So, I found some Firefox forks. Those would be: floorp, zen browser, tor browser and librewolf. Could anyone help me decide which one to use?
If you’re a really “mainstream” user not really caring about privacy and such use Floorp or Zen.
If you’re caring about privacy at least a bit and want to get a pleasing experience, use Waterfox.
If you’re a bit more serious about privacy use Librewolf (mainly for privacy itself) or Mullgad Browser (for anonymity and fingerprinting). (These browsers are totally usable if you care about privacy and can be 100% used as daily drivers)
Lastly, you shouldn’t use Tor Browser in replacement of the traditional Firefox as it’s firstly meant to use it with the Tor network and to only browse some sites that are not tracking every move. (The same goes a bit with Mullvad (excepting the fact that Mullvad is not meant to browser the Tor network), it’s an anonymity browser in the sense that you shouldn’t use it to connect to the GAFAM fucking services that will suck 100% your datas, in this case of high privacy without really needing pure anti-fingerprinting and anonymity you should use Librewolf)
That’s it hope you will succeed in your journey! :)
Last advice : You can also harden the default Firefox with some user.js (like the arkenfox or betterfox one) but as today it’s really no more useful in my opinion as forks are doing the same things without the configuration hassle of setting up your new browser. Have a nice day
I’m using Waterfox. Been great so far.
I just started using it myself. I can’t see a difference between it and Firefox, which is a good thing because it means sites aren’t breaking. But it also makes me wonder just how much more private it is.
I’ve been trained by experience that privacy is strongly correlated to web sites not working properly.
+1 for Waterfox, for some reason it works 100% of the time on my usual websites, whereas Librefox has quirks or just fail (because DRM for what I understand)
Plus it seems Waterfox is a bit more professionaly build and maintained, the team do tell you how they make money from side projects like searches, that is not in the browser core, good enough for me.
As far as I know, the only thing Waterfox does (differently from Firefox) is not collecting telemetry and having uBlock Origin installed by default. I haven’t noticed sites breaking either (at least, any more than they did on FF).
It didn’t have uBlock origin installed by default on Android. But, regardless, it seems fine so far!
Whatever you end up choosing, make sure it gets regular updates. Not being up-to-date with security updates/patches negates any security/privacy you get.
I was using (and really liked) Librewolf until I heard that they were having trouble keeping up with Firefox updates. Now I’m using the Phonenix configurations for Firefox and keeping the FF updates separate from the privacy configuration settings. Avoiding forks lets you get the best of both worlds.
https://github.com/celenityy/Phoenix https://codeberg.org/celenity/Phoenix/wiki/Comparison
Librewolf.
Zen will give you the most functionality. Librewolf will give you the most privacy and security.
Tor Browser will give you most privacy and security, but it can be considered overkill for everyday use. Librewolf takes second place.
Well. I don’t really think of TOR as a browser but I digress.
Correctif you ain’t running Tor on the router, you ain’t living proper
waterfox doesnt get regular updates, look at their github, theres one guy. (not specifically adressed to you OP)
i use librewolf and just turned some options on again so it doest delete everything when i shut it down.
Floorp
I use FireDragon. Not on your list, but it’s yet another Firefox fork to look at.
I use librewolf and arkenfox
I’ve been using Floorp for a few months and it’s been as easy as possible to replace Firefox.
- Zen is a little too fancy for me and it may contain telemetry.
- Haven’t tried floorp, but seems promising (may try it later).
- Tor browser if you want at most privacy with actual IP masking.
- Librewolf is my favourite, it’s fast and simple. Yet with good privacy features turned on by default.
What would be a good option for the iPhone environment (changing phones not an option)? There are four different Tor browser apps from different developers. Using DuckDuckGo right now, but any other better options?
Onion browser from Mike Tigas was recommended as alternative to official one for iPhone by developers. For normal browsers you currently have Firefox, Firefox focus and Orion from kagi. Those options are safest ones from what I know on iPhone
I use Librewolf as my daily driver for most things, then Mulvad when I don’t want any fingerprinting.
Mulvad is highly underated IMO.
Don’t bother using Tor Browser or Librewolf as your main. They’re fine as side browsers for dedicated use cases but as daily drivers, they’re the direct opposite of fine.
Can’t speak on Floorp or Zen but I do enjoy Waterfox for what it is. Not as strong on its privacy protections as LibreWolf is but way more usable.
