4w ago

What's the recommended Android browser for privacy in 2025, that is also usable for day to day tasks?.

As open source as Android is, it is very difficult to find a decent browser, let alone one that is privacy focused and also usable on daily.

Almost all web searches point to site that shows stuff like : Chrome, Edge, Opera....etc. So this doesnt help.
Play Store is full of shitty browsers. If you skip the usual DDG, Chrome, Edge, Opera...etc then you will see either:

a) browsers from random Chinese company (Via, UC Browser)

or b) browser that is coupled with other products, e.g. a video downloader with built in browser.

After the recent fiasco with Firefox and their ToS, I saw a lot of posts saying IronFox / Water Fox is better. I've never heard of these Foxes variants before.

So I tried the following on Android:

DDG: only good if you do basic search. It lacks a good adblocker. So very annoying if you are on a site with shit tons of popups.
Brave: not a fan of the in your face AI tools. Overall it works ok though
The Foxes variants: IronFox seems to be very good on privacy. It has its own DNS and most of the security is on by default. However, same as all Foxes, IronFox just doesnt play well on Android. There is a slight lag when you try to switch tabs.
TOR: This would be the safest. But the poorest in terms of usability.
Chrome w/o account or Chrome run from private space. Surprisingly, Chrome is still the one browser that runs the smoothest.....

Any input is appreciated.

49 comments

I use IronFox and have no qualms. Vandium on graphene is also popular. Buy apart from that I can't offer up much more
- I ran into some broken site issues with IronFox (which is completely understandable), but after tweaking every setting I could possibly find I couldn't resolve them. Fennec is a good compromise for me

I've been using Fennec and it works 99% of the times and on the rare occasion I need Chromium based browser I use Brave. I don't have any issues with either.
- Usually the same. Except Brave I use Vivaldi.
  
  Same except my alt is chromite

I've been running IronFox for a while and it's been solid.

Mullvad browser and Tor browser are the only serious options for privacy on the internet. Librewolf, cromite, Firefox, brave, etc will get you fingerprinted. If you care about security more than privacy, use a chromium based browser. Personally, I use Mullvad browser with Vpn (use only protonvpn, mullvad, or ivpn, they have had security and legal tests) it's the best combo of fast and private.
For mobile, the options are more limited. Ironfox, Cromite, and Vanadium (GrapheneOs) are the best bets for daily use. Tor Browser is the only one that actually stops fingerprinting however, but it is difficult to recommend it as a daily driver, it's more of a tool.
Source: I actually help code security software and test it in real world scenarios regularly
- People should be aware that Tor is gonna be quite a bit slower and isn't practical for things like streaming.
  
  Yeah it's not really suitable as a daily driver. Mullvad is imo
- I was about to ask, wasn't Mullvad discontinued a few months ago? But I'm thinking of the Mull browser, right?
  
  Yeah Mull is a different project. Mullvad browser is better than Mull (now Ironfox) tho lol.

Firefox. They're still great, people keep freaking out over extremely benign changes.

According to the tests I've run, IronFox, Brave, and Tor Browser are the only options (in my opinion).
Cromite also works, as does Vanadium, but they're... basic, and the fingerprinting resistance could be better.

Also on IronFox and it's solid.
If you already use Brave on desktop then that works fine too and syncs your data. Not a huge fan of the crypto/AI stuff in the browser, but the security/privacy aspect of the browser is good.
- Gonna be real, Firefox with some settings changed + uBlock/Librewolf + uBlock is Brave, and even better honestly. Brave has whitelisted some trackers on sites, and they also will break a site while not giving you a chance to find the one tracker breaking the site, forcing you to turn the entire shield off, defeating the purpose. Meanwhile, uBlock with advanced settings on will allow you to still block anything unnecessary to letting the site do basic functions.

I use Cromite. It's a more hardened fork of Bromite. Which itself is a hardened fork of Chromium.
The only thing I've found so far is that it likes to block the discussion threads on some websites. But other than that I've had no issues whatsoever.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/
- Or, any of a dozen browsers in F-Droid. Each would require evaluation and research, but Android is certainly not restricted in choices.

Firefox with Ublock Origin and NextDNS

Cromite+Fennec

Currently on mobile I run DDG for primary uses, and Tor browser occasionally when I want extra privacy, but it is too slow to use for everything. DDG is fine IMO. It's simple and I like the default "always incognito" approach it has. I have no issues using their search.
I would be interested in migrating to some libre-like version of firefox, but haven't figured out what that would be yet from the options that are out there. I don't want to use any chromium descended browser anymore, so stuff like Brave is out.
Edit: I'm now trying out Fennec for my daily driver
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't DDG browser also based on Chromium?
  
  I thought not, but you made me look into it and it is using the Blink engine (chromium). I guess I need to try out the foxes

Fennec

Librewolf on PC, or Tor, if you want to go full on; And Ironfox on Android. Use LibRedirect as a search provider and if you use Searxing, it will rotate all your searches to different instances every time.

I'm on IronFox on a cheap ~200$ Motorola phone and had no issues, runs like the old Mull used to

Firefox or Waterfox if you're freaking out about Firefox.

Tor browser for anonymous/private regular browsing (without logging into personally-identifiable accounts)
Vanadium (GrapheneOS' Chromium-based browser, maybe it's usable on non-GrapheneOS as well?) in combination with a good crap-blocking DNS server
Brave is decent but has some bad default settings, can probably be configured to behave well (similar to regular Firefox)
Firefox + forks are generally not that great (at least on Android?) because their sandboxing capabilities (and maybe other security features) are weaker compared to those of Chromium-based browsers. See also: https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing
Proprietary browsers like Chrome, Edge, Opera, and so on all contain loads of on-by-default-spyware and should never be used

i run cromite, it works quite well, has built in ad and track blocking and is quite fast

I use Firefox Focus/Klar as my default and if I want anything to persist, I'll open it in Brave or Chromium.

Glad to hear Brave isn't awful. I haven't tried it as I'm trying to avoid Chrome entirely for now.
I've been using IceRaven/Mull on a very old (out of support) LG phone, and I'm not sure I entirely understand the "pauses" thing? I don't see meaningful pauses when I switch tabs, other than the page reloading if it was purged from RAM. But like. That happens in Safari on iOS on a brand new phone, too, so it's not entirely an Android-specific complaint.
Honestly, all mobile browsers are UI train-wrecks of one kind or another. For me it was this exact process of elimination to decide which I like least, and then from there deciding which inflict the fewest paper cuts. For me, FF sync (settings mostly, but also tab sets) was more important than whatever memory problems Mozilla rebrands might have. :(

Graphene os + vanadium
https://github.com/GrapheneOS/Vanadium

Android is not open source in its final form. The base is open source. First step to privacy is checking if you can use something like lineageos or graoheneos. They both include android open source project (aosp) as a base and build on top. Graphene only works on pixel phones and lineage has a variety of phones you can put it on. Dont install play services and use fdroid for most apps. Some apps you will need aurora (play store but anonymous) which is a last resort.
I use fennec on lineageos which works quite well. I have ublock (recommend) and noscript (optional because pretty drastic).
Let me know if you need more help.

Unpopular opinion: Quetta + uBlock Origin + NextDNS works really well. The interface is very configurable and clean. Good translator, background playback, extensions, DoH...

Vivaldi, sync ee2e with the desktop version.

I'm spread out across Waterfox, Ironfox, Brave and Vivaldi.
For FF forks, don't neglect extensions like JShelter. They make a difference as well.

I use 3 browsers on my android devices. All 3 on all of them. That's Firefox as the primary, and then Firefox Focus, and Firefox Nightly.
In the primary Firefox browser, I use uBlock Origin.
I have no lag - so why you talk about "all foxes" here, I don't really know. Maybe you do know that Google, Like MS, Apple and others, always try to make it harder to use anything else, than their solution?

I find VIvaldi to be the most functional and its also my preferred desktop browser, It's like brave but without the crypto non-sense, and much more focused on what users want rather than what will make them advertising money.

Vanadium along with Kagi Search engine and NextDNS is god tier

I've been on Waterfox for years and see no reason worth changing for.

I've been using DuckDuckGo's browser, it's pretty alright.
- DuckDuckGo Browser is a webview browser which has weaker tab isolation and uses the system's default webview implementation, most often chrome webview.
  
  Huh, that's unfortunate. I see a lot of recommendations for Fennec and Ironfox a fair amount and use regular firefox on desktop, maybe I should check those out. Is there one you recommend?

It sounds like you've come to the correct conclusion that no browser is best. I use Brave.

49 comments