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

[edit]

Browser  | Developers | Status  | Engine | Programming languages | License | Latest release

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Version  | Date
Arora | Benjamin C. Meyer et al.[7] | Discontinued | QtWebKit[8] | C++ | GPL-2.0-or-later | 0.11.0[9]  | 2010-09-27
Dillo | Jorge Arellano Cid et al. | Active | Dillo | C, C++ | GPL-3.0-or-later | 3.2.0[10]  | 2025-01-18
ELinks | Petr Baudiš, Jonas Fonseca, et al. | Active | Links | C, C++ | GPL-2.0-only | 0.18.0[11]  | 2024-12-26
Eww | Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen | Active | GNU Emacs libraries | Emacs Lisp | GPL-3.0-or-later |  |
Falkon (QupZilla) | David Rosca | Active | QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine | C++ | GPL-3.0-or-later | 25.04.3[12]  | 2025-07-03
hv3 | Dan Kennedy & team | Discontinued | Tkhtml | Tcl | GPL |  |
K-Meleon | Christophe Thibault et al. | Active | Gecko / Goanna (fork) | C++ | GPL | 76.4.7[13]  | 2023-04-07
Links | Mikuláš Patočka, Twibright Labs, et al. | Active | Links | C | GPL-2.0-or-later | 2.30[14]  | 2024-07-27
Lynx | Lou Montulli, Thomas Dickey, et al. | Active | libwww derivative | C (ISO C) | GPL-2.0-only | 2.9.2[15]  | 2024-05-31
NetSurf | John-Mark Bell, Michael Drake, et al.[16] | Active | NetSurf | C (ANSI C) | GPL-2.0-only | 3.11[17]  | 2023-12-28
Otter Browser | Michał Dutkiewicz[18] | Active | QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine | C++ | GPL-3.0-or-later | 1.0.03[19]  | 2022-02-22
QtWeb | LogicWare; LSoft Technologies[20] | Unmaintained | QtWebKit | C++ | GPL-2.0-or-later | 3.8.5[21]  | 2013-09-09
qutebrowser | Florian Bruhin et al. | Active [22] | QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine[23] | Python3 | GPL-3.0-or-later | 3.5.1[24]  | 2025-06-05
rekonq | Andrea Diamantini et al. | Discontinued | QtWebKit[8] | C++ | GPLv3 | 2.4.2[25]  | 2014-01-12
surf | Christoph Lohmann et al. | Active | WebKitGTK | C | MIT | 2.1[26]  | 2021-05-08
uzbl | Dieter Plaetinck et al. | Discontinued | WebKitGTK | C, Python | GPL-3.0-only | 0.9.1[27]  | 2016-10-27
w3m | Akinori Ito et al. | Unmaintained | w3m | C | MIT | 0.5.3[28]  | 2011-01-15
WebPositive | Andrea Anzani, Ryan Leavengood, et al. | Active | HaikuWebkit | C++ | MIT | 1.3-alpha[29]  | 2021-08-01
xombrero | Marco Peerboom et al. | Discontinued | WebKitGTK | C, JavaScript | ISC | 1.6.4[30]  | 2015-02-17

## Operating system support

[edit]

Browser  | BSD | Haiku | Linux | macOS | OpenIndiana | OS/2 | QNX | RISC OS | Windows | Android

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Arora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[31] | Yes | No | No | Yes
Dillo | Yes | Yes[32] | Yes | Yes | Yes[33] | No | No | Yes[33] | Cygwin[33][34]
ELinks | Yes[35] | ? | Yes[35] | Yes[35] | Yes[35] | Yes[35] | No[35] | Dropped[35] | ?
Falkon (QupZilla) | Dropped[36][37] | Yes[36][37] | Yes[36][37] | Dropped[38] | No | Dropped[36][37] | No | No | Dropped[37]
K-Meleon | Wine | No | Wine[39] | Wine | No | No | No | No | Yes
Links | Unofficial | No | Yes | Unofficial | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes
Lynx | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[40][41] | Yes
NetSurf | Yes[42] | Yes[43] | Yes[42] | Yes[42] | Yes[42] | No | ? | Yes[44] | Yes[45]
Otter Browser | Yes[46] | Unofficial[47] | Yes[46] | Yes[46] | No | No | No | No | Yes
QtWeb | Yes | Unofficial[48] | Yes | Yes | Unofficial[i] | No | No | No | Yes
qutebrowser | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes
rekonq | Yes | No | Yes | No | Unofficial[i] | No | No | No | Inactive[ii]
surf | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No
uzbl | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ?
w3m | Unofficial | Unofficial | Yes | Unofficial | Unofficial | Inactive | No | No | Cygwin
WebPositive | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No
xombrero | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes

Notes

1. ^ a b 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.[49]

## 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

|
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Browser  | GIF, JPEG, PNG | WebP | JavaScript | Frames | Acid3 | HTML5test | Netscape | Pepper
Arora | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 359/550[50] | No[ii] | No
Dillo | Yes | Yes[51] | No | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No
ELinks | No | No | Partial[iv] | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No
Falkon (QupZilla) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 497/550[53] | Partial | Partial
K-Meleon | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 416/555[54] | Partial[55] | No
Links | Yes[v] | Yes | No[vi] | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No
Lynx | No | No | No | Partial | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No
NetSurf | Yes[57] | Yes | Partial[58] | Yes | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No[59] | No
Otter Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 100/100 | 370/550[60] | Yes | No
QtWeb | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i][vii] | 234/550[61] | No[ii] | No
qutebrowser | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 99/100[citation needed] | 521/550 | No | No
rekonq | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 385/555[62] | No[ii] | Partial[63]
surf | Yes | Yes[viii] | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 385/500[65] | Yes | ?
uzbl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 98/100 | 461/500 | Yes | ?
w3m | Yes[66] | No | No[67] | Yes | N/A[iii] | N/A[iii] | No | No
WebPositive | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 98/100[i] | 358/500[68] | No | No
xombrero | Yes | Yes[viii] | Yes | Yes | 100/100 | 385/500[69] | Yes | ?

Notes

1. ^ a b c d e f g Some tests take too much time to complete.
2. ^ a b c NPAPI is ported to QtWebKit, but is not implemented in this browser.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l The test requires JavaScript, which is not sufficiently supported by this browser.
4. ^ ELinks implements Mozilla's SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine.[52]
5. ^ Only Links 2 supports graphics.
6. ^ JavaScript support was removed in 2007 (in release 2.1pre29).[56]
7. ^ The final state does not match the reference rendering.
8. ^ a b WebP is supported via the WebKitGTK browser engine.[64]

## See also

[edit]

* Comparison of web browsers
* List of web browsers for Unix and Unix-like operating systems

## 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. ^ a b 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.
9. ^ "Release 0.11.0". 27 September 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
10. ^ "Dillo release 3.2.0". Retrieved 23 January 2025.
11. ^ "Release v0.18.0". 26 December 2024. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
12. ^ "Falkon". Retrieved 8 July 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 3.5.1". 5 June 2025. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
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. ^ https://depot.haiku-os.org/__multipage/pkg/dillo_plus/haikuports/haikuports_x86_64/3/2/1/-/2/x86_64?locale=zh [bare URL]
33. ^ a b c "Dillo Web Browser Compatibility". Dillo.org. Archived from the original on 24 August 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
34. ^ Vibber, Kelson (28 April 2005). "Installing Dillo on Cygwin". Hyperborea. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
35. ^ a b c d e f g "About ELinks". elinks.cz. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
36. ^ a b c d "Qupzilla - Lightweight multiplatform browser: Download". Qupzilla.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
37. ^ a b c d e "Download - Falkon". falkon.org. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
38. ^ https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=395926 [bare URL]
39. ^ "UKmeleon: Unofficial K-Meleon Distributions". kmeleonbrowser.org. 26 March 2011. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
40. ^ "Nettle". nettle.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
41. ^ "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.
42. ^ a b c d "NetSurf | GTK Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
43. ^ "NetSurf | BeOS Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
44. ^ "NetSurf | RISC OS Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
45. ^ "NetSurf | Windows Downloads". netsurf-browser.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
46. ^ a b c "OtterBrowser/otter-browser". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
47. ^ "Otter browser: new recipe by miqlas · Pull Request #1006 · haikuports/haikuports". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-04-11.
48. ^ "QtWeb - Web Browser". Haikuware. 31 May 2013. Archived from the original on 30 August 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
49. ^ Papp, Laszlo (24 September 2012). "Randa: Rekonq installer for Windows". KDE (Laszlo Papp's blog). Retrieved 21 June 2014.
50. ^ "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.
51. ^ https://dillo-browser.github.io/release/3.2.0 [bare URL]
52. ^ Inge Bolso, Erik (8 March 2005). "2005 Text Mode Browser Roundup". Linux Journal. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
53. ^ "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.
54. ^ "HTML5test - How well does your browser support HTML5?". html5test.com. Retrieved 23 May 2018.
55. ^ "ThirdPartyPlugins". kmeleonbrowser.org. Retrieved 28 July 2014.
56. ^ "Links user documentation". Retrieved 14 March 2022.
57. ^ Auza, Jun (27 June 2009). "5 Free and Open Source Web Browsers That You May Have Never Heard Of". Retrieved 26 June 2014.
58. ^ "User Information".
59. ^ "0001896: NPAPI plugin support". NetSurf Bug Report System. 22 October 2010. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
60. ^ "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.
61. ^ "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.
62. ^ "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.
63. ^ 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.
64. ^ Jáquez, Víctor (31 December 2013). "Boosting WebKitGTK+ compilation for armhf with icecream". Herostratus’ legacy. Igalia. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
65. ^ "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.
66. ^ 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.
67. ^ "w3m man page". GitHub. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
68. ^ "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.
69. ^ "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

[edit]

* Sugianto, Masim (18 January 2010). "7 Lightweight Linux Browsers You may want to Consider for Fast Browsing Experience". Spirit of Change. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
* Arimbra, Krishnan (17 July 2013). "3 Alternate Browsers – Lightweight browsers". Geekiest.Net. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
* Murray, Richard (2007). "RISC OS browsers". Rick's World. Retrieved 26 August 2014.

* v
* t
* e

Lightweight web browsers

Web browsers designed to consume fewer resources than mainstream browsers.

* Arora (discontinued)
* Dillo
* ELinks
* Falkon
* K-Meleon
* Links
* Lynx
* Midori
* NetSurf
* QtWeb (discontinued)
* surf
* Uzbl (discontinued)
* w3m
* WebPositive
* xombrero (discontinued)

Comparison of lightweight web browsers

* v
* t
* e

Embedded systems

General terms|

* ASIC
* Board support package
* Bootloader
* Consumer electronics
* Cross compiler
* Embedded database
* Embedded hypervisor
* Embedded OS
* Embedded software
* FPGA
* IoT
* Memory footprint
* Microcontroller
* Single-board computer
* Raspberry Pi
* SoC

Firmware and controls|

* Firmware
* Custom firmware
* Proprietary firmware
* Closed platform
* Crippleware
* Defective by Design
* Hacking of consumer electronics
* Homebrew (video games)
* iOS jailbreaking
* PlayStation 3 Jailbreak
* Rooting (Android)
* UEFI
* Vendor lock-in

Boot loaders|

* U-Boot
* Barebox

Software libraries|

* uClibc
* dietlibc
* Embedded GLIBC
* lwIP
* musl

Programming tools|

* Almquist shell
* BitBake
* Buildroot
* BusyBox
* OpenEmbedded
* Stand-alone shell
* Toybox
* Yocto Project

Operating systems|

* Linux on embedded systems
* Linux for mobile devices
* Light-weight Linux distribution
* Real-time operating system
* Windows IoT
* Win CE

Programming languages|

* Ada
* Assembly language
* CAPL
* Embedded C
* Embedded C++
* Embedded Java
* MISRA C
* MicroPython

* Lightweight browsers
* List of open-source hardware
* Open-source robotics

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*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template