Onion Browser vs Waterfox
Onion Browser
onionbrowser.com
Waterfox
waterfox.comSide by side
| Figure | Onion Browser | Waterfox |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $5/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Web browsers | 7.7 (#103) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Spec score · Privacy browsers | 7.8 (#23) | 9.3 (#2) |
| Founded | 2012 | 2011 |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | The app is free and open source, and anyone may contribute, audit, or inspect its code. | Yes |
| Supported platforms | mobile | 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. |
| Support | The project's GitHub help page documents common problems, suggests force-quitting and reopening for loading issues, and links to issue tracking for known bugs. | Waterfox provides help articles for browsing, privacy and security, customization, troubleshooting and Android. |
Plans
In their own words
Onion Browser
Onion Browser has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
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.