates might be an issue.
While running the benchmark on Ungoogled Chromium, I could still use the browser well enough which was unlikely, leading me to the deduction that the performance was hitting some bottleneck, the actual performance should be slightly higher than its scores, i.e. at par with Chromium.
Benchmark scores: Chromium -> 1125.86 | Ungoogled Chromium -> 1020.86
Design: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Stability: 3/5
Bloat-free experience: 5/5
4. Microsoft Edge
✅ Pros: Edge comes with a pretty decent Copilot integration, and a powerful PDF reader-editor out of the box. Copilot in Windows can also read and answer questions directly based on the currently open webpage or PDF file in this browser, sweet. It also comes with a split screen mode to view two websites at the same time, and vertical tabs. It also houses a powerful shopping feature which shows you a list of some of the coupons applicable on the shopping website you’re currently on. The performance is decent.
❌ Cons: The design feels crowded at times due to the amount of features. The browser also feels sluggish at times.
Edge tries to do many things, and is decent at quite a few of them. It does, however, lack at giving you a raw, clean browsing experience. It’s the kind of samaritan that you have nothing against but nothing considerable that elevates it from the rest. Overall, Edge is a decent browser.
Benchmark scores: 973.92
Design: 4/5
Performance: 3/5
Stability: 5/5
Bloat-free experience: 3/5
Though the points it gets should land it at #5, it deserves #4 due to some of its features.
3. Vivaldi
I hadn’t used Vivaldi in a long time, and trying it now was like a breath of fresh air.
✅ Pros: Vivaldi does a wonderful job when it comes to customization. It has tons of settings to help you tweak the browser to your liking, making it probably the most customizable Chromium based browser yet. Certain aspects of the default UI make it look pretty dated, while certain aspects make it look extremely modern. It also comes with a mail client, a calendar and an RSS feed reader out of the box. There’s also some unique features like spatial tab navigation and tab stacking. It is also a very stable browser.
❌ Cons: Performance wise, you can get better. Vivaldi is definitely not the best, especially for graphic extensive tasks which use webgl. Also, not a raw, clean browsing experience.
The pros are enough to blow me away and put it at 3rd place despite it being the slowest browser on this list. Consider it tied with our #2 contender.
Benchmark score: 939.16
Design: 5/5
Performance: 2/5
Stability: 5/5
Bloat-free experience: 3/5
2. Chrome
✅ Pros: Chrome still has some of the best UI and performance among all Chromium browsers, and it ticks all the boxes fairly well. If you do use your Google account extensively, its integration is very smooth, syncing your currently open tabs, history, bookmarks, and sending tabs to other devices.
❌ Cons: The pros can also be cons, depending on the users. The Google integration runs deep in this browser. If you like Chrome but not Google’s integration, and are willing to go an extra mile by looking for and downloading the latest builds, you can look into Chromium. Otherwise, Chrome is good enough.
Benchmark score: 1050.76
Design: 5/5
Performance: 4/5
Stability: 5/5
Bloat-free experience: 3/5
1. Brave
Pros: Brave blasts through the benchmarking tests like nothing on this list, especially when it comes to webgl & canvas rendering. The browser feels very fast in day to day usage and is open source. When it was released, I initially shrugged it off, but it stuck around for much longer than I expected and has proved to be very stable, despite not being backed by any major tech corporations. It also comes with optional vertical tabs.
Cons:
It comes with some features related to cryptocurrency, a paid VPN which could be considered bloat depending upon the users; and a not so great UI (I would gladly exchange it for Chrome’s or Opera’s).
If anyone feels like this article has been sponsored by Brave, well, it definitely isn’t. You can run the benchmark yourself and see the difference.
Design: 3/5
Performance: 5/5
Stability: 5/5
Bloat-free experience: 4/5
Here’s a quick comparison between the performance of all these browsers -
Some details ->
The benchmarking tests were performed on Basemark with UBlock Origin installed on all browsers, on a device with AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS with 8GB DDR4 RAM and a 512 GB M.2 SSD, running Windows 11.
That wraps up my browser comparison series for now. The next article will be a beginner’s guide to ricing on Windows. Stay tuned!
Check out my article comparing browsers, specifically Firefox forks, here.
