Brave vs Vivaldi

Brave: what it's good at

Brave is built on Chromium — so Chrome extensions and site compatibility carry over — but ships with aggressive ad and tracker blocking enabled out of the box. Blocking ads at the browser level typically means noticeably faster page loads.

• Ad and tracker blocking built in
• Runs Chrome extensions
• Faster page loads on ad-heavy sites
• Built-in private window with Tor

Vivaldi: what it's good at

Vivaldi is aimed squarely at people who want control: tab stacking and tiling, a built-in email client, notes, keyboard shortcuts for everything, and interface customisation far beyond what other browsers expose.

• Tab stacking, tiling and hibernation
• Built-in mail, calendar and feed reader
• Deep interface customisation
• No user tracking or profiling

Which should you choose?

Both are free, so the honest answer is that you can install either and decide for yourself — that is the advantage of free software over a paid trial.

Both run on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android. Only Brave supports iOS. If open source matters to you, Brave publishes its source code and Vivaldi does not.

We deliberately do not publish a star rating for either. We have no way to verify a rating that would be honest at scale, and an invented one would be worse than none — so we give you the facts and let you decide.

Frequently asked questions

Is Brave better than Vivaldi?

Neither is universally better. Brave chromium-based browser that blocks ads and trackers by default, while Vivaldi the power-user browser — customise almost everything. The right pick depends on your platform and workflow.

Are both really free?

Brave is open source and Vivaldi is free. Both can be downloaded without paying.

Can I install both?

Yes. Since neither costs anything, installing both and comparing them on your own files is usually the fastest way to decide.