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15 best Android browsers for surfing whatever website you want
In an age where our lives are increasingly intertwined with the digital realm, browser apps have emerged as important tools for productivity, entertainment, and connectivity. These web-based applications offer a gateway to a world of possibilities, simplifying tasks, streamlining workflows, and enhancing our online experiences. Join us on a journey through the landscape of browser apps as we explore their functions.
The best Android browsers for surfing the web
Brave Browser
Price: Free /In-app purchases ($9.99 – $99.99 per item)
Brave Browser is one of the newer Android browsers. It came out in 2016 and has a variety of features. There is an ad blocker built-in. Additionally, it can block third-party cookies and block scripts, and it even has HTTPS everywhere. It also boasts optimizations for speed and battery life improvements.
You can even keep track of all the stuff that it blocks. In real-world use, it is highly functional and even occasionally fun to use. It also has most of the basic features, like bookmarks, history, extensions, and a privacy (incognito) mode. The app is entirely free, with no in-app purchases or ads.
Dolphin Browser
Price: Free
Dolphin Browser has seen a lot of success on Android. It has a decent set of features as well. That includes theming, flash support, ad-block, incognito mode, and some tertiary features like gesture controls. There is also add-on and extension support if you need that, along with a native adblocker. While it may not hold the same level of engagement as it did in the past when locating a quality browser was a challenge, it remains on this list because it still exceeds the criteria necessary for inclusion.
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser
Price: Free /In-app purchases ($9.99 – $99.99 per item)
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser is a reasonably good alternative for folks who value privacy. It has a lot of the basic stuff, like forced HTTPS, a private search, and a close button that deletes your browsing data and closes all of your tabs. Additionally, the app gives each website a privacy grade (on an A-F scale), so you can see exactly how bad any given site is. Of course, it blocks trackers and stuff like that as well. It doesn’t have some super useful features like password syncing (like Firefox and Chrome), but it’s otherwise a great mobile browser.
Ecosia Browser
Price: Free
Ecosia is an environmentally friendly mobile web browser. It features all of the usual stuff like bookmarks, multiple tabs, a private browsing mode, and downloads. It pulls from Chromium’s open-source project. Thus, it looks and feels a bit like Chrome as well. The big draw here is the cause. The browser donates up to 80% of its profits to plant trees. That isn’t a browser feature, but it’s definitely worth it. This one is good for those who don’t need to browse the web often but still want something that works well. The tree thing is a bonus. It’s also free.
Firefox Browsers
Price: Free
There are two really good Firefox browsers. The first is the standard Firefox browser. It features cross-platform syncing, a rock-solid browsing experience, tracking protection, a built-in password manager, and more. It is Google Chrome’s primary rival, and there’s little difference between the two in terms of features and capabilities. The second good Firefox option is Firefox Focus, a privacy browser with a ton of security and privacy features. You can find the standard Firefox browser at the button below, or check out Firefox Focus here. They are both excellent Android browsers.
Google Chrome
Price: Free
Of course, we give the obligatory nod to the most popular Android browser. Many people have this pre-installed on their devices and opt to just keep using it. That’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do. It features syncing with Google Chrome on desktop, along with the latest Material Design, unlimited browsing tabs, deeper integration with Android, and plenty of other features for both basic browsing and power users.
There are four total Chrome browsers. In descending order of stability, you have the regular Google Chrome, Chrome Beta, Chrome Dev, and Chrome Canary. Choose at your own risk. Google Chrome almost always has the latest Android features before other browsers as well.
Kiwi Browser
Price: Free
Kiwi Browser is one of the newer Android browsers. It uses chromium as a base. Thus, you may recognize a lot of its visual elements and settings options. It also loads pages pretty well. Some of the other features include native ad blocking, a pop-up blocker, a night mode with a 100% contrast mode for AMOLED screens, and crypto jacking protection. There are some user interface tweaks as well, such as the address bar resting on the bottom of the app instead of the top. It’s delightful to use, although we do miss the desktop syncing available on the big-name browsers. If you don’t need that, this is definitely one of the best options.
Waterfox
Price: Free
Waterfox is a fairly good browser based on the Gecko engine. The user interface of this browser will remind you of the early days of Firefox. The design is minimalistic, which gives the browser a good vibe overall. It also comes with stuff like anti-tracking; by using Oblivious DNS, the browser will ensure that you’re not being spied on. You can launch private tabs. There’s also a container tabs feature that lets you categorize your tabs according to your preferences and even color-code them, which is pretty neat. It also claims to collect minimal data to ensure a rigid policy of no telemetry collection. There’s also stuff like add-ons, customizable settings for history, cookie deletion, and much more. The only downside is that this one still needs to be a bit more optimized for Android. There are occasional bugs and UI disturbances here and there.
Microsoft Edge
Price: Free /In-app purchases ($20.00 per item)
Microsoft Edge is a surprisingly decent mobile web browser. It competes favorably with Chrome and Firefox in terms of functionality. You can sync passwords, bookmarks, and history if you want to. Plus, you can continue browsing on the desktop version from the mobile version, and vice versa. This used to be an original browser from Microsoft. However, the company switched to a Chromium base, so it works a lot like Chrome with some light user interface changes. You use a Microsoft account to sync instead of a Google account in this browser.
Opera’s browsers
Price: Free /In-app purchases ($8.00 – $48.00 per item)
Opera has a few different Android browsers. The first is their flagship browser, Opera Browser (Google Play). It features cross-device syncing with the desktop version, support for multiple platforms, autofill, and a native adblocker. Next comes Opera Touch (linked at the button below), a mobile browser with modern mobile features like tracker blocking and ad-blocking. The third is Opera Mini (Google Play), a lighter browser with the ability to save up to 90% of your data while using it. It also has an ad blocker, an offline reading mode, and more. Finally, we have Opera GX (Google Play), a gaming browser that includes a lot of the same features as the others but also includes a gaming news feed and theming, syncing between the desktop and mobile versions, and more. You can go with any of the four browsers, depending on your tastes.
Samsung Internet Browser
Price: Free
Samsung Internet Browser is surprisingly good. It features swipe gestures, plug-ins, a quick menu, and some Material Design elements. Some of the plug-ins even allow for ad-blocking. There are also features for things like Amazon shopping, online shopping in general, and support for 360-degree video. This is likely the browser many Samsung phone owners see before they make Chrome their default. The app is labeled beta. However, it’s more stable than some non-beta browsers, even on this list.
Stargon Browser
Price: Free
Stargon Browser is a bit of a wildcard on this list. It has a bunch of features and it seems to work pretty well in our testing. The features includes a gesture control system, custom fonts, a DNS VPN for International folks, a built-in translation service powered by Google Translate, and a video downloader function. There is even a dark mode. Stargon lacks a lot of the big browser features like bookmark syncing, but it does everything else quite well. Even its secret incognito mode is pretty good. The app is entirely free without ads.
Surfy Browser
Price: Free /In-app purchases ($0.99 per item)
Surfy Browser has a hipster name and not the biggest following. However, it’s a surprisingly decent browser. It features the usual niceties like bookmarks, history, multiple search providers, and things like that. You also get another layer of power-user features like an ad block, theming, and surprisingly fun toolbar customizations. The app’s claim to fame is the text-to-speech feature that reads website pages to you if you want it to. It’s not a bad way to go if you need something like this.
Tor Browser for Android
Price: Free
Tor Browser for Android is probably the best browser for privacy. It connects to Tor’s proxy network and hides what you’re doing from your ISP and, basically, everybody else. It surfs the web fairly well, and it also blocks trackers, defends against surveillance, and includes multi-layer encryption. The app is in the very early stages of development at the time of this writing. It requires Orbot to use Tor’s network. However, future versions of this browser will be able to connect to Tor’s proxy network on their own. We’re comfortable enough putting this on here despite its early age. We do only recommend this for people who are serious about their privacy and power users who understand how this works.
Vivaldi Browser
Price: Free
Vivaldi is the newest browser on the list. It’s a reasonably decent browser with a surprisingly decent number of features. They include cross-platform syncing with the desktop version, a built-in note function, full-length website screenshots, a privacy browser mode, and the ability to change search engines quickly. The app’s developers are former employees of Opera, so they know a thing or two about browsers. The app is in open beta at the time of this writing, but it should be stable enough for most people.
FAQs
Tor Browser is renowned for its privacy features, offering direct connections to the Tor network, which significantly hinders tracking efforts by websites. It also combats trackers, provides three layers of encryption, and performs competently as a standard browser.
Firefox excels as a browser for Android TV, offering a card-like interface and voice search. It syncs with your Firefox account for seamless access to data. Despite its absence from the Play Store, it can be sideloaded.
Tell us any excellent Android browsers in the comments if we missed them.