Browsers are programs that can display Internet pages. There are many different, such as Microsoft Edge, Opera or Apple Safari. The two most popular internet browsers are Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. In this comparison you can find out what the two offer and what differentiates them.
Chrome is the most widely used browser in Germany
Google's Chrome browser has only been around since 2008. Since then, it has worked its way to the top of the most widely used browsers - but this is also due to the fact that it is preinstalled on Android smartphones. The biggest competitor of Chrome and a good alternative is Mozilla's Firefox browser - an open source program. Chrome has ousted Firefox from the top position over time, as the statistics of browser market shares in Germany show .
Safe, fast, stable and customizable
Firefox and Chrome are similar in many ways. Both run very stable, although Chrome requires a lot of memory. They're both fast too, but Chrome has a head start. You can surf in private mode in both browsers, then your history and cookies are automatically deleted after the session..
Both browsers offer a private mode: In Firefox this is called "private window", in Chrome it is called "incognito mode".
Both browsers are quite secure, receive regular updates and offer you a password manager. Both meet the minimum security requirements that the Federal Office for Information Security places on web browsers. You can also customize both browsers for your purposes. Firefox has add-ons for this, and Chrome has extensions. Both have large libraries with a large selection, but Chrome is ahead of the game.
Whether Firefox add-on or Chrome extension: You can adapt both browsers to your needs. - Install add-ons in Firefox
- Install add-ons on Google Chrome
Synchronization via user account
You can log in to both Firefox and Chrome with a user account. With Chrome, this is your usual Google account - this allows you to link Chrome to other Google services. Logging in with the user account enables synchronization between different devices in both browsers. For example, you have the same settings and bookmarks on your mobile phone as you do on your PC and you can continue with the tabs that you had open on your PC..
Data protection: two browsers, two worlds
When it comes to privacy, Firefox and Chrome are very different. Firefox relies on data protection: it blocks third-party tracking cookies and tracking via social networks by default. You can make many settings yourself, for example, you can decide what should and should not be blocked (cookies, trackers, advertising, ...). Mozilla is a non-profit organization and only collects anonymized data in Firefox - and you can even deactivate that.
Chrome, on the other hand, collects your data and can merge it with your data from other Google services. Officially, this is done to improve your user experience, but Google also makes money from it through ads. Overall, it remains rather unclear at Google what exactly happens to the data collected.
Conclusion: Chrome vs. Firefox