The 7 best web browsers in 2026

Our web browser is no longer just another app on our computers. It's where we spend most of our time, from collaborating on productivity tools to shopping to streaming movies to even autonomously getting our online chores done. And yet we tend to default to whatever's there or popular without really thinking about our workflows.

Your options aren't restricted to browsers made by tech giants like Apple and Google either—though, as you'll see, I think those are great options. New startups, like Brave and Perplexity, offer bold new designs and ideas for how a browser should function. 

Over the last two decades, I've switched between a variety of web browsers depending on my preferences and needs at the time. And for this article, I tested all the top web browsers to find which ones are best in their categories—here's what I found. 

The best web browsers

• Google Chrome for the best overall

• Safari for Apple devices 

• Microsoft Edge for Windows devices

• Mozilla Firefox for privacy-first web browsing

• Brave for ad-free browsing

• Vivaldi for customization 

• Perplexity Comet for AI features

What makes the best internet browser?

Modern web browsers do much more than browse the web. They can run extensive web-based software, play console-grade games, extend their capabilities with add-ons, protect your identity—the list goes on. 

As someone who lives in the cloud, it's often the only program I need to manage my digital life. And while everyone uses a web browser differently, they have to get the essentials right: a smooth and consistent performance that doesn't hog your device's resources and an interface that doesn't get in your way. Beyond that, there are a handful of things I was looking for:

• Versatile tab management. A browser should let people multitask however they prefer, whether your style is more never-close-a-tab or windows-or-bust.

• Third-party support. Anyone should be able to augment or adjust the default experience with the services they rely on.

• Extra features. Some let you personalize every pixel of the interface, some come equipped with AI smarts, and some have advanced privacy protection. I was looking for something that stood out.

I tested all the most popular web browsers over the course of a few weeks to see how they fit in with a regular workflow. I was looking for a thoughtful balance between features and just getting out of my way so I could live my online life. In the end, I found seven unique browsers that I'm happy to recommend to anyone looking for a change.

The best web browsers at a glance

The best web browser overall

Google Chrome

Google Chrome pros:

• Very easy to learn and use, and it has everything you need in a browser

• High performance

• Massive amount of third-party extensions

Google Chrome cons:

• Not as quick to get new features

• Definitely not privacy-first

If you've hopped online any time in the last few decades, you've heard of Google Chrome. It's far and away the most popular web browser, and it's not just by chance: it's earned its spot at the top of this list.

Google Chrome masters all the fundamentals of a web browser: it's snappy to use even on older hardware, is compatible with tens of thousands of third-party extensions, supports all kinds of websites, offers cross-platform sync, and its minimalist layout ensures there's basically no learning curve. 

Chrome is really fast. That's a big deal for the app where you spend almost all of your time, though it does tend to hog device resources. (On my Mac with 8 GB RAM, I found Chrome consumed about 500-800 MB of additional memory when I had about a dozen active tabs.) And there are plenty of productivity-focused features, like tab-grouping, a bookmark manager, and profiles, so you can switch between work and life easily.

Chrome has even incorporated AI: right from the search bar, you can ask a question to Google's chatbot, Gemini; enter a dedicated AI mode, where you browse the link on one half and chat about it with Gemini on the other; or perform a visual search on any image you come across. As Google Gemini expands, so will Chrome's AI features.

To catch up to new competition, Google has been quick to adopt bolder changes, too. You can, for example, switch to a vertical tab layout and operate on two tabs in a split-screen view. 

The one major downside to Chrome is that, because Google is an ad company, it's unlikely to build privacy-first features. And while most browsers, like Safari, have phased out third-party cookies, Google continues to keep them around to appease advertisers and marketers. 

Chrome pricing: Free

The best browser for Mac and other Apple devices

Safari 

Safari pros:

• Seamless to use across Apple devices

• A lot of privacy protections

Safari cons:

• Useful features are often hidden

• Design is becoming outdated

Safari is the browser Apple preloads on its phones, tablets, and computers. It's optimized for Apple's hardware and integrates seamlessly with the rest of the software for continuity. You can begin a browsing session on an iPhone, for example, and resume it on your Mac. Similarly, it lets you copy an image or text on an iPad and paste it on your iPhone. More importantly, Safari is the most efficient browser for a Mac. It delivers a smooth and consistent web performance while utilizing less battery and power.

It has everything you'd expect in terms of features, plus a few extras. The Distraction Control tool lets you reduce clutter on your favorite websites by removing elements like newsletter sign-up blocks and ads. And on Safari's Mac app, you'll find a sidebar, where you can organize your tabs and windows into projects and keep each workspace separate. And Safari Reading List is a solid read-it-later app to save things for later.

One of Safari's highlights is its robust suite of privacy protections. Its Intelligent Tracking Protection tech can identify and block malicious websites and invasive trackers that follow you across the web. Plus, it prevents web pages from fingerprinting, which involves stitching your profile by combining details about your device, such as the plug-ins you have installed and screen size. You can even generate security reports for any websites and check how they may be watching you.

While I'm fond of Safari's clean layout, it can feel unnecessarily minimalistic (and outdated) in some scenarios. It hides handy shortcuts like the reader mode under two-step menus, for instance, even though there's ample space on the address bar. On top of that, its monochrome, flat icons can be confusing for first-time users, especially to access the more advanced features. But once you're comfortable with Safari, it's a joy to use.

Safari pricing: Free

The best web browser for Windows

Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge pros:

• Deeply integrated AI features

• Power-efficient Chrome alternative

• Syncs with Windows' Alt+Tab menu

Microsoft Edge cons:

• Cluttered

If you want Google Chrome's performance without compromising on endurance, Microsoft Edge is your best bet. On Windows computers especially, Edge is better at allocating resources and smartly snoozes the tabs and extensions you haven't visited in a while. The difference is significant on Arm-based Windows PCs, where other browsers can quickly drain battery life. 

Another highlight of Edge on Windows is that it syncs your open tabs with the Alt+Tab menu. This way, you can multitask between desktop apps and tabs from the same place. 

Apart from that, Edge comes heavily preloaded with Microsoft's chatbot, Copilot.  It features a dedicated panel for Copilot: you can ask questions about the web page you're currently browsing and produce AI-generated visuals—among the many other things you might do with an AI chatbot. And the panel lets you filter Copilot's knowledge so that it focuses exclusively on a single web page, the entire website, or the complete internet. 

Edge's AI panel has a couple of other handy sections, too. Under Compose, there's a dedicated writing aid that allows you to precisely tweak your text's tone, length, and format. And the Insights section can gather information about the website you're browsing, telling you things like whether it's trustworthy and how popular it is.

While Microsoft Edge's AI features are helpful, they do clutter up the layout. And because Microsoft preloads lots of other tools—like a rewards system and shopping discount pop-ups—the clutter is amplified (especially if you don't need those tools). Thankfully, you can switch them off, including most Copilot features, from the settings, but it's an odd default state.

Edge runs on the same tech as Chrome, supports third-party extensions from the Chrome Web Store, and yet it consumes far less power and battery resources. So if you're looking for a power-efficient alternative to Google Chrome, this is the one.

Edge pricing: Free

The best browser for privacy

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox pros:

• Open source

• Lightweight

Firefox cons:

• Lags a bit more compared to other browsers

Mozilla Firefox is the oldest web browser on this list, and it still stands out for the same reasons it did decades ago: it offers an experience free of tech giant influence. While most web browsers are built on top of Google Chrome's tech, Firefox runs on its own open source engine. In doing so, Mozilla ensures its browser is secure by design and not dictated by alternate interests, like advertising. 

Firefox is a lightweight browser and doesn't require much space or memory, meaning it can operate smoothly even on lean machines. But it doesn't compromise on utility. It's packed with supplementary tools, like a handy PDF editor, a tracker, a free VPN, a cookie banner blocker, a read-it-later app, and more. I also like that you can isolate tabs on Firefox so they act in a new, independent session. This will allow you to manage multiple accounts for a website without launching an incognito window.

One drawback to Firefox is that it's not as capable as Chrome at loading media, like videos, and often, I noticed it lagged if I streamed more than one YouTube clip. So if your browser includes heavy media consumption, Firefox probably isn't for you.

Firefox pricing: Free

The best web browser for ad-free browsing

Brave

Brave pros:

• Blocks a lot of elements by default

• Fast to use

Brave cons:

• Pushes you to try its video calling app, search engine, and VPN

The Brave browser stands out for its ad-free experience. It blocks a host of web elements out of the box, including cookie banners, YouTube ads, pop-ups, and trackers, among other things. Because it doesn't render these resource-heavy items, Brave consumes the least amount of data and battery and goes toe-to-toe with Chrome in speed.

Unlike ad blockers, though, Brave doesn't just ban advertisements: it replaces them with its own, far less intrusive and private promotions. Every time you browse Brave and see its ads, it rewards you with points, which you can then use to compensate your favorite publishers and creators. For this to work, the website must be a Brave partner. Many popular ones, like The Washington Post, already are. Some of my frequently visited publications, like CNET and The New York Times, were missing. A bigger concern is that the value of Brave ads isn't an equivalent substitute for traditional ones, which could affect a website's revenue. 

Brave also offers in-house, privacy-first alternatives to a bunch of subscriptions you may need regularly, including a video calling app, a search engine, and a VPN. While I found Brave's conferencing platform to be convenient and reliable, its other services aren't quite ready to take on mainstream options. I also didn't like that the browser constantly tried to upsell and push me to try those services via pop-ups. 

Brave pricing: Free

The best web browser for customization

Vivaldi

Vivaldi pros:

• Super customizable

• Unique tab management

Vivaldi cons:

• Can be slower than other browsers

Vivaldi is a Chrome-based browser you can customize however you want.

For starters, you can personalize its layout down to the pixel, from choosing which buttons appear where to editing the theme's colors and accents. You can even have it automatically adapt to your Philips Hue smart lights or Razer RGB computer accessories, if that's your thing.

But it's not just about having control over how it looks—you can also customize how you use it. It allows you to create custom keyboard shortcuts and mouse gesture shortcuts from scratch, for example. 

And there's plenty more to like about Vivaldi. Its unique tab management tool allows you to stack multiple tab rows on top of each other, so you can group certain websites to clear clutter and make more room on your main tab row. On the sidebar, you can similarly pin panels for quick access to anything, like your notes, reading list, messaging websites, and browsing history. I also liked that you can preview links in a floating window when you click on them, as opposed to adding to your tab clutter.

Vivaldi pricing: Free

The best web browser for AI-based browsing

Comet

Comet pros: 

• Autonomous browsing agent 

• Reliable, advanced AI features

Comet cons: 

• Not as snappy as traditional browsers

• Limited tab management tools

Perplexity's Comet challenges your idea of what a web browser is. While others are designed to get out of your way, Comet's AI assistant can take over your browsing for you. It can autonomously navigate the web and carry out your tasks for you, like booking movie tickets or sorting your emails, with little human intervention. The only time Comet will ask you to step in is when it needs you to log in or complete a transaction. 

Comet cleverly uses AI to improve your standard browsing experience, too. It will pre-load web pages it thinks you'll open at a specific time, for example, and send the tabs you won't need anytime soon into hibernation. Although initially, Comet's overall performance felt sluggish to me, its AI quickly adapted to my browsing habits and automatically boosted performance on websites I frequented. 

In addition to answering typical knowledge-based prompts, Comet's AI can also go beyond the browser. Its advanced Computer agent can execute far more complex tasks, such as building a website that draws feeds from your favorite online magazines, and more importantly, linking up with Perplexity's Personal Computer tool, which allows the AI to access and operate your computer's local files and apps. 

Comet pricing: Comet is free to try on Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS, but its agentic AI features need a subscription, starting at $17/month for the Pro plan, which unlocks autonomous browsing, and $167/month for Max for Computer features. 

What's the best browser? 

There isn't a single web browser that checks every box for every person—if there were, I would have just led with that. Because everyone uses the internet differently, you should pick the one that best fits your internet workflow, and then fill in the gaps through third-party extensions. 

For AI features and autonomous browsing, for example, Comet is compelling, while those who are fed up with online distractions will feel more at home on Brave. Because it takes just a few minutes to switch browsers and import your old data, you can also try each for a few weeks and settle once you've experienced them all. 

Related reading:

• How to add a custom search engine to Chrome

• How to turn off notifications in Chrome

• How to take a full-page screenshot

• How to turn any website into an app

This article was originally published in July 2024. The most recent update was in May 2026.