6 Fastest Browsers for Windows 11 You Should Try

Anoop is a tech nerd at heart with a focus on preparing guides surrounding Android and Windows devices primarily. His work has been featured in many publications, including iGeeksBlog, TechPP, and 91mobiles. When he’s not writing, you can find him on X (formerly Twitter), where he shares the latest updates on tech, science, and more.

Afam has been a content writer with Guiding Tech Media since August 2023. However, his experience in tech writing dates back to 2018, when he worked as a freelance writer for Make Tech Easier. Over the years, he has grown a reputation for publishing quality guides, reviews, tips, and explainer articles. His work is featured on top websites, including Technical Ustad, Windows Report, and Next of Windows. He has training as a Microsoft Certified Professional and has covered more Microsoft-related guides on these platforms.

How Did We Test Each Browser on Windows 11

To find the best and fastest browsers for Windows 11, we installed multiple browsers and tested each on popular benchmarking tools. These tools include:

We tested all the options in the list and ranked them accordingly. We have also included the scores each browser got after each test.

1. Microsoft Edge – Fast Chromium-Based Browser

Microsoft Edge is a successor to Internet Explorer and the first browser you encounter on your Windows 11 PC upon boot. Built over Chromium, Edge keeps an edge over its competitors by being one of the fastest browsers for Windows 11 while boasting useful features.

Edge performed excellently in testing. It’s lighter and faster due to the minimal RAM usage. When we streamed 4K videos, it could only manage three tabs until it became jittery. On lower resolutions, that wasn’t the case. These are the test results we got.

Some useful features on Edge include reader mode, group tabs, cast inline videos to Chromecast, several customization options, password manager, web capture, solving on-screen math problems, choosing different privacy profiles, and a good page translation feature. If that’s not enough, you get more features by installing extensions, thanks to its support for extensions from Chrome Web Store and Microsoft add-ons.

While the start page is beautiful with handpicked wallpapers, we find it cluttered because of various contents. However, there is an option to turn it off or customize it according to the user’s choice, but people who are fans of minimal home pages might not be fans of Edge. Edge also has a customizable sidebar, allowing you to access some Microsoft apps and tools easily.

If you log in with your Microsoft account, you can sync your data across devices and easily integrate with Microsoft apps, similar to the sync feature with Google apps and services. Regardless, give Edge a try. Moreover, you can also access Edge on Mac, iPhone, and Android.

Pros

Cons

Price:Free

Download Edge

2. Opera – Feature-Rich Browser for Windows 11

Another Chromium-based browser, Opera, offers a wide range of add-ons and features such as an integrated VPN with the option to switch between three servers, block ads or customize it for specific websites, a privacy option for each web page, and a Crypto wallet.

Like Edge, Opera has a sidebar where you can add necessary tools, resources, and services such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp Web. You can also add the websites of their choice to this sidebar.

In our testing, we were not only impressed by the speeds but also happy to discover some small features integrated into the browser that improve user experience. For example, when playing 4K videos on YouTube, you can improve their quality with Lucid Mode or enable pop-ups.

As for the test, 4K videos ran with fewer lags than Edge after opening three tabs with video simultaneously. Here’s how it fared in our tests:

Other interesting tools are built into the browser, such as the ability to capture screen, media player, and many more. The features don’t end there. Opera has even integrated Chatbots such as ChatSonic and ChatGPT with AI prompts to ensure you stay fast and productive.

Speaking of productivity, there is also an option called Workspace, where you can organize tabs accordingly. You can seamlessly sign in with an ID sync across devices and share links. Apart from Windows, Opera is also available for macOS, Android, and iOS.

However, the browser has so many features, so you can get confused when navigating around. We also found it tricky to open private windows, apart from the option to open them from search results.

Pros

Cons

Price: Free;VPN Pro: $3.99/month onwards

Download Opera

Download Opera GX

3. Brave – Best Browser for Privacy

With the increase in privacy breaches by many of the trusted browsers, Brave came to fight against them with a strong emphasis on privacy and security. Built on Chromium, Brave ensures that ads, cookies, phishing, and malware are blocked by default. You can even see the number of trackers. It also has support for tab groups and is integrated with Web3.

Brave performed well enough in our tests. However, in our video playback test, it began stuttering from the second tab and eventually froze with the third one. Things improved when we lowered the playback resolution, but it wasn’t as good as the previous two options. Here are the results from our tests:

Brave also offers advanced options to enable HTTPS Everywhere and prevent browser fingerprinting. It also rewards its users with its Basic Attention Token (BAT) cryptocurrency. You can also earn BAT by enabling Brave ads.

You can withdraw BAT to convert it to regular currency or use these tokens to reward your favorite creators. Since Brave is based on Chromium, you will get all the benefits of Chrome, such as Extension support.

While Brave tries to mimic the sidebar, similar to the competition, it is not executed well since there are only a few valuable tools such as Bookmark, Reading list, and Wallet. Thankfully, you can add websites and services to the sidebar.

While Brave is available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, it cannot sync across devices through an account.

Pros

Cons

Price:Free;Firewall + VPN: $9.99/month

Download Brave

4. Google Chrome – Massive Extension Support

As one can guess, Google Chrome is based on the open-source Chromium platform, which is easy to use and super compatible. This has helped Chrome gain fans worldwide. However, competition has begun to catch up. Regardless, Chrome is still the choice of many, thanks to its vast extension library, cross-platform support,autofill features,tab groups, password manager, and more.

Chrome also has a pretty good name when it comes to responsiveness. While it might not be the fastest browser, it is still fast and considered one of the best. Our video playback test also performed poorly, asChrome frozeupon playing a 4K video in just two tabs.

It also took more time than other options to load these videos, which we weren’t expecting. However, not all things are bad. Chrome is still one of the smoothest browsers after Edge, and it can render animations on websites without any hiccups, thanks to the integration of the V8 Javascript engine.

Chrome hasrecently been criticized for itshigh RAM consumption. While Google has introduced features such as Memory and Energy Saver to Chrome, only time will tell how effective they are.

Regardless of the strong competition, Chrome is still the choice for many when it comes to the best browsers for Windows, thanks to its fantastic sync feature and the ability to easily integrate with Google apps and services.

Pros

Cons

Price:Free

Download Chrome

5. Vivaldi – Lightweight Browser for Windows

Vivaldi is a new player on the field but knows everything about the game, as former Opera developers developed it. Vivaldi emphasizes customization, and you can customize almost every nook and corner of the browser, including navigation, user interface, toolbar, page fonts, and color schemes.

Besides offering many customization features, Vivaldi has kept the browser fast. However, it’s not as good as its competitors. This was seen in our benchmark and video tests, as the browser struggled to play videos simultaneously on two tabs.

Vivaldi also has a feature known as Workspace, which is similar to Opera but has been implemented better. A feature called periodic reload can make tabs load automatically after a particular time. There is also an option to hibernate tabs to get more resources, and there is the ability to stack tabs of the same type of content.

There is also a side panel with the necessary features and tools, such as bookmarks and tools. If that’s not enough, you can also add websites of their choice. You can also see the number of trackers when they visit a website. Since it is based on Chromium, it benefits from all the Chrome extensions.

You can also log in to enable the sync feature, which allows you to access the data from the Vivaldi app for macOS, iOS, and Android.

Pros

Cons

Price:Free

Download Vivaldi

6. Firefox – Browser With Frequent Updates

Firefox has proven to be one of the best and fastest browsers for Windows over the years and has been in the market since the top G’s. The browser is appreciated for its regular updates, which bring bug fixes and enhance speed and security.

In our tests, Mozilla Firefox was the slowest option. The same was true for 4K video playback, as the browser struggled once it started streaming 4K video on the second tab. Here are the scores.

While Firefox is not based on Chromium, it still has a library for extensions; the Windows version also providesWindows Helloauthentication for enhanced security on compatible websites. The feature lists are comparatively low, but you get features such as a great screenshot tool, a password manager, and the ability to customize the themes.

Firefox also supports a sync feature when you log in with your account. This will be handy since Firefox is available on macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows.

Also read:How to import or export Firefox bookmarks

Pros

Cons

Price:Free

Download FireFox

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Last updated on 26 July, 2024

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