A lightweight web browser is a web browser that sacrifices some of the features of a mainstream web browser in order to reduce the consumption of system resources, and especially to minimize the memory footprint.
The tables below compare notable lightweight web browsers. Several of them use a common layout engine, but each has a unique combination of features and a potential niche. The minimal user interface in surf, for example, does not have tabs, whereas xombrero can be driven with vi-like keyboard commands.
Four of the browsers compared—Lynx, w3m, Links, and ELinks—are designed for text mode, and can function in a terminal emulator. Eww is limited to working within Emacs. Links 2 has both a text-based user interface and a graphical user interface. w3m is, in addition to being a web browser, also a terminal pager.
Overview
Browser Developers Status Engine Programming languages License Latest release Version Date Arora Benjamin C. Meyer et al. QtWebKit C++ GPL-2.0-or-later Dillo Jorge Arellano Cid et al. Dillo C, C++ GPL-3.0-or-later ELinks Petr Baudiš, Jonas Fonseca, et al. Links C, C++ GPL-2.0-only Eww Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen GNU Emacs libraries Emacs Lisp GPL-3.0-or-later Falkon (QupZilla) David Rosca QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine C++ GPL-3.0-or-later hv3 Dan Kennedy & team Tkhtml Tcl GPL K-Meleon Christophe Thibault et al. Gecko / Goanna (fork) C++ GPL Links Mikuláš Patočka, Twibright Labs, et al. Links C GPL-2.0-or-later Lynx Lou Montulli, Thomas Dickey, et al. libwww derivative C (ISO C) GPL-2.0-only NetSurf John-Mark Bell, Michael Drake, et al. NetSurf C (ANSI C) GPL-2.0-only Otter Browser Michał Dutkiewicz QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine C++ GPL-3.0-or-later QtWeb LogicWare; LSoft Technologies QtWebKit C++ GPL-2.0-or-later qutebrowser Freya Bruhin et al. QtWebKit / Qt WebEngine Python3 GPL-3.0-or-later rekonq Andrea Diamantini et al. QtWebKit C++ GPLv3 surf Christoph Lohmann et al. WebKitGTK C MIT uzbl Dieter Plaetinck et al. WebKitGTK C, Python GPL-3.0-only w3m Akinori Ito et al. w3m C MIT WebPositive Andrea Anzani, Ryan Leavengood, et al. HaikuWebkit C++ MIT xombrero Marco Peerboom et al. WebKitGTK C, JavaScript ISC
Operating system support Browser BSD Haiku Linux macOS OpenIndiana OS/2 QNX RISC OS Windows Arora Dillo ELinks Falkon (QupZilla) K-Meleon Links Lynx NetSurf Otter Browser QtWeb qutebrowser rekonq surf uzbl w3m WebPositive xombrero
Notes
Features Test scores reflect the version of the browser engine in use. Generally, a lower score indicates an older version of the browser engine.
Image formats Advanced Test scores Plug-in APIs Browser GIF, JPEG, PNG WebP JavaScript Frames Acid3 HTML5test Netscape Pepper Arora Dillo ELinks Falkon (QupZilla) K-Meleon Links Lynx NetSurf Otter Browser QtWeb qutebrowser rekonq surf uzbl w3m WebPositive xombrero
Notes
See also Comparison of web browsers List of web browsers for Unix and Unix-like operating systems
References
Further reading