this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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Recommended Firefox alternative(s) for Android (reddthat.com)
submitted 4 months ago by sunset@reddthat.com to c/privacy@lemmy.world
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Recently there has been controversy around Mozilla Firefox.

I've been looking for an alternative but really struggling, seems like every alternative has a downside:

  • Vivaldi: Uses some proprietary code and likely not doing much better on the user data side of things, also based on Chromium.

  • Tor: Uses Tor protocol and so is quite slow, my ISP would probably also think I'm a drug lord.

  • Fennec: Basically looks the same as Firefox but guessing less up to date, F-Droid has a warning about it's using Mozilla services for tracking.

What are you guys using? Have you found anything good?

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[–] Smokeydope@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I've been sticking with Ironfox as much as I can. It took up the mantle of Mull so Its based off fennec but got the security locked down and mozillas telemetry ripped out. Of course this means some websites don't play nice so I need to occasionally use a less hardened browser like firefox or kiwi(chromium based that can install any desktop extension). You should be used to that situation if you've used a hardened browser before though.

If I recall right you don't need to use the Tor network on the Tor browser. disconnect from the network and see if you can use it as a regular clear web browser. Also your ISP don't give a fuck whether you use TOR or a VPN, in fact they probably prefer it. As long as you pay them each month and they aren't getting calls from DMCA laywers or Feds running a honey pot they dont give a fuck. Apparently Its when you start torrenting gigabytes of data off of cellular network that they start getting pissed.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 5 points 4 months ago (3 children)

IronFox is similar to what Mull was and similar-ish to fennec. You can also try Brave or Vanadium if you wish to go Chromium

[–] TuxEnthusiast@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

+1 for IronFox

[–] TIN@feddit.uk 1 points 4 months ago

+2, using it as my daily over vanadium

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 5 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Switching from Firefox to Chromium because of the latest Mozilla policy changes is insane. Google is ten times worse in every relevant aspect.

[–] dukethorion@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Brave and Vanadium remove the google telemetry. Next complaint?

[–] Rose@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

If telemetry is the problem, the rational thing to do is to use a fork/build of Firefox without the telemetry, not support the Google monopoly or go for browsers that have had potentially problematic privacy policies for a lot longer than Firefox.

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I think I might give IronFox a go, just a bit weary as never heard of it before, not sure who is the owner of the project and where they are based, GitLab project only has ~125 stars.

Have you ever used the Accrescent app store? That's their recommended option for installing it.

[–] sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I haven't used Acrescent but I believe it's made by the GrapheneOS team. It's focused on security, rather than totally FOSS programs.

[–] turtl@lemm.ee 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure the Acrescent store is independent from Graphene OS - though they just seem to like the project so much they made it available in their own "App Store"

[–] LWD@lemm.ee 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

deleted by creator

[–] 3aqn5k6ryk@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

Fennec cause it got cute little mascot

[–] B0NK3RS@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I'm using Vivaldi and I'd recommend it. Obviously nothing is perfect, and especially browsers, but I'd implore you to look further in to it.

[–] Sophocles 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Iceraven is my go to, been using it for about a year now. It works great

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Interesting, seems you have to download the .apk directly from their repo though, rather than any store. So I'm guessing there's no automatic updates?

[–] Sophocles 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but I see it as a pro and a con. With previous browsers I used like Mull, Fennec and Bromite, the store versions usually lagged behind, usually due to FDroid shenanigans, and downloading it from the source eliminates the middleman. While it is more work, I do use my browser for many important things, so I feel like it's worth it for my use case.

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I just found out you can use Obtanium to make this process easy, you can just add the repo URL into the app.

[–] Sophocles 2 points 4 months ago

Very nice! I will look into using it

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 2 points 4 months ago

Waterfox has been great.

[–] sunset@reddthat.com 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Just seen another post on Lemmy about it.

[–] novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one -1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

After looking for a browser without anti-features, I have settled on using FREE Browser

[–] Kess8a@lemy.lol 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Isn't that one chromium based?

--From my experience of using it

[–] novacomets@lemmy.myserv.one -2 points 4 months ago

It is a libre web browser, that's all I care about.