10 Best Open Source Lightweight Web Browsers For Linux (2024)

Switching to lightweight web browsers for Linux may help alleviate the lag you may notice while browsing the web. Users of desktop computers can’t deny that current browsers are demanding system resources. It’s not fun browsing the web when your browser uses all your computer’s resources because of all the different file formats and technologies.

But what if you had a list of browsers that not only worked well on Linux computers but also had minimal system requirements and a wealth of useful features? Here is a list of the best lightweight web browsers for Linux if you’re having trouble keeping your current browser version afloat and would be happy to switch to a lighter browser version.

Best Open Source Web Browsers For Linux

In this article, we’ll introduce you to the Best lightweight Web Browsers For Linux that will help you save space without sacrificing functionality.

1. Nyxt

The Nyxt home page calls it “the hacker’s power browser,” and that’s an accurate description. It’s not the only browser that lets you move around with the keyboard, but it’s a big plus that you can change all of its classes, methods, and functions.

A CLI tool is already integrated into the system. It’s easy to see why hackers have dubbed it “The hacker’s power browser”. Most notably, RELP, Nyxt is based on a simple computer programming environment that accepts single user input, executes it, and returns the result to the user.

2. Falkon

Falkon is an open-source browser that uses the QtWebEngine and is available for no cost. Originally named Quipzilla, this educational platform changed its name to Falkon as it grew in size and scope. It works with Linux and Windows, and other operating systems.

Despite being a lightweight option, Falkon offers many of the same features as heavyweight browsers like Chrome and Firefox.

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It has a speed dial homepage like Opera’s, RSS feeds, bookmarks, skinning options, and a built-in ad blocker plugin, to name a few of its more notable features.

3. Midori

Midori’s cutting-edge features are HTML5 compatibility, bookmarks, RSS support, and a spell checker. Other customizable features include tabbed browsing, font, display, privacy, and startup options.

With a focus on user privacy, Midori has adopted DuckDuckGo as its default search engine. In addition, you can always resort to the likes of Google and Yahoo if necessary.

Any tab that you’ve recently closed can be reopened with Midori’s trash icon. To achieve the same effect in Firefox, press Shift+Ctrl+T, and in Chrome, press Shift+Ctrl+H. As a result, reopening recently closed tabs is quicker and easier than ever.

4. Pale Moon

Pale Moon is a no-cost browser compatible with 32- and 64-bit Linux distributions. The browser is based on the tried-and-true code from Mozilla Firefox and the Unified XUL Platform (UXP).

In addition to a few popular Firefox add-ons, Pale Moon supports HTML5, CSS3, SVG, Canvas, and WebGL. You can easily bring over your preferred browser add-ons, including skins, personalities, and plugins, without sacrificing performance or memory.

Pale Moon works fine on all modern CPUs. Graphics and color gradients are optimized with the help of the free and open-source Goanna layout and rendering engine. This expedites both the time it takes for a page to load and for scripts to run.

5. Otter Browser

This Browser is a free and open-source web browser that offers impressively rapid page loads and low memory usage, especially compared to other popular browsers such as Firefox and Chrome.

Otter is a fast and light web browser that lets you organize your bookmarks, RSS feeds, sticky notes, cookies, and downloads in one convenient place. The browser’s built-in content-blocking feature is great for limiting access to inappropriate sites for younger viewers.

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Even on media-heavy pages, Otter will start up and serve you quickly. This browser, Otter, looks and feels a lot like Opera, and it’s a lot like Opera, too: fast, sleek, and easy to use.

6. SeaMonkey 

The Mozilla Application Suite has evolved into SeaMonkey. SeaMonkey is a project that is developed by its user base.

To power its browser, SeaMonkey relies on Mozilla’s own Gecko engine. Since it is an internet suite, SeaMonkey includes a web browser, email client, newsgroup client, web feed reader, HTML editor, IRC client, and tools for creating and managing websites.

While both SeaMonkey and Mozilla Firefox use the same browser engine, SeaMonkey is more lightweight and, therefore, suitable for casual web browsing.

7. Dillo

Dillo, in development since 1999, is a lightweight, graphical web browser. Its primary developer, Jorge Arellano, set out to make a web browser that wouldn’t require users to shell out a fortune for specialized software and hardware to access the internet.

It uses the Fast, Light Toolkit (FLTK) graphical user interface library and is written in C/C++. Dillo’s user interface (UI) is extremely minimal, consisting only of a single toolbar with the standard “back,” “forward,” “home,” “save,” “stop,” “reload,” “bookmark,” and “tools” buttons.

Compared to the other graphical browsers we tested, it used the least amount of memory. Only XHTML/HTML/Raw with CSS rendering and tabbed browsing is supported.

8. Netsurf

Netsurf is an efficient, free, and portable web browser that works on various platforms. It was released under the GPL v2 license and was coded in C.

It has a fast and lightweight layout and rendering engine, as well as support for HTTPS, HTML5, CSS3, bookmarks, Unicode text, web page thumbnails, URL completion, full-screen, scale view, search-as-you-type, and text search highlighting.

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You can also find it in the Ubuntu repositories, and it’s more secure and stable than the default. Users who have low-powered computers often prefer to use Netsurf. However, it has some limitations, such as not having full support for JavaScript and CSS3.

9. WaterFox

The UI of WaterFox is very refined. It doesn’t cost anything and works with a wide range of devices. The ability to use add-ons developed for other platforms, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Opera, distinguishes this browser from the rest.

The privacy of its users is a top priority for WaterFox, which is why it does not collect any telemetry data. While running on the same Mozilla Firefox engine as Chrome and Firefox, WaterFox consumes fewer system resources.

10. Viper

With an emphasis on secrecy, brevity, and personalization, this browser has evolved into a highly effective, lightweight destination for any and all of your search needs.

With features like full-screen mode, secure AutoFill management, and tab hibernation, this browser has quickly become a must-have for me. It may appeal to those who would rather have fewer extras.