Comparison of lightweight web browsers

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
Browser Developers Status Engine Programming languages License Latest 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-later3.0.5[10] Edit this on Wikidata2015-06-30
ELinksPetr Baudiš, Jonas Fonseca, et al.ActiveLinksC, C++GPL-2.0-only0.16.1.1[11] Edit this on Wikidata2023-05-01
EwwLars Magne IngebrigtsenActiveGNU Emacs librariesEmacs LispGPL-3.0-or-later
Falkon (QupZilla)David RoscaActiveQtWebKit / Qt WebEngineC++GPL-3.0-or-later23.08.0[12] Edit this on Wikidata2023-08-24
hv3Dan Kennedy & teamDiscontinuedTkhtmlTclGPL
K-MeleonChristophe Thibault et al.ActiveGecko / Goanna (fork)C++GPL
LinksMikuláš Patočka, Twibright Labs, et al.ActiveLinksCGPL-2.0-or-later2.29[13] Edit this on Wikidata2023-03-21
LynxLou Montulli, Thomas Dickey, et al.Activelibwww derivativeC (ISO C)GPL-2.0-only2.8.9rel.1[14] Edit this on Wikidata2018-07-08
NetSurfJohn-Mark Bell, Michael Drake, et al.[15]ActiveNetSurfC (ANSI C)GPL-2.0-only3.10[16] Edit this on Wikidata2020-05-24
Otter BrowserMichał Dutkiewicz[17]ActiveQtWebKit / Qt WebEngineC++GPL-3.0-or-later1.0.03[18] Edit this on Wikidata2022-02-22
QtWebLogicWare; LSoft Technologies[19]UnmaintainedQtWebKitC++GPL-2.0-or-later3.8.5[20] Edit this on Wikidata2013-09-09
qutebrowserFlorian Bruhin et al.Active [21]QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine[22]Python3GPL-3.0-or-later3.0.2[23] Edit this on Wikidata2023-10-19
rekonqAndrea Diamantini et al.DiscontinuedQtWebKit[8]C++GPLv32.4.2[24] Edit this on Wikidata2014-01-12
surfChristoph Lohmann et al.ActiveWebKitGTKCMIT2.1[25] Edit this on Wikidata2021-05-08
uzblDieter Plaetinck et al.DiscontinuedWebKitGTKC, PythonGPL-3.0-only0.9.1[26] Edit this on Wikidata2016-10-27
w3mAkinori Ito et al.Unmaintainedw3mCMIT0.5.3[27] Edit this on Wikidata2011-01-15
WebPositiveAndrea Anzani, Ryan Leavengood, et al.ActiveHaikuWebkitC++MIT1.3-alpha[28] Edit this on Wikidata2021-08-01
xombreroMarco Peerboom et al.DiscontinuedWebKitGTKC, JavaScriptISC1.6.4[29] Edit this on Wikidata2015-02-17

Operating system support
Browser BSD Haiku Linux macOS OpenIndiana OS/2 QNX RISC OS Windows Android
AroraYesYesYesYesYes[30]YesNoNoYes
DilloYesNoYesYesYes[31]NoNoYes[31]Cygwin[31][32]
ELinksYes[33]?Yes[33]Yes[33]Yes[33]Yes[33]No[33]Dropped[33]?
Falkon (QupZilla)Dropped[34][35]Yes[34][35]Yes[34][35]Dropped[34][35]NoDropped[34][35]NoNoYes[34][35]
K-MeleonWineNoWine[36]WineNoNoNoNoYes
LinksUnofficialNoYesUnofficial?YesNoNoYes
LynxYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes[37][38]Yes
NetSurfYes[39]Yes[40]Yes[39]Yes[39]Yes[39]No?Yes[41]Yes[42]
Otter BrowserYes[43]Unofficial[44]Yes[43]Yes[43]NoNoNoNoYes
QtWebYesUnofficial[45]YesYesUnofficial[lower-roman 1]NoNoNoYes
qutebrowserYes?YesYes????Yes
rekonqYesNoYesNoUnofficial[lower-roman 1]NoNoNoInactive[lower-roman 2]
surfYesNoYes????NoNo
uzbl??YesYes?????
w3mUnofficialUnofficialYesUnofficialUnofficialInactiveNoNoCygwin
WebPositiveNoYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNo
xombreroYesNoYesYesYesNoNoNoYes
Notes
  1. Must 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.[46]

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
AroraYesNoYesYes100/100[lower-roman 1]359/550[47]No[lower-roman 2]No
DilloYesNoNoPartial—[lower-roman 3]—[lower-roman 3]NoNo
ELinksNoNoPartial[lower-roman 4]Partial—[lower-roman 3]—[lower-roman 3]NoNo
Falkon (QupZilla)YesYesYesYes100/100[lower-roman 1]497/550[49]PartialPartial
K-MeleonYesNoYesYes100/100[lower-roman 1]416/555[50]Partial[51]No
LinksYes[lower-roman 5]YesNo[lower-roman 6]Partial—[lower-roman 3]—[lower-roman 3]NoNo
LynxNoNoNoPartial—[lower-roman 3]—[lower-roman 3]NoNo
NetSurfYes[53]YesPartial[54]Yes—[lower-roman 3]—[lower-roman 3]No[55]No
Otter BrowserYesYesYesYes100/100370/550[56]YesNo
QtWebYesNoYesYes100/100[lower-roman 1][lower-roman 7]234/550[57]No[lower-roman 2]No
qutebrowserYesYesYesYes99/100521/550NoNo
rekonqYesNoYesYes100/100[lower-roman 1]385/555[58]No[lower-roman 2]Partial[59]
surfYesYes[lower-roman 8]YesYes100/100[lower-roman 1]385/500[61]Yes?
uzblYesYesYesYes98/100461/500Yes?
w3mYes[62]NoNo[63]Yes—[lower-roman 3]—[lower-roman 3]NoNo
WebPositiveYesNoYesYes98/100[lower-roman 1]358/500[64]NoNo
xombreroYesYes[lower-roman 8]YesYes100/100385/500[65]Yes?
Notes
  1. Some tests take too much time to complete.
  2. NPAPI is ported to QtWebKit, but is not implemented in this browser.
  3. The test requires JavaScript, which is not sufficiently supported by this browser.
  4. ELinks implements Mozilla's SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine.[48]
  5. Only Links 2 supports graphics.
  6. JavaScript support was removed in 2007 (in release 2.1pre29).[52]
  7. The final state does not match the reference rendering.
  8. WebP is supported via the WebKitGTK browser engine.[60]

See also

References
  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. 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.
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  10. "ChangeLog". 30 June 2015. Archived from the original on 15 March 2022.
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  25. "surf".
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  27. "w3m Files".
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  34. "Download - Falkon". falkon.org. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
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  36. "Nettle". nettle.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
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  43. "Otter browser: new recipe by miqlas · Pull Request #1006 · haikuports/haikuports". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
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  45. Papp, Laszlo (24 September 2012). "Randa: Rekonq installer for Windows". KDE (Laszlo Papp's blog). Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  46. "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.
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Further reading
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