Waterfox
High-performance browser based on the Mozilla platform.
Free
Absolutely Free
Waterfox overview
Waterfox is all about balance of privacy and useability. Too much focus on privacy and the web becomes too broken to use. Too little and data leakage happens. With Waterfox, you should find comfort in knowing that what you are doing inside your browser is only known by you.
Browse the web with:
- No Telemetry - What you do inside your browser is your business, we don't see any of it.
- Limited Data Collection - We take the bare minimum to provide you with what you need to keep the browser running smoothly. Read more in the privacy policy.
- Chrome, Firefox and Opera WebExtensions! - Waterfox supports extensions from the Chrome Web Store, Firefox add-on store and the Opera Extensions store. Don't be limited by just one browser.
- Private Tab - Sometimes you need a sneaky peek in a hurry. Why use a whole new window when a tab will do?
- Fast - Waterfox targets modern systems and leaves the old behind. This allows us to extract large performance gains, so you can surf the web like never before.
- Local - Built in languages make switching to your language of choice a breeze. No need to download external packs or weird configuration files!
What’s new in version 115.4.1
Updated on Nov 01 2023
Changes
- Security fixes.
Fixes
- Modal dialogues that display checkboxes would erroneously have two checkboxes, even if they weren't meant to. This has now been fixed.
Upcoming Changes
- Waterfox for Android's feature set has been finalised, but requires updating to the latest components. This is in progress and is due for release. iOS is now in the pipeline as well.
- Privacy enhancements to some of the most popular search engines (wink wink, nudge nudge) are also in the pipeline, with more to be revealed soon.
Information
App requirements
- Intel 64
- Apple Silicon
- OS X 10.12 or later
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User Ratings
Sep 10 2023
Version: 102.11.0
This web browser has so far responded quite nicely for me without any unwanted issues
May 24 2023
Version: 102.11.0
Very erratic behaviour. This version installs extensions, but then auto-deletes them a few minutes later. After three times of installing, then re-installing, all my extensions from the Mozilla Store, they all vanished. Also, would it be possible to pin these extensions to the toolbar so they're always visible? Waterfox does not have this feature.
Sep 12 2022
Version: 91.6.0
Generally like Waterfox but its own Home Page uses ≤ 100% processor for Isolated Web Content plus another 68% for the app (of 4 cores). Apple Home Page uses 0.0% for Isolated Web Content and just 0.4% for the app. What the heck?
If their own homepage is so badly coded that it uses nearly half my machine's processing power just to display it on a supported OS, I can't have greatconfidence in the app itself.
(MacBook Air 2015, High Sierra, Waterfox G4.1.5 since you ask)
Dec 10 2021
Version: 91.3.1
v91.4.0 (aka vG4.0.4) is out. - - "• Fixed: Widevine has been updated to 4.10.2391.0 which should fix issues playing DRM protected content. • Changed: You can view the commit Waterfox was built on at about:buildconfig. Contrast has increased on Australis Light theme, to better differentiate tabs. The way tab positioning and various other Waterfox features have been implemented has been improved. Updated to Gecko 91.4.0, which includes various security patches. • Unresolved: The status bar does not include default items (zoom, full screen, screenshot). Addon version numbers are not displayed next to their title in about:addons."
Apr 7 2021
Version: 78.9.0
I would be very skeptical about claims regarding 'better privacy' or 'faster speed' versus Firefox. Just for laughs, I installed Waterfox in a virtual machine with Little Snitch installed; it makes NUMEROUS connections behind the scenes even when it should be 'idle'. These connections are to servers all over the US. So I would NOT trust any claims by Waterfox that there is no data collection. You can easily disable telemetry on Firefox via about:config. As for being 64 bit, Firefox Quantum has been 64bit only for several years now. I would avoid this Waterfox
Apr 7 2021
Version: 78.9.0
Works verywell on Big Sur. Great job by the Developers.
Apr 4 2021
Version: 78.8.0
Does it work with the new architecture?
+ starting from macOS Mojave all apps are working on 64-bit mode, aren't they?
Sep 14 2020
Version: 68.0
After a few years using Waterfox instead of Firefox Quantum, it became harder and harder to tell the difference and why, in the end, I was using it...
The dev used to put an emphasis on privacy but since he recently partnered with a firm that arose some doubt about data collection (System1), he wrote in a forum that we users had misunderstood and Waterfox never claimed to be a privacy focused browser... :-o I've not been convinced by his answers to the doubts expressed by the other users, and while I've been a happy user for years I finally switched back to Firefox a few months ago.
I'm not saying that Waterfox is worse than other browsers, privacy wise, but I'm simply not convinced that it's better than Firefox for that matter — provided you use all the necessary addons and set the right settings in about:config. Moreover, I was using Waterfox Classic to be as close as possible to pre-Quantum Firefox, so when I read that it should now be considered "best effort", that achieved to decide me.
I keep it at hand, just in case... ;-)
Aug 14 2020
Version: 68.0
It makes a loads of uncontrollable Connections, even when opening with a blank page.
For that we already have Chrome.
Jul 22 2020
Version: 68.0
Well I have been using this for a few days and must confess I really like it.
I can log onto a web address that until now kept saying Blocked Addware. Even though I hadn't.
Jul 8 2019
Version: 56.2.11
This version has been out for 20 days or so, so this isn't just a first impression. The new icon really looks like a blue fox urinating. I understand that Alex really needs to change the icon, so maybe he can have a "Make My Icon" contest or something.
Speaking of which, boy does this thing piss away memory. It launches using a not great but acceptable half gig, but after a day of average usage, it's usually sucking up triple that amount. And, say I wanted to have a baseball game running in the background while I did something more productive. I'm just kidding. That wouldn't be possible with Waterfox. If I tried to switch to another app I'd be looking at a beachball for ten minutes, I can't even imagine what it would be like to try to work while it was playing video..
So unfortunately, Waterfox seems to be outgrowing me at a pretty rapid pace, and I'm constantly forced to use my backup of Opera even though I hate the layout, and I know it's probably logging every move I make, I just need that 1.5 gb of memory for other things.
May 21 2019
Version: 56.2.10
After Mozilla's grotesque blunder with addons expired certificates, Waterfox confirmed its benefits as a solid and reliable browser.
As for the future, news are pretty good: the next big version should continue putting together what is/was good in Firefox, some old extensions are even being updated, as mentioned in the release notes: https://www.waterfox.net/blog/waterfox-56.2.10-release-download/
I salute Mr Alex's dedication to his project and feel more confident than ever about this great successor to Firefox! :-)
Apr 29 2019
Version: 56.2.9
Really enjoying Waterfox so far after using it a couple days. I'm not heavy on the add-ons, just a few. But I'm always looking for something decent based on FireFox or WebKit.
Apr 22 2019
Version: 56.2.9
Since my precedent review, I had issues with Chromium on some sites, so Waterfox came back to be my main browser, even if Chromium is faster.
But moving forward, some XUL extensions started to have issues: MAFF stopped working, FEBE too, now Cookiebro seems to go the same path...
XUL support was the main reason why I switched from Firefox Quantum to Waterfox and, though I've achieved a viable Firefox UI through a combination of userChrome.css and theme, plus various tricks to restore my workflow, I still have issues (in particular, the version of 1Password for FFQ won't work with all my other browsers, while an old version works everywhere except for FFQ! :-/ )
The next version of Waterfox is cooking (based on FF68 ESR) and it's very likely that it will break a lot of things. At that point, the gap between Waterfox and Firefox might only be about privacy — which you can achieve with a bunch of addons and tweaks in Firefox, so...
Wait and see. ;-)
Dec 13 2018
Version: 56.2.4
requirements page is down.... cannot tell if I can run it.
here: https://waterfoxproject.org/en-US/waterfox/56.2.5/system-requirements/
OR here: https://staging.waterfoxproject.org/en-US/waterfox/56.2.5/system-requirements/
Oct 12 2018
Version: 56.2.3
WTF 56.2.4 is out. Time for a small review. :-)
Now that FF Quantum has gone away from me and my use case, I'm still using the last version of Chromium running on OS 10.9 as my main browser, but this will probably change as it's not being updated anymore for that system.
Now, I coud call WTF "the old faithful" as it is slowly evolving, integrating security patches from FF, but keeping what I liked in old FF. No doubt it will take the place of Chromium for me, sooner or later. In the meantime, it's my safe choice when Chromium is not satisfactory or buggy on some site.
Jul 16 2018
Version: 56.2.2
Jeez, I didn't even know this browser existed until today. I'm glad I found it. I like the older tab style, and it seems to run smoother than the more current version of FF. It's also easy on the CPU (so far, at least). I'm not into using a lot of add-ons, but that seems a nice bonus for other users.
Free
Absolutely Free
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