Fast, secure browser integrating ad and tracker blockage, privacy features, and VPN. Offers seamless performance with data and battery optimization, faster loads by blocking pop-ups and ads. Safeguards user privacy with tracking protections and built-in brave search.
Comment summary: Comments on Brave browser highlight its fast performance, efficiency, and strong privacy features, although opinions are mixed due to its use of BAT tokens and concerns over privacy practices. Users appreciate its built-in ad blocker and rewards system, but some criticize its integration with cryptocurrency and Chromium base. Critics also note issues with crashes, bloat, and syncing difficulties, while fans admire its open-source nature and minimal tracking. Overall, Brave is seen as a promising alternative to larger browsers.
Top Positive Comment
István Kása
★★★★★
•
15
The king of all Chromium-based browsers! Blocks ads and really nice to use.
Top Negative Comment
Soul Rain
★★★★★
•
22
People who know about privacy know this is b.s. - there is no more anonymity in Brave than in Chrome if you know what to do and (on the other side) when you know what to track. As for the claim on their homepage no less than it is 20x faster than Chrome or Firefox, b.s., as well I tested it and it doesn't load even 2x times faster.
The biggest con is that the wooper-dooper integrated ad filter is so bad that it breaks pages while at the same time allowing dozens of pop ups and pop unders that even the most basic extension for Firefox or Chrome can block perfectly.
Also, full of small crappy details, such as not being able to change the new tab page which shows a new random image over the interwebs (with no possibility to select the thematic/category at least) and a bean-counter's wet dream of numbers showing how many ads it (absolutely imperfectly) blocked (this tracks all the ads, pretty ironic for a browser bragging about privacy). Just to be clear: this disastrous bloatware new tab is NON NEGOTIABLE, you cannot disable it, not even through under the hood flags. Nothing. Better love to see every time a crappy stock photo and how many ads Brave failed to completely block, Bucko.
In summary, much ado about nothing. At this time it's neither more safe nor faster than any big name browser.
yiledinktadat
Comment•
Replying to @Soul Rain
As of Oct 2021 Version 1.31.87 you can definitely change the new tab page to blank if you wish to. I've been following the progress of Brave for some time and it has been improving steadily. In many reviews it's ranked just behind the top guns, but the beauty of Brave it is ready to run with the best security settings already set, whereas with most other browsers you need to do a lot of tweaking.
Eriko
Comment•
Replying to @Soul Rain
You can change the start tab to anything in the settings or using an extension. The browser fingerprint is changed every time. Also Brave allows for a smaller attack surface as it eliminates the need for some privacy extensions. It is definitely better than google chrome as google is one of the biggest data collecting companies.
RemovedUser
Comment•
Replying to @Soul Rain
You may want to try Brave again as your experience is now 4 years old. It would be good to see your perspective comparing Brave 4 years later. I would also encourage you to use EFF's Cover Your Tracks test on your favorite browsers and Tor and Firefox and LibreWolf and of course Brave. Brave is the only browser I have found that can consistently pass the EFF test.
I only started using Brave in 2023 as my browser for some websites (such as gvmnt sites) that work better on stock Chrome, having tried it earlier and not liking it. Now it is quite a good browser. Not the best, but mots of your problems are not present.
Brave Shields isn't as good or robust as uBlock Origins, but it is quite decent, and will still work after Manifest V3. If you need Chrome, it's probably the best option currently, aside from Edge on Windows (for security, not privacy).
No, Brave does not provide anonymity. If they advertise that (I haven't seen it), they should be docked a star. No browser really provides anonymity on its own, with Tor at least being the best. Brave does not protect against fingerprinting, like most privacy browsers. But neither does Firefox, even with Arkenfox.js. The best option for usability currently with some fingerprinting protection would be Mullvad, ideally if people would all get together and decide on like 3 extensions they would all use, and nothing else (i.e. bitwarden, anonaddy, ublock).
This profile has been deprecated.
Comment•
Replying to @Soul Rain
Privacy and Anonymity are two different things and seems many people can't differentiate both.
Brave is focused on privacy although they went a bit ahead to bring some anonymity with their Tor implementations.
What people ought to be talking about it's regarding the Bloatware it bundles: Crypto & Rewards.
Klaus Vonstein
★★★★★
•
Edited
1
I used to be a big fan of the browser until they removed "Strict Fingerprinting Mode" then cracks started to show up for me and that pushed me to do some digging and find these: Why I recommend against Brave and Brave Browser is the most overrated browser out there, and I don't recommend using it. Also there are many people with good points about why why you shouldn't trust Brave, especially if you look at who is their CEO and why it was kicked out Mozilla. Anyway, still better than the average Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Opera, but at the end of the day it's just Chromium under the hood and doesn't seem to be that privacy friendly when it does things that go again the claims made by the team behind the browser.
P.S: the Brave team is full of gaslighters that will make you believe the browser is good, until you realise that they made a article claiming their browser is better then the competition till you check the versions of the browsers used and find out that they compared a new version of Brave with an almost one year old Mozilla Firefox browser. See for yourself here: Brave for Desktop Outperforms Other Browsers in Speed and Performance.
L-M
★★★★★
•
-2
Not trustworthy at all..
VladTheDescalerGreylizard Webdesign
★★★★★
•
0
Greylizard Webdesign
I have tried sooo many browsers and I always come back to Brave. It doesn't hog memory like Firefox and it doesn't snoop like Chrome. It's not loaded with bloat out of the box. I have tried all the alternatives but have never replaced it.
Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
Viktor Korobov
★★★★★
•
0
Great browser. I use it on par with Chrome and Firefox
Immi Gon
★★★★★
•
1
A browser with good out of box privacy stuff. However a little bloated due to crypto stuff but it can be all turned off.
UI = User Interface
UX = User eXperience
Most open source apps offer out-dated or classic material design UI. If the apps works great and the UX is not terrible you might find it okay. But intuitive UI are better, and modern looking ones are pleasant to use, sadly they are not the majority. Here is my list of Beautiful Open Source Apps for your android device !
Apps are listed in alphabetical order !
Also look at : The ultimate F-Droid setup for more open source android apps.
and Beautiful Open Source Apps for iOS for your iOS device
DISCLAIMERS
Nice UI comes to personnal preference. So this list is only based on my taste of what is a good modern looking app.
While open source is great for privacy and security it is not perfect. So keep that in mind before downloading any apps.
I again encourage you to do your own research about them and read their Privacy Policies.
I am not a privacy and security expert. I'm also don't consider myself as a developper so I do not have any technical knowledge and so I didn't look into any source code of any apps in this list !
This is going to be a list of the free tools/software that can be used mostly in any field. it's based on websites recommendations, personal experience and YouTube videos. If there's any software that you like to be added here pls inform me so we can do it together. They won't be in the alphabetical order. Together we can do it. If you find any software in the list that's not free let me know
Brave is a fast, free, secure web browser with a built-in ad blocker, tracking and security protection, and optimized data and battery experience.
Brave offers a private search with better results, less SEO spam, and zero profiling, a built-in AI assistant to get answers, generate content, and more, and a powerful VPN to protect every app on your entire device.
Brave blocks third-party ads on every website. That’s video ads, search ads, social media ads, and more. And those annoying "Accept cookies?" pop-ups? Yeah, we block those too.
Without that unwanted junk, you save Wi-Fi bandwidth and mobile data, battery life, and CPU. And websites load 3x-6x faster. Less waiting = more time back in your day.
Shields against tracking and fingerprinting. A premium VPN that can encrypt every connection, no matter where you are. On-by-default Global Privacy Control to stop websites from selling and sharing your data. All this (and more) in one ridiculously easy package.
Brave works right out of the box. No dials to turn, no extensions, no PhD required.
Comments and Reviews
The king of all Chromium-based browsers! Blocks ads and really nice to use.
People who know about privacy know this is b.s. - there is no more anonymity in Brave than in Chrome if you know what to do and (on the other side) when you know what to track. As for the claim on their homepage no less than it is 20x faster than Chrome or Firefox, b.s., as well I tested it and it doesn't load even 2x times faster. The biggest con is that the wooper-dooper integrated ad filter is so bad that it breaks pages while at the same time allowing dozens of pop ups and pop unders that even the most basic extension for Firefox or Chrome can block perfectly. Also, full of small crappy details, such as not being able to change the new tab page which shows a new random image over the interwebs (with no possibility to select the thematic/category at least) and a bean-counter's wet dream of numbers showing how many ads it (absolutely imperfectly) blocked (this tracks all the ads, pretty ironic for a browser bragging about privacy). Just to be clear: this disastrous bloatware new tab is NON NEGOTIABLE, you cannot disable it, not even through under the hood flags. Nothing. Better love to see every time a crappy stock photo and how many ads Brave failed to completely block, Bucko. In summary, much ado about nothing. At this time it's neither more safe nor faster than any big name browser.
As of Oct 2021 Version 1.31.87 you can definitely change the new tab page to blank if you wish to. I've been following the progress of Brave for some time and it has been improving steadily. In many reviews it's ranked just behind the top guns, but the beauty of Brave it is ready to run with the best security settings already set, whereas with most other browsers you need to do a lot of tweaking.
You can change the start tab to anything in the settings or using an extension. The browser fingerprint is changed every time. Also Brave allows for a smaller attack surface as it eliminates the need for some privacy extensions. It is definitely better than google chrome as google is one of the biggest data collecting companies.
You may want to try Brave again as your experience is now 4 years old. It would be good to see your perspective comparing Brave 4 years later. I would also encourage you to use EFF's Cover Your Tracks test on your favorite browsers and Tor and Firefox and LibreWolf and of course Brave. Brave is the only browser I have found that can consistently pass the EFF test.
I only started using Brave in 2023 as my browser for some websites (such as gvmnt sites) that work better on stock Chrome, having tried it earlier and not liking it. Now it is quite a good browser. Not the best, but mots of your problems are not present.
Brave Shields isn't as good or robust as uBlock Origins, but it is quite decent, and will still work after Manifest V3. If you need Chrome, it's probably the best option currently, aside from Edge on Windows (for security, not privacy).
No, Brave does not provide anonymity. If they advertise that (I haven't seen it), they should be docked a star. No browser really provides anonymity on its own, with Tor at least being the best. Brave does not protect against fingerprinting, like most privacy browsers. But neither does Firefox, even with Arkenfox.js. The best option for usability currently with some fingerprinting protection would be Mullvad, ideally if people would all get together and decide on like 3 extensions they would all use, and nothing else (i.e. bitwarden, anonaddy, ublock).
Privacy and Anonymity are two different things and seems many people can't differentiate both. Brave is focused on privacy although they went a bit ahead to bring some anonymity with their Tor implementations.
What people ought to be talking about it's regarding the Bloatware it bundles: Crypto & Rewards.
I used to be a big fan of the browser until they removed "Strict Fingerprinting Mode" then cracks started to show up for me and that pushed me to do some digging and find these: Why I recommend against Brave and Brave Browser is the most overrated browser out there, and I don't recommend using it. Also there are many people with good points about why why you shouldn't trust Brave, especially if you look at who is their CEO and why it was kicked out Mozilla. Anyway, still better than the average Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Opera, but at the end of the day it's just Chromium under the hood and doesn't seem to be that privacy friendly when it does things that go again the claims made by the team behind the browser. P.S: the Brave team is full of gaslighters that will make you believe the browser is good, until you realise that they made a article claiming their browser is better then the competition till you check the versions of the browsers used and find out that they compared a new version of Brave with an almost one year old Mozilla Firefox browser. See for yourself here: Brave for Desktop Outperforms Other Browsers in Speed and Performance.
Not trustworthy at all..
I have tried sooo many browsers and I always come back to Brave. It doesn't hog memory like Firefox and it doesn't snoop like Chrome. It's not loaded with bloat out of the box. I have tried all the alternatives but have never replaced it.
Great browser. I use it on par with Chrome and Firefox
A browser with good out of box privacy stuff. However a little bloated due to crypto stuff but it can be all turned off.