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Comparison of lightweight web browsers

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    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. Eww is limited to working within Emacs. 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

    [edit]
    Browser DevelopersStatus EngineProgramming languagesLicenseLatest release
    Version Date
    AroraBenjamin C. Meyer et al.[7]DiscontinuedQtWebKit[8]C++GPL-2.0-or-later0.11.0[9] Edit this on Wikidata2010-09-27
    DilloJorge Arellano Cid et al.ActiveDilloC, C++GPL-3.0-or-later3.2.0[10] Edit this on Wikidata2025-01-18
    ELinksPetr Baudiš, Jonas Fonseca, et al.ActiveLinksC, C++GPL-2.0-only0.17.1.1[11] Edit this on Wikidata2024-10-05
    EwwLars Magne IngebrigtsenActiveGNU Emacs librariesEmacs LispGPL-3.0-or-later
    Falkon (QupZilla)David RoscaActiveQtWebKit / Qt WebEngineC++GPL-3.0-or-later24.12.2[12] Edit this on Wikidata2025-02-06
    hv3Dan Kennedy & teamDiscontinuedTkhtmlTclGPL
    K-MeleonChristophe Thibault et al.ActiveGecko / Goanna (fork)C++GPL76.4.7[13] Edit this on Wikidata2023-04-07
    LinksMikuláš Patočka, Twibright Labs, et al.ActiveLinksCGPL-2.0-or-later2.30[14] Edit this on Wikidata2024-07-27
    LynxLou Montulli, Thomas Dickey, et al.Activelibwww derivativeC (ISO C)GPL-2.0-only2.9.2[15] Edit this on Wikidata2024-05-31
    NetSurfJohn-Mark Bell, Michael Drake, et al.[16]ActiveNetSurfC (ANSI C)GPL-2.0-only3.11[17] Edit this on Wikidata2023-12-28
    Otter BrowserMichał Dutkiewicz[18]ActiveQtWebKit / Qt WebEngineC++GPL-3.0-or-later1.0.03[19] Edit this on Wikidata2022-02-22
    QtWebLogicWare; LSoft Technologies[20]UnmaintainedQtWebKitC++GPL-2.0-or-later3.8.5[21] Edit this on Wikidata2013-09-09
    qutebrowserFlorian Bruhin et al.Active [22]QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine[23]Python3GPL-3.0-or-later3.4.0[24] Edit this on Wikidata2024-12-14
    rekonqAndrea Diamantini et al.DiscontinuedQtWebKit[8]C++GPLv32.4.2[25] Edit this on Wikidata2014-01-12
    surfChristoph Lohmann et al.ActiveWebKitGTKCMIT2.1[26] Edit this on Wikidata2021-05-08
    uzblDieter Plaetinck et al.DiscontinuedWebKitGTKC, PythonGPL-3.0-only0.9.1[27] Edit this on Wikidata2016-10-27
    w3mAkinori Ito et al.Unmaintainedw3mCMIT0.5.3[28] Edit this on Wikidata2011-01-15
    WebPositiveAndrea Anzani, Ryan Leavengood, et al.ActiveHaikuWebkitC++MIT1.3-alpha[29] Edit this on Wikidata2021-08-01
    xombreroMarco Peerboom et al.DiscontinuedWebKitGTKC, JavaScriptISC1.6.4[30] Edit this on Wikidata2015-02-17

    Operating system support

    [edit]
    Browser BSDHaikuLinuxmacOSOpenIndianaOS/2QNXRISC OSWindowsAndroid
    AroraYesYesYesYesYes[31]YesNoNoYes
    DilloYesNoYesYesYes[32]NoNoYes[32]Cygwin[32][33]
    ELinksYes[34]?Yes[34]Yes[34]Yes[34]Yes[34]No[34]Dropped[34]?
    Falkon (QupZilla)Dropped[35][36]Yes[35][36]Yes[35][36]Dropped[37]NoDropped[35][36]NoNoDropped[36]
    K-MeleonWineNoWine[38]WineNoNoNoNoYes
    LinksUnofficialNoYesUnofficial?YesNoNoYes
    LynxYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes[39][40]Yes
    NetSurfYes[41]Yes[42]Yes[41]Yes[41]Yes[41]No?Yes[43]Yes[44]
    Otter BrowserYes[45]Unofficial[46]Yes[45]Yes[45]NoNoNoNoYes
    QtWebYesUnofficial[47]YesYesUnofficial[i]NoNoNoYes
    qutebrowserYes?YesYes????Yes
    rekonqYesNoYesNoUnofficial[i]NoNoNoInactive[ii]
    surfYesNoYes????NoNo
    uzbl??YesYes?????
    w3mUnofficialUnofficialYesUnofficialUnofficialInactiveNoNoCygwin
    WebPositiveNoYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
    xombreroYesNoYesYesYesNoNoNoYes
    Notes
    1. ^ abMust be built from source code; requires a compatible version of Qt.
    2. ^rekonq v1.1 for Windows was published in September 2012. As of June 2014, it is the only published version for Windows.[48]

    Features

    [edit]

    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, PNGWebPJavaScriptFramesAcid3HTML5testNetscapePepper
    AroraYesNoYesYes100/100[i]359/550[49]No[ii]No
    DilloYesNoNoPartialN/A[iii]N/A[iii]NoNo
    ELinksNoNoPartial[iv]PartialN/A[iii]N/A[iii]NoNo
    Falkon (QupZilla)YesYesYesYes100/100[i]497/550[51]PartialPartial
    K-MeleonYesNoYesYes100/100[i]416/555[52]Partial[53]No
    LinksYes[v]YesNo[vi]PartialN/A[iii]N/A[iii]NoNo
    LynxNoNoNoPartialN/A[iii]N/A[iii]NoNo
    NetSurfYes[55]YesPartial[56]YesN/A[iii]N/A[iii]No[57]No
    Otter BrowserYesYesYesYes100/100370/550[58]YesNo
    QtWebYesNoYesYes100/100[i][vii]234/550[59]No[ii]No
    qutebrowserYesYesYesYes99/100[citation needed]521/550NoNo
    rekonqYesNoYesYes100/100[i]385/555[60]No[ii]Partial[61]
    surfYesYes[viii]YesYes100/100[i]385/500[63]Yes?
    uzblYesYesYesYes98/100461/500Yes?
    w3mYes[64]NoNo[65]YesN/A[iii]N/A[iii]NoNo
    WebPositiveYesNoYesYes98/100[i]358/500[66]NoNo
    xombreroYesYes[viii]YesYes100/100385/500[67]Yes?
    Notes
    1. ^ abcdefgSome tests take too much time to complete.
    2. ^ abcNPAPI is ported to QtWebKit, but is not implemented in this browser.
    3. ^ abcdefghijklThe test requires JavaScript, which is not sufficiently supported by this browser.
    4. ^ELinks implements Mozilla's SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine.[50]
    5. ^Only Links 2 supports graphics.
    6. ^JavaScript support was removed in 2007 (in release 2.1pre29).[54]
    7. ^The final state does not match the reference rendering.
    8. ^ abWebP is supported via the WebKitGTK browser engine.[62]

    See also

    [edit]

    References

    [edit]
    1. ^Arora, Himanshu (6 November 2013). "5 lesser-known browsers: Free, lightweight and low-maintenance". Computerworld. International Data Group. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
    2. ^Klimkiewicz, Kamil (18 January 2003). "Lightweight Web Browsers". Freecode. Dice Holdings. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
    3. ^Arimbra, Krishnan (16 July 2013). "Memory usage of the browsers – Lightest browser". Geekiest.Net. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
    4. ^"surf". Retrieved 30 August 2014.
    5. ^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.
    6. ^Ito, Akinori. "w3m". w3m.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
    7. ^Meyer, Benjamin (2 October 2009). "Arora 0.10.0!". Arora Development. Archived from the original on 11 November 2013. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
    8. ^ abPoulain, 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.
    9. ^"Release 0.11.0". 27 September 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
    10. ^"Dillo release 3.2.0". Retrieved 23 January 2025.
    11. ^"Release 0.17.1.1". 5 October 2024. Retrieved 21 October 2024.
    12. ^"Releases 24.12.2 2025-02-06". 6 February 2025. Retrieved 25 February 2025.
    13. ^"K-Meleon 76.4.7 on Goanna 3.5.0". 7 April 2023.
    14. ^"RELEASE 2.30". 27 July 2024. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
    15. ^Thomas E. Dickey (31 May 2024). "ANN: lynx2.9.2". Retrieved 1 June 2024.
    16. ^"The NetSurf Developers". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
    17. ^"NetSurf Change Log". 28 December 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2025.
    18. ^"Otter Browser". otter-browser.org. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
    19. ^https://github.com/OtterBrowser/otter-browser/blob/master/CHANGELOG.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
    20. ^"About QtWeb". QtWeb.NET. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
    21. ^"Qt Web Browser".
    22. ^"qutebrowser/qutebrowser". GitHub. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
    23. ^"qutebrowser - ArchWiki". wiki.archlinux.org. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
    24. ^"Release 3.4.0". 14 December 2024. Retrieved 27 December 2024.
    25. ^"rekonq 2.4.2". 12 January 2014.
    26. ^"surf".
    27. ^"Release 0.9.1". 27 October 2016. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
    28. ^"w3m Files".
    29. ^"WebPositive: update version to 1.3". 1 August 2021.
    30. ^"XOMBRERO_1_6_4". Retrieved 31 January 2018.
    31. ^"Spec Files Extra Repository". OpenIndiana Wiki. 2011. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
    32. ^ abc"Dillo Web Browser Compatibility". Dillo.org. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
    33. ^Vibber, Kelson (28 April 2005). "Installing Dillo on Cygwin". Hyperborea. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
    34. ^ abcd"Qupzilla - Lightweight multiplatform browser: Download". Qupzilla.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
    35. ^ abcde"Download - Falkon". falkon.org. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
    36. ^https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=395926
    37. ^"UKmeleon: Unofficial K-Meleon Distributions". kmeleonbrowser.org. 26 March 2011. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
    38. ^"Nettle". nettle.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
    39. ^"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.
    40. ^ abcd"NetSurf | GTK Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
    41. ^"NetSurf | BeOS Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
    42. ^"NetSurf | RISC OS Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
    43. ^"NetSurf | Windows Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
    44. ^ abc"OtterBrowser/otter-browser". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
    45. ^"Otter browser: new recipe by miqlas · Pull Request #1006 · haikuports/haikuports". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
    46. ^"QtWeb - Web Browser". Haikuware. 31 May 2013. Archived from the original on 30 August 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
    47. ^Papp, Laszlo (24 September 2012). "Randa: Rekonq installer for Windows". KDE (Laszlo Papp's blog). Retrieved 21 June 2014.
    48. ^"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.
    49. ^Inge Bolso, Erik (8 March 2005). "2005 Text Mode Browser Roundup". Linux Journal. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
    50. ^"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.
    51. ^"HTML5test - How well does your browser support HTML5?". html5test.com. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
    52. ^"ThirdPartyPlugins". kmeleonbrowser.org. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
    53. ^"Links user documentation". Retrieved 14 March 2022.
    54. ^Auza, Jun (27 June 2009). "5 Free and Open Source Web Browsers That You May Have Never Heard Of". Retrieved 26 June 2014.
    55. ^"User Information".
    56. ^"0001896: NPAPI plugin support". NetSurf Bug Report System. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
    57. ^"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.
    58. ^"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.
    59. ^"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.
    60. ^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.
    61. ^Jáquez, Víctor (31 December 2013). "Boosting WebKitGTK+ compilation for armhf with icecream". Herostratus’ legacy. Igalia. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
    62. ^"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.
    63. ^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.
    64. ^"w3m man page". GitHub. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
    65. ^"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.
    66. ^"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

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