This article compares browser engines, especially actively- developed ones. [a]
Some of these engines have shared origins. For example, the WebKit engine was created by forking the KHTML engine in 2001. [1] Then, in 2013, a modified version of WebKit was officially forked as the Blink engine. [2]
Engine | Status [a] | Steward | License | Embedded in |
---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Active | Apple | GNU LGPL, BSD-style | Safari browser, plus all browsers for iOS; [3] GNOME Web, Konqueror |
Blink | Active | GNU LGPL, BSD-style | Google Chrome and all other Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Samsung Internet and Opera [4] | |
Gecko | Active | Mozilla | Mozilla Public | Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client |
Goanna [b] | Active | M. C. Straver [6] | Mozilla Public | Pale Moon, Basilisk and K-Meleon browsers |
Trident [c] | Maintained | Microsoft | Proprietary | Internet Explorer browser |
EdgeHTML | Maintained | Microsoft | Proprietary | some UWP apps; [8] formerly in the Edge browser [9] |
Presto [d] | Maintained | Opera | Proprietary | server-side for low-end phones; [d] formerly in the Opera browser |
Flow [13] | Maintained | Ekioh [14] | Proprietary | Flow browser [15] |
Servo | Maintained | Linux Foundation | Mozilla Public | experimental browsers [16] [17] |
NetSurf [e] | Maintained | hobbyists [20] | GNU GPLv2 | NetSurf browser [21] |
LibWeb [f] | Maintained | hobbyists [23] | 2-clause BSD | Ladybird browser [22] |
KHTML [24] | Discontinued | KDE | GNU LGPL | formerly in the Konqueror browser [25] |
These tables summarize what actively-developed [a] engines support. [g]
The operating systems that engines can run on without emulation.
Engine | Windows | macOS | iOS [3] | Android | Linux | BSD | Haiku |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes [i] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [ii] |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Goanna | Yes | Yes [26] | No | No [27] | Yes | Yes | No |
Notes
Engine | JPEG | GIF | PNG | SVG | WebP | AVIF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Blink [g] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Goanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Engine | VP9 | AV1 | HEVC | H264+AAC | Opus | FLAC |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Depends | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Goanna | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Engine | TTF | OTF | WOFF | WOFF2 | @font-face | Ligatures |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Goanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Engine | Web Components | WebGL | WebGPU [30] | XHTML |
---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Not yet | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes [31] | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | Not yet | Yes |
Goanna | Yes [32] | Yes | No | Yes |
Due to constraints of the iOS platform, all browsers must be built on top of the WebKit rendering engine.
For the record, even I am not exclusively using Pale Moon either, because the web simply is too Google-centric at the moment. I do use it for the vast majority of sites but there are a few like Youtube and some sites which are simply not interested in being browser agnostic where I use Edge, instead.
Flow's goal is to render every website correctly... but there is currently a long way left to go.
Please note that we're still early in development, and many web platform features are missing or broken. It's going to take a long time before Ladybird is ready for day-to-day browsing.
This project does not cater to non-technical users.
Removed for KF6, the 'kf5' branch contains the last maintained state.
This article compares browser engines, especially actively- developed ones. [a]
Some of these engines have shared origins. For example, the WebKit engine was created by forking the KHTML engine in 2001. [1] Then, in 2013, a modified version of WebKit was officially forked as the Blink engine. [2]
Engine | Status [a] | Steward | License | Embedded in |
---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Active | Apple | GNU LGPL, BSD-style | Safari browser, plus all browsers for iOS; [3] GNOME Web, Konqueror |
Blink | Active | GNU LGPL, BSD-style | Google Chrome and all other Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Samsung Internet and Opera [4] | |
Gecko | Active | Mozilla | Mozilla Public | Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client |
Goanna [b] | Active | M. C. Straver [6] | Mozilla Public | Pale Moon, Basilisk and K-Meleon browsers |
Trident [c] | Maintained | Microsoft | Proprietary | Internet Explorer browser |
EdgeHTML | Maintained | Microsoft | Proprietary | some UWP apps; [8] formerly in the Edge browser [9] |
Presto [d] | Maintained | Opera | Proprietary | server-side for low-end phones; [d] formerly in the Opera browser |
Flow [13] | Maintained | Ekioh [14] | Proprietary | Flow browser [15] |
Servo | Maintained | Linux Foundation | Mozilla Public | experimental browsers [16] [17] |
NetSurf [e] | Maintained | hobbyists [20] | GNU GPLv2 | NetSurf browser [21] |
LibWeb [f] | Maintained | hobbyists [23] | 2-clause BSD | Ladybird browser [22] |
KHTML [24] | Discontinued | KDE | GNU LGPL | formerly in the Konqueror browser [25] |
These tables summarize what actively-developed [a] engines support. [g]
The operating systems that engines can run on without emulation.
Engine | Windows | macOS | iOS [3] | Android | Linux | BSD | Haiku |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes [i] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [ii] |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Goanna | Yes | Yes [26] | No | No [27] | Yes | Yes | No |
Notes
Engine | JPEG | GIF | PNG | SVG | WebP | AVIF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Blink [g] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Goanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Engine | VP9 | AV1 | HEVC | H264+AAC | Opus | FLAC |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Depends | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Goanna | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Engine | TTF | OTF | WOFF | WOFF2 | @font-face | Ligatures |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Goanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Engine | Web Components | WebGL | WebGPU [30] | XHTML |
---|---|---|---|---|
WebKit | Yes | Yes | Not yet | Yes |
Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes [31] | Yes |
Gecko | Yes | Yes | Not yet | Yes |
Goanna | Yes [32] | Yes | No | Yes |
Due to constraints of the iOS platform, all browsers must be built on top of the WebKit rendering engine.
For the record, even I am not exclusively using Pale Moon either, because the web simply is too Google-centric at the moment. I do use it for the vast majority of sites but there are a few like Youtube and some sites which are simply not interested in being browser agnostic where I use Edge, instead.
Flow's goal is to render every website correctly... but there is currently a long way left to go.
Please note that we're still early in development, and many web platform features are missing or broken. It's going to take a long time before Ladybird is ready for day-to-day browsing.
This project does not cater to non-technical users.
Removed for KF6, the 'kf5' branch contains the last maintained state.