In this article, I will compare the main and most popular browsers. I know there are more (Vivaldi, Opera, Arc, etc.), but I wanted to focus on the most popular ones to avoid making the article too long.
The versions tested are as follows:
- Safari 17.4
- Chrome 123
- Brave 1.64 (Chromium 123)
- Edge 122
- Firefox 124
First, I will test the supported features of HTML5 using the html5test.com website and summarize the differences. Differences in features that have been rejected or replaced by more modern ones will be ignored.
Then, with YouTube loaded, I’ll look at the memory each browser is using with all extensions disabled.
Let’s go!
HTML5test scores (from best to worst)
- Chrome: 581
- Edge: 581
- Brave: 576
- Safari: 555
- Firefox: 546
Differences in elements
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
ping attribute on the a element ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
accessKeyLabel attribute ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅
Differences in forms
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
input type=month ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
input type=week ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Differences in sensors
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Generic Sensor API ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Accelerometer ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Gyroscope ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Linear Acceleration ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Absolute Orientation ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Relative Orientation ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Differences in hardware
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Web Bluetooth ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Web USB ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Differences in peer to peer
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
ObjectRTC API for WebRTC ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Access the webcam ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Screen Capture ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Enumerate devices ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Differences in performance
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
window.requestIdleCallback ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Differences in resource loading
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
link rel=prefetch ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Differences in payments
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Web Payments ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Differences in video
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Audio track selection ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
Video track selection ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
MPEG-4 ASP support ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
H.265 support support ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Ogg Theora support ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✅
WebM with AV1 support ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Differences in audio
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Speech recognition ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Dolby Digital support ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
Dolby Digital Plus support ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
Ogg Vorbis support ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Ogg Opus support ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Ogg FLAC support ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Differences in streaming
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
HTTP Live Streaming / HLS ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
TS with H.264 support ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
WebM with AV1 support ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
MP4 with Dolby Digital support ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
MP4 with Dolby Digital Plus support ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
Differences in 2D graphics
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Blending modes ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
WebP support (export) ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
HEIC support ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
Differences in 3D and VR
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Web GPU ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Web XR ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ❌
Differences in web applications
Safari Chrome Brave Edge Firefox
Custom scheme handlers ❌ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Memory consumption after loading YouTube
In this test I open the YouTube trending page, rejecting all cookies, in a private window with all extensions disabled.
On Windows I have excluded Chrome, because my system is ARM and there is not a stable version for ARM yet.
Browser |
macOS Ventura |
Windows 11 |
---|---|---|
Chrome |
571 MB | |
Edge |
682 MB |
463 MB |
Safari |
831 MB | |
Brave |
865 MB |
435 MB |
Firefox |
1122 MB |
526 MB |
I’m surprised to see the difference in memory consumption between macOS and Windows. I don’t know why. They are very different systems, and in the end, all browsers work well on both systems, but the numbers are twice as high on macOS.
On the other hand, the consumption is very stable in macOS, while on Windows, a process can use 300 MB and, in a few seconds, jump to double, then go down a little, then go up again, etc. I found it easy to get an average in macOS, but on Windows, they are very changeable values. So after about 10 seconds, I wrote down the average value that seemed more stable to me.
Conclusion
One browser has come out the clear winner in both tests: Chrome. Although it has the same score in HTML5, its memory consumption is lower. So, if you want the best browser based on Chromium, with the Blink engine developed by Google, Meta, Microsoft, Opera, Adobe, Intel, IBM, and Samsung, that browser is Chrome.
If ad blocking is very important to you, instead of installing an extension, I recommend Brave, which already integrates this functionality, and you will save memory.
Edge is a unique option, being ideal if you use Microsoft services. It has unique options, such as Bing Chat support or screen splitting to load two websites in the same tab.
Safari keeps up quite well, rubbing shoulders with Chromium-based browsers. Remember that Safari is the only one that integrates with iCloud+ if you are in the Apple ecosystem and pay for this service.
With its Gecko engine, Firefox is the lowest rated in the HTML5 test. It also consumes the highest amount of memory on macOS.
Also published here.