Comparison of browser engines

This article compares browser engines.

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]

General information

Engine	Status	Creators	License	Used in
WebKit	Stable	Apple, initially forked from KHTML	GNU LGPL, BSD-style	Safari browser, GNOME Web, Konqueror, Orion and all browsers for iOS[3]
Blink	Stable	Google, initially forked from WebKit	GNU LGPL, BSD-style	All Chromium-based browsers
Gecko	Stable	Mozilla	Mozilla Public	Firefox browser and its forks; SeaMonkey browser, Thunderbird email client
Goanna	Stable	M. C. Straver,[4] initially forked from Gecko	Mozilla Public	Pale Moon, Basilisk, K-Meleon browsers
NetSurf	Stable	NetSurf developers[5]	GNU GPLv2	NetSurf browser
Servo	Experimental[6]	Linux Foundation	Mozilla Public	Experimental browsers[7][8]
LibWeb	Experimental; in pre-alpha[9]	Ladybird Browser Initiative[10]	2-clause BSD	Ladybird browser[11]
KHTML[12]	Discontinued	KDE	GNU LGPL	Formerly in the Konqueror browser[13]
Tkhtml	Discontinued	Liem Bahneman[14]	BSD	Formerly in Html Viewer 3 browser
Trident	Stable	Microsoft	Proprietary	Internet Explorer browser; Microsoft Edge IE mode
Flow[15]	Experimental; in beta[15]	Ekioh[16]	Proprietary	Flow browser[17]
EdgeHTML	Discontinued	Microsoft	Proprietary	Some UWP apps;[18] formerly Microsoft Edge browser[19]
Presto	Discontinued	Opera	Proprietary	Opera Mini browser in Extreme/Mini mode, where contents arrive pre-rendered using this engine server-side[20]
Tasman	Discontinued	Microsoft	Proprietary	Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition
Mariner	Discontinued	Netscape Communications	Proprietary	Netscape Communicator 5.0

Support

These tables summarize what stable engines support.

Operating systems

The operating systems that engines can run on without emulation.

Engine	Windows	macOS	Linux	BSD	Haiku	Android	iOS[3]
WebKit	Yes[note 1]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blink	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[note 2]	Yes	No
Gecko	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Goanna	Yes	Yes[21]	Yes	Yes	No	No[22]	No
NetSurf[23]	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Trident	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No

Image formats

Engine	JPEG	JPEG 2000	JPEG XL	JPEG XL HDR	JPEG ISO HDR	JPEG Adobe HDR	GIF	BMP	PNG	APNG	SVG	WebP	AVIF	AVIF HDR	HEIC	HEIC HDR
WebKit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No[24][25]	No [24][25]	No [24][25]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No [24]
Blink	Yes	No	No[26][27]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Gecko	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Goanna	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
NetSurf[28]	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Trident	Yes	No	No[29]	No	?	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	No	No[30]	No	No[31]	No

Media formats

Engine	VP9	AV1	HEVC	H264	Opus	FLAC
WebKit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes
Blink	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gecko	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Goanna	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
NetSurf	No	No	No	?	No	?
Trident	No[32]	No[33]	Partial[32]	Yes[32]	No[34]	No[35]

Typography

Engine	TTF	OTF	WOFF	WOFF2	@font-face CSS rule	Ligatures (font-variant-ligatures CSS property)
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
NetSurf	?	?	No	No	Partial[36]	No
Trident	Partial[37]	Partial[37]	Yes[38]	No[39]	Yes[40]	No[41]

Other items

Engine	Web Components	WebGL	WebGPU[42]	XHTML
WebKit	Partial[43]	Yes	No	Yes
Blink	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gecko	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Goanna	Yes[44]	Yes	No	Yes
NetSurf	No	No	No	?
Trident	No[43]	Yes[45]	No[46]	Yes[47]

See also

• Comparison of web browsers
• Comparison of email clients

Notes

1. Must be built from source code.
2. Only available via QtWebEngine.