Internet browser speed tests: Opera seems to be the fastest browser for Windows. Firefox is not faster than IE, except for scripting, but for standards support, security and features, it is a better choice.
Browser Speed Comparisons
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Who cares about fractions of a second if the display is wrong? We need fast AND correct, not just fast.
And we are all eagerly waiting for Firefox 1.1, which will include all of the great improvements in the Gecko engine in Moz1.8 as well as Mac Optimizations
The results don’t really surprise me. Of course speed matters little to me in terms of browsers. As long as it is stable (thank god it seems the bug in mplayerplug-in has been fixed), has good features, and looks good then I’m happy. That’s why I use Firefox.
Tells us what we already knew, namely that if you’re desperate for speed lynx/links is the way to go.
There is no way in hell I would go back to IE. I am far happier with Firefox.
Yeah, I’m with Jason…and it’s not just a matter of “going back to IE” but security as well. Although “they say” that it won’t be long before Firefox is attacked, at least it doesn’t use Active X which is a *big* problem.
I’m usually using Linux anyway and I can’t seem to find Intenet Explorer in there (!) Ha!
Opera’s speed would be relevant if it’s rendering engine were just as capable.
For the same reason in my opinion that it’s not fair to compare IE and Mozilla since IE doesn’t support many things correctly in CSS that Mozilla does.
It’s hard to compare speed between browsers when they’re not equal to begin with 😐
The methodology here is terrible. For CSS rendering speed, he takes one page that would never exist in the real world. It’s a bunch of the same div over and over. Furthermore, he makes sure that the results he takes are cached results. That’s not really indicitive of performance. His table performance is one page too. Because one page is an accurate sample of the over 8 billion on the web.
He talks about people ranting against him, but he deserves to be ranted against. His methods would get him thrown out of any research institution in a second. He’s tried to pass off shoddy work that means nothing by using a lot of numbers from a lot of browsers. For shame.
[quote]Opera’s speed would be relevant if it’s rendering engine were just as capable.[/quote]
Can you point to something that renders incorrectly in Opera 8.0b1, due to invalid processing of HTML/XHTML or CSS, which renders correctly in Mozilla/Firefox?
The only things I have trouble with lately in Opera in terms of rendering are all linked to JavaScript, which, of course, varies in many ways from browser to browser (especially when the script itself does a lot of user agent checking to attempt to achieve cross-browser compatibility). While Opera 7.6/8.0 implement XMLHTTP (and work with gmail) they don’t yet work properly with Google Suggest or Google Maps.
Opera 8.0 implements processing of XHTML as an XML document (with error validation, of course) and I really haven’t run into any rendering issues with it that weren’t tied to JavaScript.
Does OS news have to use slashdot as the source for finding all their articles?
It goes both ways, you know… just take a look at:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:slashdot.org+osnews
[iCan you point to something that renders incorrectly in Opera 8.0b1, due to invalid processing of HTML/XHTML or CSS, which renders correctly in Mozilla/Firefox? [/i]
Due to NDA concerns I can’t show you the code, but yes, I have Validating XHTML 1.0 markup that uses advanced CSS positioning as well as the CSS overflow property that at last check did not render in Opera correctly.
In fact, Konqueror rendered it better than Opera did, although Konqueror didn’t get it 100% correct.
I’ve just tested Opera 8 Beta on my ibook g3 800 MHz, but scrolling is as slow as ever and it has an extreme scrolllag(you stop scrolling your mouse but the screen continues to scroll). A lag which safari doesn’t have, reason enough for me to stay with safari.
I have used Opera since version 7.54 and now Opera 8 is excellent.
It’s overall an excellent piece of software.
IE has always been fast. I’ve always criticized Mozilla, Netscape, Konq…other browsers for being nowhere the speed of IE, but with Firefox 1.0 I believe it’s close enough that I don’t notice the difference anymore, and any minute difference is irrelevant when you consider the problems that IE has right now.
Of course Dillo is the fastest browser I’ve ever used….even if it doesn’t do a lot.
So I guess you own slashdot headlines now? I didn’t think so. Slashdot has been “stealing” from OSnews for years.
With Opera, like Mozilla, if some CSS doesn’t render as expected there is usually, 99.9% of the time infact, a very good standards based reason as to why it isn’t. Opera is on par with Gecko, if not better, when it comes to CSS support.
[i]Due to NDA concerns I can’t show you the code, but yes, I have Validating XHTML 1.0 markup that uses advanced CSS positioning as well as the CSS overflow property that at last check did not render in Opera correctly.
In fact, Konqueror rendered it better than Opera did, although Konqueror didn’t get it 100% correct.[i]
I experienced the exact same thing last week. http://www.auriance.net – Works in Opera just fine ; Doesn’t work in Konqueror (CSS menu).
I don’t like how Opera has gotten away from being a lightweight software focused on Browsing and Bowsing Speed, into a forced email client included, RSS feed, IRC Chat, etc. They also do banner ads for the free version from what I gather?
Firefox has taken over as Opera was 5 years ago. And if you WANT a integrated built in email client and such you cah choose to go with it’s bigger brother: Mozilla.
eE
Of course cold-startup time is important in a brwoser for me! On my iBook, Safari does a cold start in about 2-4 seconds, whereas it takes FireFox around 17-20 seconds. Unacceptable to me. My browser is a tool that must be available immediatly upon request– whether it was previously loaded or not. This is one of the many reasons why I prefer most browsers over FireFox– on any operating system.
Good to see my findings finally confirmed.
well in konqueror your css menu works just fine… although there are some problems in the rendering part… but not really serious… anyway why don’t you send a bug report to kde, maybe they’ll fix it…
The speed of the browser is not only how fast it renders some pages but how responsive it is in general. Opera is extremely responsive compared to Firefox. The gestures are almost instantaneous.
It might have a lot of extra features as some complain but it’s still smaller and faster than FireFox. And you can turn those off. Also don’t forget that most FireFox features are ripped from Opera. Still it can’t do a perfect job in emulating Opera.
I’m eagerly waiting for version 8. Hopefully it’ll be another kick-a** release.
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don’t like how Opera has gotten away from being a lightweight software focused on Browsing and Bowsing Speed, into a forced email client included, RSS feed, IRC Chat, etc. They also do banner ads for the free version from what I gather?
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Firefox has RSS too. BTW these are features, not in your face imperatives to use it.
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Firefox has taken over as Opera was 5 years ago. And if you WANT a integrated built in email client and such you cah choose to go with it’s bigger brother: Mozilla.
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Choice is the key word
Firefox has taken over as Opera was 5 years ago.
Howso? Even with all the features enabled (and if you don’t want them, they’re disabled and hidden by default), Opera is smaller and lighter than Firefox. I fail to see how a lack of features makes Firefox superior.
They used an old version of K-Meleon for their test…
did not work for me since i could not even get into yahoo.com to check my email. the email page would be all screwed up. rendering is horrible. ie 6 may have security issues but gosh dangit it renders everything fine never crashed on me…sigh i so wanted firefox. but now i am back to ie. lets hope MS can clean up their act with some updates and add-ons like RSS and tabbed browsing. that would be really nice.
I read my Yahoo! mail with Firefox all the time.
Firefox did not work for me since i could not even get into yahoo.com to check my email. the email page would be all screwed up. rendering is horrible. ie 6 may have security issues but gosh dangit it renders everything fine never crashed on me…sigh i so wanted firefox. but now i am back to ie. lets hope MS can clean up their act with some updates and add-ons like RSS and tabbed browsing. that would be really nice.
Have you tried a recent version. I use yahoo mail all the time with 1.0…..
I don’t like how Opera has gotten away from being a lightweight software focused on Browsing and Bowsing Speed, into a forced email client included, RSS feed, IRC Chat, etc.
Opera has had a built in mail/news client since version 3, maybe even version 2; it isn’t a new addition. It seems obvious to me that Opera still focuses on browsing speed and small size. If they didn’t then they wouldn’t have been able to make a much more feature rich browser that’s still smaller and faster than Firefox.
I don’t like how Opera has gotten away from being a lightweight software focused on Browsing and Bowsing Speed, into a forced email client included, RSS feed, IRC Chat, etc.
This is exactly why I prefer Opera to Firefox. It has everything, it’s not “just” an excellent browser. I prefer the Mozilla Suite to Firefox too.
For you people concerned in the speed of Firefox and interested in speeding it up, you should know that you can make it load pages faster (and it’s noticeable if you have something more than a 28k inet connection): http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1299854/posts . Of course, you should read http://www.mozilla.org/projects/netlib/http/pipelining-faq.html to know what are you doing.
Opera loads the necessary pieces of information very fast and – best of all – just once. While IE and Firefox always reload a page and all its content each time you click a link, Opera keeps everything in cache and only load the new pages. IE and Firefox don’t use their cache memory as they should be. For instance, hit the back button in Opera. The previous page appears extremely fast because Opera displays what is in the cache memory. Hit the back button in Firefox or IE: The page is reloaded, and the load meter is active and shows the % downloaded. Now, disconnect the Internet and hit the Back button once more: in Opera the page is displayed as usual damn fast ; in IE and in FF they give a 404 error page (!)
Let’s not forget that Opera is the most full-featured browser and the lighter ever with a setup file of only 3.5MB while FF is 4.5MB without:
– e-mail client
– IRC client
– All power feature that Opera has (mouse gestures, WAP simulation Shift-F11, custom style-sheet switcher, etc…)
If Opera were $100 I would even spend the money because it’s software I use all day long, and for any serious web designer it’s a must have.
For more infos: http://spreadopera.auriance.com/browser_comparison.php
for me konqueror is the fastest on dialup modem.
it renders pages fairly accurate.
as it is integrated with kde it is faster
similarly IE integrated with windows
mozilla, opera sucks memory, now dont tell me to buy more memory, a standard geek reply!
I sometimes use an old P2 266Mhz for browsing, IE and _old_ Opera versions are fastest, but because of security reasons i use a gecko based browser. Of those Kmeleon gives the fastest experience to me.
OSS is always best on windows !
have used mozilla since 2001 both in windows and linux , and amazing its faster in windows than linux or bsd. like video apps like vlc, virtuadub etc. like copy & burning apps like dvddecrypter etc. the list can go on
One should have done representative user tests regarding browser speed: Give a number of users say 60 minutes time to learn a browser, and than give them a number of challenges to solve (gathering information). I guess Opera is by far the fastest browser for parallel massive browsing.
If you wish to have IE + Tabs+ Pop-up blocker – ad filtering – content filtering – ActiveX filtering – plug-ins and such stuff while retaining IE engine, take a look at Maxthon (www.maxthon.com), formerly MyIE2 😉
I was using Opera (expecially because of tabs) and as soon as I found Maxthon (which I read about on a OSNews article 😉 I switched. Since then, I haven’t seen a pop-up I didn’t want to see, no hidden software / bars and so on… nothing! I don’t even see banners on websites if I don’t tell it to show me. Maxthon already included many feature which MS released with SP2.
I have to admit, however, I like Opera very much as it was my first choice for soooo long 😉
opera sucks memory
Your version of Opera must have a problem. Here Opera is using less memory than Firefox or even Mozilla wich is a real memory monster!
First of all, there is no “cold start” / “warm start” for Internet Explorer 6.0 – it is already running as the desktop.
Second of all, the “cold start” / “warm start” performance can be improved with the “/prefetch:1” added to the link to the browser. This is how you indicate to XP to optimize load performance.
Finally, K-Meleon is like greased lightning in comparison to either FireFox or IE6 – why does the tests not reflect this?
> http://www.auriance.net – Works in Opera just fine ;
> Doesn’t work in Konqueror (CSS menu).
i just tested this site in both 3.3.2 and current CVS (which will be 3.4 in a few weeks time) and it works and renders perfectly in both versions. as a lot of the improvements in KHTML done for 3.4 were backported to 3.3.2 it doesn’t surprise that both work similarly. so i’d suggest upgrading your KDE =)
as for Konqueror’s speed, it’s really of no surprise to those who use it daily that it’s fast to start and fast to render. for heavy, tightly looping JS it isn’t very swift, but that doesn’t really impact regular, daily usage of it as a web browser (versus a benchmark test taker
. i remember back when the JS implementation in Konq would even stutter on some of the bugzilla JS code, but real world web JS performance is fine now. and i do most of my surfing at home on a PII 400, this despite having a faster machine right next to it. it’s a good way to get a handle on KDE’s performance that one might otherwise miss on a faster machine.
The method used is not correct.
First:As far as I undestand, he measure with javascript the time at the beginnen of the document and at the end. This is the wrong methode, because you don’t measure page loading from the network and any rendering preparation before javascript is starten.
Second:Te test samples is not representive
Third:There is nog garantee that the second time measured the moment the browser is finished with rendering.
I can second what Aaron J. Seigo said about Konqueror rendering that link provided, works exactly as it does in Mozilla. Using Konqueror 3.3.2 in Gentoo AMD64.
Try on both IE and Firefox the sites listed on the link below.
http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/specialeffects/
You will see firefox is a clear winner.
but what if Konqueror did this faster and equally as good? (and it does, here…)
and yes, both beat IE. but that’s easy. beat opera or konqueror, than you can say you’re good
Well, one thing, als alwasy with OSS software, it looks like the latest version mostly wins
just after KDE 3.4 has been released, konqi will be the best. but then firefox releases a new version. faster, and looking better
then opera comes with 9.0, kicking ass
etc
(yep, even microsoft might play in this league, but they only release once every 4 year, while KDE, opera and firefox release up to twice a year).
I agree that Opera is faster, really impressive. Still I can’t live without Firefox and all the handy extensions. The one thing Firefox lacks is indeed the speed of Opera. I’m looking forward to FF 1.1, as this one should have a speed increase.
>> http://www.auriance.net – Works in Opera just fine ;
>> Doesn’t work in Konqueror (CSS menu).
>i just tested this site in both 3.3.2 and current CVS (which will be 3.4 in a few weeks time)
Just tested with 3.2.3, works perfectly.
They seem to miss the stats for Off By One Browser, heh.
http://www.offbyone.com/ OSNews renders great in it.
windows xp sp2 on a 800 MHz Intel Pentium 3 with 256 MB RAM. thats a bogus test for windows. thats an old machine with not enough speed or memory. i have a 2.2 ghz comp with 1 gig of rdram and a geforcefx 5600 ulta video card. test would have been different with my comp.
With regard to the criticism of PR statements from Mozilla.org, I think this review misinterpreted what “faster” is.
Firefox enables you to “browse faster” because it:
– has a simplified interface, thus less convoluted navigation.
– Automatically blocks pop-up ads
– Is virtually bulletproof w/ regard to Spyware/Malware (currently)
– Consolidates browsing in Tabs
– Extensible via plug-in extensions for tailored usability
I’m a college student, and I was hooked on Firefox simply because it helped streamline internet research. (E.g., a Google or Ebsco search returns hundreds of potentially relevant pages, and I can traverse the results, middle-clicking on all the relevant links, creating background tabs… and continuing on to each subsequent page of search results. When that’s done, I close google, and I’ve got every link already loaded and accessible via *ONE* window.
That’s what Firefox means by “BROWSING FASTER”…. and I wholeheartedly agree with their PR.
IE still can’t compare even with SP2’s IE “enhancements”.
– has a simplified interface, thus less convoluted navigation.
– Automatically blocks pop-up ads
– Is virtually bulletproof w/ regard to Spyware/Malware (currently)
– Consolidates browsing in Tabs
– Extensible via plug-in extensions for tailored usability
Faster than what browser? Because most good browsers have all these features that you have listed…
“Faster than what browser? Because most good browsers have all these features that you have listed…”
Most browsers have one, two, or three of those features listed, but only one has them all (esp. the 1st, 3rd, and 5th). He’s right about Firefox. It’s the only browser that comes stock like that.
“Most browsers have one, two, or three of those features listed, but only one has them all (esp. the 1st, 3rd, and 5th). He’s right about Firefox. It’s the only browser that comes stock like that.”
Safari does all points he listed,– allthough I’m not sure about the last one. And Safari looks better and is a lot faster than FireFox.
Too bad most of you are stuck with the choice between gecko or IE…
He’s right about Firefox. It’s the only browser that comes stock like that.
Opera has all these features but firefox doesn’t have half features Opera has.
The features you listed are more or less the difference between IE and Firefox… The Mozilla Suite is a lot more full-featured too.
“Opera has all these features but firefox doesn’t have half features Opera has.”
Opera is a NIGHTMARE to look at in terms of a usable stock interface.
Don’t get me wrong… I like Opera, and I know you can tweak the sucker and simplify it as much as you want. But what I meant by #1… is that… when you install Firefox, you’ve got one of the simplest, straight-forward, clean, cut and dry default interfaces available on a browser….
Yes, Safari does a super job, and I wish it were also available on x86… but, even w/ Apple enhancements, KHTML isn’t all there yet.
Opera is a NIGHTMARE to look at in terms of a usable stock interface.
Are you sure that the problem isn’t simply that Opera’s UI is a bit different? Firefox copies the IE layout then adds a few features like tabbed browsing. Opera has a lot more to offer out of the box and has a different layout to accommodate it’s features. If the first browser you used had been Opera I think you’d probably find Firefox to to have the nightmare interface.
I much prefer Opera’s stock UI to any other browser I’ve used, the customisation that’s possible is just a bonus.
I was a little put out for awhile, when I read this article, that I might not be using the bestest, fastest, most feature laden browser available, so I went and downloaded a few that were rated much higher, than the one I have used for over 5 years, and quickly put that idea to rest.
I downloaded Firefox, Opera, and Camino, checked out the preferences, set them up for my needs, played with them awhile, did some surfing, then trashed them.
For my main browser I use iCab, which I feel is best of all, because it best serves my needs.
It’s small, highly customizable, and allows me a little more tunability, then other browsers.
In my case, it’s detunability. The more functions I can turn off, the better I like it, and the more fuctional the browser becomes.
My window looks like a newspaper page, with no images, just print and links, which makes for less distractions.
If I want the images, command + y, or mouse click.
I can surf with just the keyboard, or just the mouse.
(5 button programable mouse with scroll wheel on a Mac, sounds wierd huh)
I use multiple browsers, (IE excluded), of which I use iCab for over 90% of my browsing, but if I need to access a site, that requires cookies, java, javascript, etc……., I open Safari, which is permanantly set up for the task.
A quick copy/paste URL from one browser to another, is way quicker than resetting the preferences, in any one browser.
The real upside of iCab, is that it’s probably more secure than the others, by reason of obscurity.
After I played with the browsers, I went to Secunia, checked out the security advisories for each, iCab had the least with 2, and I think Camino was second with 4.
Everyone has different needs, and requirements for their browser of choice.
There are fastest, biggest, smallest, easiest to use, most feature laden, most fuctional, most popular, most visibly appealing, but there still is no best browser of all, and most likely never will be.
Try them all, and pick the best one, (or one’s), for you.
Opera is a NIGHTMARE to look at in terms of a usable stock interface.
You’re a little carried away. You just have to right-click the toolbars and search box you don’t use and click “Remove from toolbar”.
My version of Opera 8 Beta has only the title bar, the address bar and the tabs. It looks just like Firefox or IE but at a click or combination of keys I can toggle the toolbars and build-in applications such as the news reader or e-mail client. And I’d using a superior product.
For my main browser I use iCab, which I feel is best of all
I heard the iCab project was discontinued. Has they resumed it?
>>>> Firefox copies the IE layout then adds a few features like tabbed browsing. <<<<
This is a stretch. Firefox’s default UI is *MUCH* simpler compared to IE’s default. IE has 5 addition buttons (in XP’s v6.0 SP2… previous releases may default w/ additional buttons)… there are even more random buttons if an OEM has installed AOL, AIM, Norton (anything), etc. Most of those buttons are just pictures w/o labels.
Just about all web browsers have the back, forward, stop, refresh, home buttons, so you can’t really say that Firefox copies IE’s layout. If anything, Firefox copies interface components from its older cousin NETSCAPE (which certainly predates IE).
>>>> I much prefer Opera’s stock UI to any other browser I’ve used, the customisation that’s possible is just a bonus. <<<<<
I don’t disagree that Opera is a well-featured browser. But the fact remains that its default appearance is a convoluted mess when compared to Firefox. Don’t even get me started about their menu options and preferences panels.
Opera has so many features that it’d be difficult to design a streamlined UI version of it w/o hiding the bazillion features. Interestingly enough, the company itself acknowledges the UI complexity as a problem. Their newst betas specifically target. All releases since 7.5 reflect UI simplifications, and the changelogs for those releases emphasize this goal.
So yes, I agree that opera has wayyyy more features than most browsers come with, but I would also venture to say that most of Opera’s features would remain unused by the general public.
What I like about Firefox is that it has all the *key* default features and a correspondingly clean default interface. If you’re an advanced user who wants more functionality, the extension system is pretty easy to understand.
If you had to switch your grandma off of IE, the best option would be firefox. Firefos’s goal is BROWSING, plain and simple… without distraction from superfluous features, etc. They do a super job in that dept.
I’ve used Konqueror in 3.3.2 and I have to say it’s my favourite browser now. After customizing the toolbars and setting my profile just right, I can’t go back. (except occasionally when I have to because of rendering errors)
Konqi is very customizable. I also like the lightweight khtml cuz it doesnt have the overhead of gecko. Though I wish Konqi default interface was simpler like firefox, but it’s nice that we can make it look that way if we want! I don’t get why browsers like konqi, ie, and opera have so many buttons. people hardly use any aside from the nav. ones. kinda like that kid mike was sayin earlier.
insightful benchmarks, thank you.
Hi Mike.
I don’t think they discontinued it.
Like I said, I’ve been using it for 5 years, and there have been updates.
They have a new beta version 3.0 available to registered users.
http://icab.de/news.html
One point missed who pays for a web browser nowadays? I don’t care how good it is.
i remember reading something (i *think* it was on mozillazine forums, not sure though) about similar benchmarking with similar results (actually back then firefox alot slower). anyways, that thread had a fantastic set of settings optimizations that speed up firefox a hell of alot. cant for the life of me remember what they are, and have lost the link ages ago (and couldnt be bothered really, firefox is plenty fast for me). if speed is that important to you, go googling and im sure youll turn up a bunch of stuff on how to speed up firefox.