Maxthon vs Pale Moon
Maxthon
maxthon.comPale Moon
palemoon.orgSide by side
| Figure | Maxthon | Pale Moon |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Web browsers | 9.0 (#12) | 8.2 (#57) |
| Browser engine | chromium | other |
| Built-in ad blocking | Yes | Yes |
| Cross-device sync | Yes | Yes |
| Extensions | Maxthon 7 supports Chrome extensions, and its desktop versions can sync extensions between Windows and macOS. | The official add-ons site offers extensions, themes, language packs, dictionaries, and search plugins. |
| Extension support | both | own_store |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | The download page offers versions for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, including Windows desktop and portable builds. | Official downloads are listed for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS; FreeBSD builds are marked beta. |
| Privacy | The browser advertises anti-tracking, ad blocking, incognito browsing, and a free VPN; the homepage says its VPN is provided by Bright Data. | The maker says the browser contains no ads, telemetry, or data gathering. |
| Product | Maxthon is a Chromium-based web browser with built-in cloud sync, notes, a password manager, ad blocking, and media tools. | Pale Moon is an open-source web browser built on its own maintained platform and Goanna rendering engine. |
| Security | Maxthon says it encrypts account information and sensitive data stored locally or in the cloud, and encrypts data during account synchronization. | The maker says Pale Moon is regularly updated with security patches; release 35.0.2, dated 2026-10-06, is described as a performance, bugfix, and security release. |
| Support | The site directs users to its help center, troubleshooting and bug-report page, community forum, and customer service contact information for support. | The project directs users to its community forum for questions and offers donations, merchandise, or service contributions to support development. |
| Sync | Signing in to a Maxthon account syncs bookmarks, browser settings, Maxnote, password-manager data, and quick-access URLs across devices. | Pale Moon Sync can synchronize bookmarks, open tabs, browsing history, form history, passwords, and a limited subset of preferences. |
Plans
In their own words
Maxthon
Maxthon is a free Chromium-based browser with built-in notes, password management and an AI chat assistant. Signing in syncs bookmarks, settings, Maxnote, password-manager data and quick-access URLs across devices. Maxnote can record, organize, clip and share URLs, text, images and links. Maxthon 7 supports Chrome extensions, and its desktop versions can sync extensions between Windows and macOS. Reading mode removes ads and other page elements, Read Aloud converts webpages to speech, and split-screen browsing shows multiple pages in one window. Listed privacy tools include ad blocking, anti-tracking, incognito mode and a free VPN provided by Bright Data. Maxthon's privacy policy says searches through its default MaxAsk engine, which uses Google as its search content provider, involve collecting search queries, IP addresses and browser details. Maxthon says it encrypts account information and sensitive data stored locally or in the cloud, as well as data during account synchronization. Super Bookmarks requires a VIP subscription, and video downloads are limited for logged-in users.