This article compares browser engines, especially actively-developed ones.[lower-alpha 1]
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]
More information Engine, Status ...
| Engine |
Status[lower-alpha 1] |
Steward |
License |
Embedded in |
| WebKit |
Active |
Apple |
GNU LGPL, BSD-style |
Safari browser, plus all browsers for iOS;[3] GNOME Web, Konqueror, Orion |
| Blink |
Active |
Google |
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[lower-alpha 2] |
Active |
M. C. Straver[6] |
Mozilla Public |
Pale Moon, Basilisk, and K-Meleon browsers |
| Trident[lower-alpha 3] |
Maintained |
Microsoft |
Proprietary |
Internet Explorer browser |
| EdgeHTML |
Maintained |
Microsoft |
Proprietary |
some UWP apps;[8] formerly in the Edge browser[9] |
| Presto[lower-alpha 4] |
Maintained |
Opera |
Proprietary |
server-side for low-end phones;[lower-alpha 4] formerly in the Opera browser |
| Flow[13] |
Maintained |
Ekioh[14] |
Proprietary |
Flow browser[15] |
| Servo[lower-alpha 5] |
Maintained |
Linux Foundation |
Mozilla Public |
experimental browsers[17][18] |
| NetSurf[lower-alpha 6] |
Maintained |
hobbyists[21] |
GNU GPLv2 |
NetSurf browser[22] |
| LibWeb[lower-alpha 7] |
Maintained |
Andreas Kling[23][24] |
2-clause BSD |
Ladybird browser[24] |
| KHTML[25] |
Discontinued |
KDE |
GNU LGPL |
formerly in the Konqueror browser[26] |
|
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These tables summarize what actively-developed[lower-alpha 1] engines support.[lower-alpha 8]
Operating systems
The operating systems that engines can run on without emulation.
More information Engine, Windows ...
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Notes
Must be built from source code.
More information Engine, JPEG ...
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More information Engine, VP9 ...
| 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 |
|
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Typography
More information Engine, TTF ...
| 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 |
|
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Other items
More information Engine, Web Components ...
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Active status means that new Web standards continue to be added to the engine, which properly renders the vast majority of websites, including multimedia. However, Maintained status can be as minimal as ensuring the engine code still compiles; this includes relatively new engines that are not yet robust enough to be Active here. Discontinued is when the engine code is abandoned. Goanna is a fork of an old version of Gecko. It has less web compatibility, but still renders the vast majority of websites.[5] Internet Explorer continues to receive security updates,[7] which means Trident (a.k.a. MSHTML) is still maintained. In 2013, Opera replaced the Presto engine with Blink for its flagship desktop and mobile browser. But it still has a special niche usage of Presto as a server-side renderer for the Opera Mini browser, which provides a limited browsing capability on low-end phones.[10][11] Presto was last updated in 2015,[12] but is considered Maintained here because of its usage. Servo has the goal of being a viable alternative to the major engines. However, there is still a lot of work to be done,[16] so it is Maintained status here. NetSurf does not fully support HTML5 or other recent Web standards,[19][20] which means it cannot work properly on YouTube, Gmail, and many other popular websites. Thus it does not merit Active status per this article's criteria. LibWeb will not be ready for real browsing until at least 2026.[23][24] Thus it does not merit Active status per this article's criteria. Given the market-share dominance of Blink-based browsers,[4] if Google chooses to not support a standard, like JPEG XL,[29][30] it will not become relevant on the Web.[29][30] Such standards are not listed in these tables.
"Open-sourcing Chrome on iOS!". 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2021. Due to constraints of the iOS platform, all browsers must be built on top of the WebKit rendering engine.
M.C. Straver (a.k.a. Moonchild) (July 2022). "Re: YouTube SLOW!". forum.palemoon.org. 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 Preview Builds". Ekioh. Retrieved 5 November 2023. Flow's goal is to render every website correctly... but there is currently a long way left to go.
Andreas Kling (September 2022). "Ladybird: A new cross-platform browser project". 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.
"KHTML repository". GitHub. Retrieved 5 May 2023. Removed for KF6, the 'kf5' branch contains the last maintained state.
