Web Browser Showdown: Safari vs Chrome vs Brave vs Edge vs Firefox
🔄 Updated October 2024
In this article, I will compare the main and most popular browsers.
The versions tested are as follows:
- Chromium 130 (this includes Chrome, Brave, Edge, and other browsers that share this engine)
- Firefox 131
- Safari 18
First, I will test the supported features of HTML5 using the html5test.co website and summarize the differences. Differences in features that have been rejected or replaced by more modern ones will be ignored. For simplicity, as Chromium-based browsers share the same features, I’ll group them under the Chromium name.
Then, with Twitch loaded, I’ll look at the memory each browser is using with all extensions disabled.
Let’s go!
HTML5test scores (from best to worst)
- Chromium: 581
- Safari: 555
- Firefox: 546
Differences in elements
Safari Chromium Firefox
ping attribute on the a element ✅ ✅ ❌
accessKeyLabel attribute ✅ ❌ ✅Differences in forms
Safari Chromium Firefox
input type=month ❌ ✅ ❌
input type=week ❌ ✅ ❌Differences in sensors
Safari Chromium Firefox
Generic Sensor API ❌ ✅ ❌
Accelerometer ❌ ✅ ❌
Gyroscope ❌ ✅ ❌
Linear Acceleration ❌ ✅ ❌
Absolute Orientation ❌ ✅ ❌
Relative Orientation ❌ ✅ ❌Differences in hardware
Safari Chromium Firefox
Web Bluetooth ❌ ✅ ❌
Web USB ❌ ✅ ❌Differences in performance
Safari Chromium Firefox
window.requestIdleCallback ❌ ✅ ✅Differences in resource loading
Safari Chromium Firefox
link rel=prefetch ❌ ✅ ✅Differences in payments
Safari Chromium Firefox
Web Payments ✅ ✅ ❌Differences in video
Safari Chromium 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 Chromium Firefox
Speech recognition ✅ ✅ ❌
Dolby Digital support ✅ ❌ ❌
Dolby Digital Plus support ✅ ❌ ❌
Ogg Vorbis support ❌ ✅ ✅
Ogg Opus support ❌ ✅ ✅
Ogg FLAC support ❌ ✅ ✅Differences in streaming
Safari Chromium 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 Chromium Firefox
WebP support (export) ❌ ✅ ✅
HEIC support ✅ ❌ ❌Differences in 3D and VR
Safari Chromium Firefox
Web GPU ❌ ✅ ❌
Web XR ❌ ✅ ❌Differences in web applications
Safari Chromium Firefox
Custom scheme handlers ❌ ✅ ✅Memory consumption after loading Twitch
In this test I open the Twitch home page, rejecting all cookies, in a private window with all extensions disabled.
macOS Sequoia Windows 11
Chrome 602 MB 313 MB
Edge 861 MB 376 MB
Safari 736 MB
Brave 787 MB 415 MB
Firefox 1173 MB 579 MBI’m surprised to see the difference in memory consumption between macOS and Windows. I’m not sure why. They are very different systems, and in the end, all browsers work well on both, 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. In that case, I got the average most stable value.
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.
