What browser should we use on iOS (iPhone and iPad)?

Eggcorn

Seeing as Vivaldi's not available on iOS (iPhone and iPad): What would be a good browser to use there?

Streptococcus

Brave is pretty good. I am using that one happily. Safari is not that bad, but having to go to Settings to clear the cache and other data is a pain.

greybeard

As far as I know any iOS browser is merely an overlay of Safari with a few added features. I used Dolphin for a long time but alas my fruit no longer works.
Oddly my 10 year old iPod Touch works OK with Opera Mini.

Catweazle

Seems that UR Browser exist also for iOS (French privacy browser, I think better than Brave)

Eggcorn

@greybeard said in What browser should we use on iOS (iPhone and iPad)?:

As far as I know any iOS browser is merely an overlay of Safari with a few added features

I know that any iOS browser has to use the WebKit layout engine. Is that what you mean, or is there more to it then just the layout engine?

baris.sehri

I have Firefox, and Opera for sending information between devices. they both are excellent at it.

greybeard

@Eggcorn Not sure. I don't know enough about building a browser, just what I've been told.

treego

DuckDuckGo

Streptococcus

@Catweazle
I just looked for UR Browser on the Apple Store and it was not listed.

Catweazle

@Streptococcus , It is not easy to find valid alternatives for iOS, due to its restrictive policies, which make it extremely difficult to develop apps for this OS. There are few browsers that are really private for iOS, apart from Brave there is only Firefox and few others.You can look at AlternativeTo, to see other available options and hope that Apple in the future will abandon its policies that violates free competition and user rights.

Eggcorn

To answer my own question, I use Brave for a few reasons:

#1: With Brave: I can have JavaScript disabled by default, and easily enable it for sites I want to use it on (via the Shields feather in advanced mode).

#2: Reader view. Like Vivaldi, the iOS version of Brave has Reader View. Unfortunately, the reader view only works when JavaScript is enabled on a site. Not a problem for most people, because most people don't disable JavaScript in the first place. But I'm not most people.

#3: I trust the people behind Brave. Or rather, I trust them about as much as I trust anyone who makes software.

But still, Brave is no Vivaldi. And I started this thread, because I was hoping there was a better browser out there. A lot of you have given suggestions, but you haven't said what you like (or don't like) about your suggestions. So can you folks tell me why you like your iOS browser?

Eggcorn

@catweazle said in What browser should we use on iOS (iPhone and iPad)?:

Seems that UR Browser exist also for iOS

I don't think so. I searched for it on the iOS app store, and it didn't seem to be there. But it could just be that my iPhone is too old for UR.

Catweazle

@eggcorn , maybe Ghostery, DDG or Dolphin if you don't want Chrome, Firefox or Opera.

code3

As far as I know any iOS browser is merely an overlay of Safari with a few added features. I used Dolphin for a long time but alas my fruit no longer works.

Yes, and all chromium browsers are merely an overlay of chrome with a few added (or removed) features. Doesn’t mean they can’t be really great features

Catweazle

@code3 , to see when Apple finally accepts that we're in 2021 and Safari with its old WebKit gradually takes over to Internet Explorer.
Worse, to require others to use this engine that is already beginning to embarrass.
Although WebKit is the predecessor of Blink, this was 10 or more years ago

purgat0ri

@catweazle said in What browser should we use on iOS (iPhone and iPad)?:

@code3 , to see when Apple finally accepts that we're in 2021 and Safari with its old WebKit gradually takes over to Internet Explorer.
Worse, to require others to use this engine that is already beginning to embarrass.
Although WebKit is the predecessor of Blink, this was 10 or more years ago

Ridiculous. WebKit is constantly being updated and is a very capable engine, as is Gecko. There is no sense in praying for Google's Blink monopoly to be realised with greater haste.

Catweazle

@purgat0ri https://wpt.fyi/compat2021?feature=summary

purgat0ri

@catweazle said in What browser should we use on iOS (iPhone and iPad)?:

https://wpt.fyi/compat2021?feature=summary

Is that supposed to mean something to me? Safari runs every site I use just fine.

Catweazle

@purgat0ri , I do not doubt that it does, all current browsers do it more or less well, the difference is in the performance, as you can see in the graphics, higher in Blink and Gecko, which also offer more development possibilities than WebKit.

Eggcorn

I've just tried some iOS browsers. I rejected the following for not having a reader view (reader view is a must-have for me, it makes webpages far more pleasant to read):

Opera
Opera GX
Chrome
~~Edge (desktop Edge has reader view, but not iOS Edge)~~
U Browser (rejected with dishonors, it's full of ads!)
Dolphin (rejected with honors, it seems to have a lot of features).
Maxthon

Firefox and Yandex both have reader view. But Yandex's has no options (you can't change the text size), and Firefox's can't even load a Wikipedia article correctly.

Edit: iOS Edge now has reader view.