Chrome Is More Polished,
Firefox Is More Customizable
Google
put a lot of work into making Chrome look nice and feel more polished than your
average browser. As a result, you get a great experience out of the box.
Firefox, on the other hand, offers a lot of control over how it looks and
operates. While many people made this argument, our own Whitson Gordon summed
it up most concisely
Chrome is a much more polished browser. It's smoother, it feels
faster, and it's got a lot of cool extra features like application shortcuts
and packaged apps. It is, without a doubt, the browser I'd recommend to most
people, and it feels like a more mature browser despite the fact that it's
older.
Firefox, though, still
beats it in level of customization. It may be a little slower and clunkier, but
with things like about:config you can really tweak every tiny corner to your
heart's content (here are some of my favorite tweaks), which is
pretty killer. It may not have as many big features, but the features it does
have you can configure to the tiniest detail. And if you're a person that likes
things just so, that's hard to give up
In
a way, it's like the iOS versus Android argument. Chrome, like iOS, has its
limitations—just far fewer of them. Firefox, on the other hand, will let you do
almost whatever you want.P
Chrome Is Better for Developers
Developers
tend to use Chrome. Why? Perhaps because Google employs many of them. Reader
dougoftheabaci has another theory:
I could go on, I truly could, but there is no doubt in my mind
which is superior. I would even gladly speak for all the developers I work with
(about 20 or so) who all use Chrome as their primary. In fact, most devs and
designers I know use Chrome as their primary browser, both for personal use and
for testing and development. Why? The same reason chefs always have the best
kitchens: We know what's the best and we don't want to use anything else.P
Of course,
you as a developer you kind of have to use multiple browsers. As a primary,
however, Chrome tends to win out but whether or not that's because it's the
best is a matter of opinion. It is more popular in general, however, so Chrome
would have to be significantly worse for developers if Firefox were to take the
lead with that specific group.P
Firefox Has Better Extensions
Chrome has
a lot of extensions, but some users feel Firefox has better, more capable ones.
Reader missem falls into this camp:
Firefox wins on extensions, privacy and security. Chrome wins on
simplicity and smoothness. However FF is working on both simplicity (australis)
and smoothness (electrolysis) for next year. That said, they are more equal
then many realize. FF favors the power user with many tabs and extensions.
Chrome favors the average user with only a couple of tabs open and no
extensions.
While
others still look at Chrome very much as a browser for power users as well,
Firefox (as noted earlier) offers more fine-grain control.
Chrome Offers Better Syncing Capabilities
Chrome
syncs just about everything you do in the browser so you can log in on one
computer or mobile device and essentially pick up where you left off. Of
course, you have to use Chrome everywhere to have this benefit. Vrekk argues
this point:
Chrome for Android syncs together well with the desktop and is
just plain fast. (Not saying Firefox isn't though). Now I will say I tried
Firefox for android the other day, and I loved it there. Really fast and plugins
made things like lastpass a lot more usable on mobile where it is kinda
impossible to use with Chrome. But the Desktop version of firefox can't match
the Desktop version of Chrome, and because of all the sync features I use
Chrome on both.
Cfc responds
that Firefox handles this just as well:
Firefox syncs across my desktop and my Android device, just like
Chrome would. Likewise, with the default configuration, Firefox will
automatically update itself — again, just like Chrome does. The two are nearly
identical on the vast majority of features.
So while
people generally feel Chrome handles sync better, others find both browsers to
be evenly matched.
Firefox Offers Better Privacy
According
to reader missem, Firefox wins on both user privacy and security. Let's start
with the privacy argument:
FF does not make money of user data. They go to such pains to
protect their users that I think seeing how both Chrome and FF are both good browsers,
this issue alone should be enough to drive people into Mozilla's arms.
And now,
security:
I think that out of the box Chrome is likely to be very slightly
more secure then FF due to its sandboxing model (which is why Chrome is also
worse in memory usage). That said, FF's security extensions are so powerful
that overall I think FF is superior in this category. Adblock plus, No Script,
Ghostery, pdf.js and soon Shumway will lock your browser down like Fort Knox.
But for inexperienced users who don't want to customize there can be slight
benefits to using Chrome.
Chrome Crashes More—No, Firefox
Does!
Depending
on who you ask, both browsers crash a lot. Let's start with TiredOfHypocrites:
I tend to have lots of tabs open, and leave them open. I went
from Firefox to Chrome, and now back to Firefox. The reason? Chrome eats up far
more memory for the same amount of tabs than Firefox. Also, Firefox would
always recover the previous session if it crashes; Chrome on the other hand,
has failed multiples times.
Henry
Floyd disagrees:
I have had the exact opposite experience. Firefox eats up an
obscene amount of memory, to the point where it becomes nearly unusable. Chrome
has never done that to me.
Rguitargod
suggests a Chrome extension to solve the problem:
I use a Chrome extension called The Great Suspender that automatically suspends tabs after
a set amount of time (I think default is 15 minutes)... So the tabs are still
there, but they're not using any memory.
For the
record, I'm a big fan. I think it helps a lot. TiredOfHypocrites doesn't:
I conduct a lot of media research, and a lot of times a single
site will lead me to 10 others. I keep them open for faster access when I need
to find a specific image. Yes, I do need more organization, but for the time
being Firefox is working out well for me at least.P
So what's
the takeaway? Both browsers have their issues if you open a bunch of stuff in
them, especially on a lower-powered computer like a laptop. The solution isn't
really switching browsers, but managing your tabs more effectively. Close more
and use an extension like The Great Suspender to help out if needed.
Both Are Not Internet Explorer 6
Remember
Internet Explorer 6 (IE6)? Some of you don't have to because you still have to
use it at the office. It failed to work with most web sites since the day it
came out, and while later versions of Internet Explorer have improved you don't
see too many people using them. Firefox and Chrome both offer significantly
better experiences for those who want to do more with the web (and, I think, in
general as well). So you could be—and in some cases, may still be—stuck with
Microsoft's beast that just won't die (even though they officially killed it and a funeral was held in celebration). Whether
you prefer Chrome or Firefox for the little things one does better than the
other, just remember how bad things used to be and cherish the modern browser
you've got.
