List of web browsers explained

The following is a list of notable web browsers.

Layout engines

Gecko is developed by the Mozilla Foundation.
- Goanna is a fork of Gecko developed by Moonchild Productions.
Servo is an experimental web browser layout engine being developed cooperatively by Mozilla and Samsung. In 2020 the engine's development was transferred to the Linux Foundation.
Presto was developed by Opera Software for use in Opera. Development stopped as Opera transitioned to Blink.
Trident is developed by Microsoft for use in the Windows versions of Internet Explorer 4 to Internet Explorer 11.
- EdgeHTML is the engine developed by Microsoft for Edge [Legacy]. It is a largely rewritten fork of Trident with all legacy code removed.
Tasman was developed by Microsoft for use in Internet Explorer 5 for Macintosh.
KHTML was developed by the KDE project but has since been discontinued.
- WebKit is a fork of KHTML by Apple Inc. used in Apple Safari, and formerly in Chromium and Google Chrome.
  - Blink is a 2013 fork of WebKit's WebCore component by Google used in Chromium, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi.^[1]

Graphical

Trident shells

Other software publishers have built browsers and other products around Microsoft's Trident engine. The following browsers are all based on that rendering engine:

360 Secure Browser
- - - AOL Explorer Deepnet Explorer GreenBrowser Internet Explorer
      - MediaBrowser MSN Explorer NeoPlanet NetCaptor QQ Browser
Yahoo! Browser (or partnership browsers e.g. "AT&T Yahoo! Browser"; "Verizon Yahoo! Browser"; "BT Yahoo! Browser", etc.)

Gecko-based

Camino for Mac OS X (formerly Chimera)^[2]
Conkeror, (keyboard-driven browser)
Galeon, (GNOME's old default browser)
K-Meleon (Windows)
- K-MeleonCCF ME (for Windows based on K-Meleon core, mostly written in Lua)
- K-Ninja (for Windows based on K-Meleon)
MicroB (for Maemo)
Minimo (for mobile)
Mozilla Firefox (formerly Firebird and Phoenix, developed by the Mozilla foundation)
- AT&T Pogo (based on Firefox)
- Cliqz (Firefox fork)
- Comodo IceDragon (Firefox-based web browser for Windows with privacy and performance enhancements developed by Comodo)
- Flock (was based on Firefox until version 2.6.1, and based on Chromium thereafter)
- Floorp (based on Firefox with increased customization options)
- Iceweasel (Debian's Firefox rebrand)
- GNU IceCat (GNU's fork of Firefox)
- LibreWolf
- Netscape Browser 8 to Netscape Navigator 9 (discontinued)
- TenFourFox (Firefox port to PowerPC versions of Mac OS X)
- Timberwolf (AmigaOS' Firefox rebrand)
- Tor Browser (privacy enabled browser)
  - Mullvad Browser (based on Tor Browser)
- Swiftfox (processor-optimised builds based on Firefox)
- Waterfox (Firefox-based web browser for Windows, macOS, and Linux)
- xB Browser (formerly XeroBank Browser and Torpark), portable browser for anonymous browsing, originally based on Firefox
- Zen Browser
Firefox for Android (codenamed Fenix)
- - Mozilla Application Suite Beonex Communicator (separate branch, based on Mozilla Application Suite)
- Classilla (an updated fork of the Suite to Mac OS 9)
- Gnuzilla (GNU's fork)
- Netscape (Netscape 6 to 7, based on Mozilla)
- SeaMonkey (successor to Mozilla Application Suite)
  - Iceape (Debian's Seamonkey rebrand)
Skyfire (for mobile)
SlimBrowser

Goanna-based

Basilisk – similar to Pale Moon, but with the interface of Firefox 29–56 and a few other differences
K-Meleon – starting from version 77 (2019)
Pale Moon – a fork of Firefox that maintains support for XUL/XPCOM extensions and retains the user interface of the Firefox 4–28 era

Gecko- and Trident-based

Browsers that use both Trident and Gecko include:

K-Meleon with the IE Tab extension
Mozilla Firefox with the IE Tab extension
Netscape Browser 8

Webkit- and Trident-based

GNOME Web
Maxthon (up until version 4.2)
QQ browser

Blink- and Trident-based

Baidu Browser
Maxthon (since version 4.2)
Microsoft Edge

Gecko-, Trident-, and Blink-based

Browsers that can use Trident, Gecko and Blink include:

Lunascape^[3]

KHTML-based

Konqueror
Konqueror Embedded

Presto-based

Internet Channel (for Wii console, Opera-based)
Nintendo DS Browser (Opera-based)
Opera (for releases up until 12.18^[4] ^[5])

WebKit-based

Safari
Arora
Bolt
Dolphin Browser
DuckDuckGo browser for macOS^[6]
Flock since version 3.0
iCab since version 4
GNOME Web
Iris Browser
Konqueror (version 4 can use WebKit as an alternative to its native KHTML)^[7]
Maxthon from version 3.0 to 5.0
Midori before acquisition by Astian Foundation
NetFront
OmniWeb
Orion
Otter Browser
Origyn Web Browser
QtWeb
- qutebrowser PhantomJS
Shiira
SlimBrowser since version 10.0
Steel
surf
Uzbl
Nokia Browser for Symbian
webOS
WebPositive
xombrero

Blink-based

Chromium
- Amazon Silk
- Arc
- Avast Secure Browser
- Beaker
- Brave
- ChatGPT Atlas
- Cốc Cốc
- Comodo Dragon^[8]
- Epic
- Google Chrome (based on Blink since Chrome v. 28)
- JioPages
- Microsoft Edge^[9]
- NAVER Whale
- DuckDuckGo for Android and Windows
- Opera^[10]
- Opera GX
- Puffin Browser
- Qt WebEngine
  - Dooble (from Version 2.2)
  - Falkon
- qutebrowser (Blink backend mostly stable)
- Redcore
- Rockmelt
- SalamWeb
- Sleipnir
- SRWare Iron
- Torch
- Ungoogled-chromium
- Vivaldi
- Yandex Browser

EdgeHTML-based

Microsoft Edge [Legacy]^[11]

For Java platform

- - BOLT Browser HotJava Opera Mini (only the Android version is actively developed as of 2022)
ThunderHawk

Specialty browsers

Browsers created for enhancements of specific browsing activities.

Current

ZAC Browser (for children with autism, autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and PDD-NOS)

Discontinued

Flock (to enhance social networking, blogging, photo-sharing, and RSS news-reading)
Ghostzilla (blends into the GUI to hide activity)
Gollum browser (created specially for browsing Wikipedia)
Kirix Strata (designed for data analytics)
Miro (a media browser that integrates a BitTorrent addon)
Nightingale (open source audio player and web browser based on the Songbird (see below) media player source code)
Prodigy Classic (executable only within the application)
Rockmelt (designed to combine web browsing, and social activities such as Facebook and Twitter into a unified one window experience)
Songbird (browser with advanced audio streaming features and built-in media player with library)
SpaceTime (search the web in 3D)

Mosaic-based

Mosaic was the first widely used web browser. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) licensed the technology and many companies built their own web browser on Mosaic. The best known are the first versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape.

- - AMosaic IBM WebExplorer Internet Explorer 1.x
    - - Internet in a Box Mosaic-CK Netscape Spyglass Mosaic VMS Mosaic

Others

Abaco (for Plan 9 from Bell Labs and Linux^[12])
- Amaya Arachne (for DOS and Linux)
- Arena Ariadna (AMSD Ariadna) (first Russian web browser)
AWeb (AmigaOS)
Baidu Mobile Browser
Dillo (for lower-end computers)
DR-WebSpyder (for DOS)
Embrowser (for DOS)
Flow browser
Gazelle (from Microsoft Research, OS-like)
IBrowse (for AmigaOS)
Ladybird (from SerenityOS)
Mothra (for Plan 9 from Bell Labs)
NetPositive (for BeOS)
NetSurf (an open source web browser originally for RISC OS and GTK, e.g. Linux, Windows and more platforms, written in C)
Phoenix, a browser based on tkWWW
Qihoo 360 mobile browsers
tkWWW, based on Tcl
Voyager (for AmigaOS)

Mobile browsers

See main article: Mobile browser.

Text-based

See main article: Text-based web browser.

External links

Adrian Roselli, evolt.org Browser Archive (2004). List and archive of many current and obsolete web browsers.
Daniel R. Tobias, Brand-X Browsers (2002).
Michael Bernadi, DOS Applications for Internet Use (2006).

Notes and References

Web site: Google going its own way, forking WebKit rendering engine . April 3, 2013 . Ars Technica . 4 April 2013.
http://caminobrowser.org Camino reaches its end
Web site: Have it all: Lunascape, the browser with three engines . CNET News . 2008-11-24 . 2010-05-20 . October 25, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20121025133300/http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10105896-2.html . dead .
Web site: 300 million users and move to WebKit . Opera Developer News.
News: Surprise: Opera 12.18 has been released – gHacks Tech News. 2016-02-16. gHacks Technology News. 2017-11-03. en-US.
Web site: April 12, 2022 . Introducing DuckDuckGo for Mac: A Private, Fast, and Secure Browsing App .
Web site: Projects/WebKit/Part — KDE TechBase. 2010-03-30. KDE TechBase.
Web site: JoWa. 2 May 2014. Blink, since v. 28. 21 Apr 2017. Comodo Group, Inc.. March 17, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160317110435/https://forums.comodo.com/news-announcements-feedback-cd/comodo-dragon-33-vs-opera-20-vs-firefox-29-t104231.0.html;msg757861#msg757861. dead.
Web site: Microsoft Edge: Making the web better through more open source collaboration . Microsoft Windows Blog . December 6, 2018 . Microsoft . 7 December 2018.
Web site: A first peek at Opera 15 for Computers. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130607164906/http://my.opera.com/ODIN/blog/2013/05/28/a-first-peek-at-opera-15-for-computers. June 7, 2013. 2013-06-24. Opera.
Web site: 20 October 2020. The new Microsoft Edge is now mandatory in Windows 10 20H2. 28 October 2020. News, Reviews and Technical Support. BleepingComputer.
Web site: abaco-20080209-1-i686.pkg.tar . February 23, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160506121330/http://lab-fgb.com/abaco/tar/abaco-20080209-1-i686.pkg.tar.gz . May 6, 2016 . dead . mdy-all .