Sciences

Google Chrome vs Mozilla Firefox: which browser is better. What is better mazil or chrome. Chrome vs Firefox: why firefox is still cooler What is faster chrome or mozilla firefox

Many people say that Chrome is faster than Firefox, and in a way they are right. But Chrome is more CPU intensive than Firefox, resulting in faster processing and smoother performance. The main disadvantage of this is battery drain. And frankly, Firefox isn't all that slow.

According to Microsoft, compiled by millions of Windows 10 users, the Firefox browser uses 31% less power than Chrome. If you use a laptop, you can significantly increase the time between recharging.

2. Firefox is better for heavy workload

How to compare Firefox and Chrome in terms of RAM usage? To test this, I ran both browsers (each separately, without any other applications) under four test cases: one tab, five tabs, 10 tabs, and 15 tabs. Each of these tabs pointed to the Glixel site.
  • RAM usage in the latest version of Chrome:

    1 tab - 49.2 MB
    5 tabs - 265.3 MB
    10 tabs - 533.2 MB
    15 tabs - 748.3 MB

  • RAM usage in the latest version of Firefox:

    1 tab - 116.3 MB
    5 tabs - 376.6 MB
    10 tabs - 437.0 MB
    15 tabs - 518.4 MB

    Two things are immediately obvious. First, Chrome uses less RAM than Firefox when you don't have many tabs open. Secondly, Firefox scales much better than Chrome when you get to about eight tabs or so. If you regularly open 20 or more tabs, Firefox clearly wins.

    3. Firefox doesn't try to be more than just a browser

    A few months ago, I read an interesting post from a longtime Chrome enthusiast who ended up switching to Firefox. And there was an interesting thought in his article:

    "Chrome today is not the fast and simple browser it was in 2011. Chrome today is more of a bulky platform that can also surf the web."

    This brings me to why I personally lost my love for Chrome. What used to be a lightweight, fast and incredibly minimal web browser has now become a complex beast with no memory of what made it so attractive. Much of the blame can be placed on Google's desire to turn Chrome into a Chrome OS.

    On the other hand, Firefox is still just a browser. Yes, it's not the clean and simple tool that Chrome was in the beginning, and some might even say that Firefox is too bloated, but at least it doesn't try to be something it isn't.

    4. Firefox is truly open source

    Technically, we can say that Chrome is also open source, since it is based on the Chromium browser, which itself spawned many browsers (for example, Opera, Vivaldi, Slimjet, Brave). But a true "open source" mentality involves more than just letting others use your code.

    Google views Chrome more as a closed competitive product than an open tool. Yes, the code in it is open to everyone, but it is protected by a large organization, where most decisions and discussions about the future direction are carried out within this very organization. It doesn't have that open source culture that everyone is used to.

    On the other hand, Firefox has full access to the source, which is influenced by contributors and community members. That kind of collaboration is what real real open source development should be.

    5. Firefox cares about user privacy

    In 2014, Mozilla issued a call to arms to users in an attempt to protect online privacy, stating that "the fight for data privacy is part of Mozilla's DNA."

    In 2015, the company's report confirmed its beliefs: "There are billions of people on the Internet, but there is not enough transparency and control in protecting security and privacy for users from companies, application developers and governments. Mozilla is focused on solving key Internet security issues such as privacy and safety..."

    But even if Mozilla wasn't so privacy-conscious, the real win here is that Mozilla is not Google. We know that Google is a giant data collection company. He already knows too much. Sounds like paranoia, but do you really want Google to know your every habit?

    6. Firefox gives you a lot of customization

    The degree of customization is the biggest difference between Firefox and Chrome. Every Chrome browser looks pretty much the same, even on different operating systems and devices. In addition to hiding certain toolbars or removing a few icons next to the address bar, you can only change the title and tabs.

    Firefox can do more. In addition to moving things around and reducing the overall look, you can install full-fledged themes that will completely change the way the browser looks. You can even emulate the look and feel of other browsers with FXChrome , FXOpera and MX4 .

    7. Firefox Supports Chrome Extensions

    Starting with Firefox 48, Mozilla announced stable support for WebExtensions. This is a cross-browser API that allows developers to create an extension once and work with it across multiple browsers. With WebExtensions, Firefox can install Chrome extensions.

    All you have to do is install Chrome Store Foxified. After that, you can go to any Chrome extension in the Chrome Web Store, and the "Add to Chrome" button in the upper right corner will become the "Add to Firefox" button.

    Please note that not all Chrome extensions work at the moment, although there are many. Full support is expected with the release of Firefox 57 in November.

    8. Firefox has unique extensions

    Chrome has a large collection of extensions, but Firefox has a few unique ones that are not available to Chrome users.

    The best example that comes to mind is "Tab Tree Style". This extension turns the tab bar into a sidebar and allows you to organize your tabs into a tree-based hierarchy that can be moved around. This is amazing and really shows how embarrassing all other browsers should be, since no one else can do this. (Vivaldi supports sidebar tabs, but they can't be organized hierarchically.)

    9. Firefox Can Do What Chrome Does (Mostly)

    After all, the differences between Firefox and Chrome. One may be slightly faster or use less battery, but in terms of usability, they are both excellent. In other words, everything you can do in Chrome, you can probably do in Firefox.

    Want to sync bookmarks, profiles, and more across devices? Need to build websites with the Element Inspector and Console? How about a safe sandbox to prevent virus infection? Or a password manager to make your accounts more secure? Or a task manager to identify performance issues? (hint: go to about:performance in Firefox.)

    Chrome can do it all, and Firefox can. If you don't want to quit Chrome, just remember that the two browsers have more in common than they seem.

    When is Chrome better than Firefox?

    As a final note, I still have Chrome installed as a backup because there are certain situations where Chrome is actually better.
  • Chromecast streaming only works with Chrome.
  • Chrome is actively developing advanced web development.
  • If you have deep integration with Google services (like GMail) and don't care about the privacy implications, you can use your Google accounts to set up different Chrome profiles.
  • Chrome has more market share than Firefox, and Google seems to have a significant influence on the direction of web technology, which is why websites and web apps tend to perform better on Chrome.
  • For five years now, the debate about which browser is better has not subsided: Firefox or Chrome. The adherents of both web browsers are giving more and more arguments in their favor. However, this issue needs to be dealt with thoroughly. To do this, you will have to consider in detail all the key features of both browsers. Moreover, the comparison should be unbiased. Only dry facts and a minimum of emotions. Only in this case, you can choose the best web browser.

    It is worth noting that Chrome is not just different browsers. They are diametrically opposed. These programs even use different engines: Chrome has Chromeum, and Firefox has Quantum. Even their design is different.

    However, we will talk about all this a little later. And let's start the comparison with the speed of launching the program on the computer. For many users, this is key. And the speed is really different.

    Browser startup speed

    Everything is not so simple here. There are such concepts as "hot" start and "cold". The first denotes the process of opening the application immediately after closing. And the second is the launch of the same program after restarting the computer.

    So, Google Chrome cold start takes 8 seconds. This is quite a normal result, given the fact that the browser needs to load a large number of additional services. With the extensions installed, the cold start time increases significantly.

    Immediately after closing, Chrome launches in 0.7 seconds. It's very fast. But again, this figure is abstract. It all depends on the number of extensions installed and the power of the computer. On weak machines such speed will not be.

    Now about Firefox. This browser has a cold start of 10 seconds. A little more than Chrome. But this indicator does not depend on the power of the computer. Mozilla starts equally on any system. And that's not bad.

    Immediately after closing, the web browser starts in 0.9 seconds. It's also a little more. In this comparison, the clear victory of the browser from Google. But that still doesn't mean anything. After all, the quality of the program depends not only on the speed of launch.

    Now this is more significant. Proper work with RAM is a key feature of a program such as a browser. And the correct use of this resource determines the best web browser.

    In Google Chrome, 20 open tabs take up 90% of 4 GB of RAM. Moreover, each tab requires a separate process. And if you open 5 more pieces, then the web browser closes. In general, no optimization of Chrome in this regard is well known.

    In Mozilla Firefox, the exact same number of tabs open at the same time barely takes up 30% of the total RAM. Moreover, when opening additional windows, the browser continues to work stably.

    Bottom line: Mozilla's web browser uses RAM extremely sparingly and by this parameter significantly bypasses the brainchild of Google. Therefore, it is recommended to use Firefox. It works more stable.

    Personalization

    Now let's talk about the possibility of customizing the browser interface for your needs. This is a very important factor, as sometimes it is not convenient for users to work with the interface invented by the application developers.

    Chrome is very bad at this. The creators of the browser themselves know what is best for the user. But the users are not happy. For example, the new design upset them. And you can't change anything in the browser. In addition to the color of the window itself using third-party themes.

    Things are much better with Firefox. There you can customize every little thing. Even the toolbar can be changed to your taste: move icons, add new ones or remove unnecessary ones. Themes also significantly change the style of the web browser.

    Google's browser is a proprietary product from the search giant. With all the consequences. It is not customizable. But Firefox is more flexible in this regard. Therefore, he wins against Chrome.

    Page loading speed

    There is no significant difference here. Both browsers load content very quickly. Naturally, with a high-speed connection. In order to see the difference, you must use an ultra-precise stopwatch.

    Chrome is a fraction of a second faster than Firefox. But this is not so significant. Web browsers load the main content equally quickly. And there can be no dispute here. Moreover, all elements are displayed correctly.

    Page loading in both web browsers is faster if there are some hints of this content in the cache of each. If the page was loaded earlier, then this will definitely increase the speed of its launch in all subsequent times.

    Confidentiality

    The issue of privacy in modern realities is the most acute. Now even Microsoft does not shy away from collecting information about users. And it is not known how the software giant then uses this data.

    It's the same with Google. The Chrome browser actively collects information about site visits, logins and passwords, search queries, and more. Moreover, users are told that this is necessary to ensure the correct issue in the search and targeted advertising.

    Firefox is fine in this regard. The web browser is able to collect information of this kind only if the user has allowed it. Otherwise, surfing the Internet will be completely private.

    The main drawback of Chrome in this regard is that in the browser settings you can’t even disable its spyware and prohibit the collection of information. Therefore, it is impossible to call this web browser private.

    Conclusion

    We tried to answer the question of which is better: Mazila or Google Chrome. In light of all of the above, it turns out that Firefox is much better than its opponent. Even though Chrome sometimes outperforms Firefox.

    But the browser from Mozilla boasts a more sparing use of RAM, extensive personalization options and increased privacy. The web browser from Google loses a lot in this regard.

    The debate about which browser is better with each new release of software is only getting sharper. And so that you have more arguments to defend your choice, we made the following comparison of the latest versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.

    Installation

    Installation of both programs is quite simple. However, the standard Chrome exe installation wizard requires an Internet connection, while Firefox is installed offline.

    Launch speed

    For a “hot start” (opening the browser immediately after closing), Chrome needs 0.7 seconds to start. But with Firefox, I had to wait 0.9 seconds.

    In the "cold start" (opening the browser after restarting the computer), the browser from Google also won with a difference of 1.4 seconds. But here's what's interesting - if you open about a dozen tabs, then in this case the browser from Mozilla will start faster. The fact is that, by default, Chrome loads all tabs, and Firefox only one active one.

    Opening pages

    For example, we took one of the most lightweight sites - google.com, and opened it in both browsers. Both support previews, but fully loaded the page faster than Chrome.

    RAM load

    On a Dell Vostro 3446 laptop with 4GB of RAM and a Core i3 processor, we opened the Task Manager. Ten tabs open in Chrome. Then ten more And then ten more. The RAM turned out to be 90% loaded, despite the fact that the browser defined the card tab as a separate process. We opened ten more, and the session was over. Windows Explorer stopped responding. After closing the browser, we were still seeing RAM usage as the browser continued to run in the background.

    Having done the same with Firefox, we could note that the load on the RAM did not exceed 30%. Even after opening 80 tabs, the browser continued to work stably.

    Hard Disk Usage

    Chrome files take up about 120 MB of hard drive space. And Firefox allocated a little over 35 MB for its own.

    In general, using Chrome is somewhat more convenient - it has a simple and intuitive interface with its own task manager.

    There are no automated solutions for testing desktop browsers. As a result, the researchers had to manually run 9 different synthetic tests (benchmarks) to get the most complete picture of product performance. As a test platform, the Windows operating system is used, as the most popular desktop platform.

    Test conditions

    Unlike previous tests, this time the test device was a Surface Laptop (Intel Core i5-7200U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD). Most modern users use laptops instead of desktop computers. In addition, the previously used machine is seriously outdated.

    The 100 gigabyte SSD partition was dedicated to a clean install of Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. Then browsers were installed, Windows Update was run several times until all available patches were downloaded. All 9 tests were then run in each browser, and screenshots of the results were taken as they ran. At the time of testing, the latest versions of browsers available for Windows 10 were used, namely: Chrome 67, Firefox 61 and Edge 42.

    Please note that if you try to repeat this test, the results may vary depending on the configuration of the computer being used. You won't get exactly the same result, but you will see similar values ​​across individual browsers.

    Test results

    The results obtained in individual synthetic tests are available at the relevant links:

    Conclusion

    According to the test results, Google Chrome turned out to be the leader. The performance of Google's browser was consistently strong compared to the rest of the participants in the test, but this should not be the only criterion when choosing your web browser.

    If you are using one of the "Big Three" browsers, then you can be sure that you will get good performance. Of course, there is still room for improvement, but in general, Chrome, Firefox and Edge perform very well.

    Note: The Oort Online and Peacekeeper benchmarks were not used in this round of testing because they have been deprecated and are no longer available. However, new tests have been added to the testing program this time: MotionMark, Speedometer and BaseMark.

    sunspider

    SunSpider - JavaScript benchmark (result: less is more)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    This is an outdated test, but all three browsers fail. However, the rankings are as follows: Edge wins by a wide margin, followed by Firefox and then Chrome.

    Octane

    Octane - JavaScript benchmark developed by Google (result: more is better)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    Given that Octane was developed by Google, it's no surprise that Chrome won this test. However, the Edge has performed better in the past. Not this time.

    Kraken

    Kraken - JavaScript benchmark developed by Mozilla (result: less is more)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    Kraken is Mozilla's benchmark, and Firefox won here. But in fact, all three browsers were pretty close in terms of results.

    jet stream

    JetStream - JavaScript benchmark developed by Apple (result: more is better)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    Microsoft Edge scores the best in Apple's benchmark.

    motion mark

    MotionMark is a graphical benchmark developed by the WebKit team (result: bigger is better)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    This benchmark took the most time to complete the test, and Edge was the clear winner here.

    Speedometer

    Speedometer - performance testing using DOM API to perform repetitive tasks (result: more is better)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    This test measures the time it takes for a browser to complete repetitive tasks, and showed Chrome as the clear winner here.

    basemark

    BaseMark - includes various tests that use the latest web standards and features (result: more is better)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge(test was not completed due to WebGL 2.0 limitations)

    Comparison of results

    Another test where Chrome is the clear winner.

    WebXPRT

    WebXPRT - HTML5 and JavaScript test developed by Principled Technologies (result: more is better)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    In recent years, this benchmark has changed somewhat, and this time Firefox came out on top.

    HTML5Test

    HTML5Test - testing HTML5 features (result: more is better)

    Google Chrome

    Mozilla Firefox

    Microsoft Edge

    Comparison of results

    None of the browsers showed a perfect result, although Chrome came closest to this. Edge has made the most progress lately, but because it has always been far behind.

    Today, while installing programs on a computer, one client asked, “Which browser should you install Firefox or Chrome?” and received a wonderful response that forced me to write this article “What is better?”.

    Since the birth of this site, about 8,000 people have already visited me, and the most popular of the browsers were Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. They occupied 33.5% and 27.5% respectively.

    First, let's look at the advantages of each of the browsers.

    Benefits of Mozilla Firefox

    Classic design. This is of course a moot point, because the compact mode that Google was the first to introduce in its browser turned out to be so successful that now absolutely everyone is trying to steal it, and not everyone succeeds.

    Expandability. Just a huge number of extensions for this browser allow you to use it not only for surfing, but also help in website development, entertainment, and even work.

    Special mention should be made of security. Being open - this browser is being closely tested by many large corporations, and even rare vulnerabilities are quickly closed and cease to be dangerous for users.

    Benefits of Google Chrome

    Very fast browser speed. A very simple interface that makes it easy for even an old grandmother to join the network (modern babies and Firefox master quickly). Integration with Google services and the extension system, which continues to gain momentum, allow the Google Chrome browser not only to occupy a small percentage of the market, but also gradually become the market leader.

    Of particular note is the extension store for this browser. Because, unlike competitors, it can install not only “small add-ons”, but also quite solid applications, such as calculators and office programs, as well as entertaining ones, such as games.

    So what to choose?

    Just try it and make your choice. For example, I use the Mozilla Firefox browser, but I would switch to Google Chrome with great pleasure if there were all the extensions I needed under it.

    What did you choose?

    What browser do you use? Please write in the comments and at least briefly answer why this particular browser.