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

|
|
|
|
|
|

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 | 3.1.1[10] | 2024-06-08
ELinks | Petr Baudiš, Jonas Fonseca, et al. | Active | Links | C, C++ | GPL-2.0-only | 0.17.0[11] | 2023-12-25
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 | 24.05.2[12] | 2024-07-04
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 | 3.3.1[24] | 2024-10-12
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

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

Arora | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[31] | Yes | No | No | Yes
Dillo | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes[32] | No | No | Yes[32] | Cygwin[32][33]
ELinks | Yes[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[35][36] | No | Dropped[35][36] | No | No | Yes[35][36]
K-Meleon | Wine | No | Wine[37] | Wine | No | No | No | No | Yes
Links | Unofficial | No | Yes | Unofficial | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes
Lynx | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes[38][39] | Yes
NetSurf | Yes[40] | Yes[41] | Yes[40] | Yes[40] | Yes[40] | No | ? | Yes[42] | Yes[43]
Otter Browser | Yes[44] | Unofficial[45] | Yes[44] | Yes[44] | No | No | No | No | Yes
QtWeb | Yes | Unofficial[46] | 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.[47]

## 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, PNG | WebP | JavaScript | Frames | Acid3 | HTML5test | Netscape | Pepper
Arora | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 359/550[48] | No[ii] | No
Dillo | Yes | No | No | Partial | —[iii] | —[iii] | No | No
ELinks | No | No | Partial[iv] | Partial | —[iii] | —[iii] | No | No
Falkon (QupZilla) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 497/550[50] | Partial | Partial
K-Meleon | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 416/555[51] | Partial[52] | No
Links | Yes[v] | Yes | No[vi] | Partial | —[iii] | —[iii] | No | No
Lynx | No | No | No | Partial | —[iii] | —[iii] | No | No
NetSurf | Yes[54] | Yes | Partial[55] | Yes | —[iii] | —[iii] | No[56] | No
Otter Browser | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 100/100 | 370/550[57] | Yes | No
QtWeb | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i][vii] | 234/550[58] | 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[59] | No[ii] | Partial[60]
surf | Yes | Yes[viii] | Yes | Yes | 100/100[i] | 385/500[62] | Yes | ?
uzbl | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 98/100 | 461/500 | Yes | ?
w3m | Yes[63] | No | No[64] | Yes | —[iii] | —[iii] | No | No
WebPositive | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 98/100[i] | 358/500[65] | No | No
xombrero | Yes | Yes[viii] | Yes | Yes | 100/100 | 385/500[66] | 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.[49]
5. ^ Only Links 2 supports graphics.
6. ^ JavaScript support was removed in 2007 (in release 2.1pre29).[53]
7. ^ The final state does not match the reference rendering.
8. ^ a b WebP is supported via the WebKitGTK browser engine.[61]

## 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. ^ "Release v3.1.1". 8 June 2024.
11. ^ "Release 0.17.0". 25 December 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
12. ^ "Falkon - KDE Applications".
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.
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 3.3.1". 12 October 2024. Retrieved 27 October 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. ^ a b c "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. ^ a b c d e f g "About ELinks". elinks.cz. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
35. ^ a b c d e f "Qupzilla - Lightweight multiplatform browser: Download". Qupzilla.com. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
36. ^ a b c d e f "Download - Falkon". falkon.org. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
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. ^ a b c d "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. ^ a b c "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

[edit]

* Sugianto, Masim (18 January 2010). "7 Lightweight Linux Browsers You may want to Consider for Fast Browsing Experience". Spirit of Change. 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
* Dillo
* ELinks
* Falkon
* K-Meleon
* Links
* Lynx
* Midori
* NetSurf
* QtWeb
* surf
* Uzbl
* w3m
* WebPositive
* xombrero

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

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