The 2020 Browser Battle: Surfing With Speed
by Brett Howse on September 10, 2020 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Software
- Browsers
- Mozilla
- Google Chrome
- Microsoft Edge
What’s in a Browser?
Perhaps the most interesting part of testing these browsers is just how the results are a snapshot in time. With credit to Google, browser development happens at a very rapid pace, so these results may skew one way or another with time, with the tendency for better performance as time goes on, but sometimes there is some degradation as well. It will be interesting to check back again in a year.
Microsoft Browser Evolution
When Windows 10 was first announced, Microsoft was very keen to promote their new browser, eventually named Edge. They took their Trident rendering engine from Internet Explorer, and stripped it back to its core, then rebuilt it as a more modern, and more standards compliant browser than they had ever done previously. Unfortunately for Microsoft, Google’s Chrome browser continued to gain usage share, and with it came developers testing against Chrome. There was a years-long PR war with Microsoft begging developers to write websites to standards and features, rather than just based on a User Agent String, but that war was lost, and in a surprising, but also necessary move, Microsoft abandoned its browser and joined the Chromium gang. While it is great to see them embracing open source and the Chromium project, it is also somewhat sad to see the open web consolidating so much around Chromium. Firefox remains the only major browser in the PC space to not utilize Chromium. Apple continues to utilize WebKit, which was the code base that Chromium’s Blink came from, but Apple’s strong developer relations (current feuds not withstanding) and presence in the mobile market will keep WebKit as a valid option for them.
Google Chrome is currently the most popular browser on the PC
While there was no decisive winner in any category, there were trends in the data worth covering. First, the performance of all modern browsers is similar enough that choosing a browser based only on performance is not necessary. It should be features that drive usage, and it seems like we are close enough on performance to see that happen. Of the Chromium-based browsers, somewhat surprisingly Google Chrome was not the winner here, at least with the versions tested. Microsoft has made the best of their move to a new browser engine, outperforming both Chrome and Opera by a small margin in all tests. The differences were not massive, but they were there consistently. Mozilla Firefox was able to hold its own as well, scoring a few wins, and almost obtaining the same HTML5 score as well.
On the battery life side, it is clear that Microsoft did give up its advantage there, with classic Edge easily outclassing the field, but with low usage, and issues with website compatibility mostly stemming from the low usage, Microsoft will have to continue their efforts, but this time those efforts will be shared among all of the Chromium browsers. In our testing, Chromium Edge, as it did on the performance side, slightly outperformed Chrome and Opera. Firefox was not quite as competitive, but not so far from the rest that it would likely sway someone to use another browser over Firefox if that is already their preference, unless they really need that extra runtime.
It may seem a bit anti-climactic to say that all the browsers tested performed well, but that was the case. Choosing a browser based purely on performance is not necessary at the moment, as no single browser easily out-muscles its competitors. One of the big questions was in regards to Microsoft’s move from EdgeHTML to Blink, but it is definitely a win in terms of browser compatibility, and even if it did result in a net-loss of power savings, having a power efficient browser you can not use on your favorite website helps no one. Chromium Edge has been in alpha and beta versions for some time, and Microsoft started making it available as a released version earlier this year. The new Edge is great and should only get better. Whether it puts a dent in Google’s dominance is something only time will tell.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
121 Comments
View All Comments
biofrog - Thursday, September 10, 2020 - link
Thanks, very interesting.I thought I'd try my real-life test opening a 49MB HTML log file. Time to finish loading was:
Chrome: 14 minutes 46 seconds
Firefox: 7 seconds
Edge: cant even open local files
IE: 12 seconds
Nope, still not going to use Chrome until they get that fixed. It used to work around v50-ish. At roughly 12,657 times slower than Firefox, it seems Chrome isn't feasible for my work.
Khenglish - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
Can we get a RAM usage comparison for similar tasks? Historically I used to see Chrome use the most memory, and edge classic use the least. Lately Firefox seems to be using ridiculous amounts of memory. It'd be good for a more in depth comparison.RickyBaby - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
I'll echo the sentiments of several others. My #1 concern is the ability of a browser to protect my privacy and block ads. NOTHING ELSE COMES CLOSE. Why doesn't AT or any other site respect our wishes and provide the details we actually want to know ? And, yes, you already know the answer. GOOGLE IS EVIL. Apple, MS are no different. Is it true that FF is owned by the Chinese and our data is mined and sent there ? That's what we really want to know ... along with which plug-ins work best is stopping the spying ? How about a review of TOR browser ? Yeah. Right. We get it. AT and all the other tech sites are owned by the same EVIL we are trying to avoid. Pretty much figure that I just got banned. And since I'm going down ... FB is EVIL too. Twitter is EVIL. Both ban anyone who isn't complicit to their EVIL. What the hell happened ? Speaking for the average geek ... we want our internet back and yes it was stolen from us. Thanks.The Garden Variety - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
So, other than that, Ms. Lincoln, how was the play?Tewt - Thursday, September 24, 2020 - link
I agree, RickyBaby. I think there is too much curation on the internet. The fun of discovery of new sites and ideas appears to have vanished. Now, most of my results always bring back just the top news(political, tech, life, etc) sites or retailers. It feels like there are no new discoveries. I used to be able to go back 10, 13, 20 pages and there would be a ton of different websites. Now, each page is mostly the same. That is boring and stifling.lmcd - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
None of these benchmarks would even be relevant if Mozilla had the muscle that the Chrome team does. Instead, all of our JS libraries would interop with asm.js utility libraries, and Chrome's weak optimizations there would lead to massive performance wins for Firefox.It's disgusting to me how the Chrome team gets to pick and choose the standards that win. Their selections are regularly wrong, sometimes outright harmful.
Sivar - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
I like Edge overall, but it occasionally freezes when loading a website. The browser is still responsive, the "Loading" notification appears, but that tab is permanently defunct. It will never, ever load the page. It won't respond to a refresh request. I have to close it and open the same page in another tab, which has so far always immediately loaded.This happens on both Windows 10 and iPhone, with or without extensions.
six_tymes - Friday, September 11, 2020 - link
the new edge has been the fastest browser since December of 2019.OreoCookie - Sunday, September 13, 2020 - link
Edge has replaced Chrome on my Mac. Their UI isn't as good as Safari, but it is a capable and fast browser. The only criticism — which isn't really Microsoft's fault — is that the number of ads in Youtube has exploded. That shows me *how much* Google syphoned off my personal data in return. Not cool and I am glad to suffer a tad to have a shred more privacy.GeoffreyA - Saturday, September 12, 2020 - link
Have been using Firefox for a few years and am quite happy with it. Used to use Chrome on the desktop, though admittedly, still on my phone (along with Opera). As for IE, with all its faults, I think many, like myself, feel a bit nostalgic towards it.