There are many browsers available and some are said to be “lightweight”. This refers to a particular category of browsers that are designed to work smoothly even on devices with low settings. The following is a curated list of lightweight browsers for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Discover the 7 lightweight browsers for Windows
Note – In addition to Windows, all these lightweight web browsers are also available for Mac and Linux.
7 lightweight browsers for Windows
Without getting into the technical stuff, we consider a browser to be “light” if it can run smoothly on an old PC with little RAM: it doesn’t freeze on startup, renders websites and graphics fast, and doesn’t hit the CPU. fan to become loud.
Although they are lightweight, you can use them all like normal browsers without sacrificing essential features. Each lightweight web browser has been scanned by multiple antivirus engines to make it 100% secure and comes with effective privacy controls. This is our list of the 7 lightweight browsers for Windows
1.Vivaldi
It combines strong privacy options with a lightweight interface that will put less stress on your PC than Firefox (and definitely Chrome). Being a fork of Chromium, Vivaldi’s architecture isn’t that dissimilar to Chrome, but it lacks many of the heavier aspects of more mainstream browsers.
Beyond putting less pressure on lower-end systems, it has a lot of nice features, like a fancy tab management system and a note-taking feature in the side panel. And since it’s based on Chromium, you’ll also have access to most of Chrome’s vast repository of extensions.
It’s very customizable, with eight built-in themes (and yes, there’s a dark one), as well as the option to create your own theme. In total, there are 18 different sections in the settings, giving you pretty granular control over everything.
Vivaldi is not without its flaws. It will occasionally crash and scrolling isn’t always a smooth process, but it feels like a rapidly improving project.
final verdict: a fast, secure, but not always stable browser that will work well on older devices. It’s not the lightest option on this list, but it’s among the most customizable.
by FlashPeak is a blazingly fast Chromium fork web browser that won’t let down the multitasker in you. Its superior compatibility with Windows is due to a responsive UI design powered by the Blink engine, the browsing engine behind Google Chrome.
Does your touchpad sometimes freeze in other browsers while browsing? With Slimjet, you would never feel that kind of blockage. Browsing speed is really fast while browsing any new tab or menu item. In fact, the browser is so responsive that it takes less than a fraction of a second to see the effect.
Compared to Chrome and Firefox, Slimjet claims to offer up to 12x faster file download speed and 20x faster photo upload speed. While we won’t vouch for that type of advertising, it definitely feels extremely fast.
The browser has some useful features such as a built-in ad blocker, a screenshot tool, a screen recorder, and a turbocharged download manager. It also allows you to add Chrome web extensions and access Google Smarts to store passwords. You’ll feel like you never left Chrome in the first place.
final verdict – If you’re looking for an extremely lightweight desktop browser that delivers what it promises, Slimjet shouldn’t be missed.
3.SlimBrower
Flashpeak offers another super lightweight browser, SlimBrowser, which feels identical to Slimjet, but there’s one big difference. While Slimjet is a fork of Chromium meant to look like Google Chrome, it is a fork of Firefox. It uses Mozilla’s Gecko rendering engine which is also used in Firefox and Thunderbird. The engine controls the font, animation, and cursor modules.
On a Windows 11/10 device, the speed of SlimBrowser is quite impressive. As I discovered during actual use, whenever an old Windows laptop is low on RAM (<4GB), it causes delays when writing to most browsers as they easily run out of memory. This is where a lightweight browser like SlimBrowser could rescue you from slow keyboard response.
SlimBrowser explains on its website that it achieves fast browsing and startup speed by integrating most of its features internally without relying on external plugins. Also, it says that the browser is designed to load fewer libraries at startup and do its best to lessen the load on the CPU.
The speed in Windows 10/11 with SlimBrowser is even more palpable with an ad blocker enabled through a feature called “Protection Panel”. Getting rid of those extra sniffers definitely helps you save bandwidth and memory resources. SlimBrowser uses the same multi-threaded download manager as Slimjet, which ensures 12x faster download speeds. While we can’t vouch for that, downloads sure feel faster than you’re used to.
final verdict : SlimBrowser is a lightweight browser tested for Windows devices with low RAM and can achieve faster keyboard response.
4. Yandex
“Surprisingly amazing!” This is how one Reddit user describes Yandex Browser, and based on actual usage, I agree with this lofty sentiment. There is so much under the hood that stems from real user experiences. If you are looking for a lightweight yet powerful browser for your Windows PC, it will not disappoint you!
For starters, you can use its Turbo speed features, which optimize the browser for low connection speeds. Compress any video, which is great customization when you’re on the go. It also has a power mode that allows you to save power on your device when the battery is low by disabling video games.
Yandex has a lot of minimal features in Settings. You can choose not to show the side panel, the bookmarks bar, the animated high resolution background, or the news and weather. There’s a “Protect” tab that will ensure you run security checks on downloaded files, support phishing protection for banking information, and use encryption on public Wi-Fi networks. You can turn off the lights for a cinema mode and capture screenshots.
final verdict : Yandex is a quality browser that regularly appears among the top 10 browsers worldwide.
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5.SRWare Iron
Another browser that is great for speed and privacy is – one of the best Chromium forks out there. It resembles Google Chrome so much in design and features that the interface will make you feel at home from the moment you install it.
Compared to other browsers based on the Blink engine, SRWare Iron is the only one that feels like a real alternative to Google Chrome.
However, what tips the scales in favor of Iron is its extremely fast site rendering and its light impact compared to Google Chrome. If you keep track of these two browsers on a Windows system with the same web pages open simultaneously, Iron feels much less resource intensive. As an end user, you also benefit from privacy and security features that can be enabled in Settings.
The big reason SRWare Iron feels like a lighter version of Google Chrome is that it doesn’t have the bloat that comes with a standard Chrome installation. For example, there is an installation ID number that receives updates from Google. It also has a “Suggestions” page that provides alternative suggestions if you make mistakes while typing the URL. Chrome supports error reporting in which crash and error messages are sent to Google servers.
So what happens when none of these bloatware can affect your browsing experience and speed? You get a lightweight browser like SRWare Iron.
final verdict – If you’re looking for a lightweight web browser but don’t want to stray too far from Google Chrome, SRWare Iron fits the bill perfectly.
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6. Pale Moon
Pale Moon Project is another Firefox fork that runs on the Goanna web engine (related to Mozilla’s Gecko) and was released in 2016. It’s great for Windows 10/11 devices if you’re looking to minimize speed/resource usage but at the expense. some UI features, like video acceleration, that we take for granted in most other browsers.
Unlike most Firefox forks, Pale Moon will not run on very old systems and lacks compatibility with older Firefox extensions. You may think it’s Firefox’s more unlikely cousin, but its entire purpose is to provide crash-free browsing stability. Therefore, some of the plugins have been removed to improve performance.
Things you won’t find in Pale Moon include the WebRTC engine for video calls (although it does support browser-based extensions for that purpose), parental controls, a built-in PDF reader, and modern accessibility features. It’s not even compatible with Firefox Sync. However, the lack of these features leads to a blazingly fast browser that doesn’t consume too much device memory.
Pale Moon has a dedicated Permissions Manager page that allows you to selectively manage default permissions for most sites. If you don’t want a site to install extensions or themes, open popups, or ask for your location, Pale Moon Browser offers a seamless experience.
final verdict : Pale Moon is an optimized fork of Firefox that greatly minimizes CPU consumption by removing/disabling bandwidth consumers.
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For those looking to have a web browser with strong anti-phishing and malware detection capabilities, it takes your protection several levels higher. The best part is that it does so by hogging as few memory resources as possible. AVG is surprisingly light for a web browser from an antivirus company, but the installation file is at least 700MB, which isn’t much of a concern, as you won’t notice any difference in actual use.
In the “Security & Privacy Center” you will find the full list of AVG malware protection agents. These include…
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