Privacy @lemmy.world sunset @reddthat.com 1d ago

Recommended Firefox alternative(s) for Android

Recently there has been controversy around Mozilla Firefox.

I've been looking for an alternative but really struggling, seems like every alternative has a downside:

Vivaldi: Uses some proprietary code and likely not doing much better on the user data side of things, also based on Chromium.
Tor: Uses Tor protocol and so is quite slow, my ISP would probably also think I'm a drug lord.
Fennec: Basically looks the same as Firefox but guessing less up to date, F-Droid has a warning about it's using Mozilla services for tracking.

What are you guys using? Have you found anything good?

29 comments

IronFox is similar to what Mull was and similar-ish to fennec. You can also try Brave or Vanadium if you wish to go Chromium
- +1 for IronFox
  
  +2, using it as my daily over vanadium
- Switching from Firefox to Chromium because of the latest Mozilla policy changes is insane. Google is ten times worse in every relevant aspect.
  
  Brave and Vanadium remove the google telemetry. Next complaint?
- I think I might give IronFox a go, just a bit weary as never heard of it before, not sure who is the owner of the project and where they are based, GitLab project only has ~125 stars.
  
  Have you ever used the Accrescent app store? That's their recommended option for installing it.
  
  I haven't used Acrescent but I believe it's made by the GrapheneOS team. It's focused on security, rather than totally FOSS programs.
The nice thing about Fennec is you don't have to accept a Mozilla license to use it, and those Mozilla services are (AFAIK) disabled by default. In fact, when I look at their settings menu, there is no "data collection" section to speak of.

The not-so-nice thing about Fennec is a little while back, it just didn't receive any updates. For something like a month.

Just about every browser that's based on Firefox is going to be slower to update than mainline Firefox, with perhaps the exception of Tor and Mullvad because they work hand in hand.
I've been sticking with Ironfox as much as I can. It took up the mantle of Mull so Its based off fennec but got the security locked down and mozillas telemetry ripped out. Of course this means some websites don't play nice so I need to occasionally use a less hardened browser like firefox or kiwi(chromium based that can install any desktop extension). You should be used to that situation if you've used a hardened browser before though.

If I recall right you don't need to use the Tor network on the Tor browser. disconnect from the network and see if you can use it as a regular clear web browser. Also your ISP don't give a fuck whether you use TOR or a VPN, in fact they probably prefer it. As long as you pay them each month and they aren't getting calls from DMCA laywers or Feds running a honey pot they dont give a fuck. Apparently Its when you start torrenting gigabytes of data off of cellular network that they start getting pissed.
So currently this is my recommendation for web browsers for Android.

Chromium based (best for security on Android)

brave, disable cryptocrap, telemetry sponsor background and you're pretty much good to go.

cromite, an active fork of bromite which is basically an upgrade of ungoogled chromium

Vanadium, if you are using GrapheneOS

Firefox based browser (none support per-site isolation as of today)

IronFox, a active fork of Mull, basically the most harden FF flavor on Android

Fennec, basically a fully libre FF flavor
- How do you feel about DDG browser? It's another chrome based option. I've been using it when the some rare website won't work in a Firefox fork, and I'm curious to hear other people's opinions about it.
  
  I like their free email forwarding service for throwaway accounts. Obviously, they aren't private in any way.
Iceraven is my go to, been using it for about a year now. It works great
- Interesting, seems you have to download the .apk directly from their repo though, rather than any store. So I'm guessing there's no automatic updates?
  
  Yeah, but I see it as a pro and a con. With previous browsers I used like Mull, Fennec and Bromite, the store versions usually lagged behind, usually due to FDroid shenanigans, and downloading it from the source eliminates the middleman. While it is more work, I do use my browser for many important things, so I feel like it's worth it for my use case.
I'm using Vivaldi and I'd recommend it. Obviously nothing is perfect, and especially browsers, but I'd implore you to look further in to it.
Fennec cause it got cute little mascot
After looking for a browser without anti-features, I have settled on using FREE Browser
- Isn't that one chromium based?
  
  --From my experience of using it
  
  It is a libre web browser, that's all I care about.
Just seen another post on Lemmy about it.
Waterfox has been great.

29 comments