You should ditch Chrome, here's Why:
Tags: web, tutorial, frontend, frontendnews
Published: 2023-04-16 18:19:08

## Intro
You with an almost 70% chance if you're on desktop or laptop are reading this article in Google Chrome, the most popular browser on the planet. In this article you'll discover why Chrome isn't all that great and which other browsers you can use as an alternative. Have fun reading :)


## Reasons to Ditch Chrome

In the last years more and more people are becoming concerned with privacy and giving your personal data to big tech companies such as Google and Facebook. The more the concern for privacy the less popular Chrome will be because many Chrome users will be discouraged by the fact that they're being spied on. I know many Chrome users do say that Google does track them and they know about it, but they can't help it because Chrome has a strategy to keep you from using another browser.
Chrome's updates have also added much less than previously so there is basically no big features added in the last couple of years.
The time has come, after google Chrome announced that it will be making all Adblock extensions incompatible with Chrome more and more people started asking themselves: "how trustworthy is Chrome?". Here, in this article I'll show you 5 alternative Browsers you can use instead which have more of a focus on privacy and user experience than on getting more data out of its users. You'll definitely be surprised how much Google actually knows about you only through Chrome and note: Chrome is not their only source of information. Google knows our location interests all our history and many more things.


## How Chrome Tries to Keep You from Ditching it

As it was stated above Chrome has a number of strategies to keep you away from using another browser. One Strategy that you probably think of right away is the fact that Chrome remembers all your passwords and you maybe forgot all of them and can't live without the Chrome password manager. Another strategy is that Chrome is in the Google Workspace which is convenient because you have one account for everything, this also allows you to have two separate profiles for work and for personal use. It also has many extensions which can't be installed in a browser with its own engine like Safari, but don't threat all Chromium base browsers support Chrome's extensions.

## Why Chrome is so Popular

You probably asked yourself "Why is Chrome so popular in the first place since it collects all your data? Who wants a browser like that?" Well, people who spent their whole life in internet explorer which was probably the worst browser ever. Internet explorer was horrible, tired of the constant crashing and all the other bad aspects of IE people wanted a browser that just doesn't crash and is fast. Chrome did both and got the marked to itself. You might ask: "Why is Chrome so popular now though?". I'll say this: because Chrome is a popular browser already people know about it and install it first thing when they've got their computer up and running.

## Alternatives to Chrome
Here I have five alternatives to Chrome you may or may not like. Note that this is not a rang list so the first or last browser in this list is not necessarily the best. 


![The Vivaldi user interface](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/45upbassmx86kqksbr8u.png)
## Vivaldi
Vivaldi is a browser based on Chromium(the open source Chrome engine) with a decent looking interface and is easy to use, the theme is customizable and looks very nice, personally I do not use Vivaldi, but if I don't use it, it doesn't mean it's a bad browser. 


![Firefox Logo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/8dz7uk5w7m63ijlfnmuf.jpeg)
## Firefox
Mozilla Firefox was initially released a bit earlier than Chrome, but lost to Chrome during the time when Internet Explorer started losing popularity. Firefox is one of two major browsers that still use their own browser engine(the other is Safari). It has a clean look and is very customizable and much more focused on privacy than Chrome.


![Microsoft Edge Logo](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/1nadqwh220lqnn15nn2l.jpeg)
## Microsoft Edge
You'll maybe say: "Wait didn't you tell me that Products from big companies aren't trustworthy!" Edge is definitely safer than Chrome, but it may also track you, but much less than Google and Chrome do. Edge is not according to popular belief Internet Explorer in a different UI. No it is a Chromium based browser and has nothing to do with IE except that it's made by Microsoft. Edge has a sleek interface and looks very similar to Chrome, just with more privacy and some additional features.


![Opera GX Interface](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/kvgj2pg04kp07yjv5v2b.jpeg)
## Opera GX
Yes it's Opera again, this browser has been around for a very long time, but never popular, the GX version is meant to be a gaming browser but as I discovered recently it is much more, it has integrated ChatGPT into itself which you can view in the side bar. You can also limit the RAM usage of the browser and customize it completely by picking a color and theme. The interface is nice and sleek and personally this is my main browser and I quite like their background music features.
This browser also has some built in privacy features such as ad blockers and tracker detection.


![Brave Browser Interface](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/7rx7e3p7zecu6e2fqfgm.png)
## Brave
Lastly, Brave is a recent browser focusing entirely on privacy, it even has its own search engine. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate so you should be satisfied with that. It has multiple colors and themes, making Brave fully customizable.

## Outro
As you've seen here there are many alternatives to Google Chrome and I encourage you to think twice before using Chrome the next time since there are other excellent browsers out there.