Maxthon vs Waterfox
Maxthon
maxthon.com
Waterfox
waterfox.comSide by side
| Figure | Maxthon | Waterfox |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $5/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Web browsers | 9.0 (#12) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Browser engine | chromium | gecko |
| Built-in ad blocking | Yes | Yes |
| Cross-device sync | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, USA | Suite 140, 372 Old Street, London, EC1V 9AU, United Kingdom |
| Platforms | The download page offers versions for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, including Windows desktop and portable builds. | Downloads are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android; Windows requires Windows 10 or later, macOS 10.15 or later, and Linux glibc 2.17 or later. |
| 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 privacy policy says Waterfox telemetry, health reports and crash reports are disabled and locked off at build time. |
| Product | Maxthon is a Chromium-based web browser with built-in cloud sync, notes, a password manager, ad blocking, and media tools. | Waterfox is a free, open source web browser focused on privacy and customisation. |
| Support | The site directs users to its help center, troubleshooting and bug-report page, community forum, and customer service contact information for support. | Waterfox provides help articles for browsing, privacy and security, customization, troubleshooting and Android. |
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.
Waterfox
Waterfox is a free, open-source web browser built around privacy and customisation. It uses the Gecko engine and is listed for Android, browser extensions, Linux, macOS and Windows. On desktop, it blocks ads, trackers, pop-ups and overlays by default; filter lists and site exceptions can be adjusted. Private tabs use their own container, and Waterfox removes that container’s site data when the final private tab closes. DNS requests are encrypted and passed through an Oblivious HTTP relay; users can change or disable the default Fastly-operated relay and Cloudflare-operated resolver. Tree tabs nest pages under the page that opened them, with branches that can be collapsed or moved together. Firefox WebExtensions work, but Chrome-only extensions do not transfer automatically. Regular updates incorporate Mozilla security fixes using the Firefox ESR model. Waterfox says telemetry, health reports and crash reports are disabled at build time. Sync is off until Mozilla-account sign-in, and synced data is end-to-end encrypted. The browser plan is free, with no premium tier or required payment.