Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera?

I'll admit, I was a die hard Internet Explorer user. I hated the idea of people telling me I should switch browsers because of "tabs" instead of windows. It worked fine for me, and I was able to surf the web and get what I needed done. Eventually, I wanted to see what all the hype was about, so I tried out Firefox. I was slightly overwhelmed, and spent a couple minutes looking through and changing the options. After awhile, I stuck with Firefox, based on its extensions and easy bookmark bar located under the address bar, for quick access to my mainly visited sites. However, Firefox is not for everyone. There are advantages and disadvantages to the three web browsers Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera.

Opera seems to load pages somewhat quicker than Firefox. The download manager has more options and better viewing on Opera, and can keep track of torrents at the same time. Firefox and Internet Explorer can load flash movies and animated .gifs at about an equal speed. Opera is somewhat buggy with animations. The movies sometime lags and animated pictures in Opera move very slow compared to the other two browsers. Firefox seems to be a more heavyweight browser, as shown in the next example.

Another factor to consider is how much system resources your browser is using. On a blank homepage, the following is how much memory each browser uses:

Internet Explorer and Opera use a small amount of memory on a computer, and performance would most likely not decrease noticeably. Firefox, however, can use up a lot of system resources, to the point where it slows down other applications. Of course, these numbers are taken while the browser is on a blank home page, memory usage increases greatly depending on how many tabs and windows are open and the sites you are viewing.

• IE 7 features tabbed browsing as do the other browsers.
• Many users have not upgraded to IE 7 and continue to use IE 6.
  
  
• Microsoft is currently distributing add-ons for IE.
• The choices are somewhat limited and some of the extensions actually cost money.
  
  
• IE is the most used browser, websites are generally forced to support it correctly.
• Since IE is most popular, it is the most targeted for exploits.

• Supports a wide range of free extensions on the Mozilla website
• Sometimes updates aren't always improvements and extensions refuse to run on some versions.
  
  
• Firefox makes up around 30% of browsers used today, so more sites will support it.
• More sites will also target it for exploits now that is has become more popular.
  
  
• Features adblock extension that will eliminate most advertisements on sites.
• Many popups can still get around the Firefox built-in popup blocker. The most effective popup blocker is on Opera.

• Opera supports the flash plugin better on AMD64 linux systems than firefox.
  
  
• Built-in feature that will download torrents.
• There are only basic options for downloading the torrents, most bittorrent clients are better.
  
  
• Opera is one of the most secure browsers because it has a smaller userbase, so it is less targeted.
• Some sites will have problems supporting Opera because of its small popularity.
  
  
• Many of the extensions for Firefox are built-in features on Opera.
• There are more options for Firefox with extensions. Although Opera has widgets, they have little use.

Picking the right browser can be a tough choice to make. I would suggest Opera if you want to have a fast, light-weight browser for just general surfing, instead of Internet Explorer. I currently use Firefox and Opera together. I use Firefox for general browsing and Opera for viewing flash content.

While I cannot tell you anything about Opera because for some reason it won't connect on my computer I do have a few things to add:
Most Firefox extensions and themes will work with Firefox 2 if you choose the option 'make compatible' when right-clicking on the extension/theme in the list. This *may* require the extensions Mr. Tech Locall Install, Extensions Manager Extended, and All in One Sidebar. There are a few bugs in the extensions/themes once you force compatibility but no big ones (right now my navigational bar is too big because of a bug).

Also, Firefox is much improved in Firefox 2, it comes up much faster even when loaded with extensions, and loads pages quicker. Features are a bit improved, and so is security. I've never had a pop-up with Firefox even in version 1.5 but that may be because of an extension =).

Internet Explorer comes up almost immediately after you click on it.....With my 100+ extensions Firefox is about a 2-3min wait on 1.5 and 1min on 2.0 (this is going into Task Manager and putting priority for the firefox.exe process on realtime.)

11-04-2006

Thanks for the comparison, but I think that you should redo this test using Firefox 2 and IE7 for a better and more accurate test for people trying to decide

11-04-2006

This website is Awesome, Gary is L33T

11-09-2006

Don't forget with memory usage that using the Windows in-built manager does not necessarily reflect the *real* memory usage of the application.

Opera could be using more DLL's and other outside processes instead that won't show there..... among other things.

11-15-2006

Thanks for the great comparison of "the browsers". I will now be considering trying Opera.

11-15-2006

Firefox is always my choice but lately i've been using at&t yahoo web browser. xD

01-19-2007

Nice comparison, I do however agree with blaster master who said:
"Thanks for the comparison, but I think that you should redo this test using Firefox 2 and IE7 for a better and more accurate test for people trying to decide "

If you need help with something, ask Gary. He's helped me before!
Keep it up!

01-21-2007

FF ALL THE WAY BABY YEAH

06-24-2007

I agree with some posters, that this should be updated since FF2 came out. But I am still a Firefox die hard core fan hehe Thanks for the great article.

07-10-2007

I'd just like to say that using firefox 3 with 12 tabs opened uses about 156,000 kb of memory on my comp ...

07-08-2008

@me
That's pretty harsh.
ATM Opera 9.51 is approximately ONE-THIRD of that - on *nix the actual resident memory usage with tens of tabs open in Opera (which still has other pages cached in memory, been open for hours) is just over 50MB.

I noticed FF 3 is not so bad, but it's still harsh...

07-18-2008

Opera is better than IE or FF. Opera is more secure, less running memory usage, and doesn't take up as much space on your hard drive.
I'd have to say, Internet Explorer is one of the least secure and a way worse browser to use

07-20-2008

Just wait till you see the total memory hit from Google's Chrome browser. It makes 150k FF look small. Yes I know its running separate processes for each tab, but its still a huge memory hit.
...and whats with the Windows only B.S.?...shame on Google

Linux/Unix runs the world! Windows is simply a way for them to see what wonders Linux/Unix produces.

09-17-2008

So, you don't think that Internet Explorer has memory tied up in the operating system that it's integrated into?

@deralaand:
I using Chrome right now. With 7 tabs open (including Gmail) I'm using 50MB of memory (Flash is using 12MB alone). So it's not *that* bad. The browser is in beta, and they've announced that it will be released for other operating systems, so just chill out.

09-17-2008

Your last sentence in the Conclusion is wrong T.T

"I use Firefox for general browsing and Opera for viewing flash content. "

Shouldn't it be:
"I use Opera for general browsing and Firefox for viewing flash content. "?

10-07-2008

Nah, I am typing this from firefox right now. If I wanted to view a flash video on youtube or play a flash game, I would open it with opera.

10-07-2008

Hey, I have all 3 on my Laptop and IE and Firefox have proven to be the crappiest things ever. Slow, slow, slow, slow, slow and more slow. Opera, on the other hand, is quick, easy and quite delightful to use. :)
IE takes up way more memory than it does for you. Mine takes up about 250k, where as Opera takes up about 50k when I'm using it at its most. Firefox is utterly redicolus! Around 400k!
Opera is the best, by far and I would recomend it to anyone.

10-31-2008

Tell me something about the download speed of both the browsers

11-09-2008

FireFox Owned You must install fasterfox !

11-19-2008

I just using firefox 3 with firefox Firefox Ultimate Optimizer opened uses about 292 kb of memory on my computer... donwload here -->http://felipex.net

11-25-2008

I use Firefox and Greenbrowser (an ie-based web browser).

12-08-2008

I support Opera 100% coz its never let me down, I use Firefox 3 for general page viewing ie: Bebo, etc... while I leave higher rich content of flash to Opera, the down side of Opera is that it saves pictures of sites you've been to visit and puts it into Opera's Temporay Internet Folder, which can be cleared up easily.

When other times fail if I can't get a page or flash content working I rarely goto IE to view it there. Some problems like, If you want to download a torrent, music or video file and it doesn't download coz of the built-in Pop-up Blocker stops it from coming up I then switch to IE to get it.

12-21-2008

142,812k for FF 3.0.4 (won't let me install .5) running 5 tabs with one of them running flash content (youtube video)

12-28-2008

google chrome ftw

01-11-2009

Guys, you are all really failing, i am pro at coding and programming you idiots.

05-05-2009

The memory utilizing was something new I learned and mind me yes it does. Right now my Firefox is using 172,232k that's way too much. Did not notice it cos I did not run any other application along with it. If that was done system should start slowing down or hanging.

05-19-2009

Opera looks way cooler than firefox. W

05-25-2009

Opera looks coolest.

05-25-2009

Modestas dont pretend okay..because you look like really stupid..

saying your a pro at coding and programming??

then why do you need to say it??

stupid...

06-27-2009

I have installed two browsers FF & IE7 in my website, and then I tried to install Opera browser. I find it that Opera browser is faster than the other two.

07-11-2009

While this article is somewhat true, it's pretty outdated and right now, FF 3.5 is the dominant all-rounder (due to a good mix of speed and the giant list of add-ons) but for pure speed, nothing beats Chrome right now. Opera's still good though for speed, coming between ff and chrome.

07-13-2009

I love the simplicity of Chrome.

08-30-2009

firefox beats everything. it has speed, ok if opera is faster, u haven't told ppl HOW faster. they count that speed in miliseconds lol, so it will never be the factor, why to choose opera vs firefox. firefox has tons of free add-ons, these are easy to install/turn on or of and configure, if that plugin needs any configuration. u can get all other browsers features on firefox by plugins ;] there are also nice download manager and other cool stuff. i recommend firefox for sure, recover the web ; ]

09-14-2009

I think firefox is the best browser.It really fast you know if you manage to setting it.Firefox on my computer so fast,when I download something at internet
it go faster.I recommend you all to choose Mozilla Firefox.Opera is so weak on my computer,when I download use Opera the connection my internet will lost everytime I download something big on internet.

10-23-2009

I think this test needs to be redone using minefield and opera.

11-28-2009

more about chrome plz. i ask my bro to use it bc it better thean ff bc ff crash my computer or any of our computer mroe than 3 times...ie is cool and all , then came ff was the IT browser and opera arrive,(still ahevtn use it) prolly wont. and need to know more of chrome b4 really using it. i see chrome offer an area to view all tab in grid form... nice...

12-09-2009

For Non Flash website, i think Google Chrome is the best choice.
He is faster than any other Browser.
Because sometimes Chrome get Not Responding for website that embed flash in it.
The second choice is Opera. This browser much stable and fast enough to load website. but slower when downloading file.
For some reason i choose Mozilla Firefox.
Because i think Firefox is good enough running on Non-Flash or Flash website.
This Browser is very powerful and fast if you tweaking it correctly.
And put the correct addons in it.
Such as :
Fasterfox for the speed.
Adblock Plus the powerful Ad Blocker.
Fastun for compressing (but it limit 300MB per week for free user).
DownThemAll for powerful download.
Better Privacy for more privacy.
and maybe you can add Google Gears if you want in it...very nice.

12-21-2009

i use Opera,for me it's great no pop ups and stuff and it like
dont freeze much.. it fast i love it ;]

01-07-2010

put chrome and safari on it and then i'll choose a web browser

01-23-2010