A lightweight web browser is a web browser that sacrifices some of the features of a mainstream web browser in order to reduce the consumption of system resources, and especially to minimize the memory footprint.[1][2][3]
The tables below compare notable lightweight web browsers. Several of them use a common layout engine, but each has a unique combination of features and a potential niche. The minimal user interface in surf, for example, does not have tabs,[4] whereas xombrero can be driven with vi-like keyboard commands.[5]
Four of the browsers compared—Lynx, w3m, Links, and ELinks—are designed for text mode, and can function in a terminal emulator. Links 2 has both a text-based user interface and a graphical user interface. w3m is, in addition to being a web browser, also a terminal pager.[6]
Overview
Browser | Developers | Development status | Engine | Programming languages | Software license | Latest stable release | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arora | Benjamin C. Meyer et al.[7] | Discontinued | QtWebKit[8] | C++ | GPL | 0.11.0[9] (27 September 2010 ) | ||||
Dillo | Jorge Arellano Cid et al. | Active | Dillo | C, C++ | GPLv3 | 3.0.5[10] (30 June 2015 ) | ||||
ELinks | Petr Baudiš, Jonas Fonseca, et al. | Inactive | Links | C, C++ | GPLv2 | 0.11.7[11] (22 August 2009 ) | ||||
Falkon (QupZilla) | David Rosca | Active | QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine | C++ | GPLv3 | 3.1.0.75 (March 19, 2019[12]) | ||||
K-Meleon | Christophe Thibault et al. | Active | Gecko | C++ | GPL | 76.3G (August 30, 2020[13]) | ||||
Links | Mikuláš Patočka, Twibright Labs, et al. | Active | Links | C | GPLv2+ | 2.21 (2 August 2020[14][15]) | ||||
Lynx | Lou Montulli, Thomas Dickey, et al. | Active | libwww derivative | C (ISO C) | GPLv2 | 2.8.9rel.1[16][17] (8 July 2018 ) | ||||
Midori | Christian Dywan et al. | Active | WebKitGTK+ | Vala, C | LGPL v2.1+ | None | ||||
NetSurf | John-Mark Bell, Michael Drake, et al.[18] | Active | NetSurf | C (ANSI C) | GPLv2 | 3.10[19] (May 24, 2020 ) | ||||
Otter Browser | Michał Dutkiewicz[20] | Active | QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine | C++ | GPL | 1.0.02 (21 December 2020[21]) | ||||
QtWeb | LogicWare; LSoft Technologies[22] | Unmaintained | QtWebKit | C++ | GPL | 3.8.5[23] (9 September 2013 ) | ||||
qutebrowser | Florian Bruhin et al. | Active [24] | QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine[25] | Python3 | GPLv3 | 2.0.2 (4 February 2021[26]) | ||||
rekonq | Andrea Diamantini et al. | Discontinued | QtWebKit[8] | C++ | GPLv3 | 2.4.2[27][28] (12 January 2014 ) | ||||
surf | Christoph Lohmann et al. | Active | WebKitGTK+ | C | MIT License | 2.0 (28 March 2017[29]) | ||||
uzbl | Dieter Plaetinck et al. | Discontinued | WebKitGTK+ | C, Python | GPLv3 | 0.9.1 (October 27, 2016[30]) | ||||
w3m | Akinori Ito et al. | Unmaintained | w3m | C | MIT License |
| ||||
WebPositive | Andrea Anzani, Ryan Leavengood, et al. | Active | HaikuWebkit | C++ | MIT License | 1.2-alpha[citation needed] (9 June 2020 ) | ||||
xombrero | Marco Peerboom et al. | Discontinued | WebKitGTK+ | C, JavaScript | ISC license | 1.6.4[33] (17 February 2015 ) |
Operating system support
Browser | BSD | Haiku | Linux | macOS | OpenIndiana | OS/2 | QNX | RISC OS | Windows |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[34] | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Dillo | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes[35] | No | No | Yes[35] | Cygwin[35][36] |
ELinks | Yes[37] | ? | Yes[37] | Yes[37] | Yes[37] | Yes[37] | No[37] | Dropped[37] | ? |
Falkon (QupZilla) | Dropped[38][39] | Dropped[38][39] | Yes[38][39] | Dropped[38][39] | No | Dropped[38][39] | No | No | Yes[38][39] |
K-Meleon | Wine | No | Wine[40] | Wine | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Links | Unofficial | No | Yes | Unofficial | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes |
Lynx | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[41][42] | Yes |
Midori | Yes | No | Yes | Unofficial[i] | Unofficial | No | No | No | Inactive[ii] |
NetSurf | Yes[44] | Yes[iii] | Yes[44] | Yes[44] | Yes[44] | No | ? | Yes[46] | Yes |
Otter Browser | Yes[47] | Unofficial[48] | Yes[47] | Yes[47] | No | No | No | No | Yes |
QtWeb | Yes | Unofficial[49] | Yes | Yes | Unofficial[iv] | No | No | No | Yes |
qutebrowser | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
rekonq | Yes | No | Yes | No | Unofficial[iv] | No | No | No | Inactive[v] |
surf | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No |
uzbl | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
w3m | Unofficial | Unofficial | Unofficial | Unofficial | Unofficial | Inactive | No | No | Cygwin |
WebPositive | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
xombrero | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
- Notes
- ^ Must be built from source code with a Vala compiler.[34]
- ^ The latest version of Midori is 6.0; however, it cannot be built from source on Windows, as WebKit development for Windows has ceased. The latest version for Windows is stuck at 0.5.11.[43]
- ^ A binary for NetSurf v2.0 for Haiku is available. For v2.1 and higher, one must build it from source.[45]
- ^ a b Must be built from source code; requires a compatible version of Qt.
- ^ rekonq v1.1 for Windows was published in September 2012. As of June 2014, it is the only published version for Windows.[50]
Features
Test scores reflect the version of the browser engine in use. Generally, a lower score indicates an older version of the browser engine.
Image formats | Advanced | Test scores | Plug-in APIs | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Browser | GIF, JPEG, PNG | WebP | JavaScript | Frames | Acid3 | HTML5test | Netscape | Pepper |
Arora | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 359/550[51] | No[ii] | No |
Dillo | Yes | No | No | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No |
ELinks | No | No | Partial[iv] | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No |
Falkon (QupZilla) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 497/550[53] | Partial | Partial |
K-Meleon | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 416/555[54] | Partial[55] | No |
Links | Yes[v] | No | Partial | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No |
Lynx | No | No | No | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No |
Midori | Yes | Yes[vi] | Yes | Yes | 100/100 | 325/555[57] | Yes | Yes |
NetSurf | Yes[58] | Yes | No | Yes | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No[59] | No |
Otter Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 100/100 | 370/550[60] | Yes | No |
QtWeb | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i][vii] | 234/550[61] | No[ii] | No |
qutebrowser | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 99/100[citation needed] | 521/550 | No | No |
rekonq | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 385/555[62] | No[ii] | Partial[63] |
surf | Yes | Yes[vi] | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 385/500[64] | Yes | ? |
uzbl | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
w3m | Yes[65] | No | Partial | Yes | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No |
WebPositive | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 98/100[i] | 358/500[66] | No | No |
xombrero | Yes | Yes[vi] | Yes | Yes | 100/100 | 385/500[67] | Yes | ? |
- Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Some tests take too much time to complete.
- ^ a b c NPAPI is ported to QtWebKit, but is not implemented in this browser.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l The test requires JavaScript, which is not sufficiently supported by this browser.
- ^ ELinks implements Mozilla's SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine.[52]
- ^ Only Links 2 supports graphics.
- ^ a b c WebP is supported via the WebKitGTK+ browser engine.[56]
- ^ The final state does not match the reference rendering.
See also
References
- ^ Arora, Himanshu (6 November 2013). "5 lesser-known browsers: Free, lightweight and low-maintenance". Computerworld. International Data Group. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ Klimkiewicz, Kamil (18 January 2003). "Lightweight Web Browsers". Freecode. Dice Holdings. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ Arimbra, Krishnan (16 July 2013). "Memory usage of the browsers – Lightest browser". Geekiest.Net. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- ^ "surf". Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ Peereboom, Marco; Hill, David; et al. (1 March 2012). "xombrero wiki § Quick-Start Tutorial". Conformal Systems. Archived from the original on 28 September 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ Ito, Akinori. "w3m". w3m.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ Meyer, Benjamin (2 October 2009). "Arora 0.10.0!". Arora Development. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ a b Poulain, Benjamin; et al. (10 May 2010). "Applications Using QtWebKit". Qt Wiki. Qt Project Hosting. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
- ^ "Arora 0.11.0". Arora Repository Releases Tags. 26 September 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ Arellano Cid, Jorge (2015). "ChangeLog". www.dillo.org. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
- ^ "ELinks - Full-Featured Text WWW Browser". elinks.or.cz. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ "Falkon v3.1.0 is now available for download". Falkon.
- ^ "K-Meleon News". kmeleonbrowser.org. 2020-08-30. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
- ^ "ChangeLog". links.twibright.com. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
- ^ "Index of /download". links.twibright.com. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
- ^ Dickey, Thomas E. (8 July 2018). "Stable release". Retrieved 12 August 2018.
- ^ Dickey, Thomas E. (8 July 2018). "Changes since Lynx 2.8 release". Retrieved 12 August 2018.
- ^ "The NetSurf Developers". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ "News". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
- ^ "Otter Browser". otter-browser.org. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
- ^ "Otter Browser - Browse Files". SourceForge.net. Retrieved 2021-01-07.
- ^ "About QtWeb". QtWeb.NET. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ "Qt Web Browser". QtWeb.NET. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ "qutebrowser/qutebrowser". GitHub. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- ^ "qutebrowser - ArchWiki". wiki.archlinux.org. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- ^ "Releases - qutebrowser/qutebrowser - GitHub". GitHub. 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2021-02-19.
- ^ "rekonq: Files". SourceForge. 12 January 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
- ^ Diamantini, Andrea (12 January 2014). "rekonq 2.4.2". adjam.weblog(). Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ "Index of /surf/". suckless.org. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 18 August 2017.
- ^ "uzbl release page". 27 October 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
- ^ "Browse /w3m". w3m. SourceForge. 15 January 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
- ^ "Releases". tats/w3m. GitHub. 2 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
- ^ "xombrero Git Repository". GitHub. Retrieved 7 December 2016.
- ^ a b "Spec Files Extra Repository". OpenIndiana Wiki. 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
- ^ a b c "Dillo Web Browser Compatibility". Dillo.org. Archived from the original on 23 August 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
- ^ Vibber, Kelson (28 April 2005). "Installing Dillo on Cygwin". Hyperborea. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g "About ELinks". elinks.cz. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f "Qupzilla - Lightweight multiplatform browser: Download". Qupzilla.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f "Download - Falkon". falkon.org. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
- ^ "UKmeleon: Unofficial K-Meleon Distributions". kmeleonbrowser.org. 26 March 2011. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
- ^ "Nettle". nettle.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ "New Telnet Client and Web Browser for RISC OS". My RISC OS. 2 September 2001. Archived from the original on 22 May 2008. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
- ^ "All for One, One for All". midori-browser.org. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
- ^ a b c d "GTK NetSurf Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ^ "Haiku and BeOS NetSurf Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. 24 April 2009. Archived from the original on 12 January 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ^ "RISC OS NetSurf Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
- ^ a b c "OtterBrowser/otter-browser". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
- ^ "Otter browser: new recipe by miqlas · Pull Request #1006 · haikuports/haikuports". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
- ^ "QtWeb - Web Browser". Haikuware. 31 May 2013. Archived from the original on 30 August 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ Papp, Laszlo (24 September 2012). "Randa: Rekonq installer for Windows". KDE (Laszlo Papp's blog). Retrieved 21 June 2014.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.21 (KHTML, like Gecko) Arora/0.11.0 Safari/537.21". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
- ^ Inge Bolso, Erik (8 March 2005). "2005 Text Mode Browser Roundup". Linux Journal. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) QupZilla/2.1.99 Safari/537.36". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
- ^ "HTML5test - How well does your browser support HTML5?". html5test.com. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
- ^ "ThirdPartyPlugins". kmeleonbrowser.org. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
- ^ Jáquez, Víctor (31 December 2013). "Boosting WebKitGTK+ compilation for armhf with icecream". Herostratus’ legacy. Igalia. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
- ^ Midori (web browser)#HTML5 score
- ^ Auza, Jun (27 June 2009). "5 Free and Open Source Web Browsers That You May Have Never Heard Of". TechSource. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
- ^ "0001896: NPAPI plugin support". NetSurf Bug Report System. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/602.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Otter/0.9.91". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux; en-GB) AppleWebKit/534.34 (KHTML, like Gecko) QtWeb Internet Browser/3.8.5". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.21 (KHTML, like Gecko) rekonq/2.4.2 Safari/537.21". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 22 July 2014.
- ^ Howell, Dean (22 May 2013). "ReKonq Gaining Chrome Extension Support, Still Sponsored By Blue Systems". The Powerbase. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Unix; en-US) AppleWebKit/537.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/24.0.1295.0 Safari/537.15 Surf/0.6". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 13 August 2014.
- ^ Hoffman, Chris (23 January 2012). "How to Browse From the Linux Terminal With W3M". How-To Geek. How-To Geek, LLC. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Haiku R1 x86) AppleWebKit/606.1.4 (KHTML, like Gecko) WebPositive/1.2 Version/11.1 Safari/606.1.4". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 24 January 2019.
- ^ "HTML5test results for: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/538.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/538.15 Version/6.0". HTML5test.com. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
Further reading
- Sugianto, Masim (18 January 2010). "7 Lightweight Linux Browsers You may want to Consider for Fast Browsing Experience". Spirit of Change. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- Arimbra, Krishnan (17 July 2013). "3 Alternate Browsers – Lightweight browsers". Geekiest.Net. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
- Murray, Richard (2007). "RISC OS browsers". Rick's World. Retrieved 26 August 2014.