Firefox 3.5 vs. Safari 4 vs. Opera 10 vs. Chrome 2 vs. IE8

By | July 1, 2009 | 40 Comments

Internet Explorer vs. Firefox vs. Chrome vs. Safari vs. OperaAdrian Kingsley Hughes from ZDNet has benchmarked Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5 and 3.0, Safari 4, Opera 10 (alpha!) and Chrome 2.0 browsers using SunSpider, V8 benchmarks.

Chrome 2 wins in both benchmarks which is followed by Safari 4. In the V8 benchmark suite however, other web browsers lag behind by up to 36 times.

Results are as follow:

Firefox 3.5 vs. Safari 4 vs. Opera 10 vs. Chrome 2 vs. Internet Explorer 8

Firefox 3.5 vs. Safari 4 vs. Opera 10 vs. Chrome 2 vs. Internet Explorer 8


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • http://opera.com/ Daniel Hendrycks

    Why are they testing Opera 10 alpha?

  • http://none Jeff

    Opera 10 beta should have been tested.
    and why test only V8 and Sunspider??

  • http://kjell.com Sjano

    so the rest wont look bad :P

  • nobody

    because newest available build is an alpha, available at my.opera.com/desktopteam

  • http://karczmarczyk.pl gadjo

    no, the latest is beta
    http://snapshot.opera.com/

    • http://fu bull shit

      we talk bull

  • ps

    Actualy beta is quite old (Beta: 10.0 Beta 1 (June 3, 2009)), newest possible build is available at desktop team blog, and is quite recent (30 June), so it is newest (Autor: haavard. Tuesday, 30. June 2009, 13:42:07)

    So they’ve tested the newest possible Opera build.

  • http://drrdb.blogspot.com Rudradeep

    latest opera version is o100s_1615m

  • Gabriela

    I couldn’t care less about Sunspider, Acid or other benchmarks!
    I do care about speed AND all the add ons I need for my online jobs.
    Firefox offers me all I need and more AND it’s much faster than Chrome, Opera and Safari.
    I’ve tried all three so I really know what I’m talking about!
    None of them results as fast as Firefox 3.5 at least regarding the sites I need.
    Keep up the good work Mozilla and I’ll be looking forward to FF 3.6!!!

    • http://opera.com/ Daniel Hendrycks

      Acid isn’t a benchmark. It’s a test that tests a browsers standard compliance.

      • Tom Wright

        Actually Acid 3 is both a benchmark and a standards complience test – it has requirements for the time taken by certain opperations which not even chrome meets all of

    • AW

      Excellent comment, i think just the same. IMO Firefox is the best of them all. Maybe Chrome and Safari are better at those tests but Firefox is just perfect for what I need, and you can customize it with thousands of addons that really make the browser something personal. That’s why i love Firefox so much.
      But hey, that’s just my opinion ;)

      • sharadh

        yeah man…mozilla is the best..super speed,graphics etc..i don see safari and chrome as fast at all…with mozilla 3.5 released,its superb in all terms…mozilla rocks..i don believe above results…

  • http://my.opera.com/IceArdor IceArdor

    I’m kinda tired of reading webpages that compare web browsers on ECMAScript performance. How about subjectively comparing them on how much fun the browser is to use?

  • http://www.fileinpsect.com AussieSheila

    Firefox 3.5 feels a lot better than the previous version. I’ve heard that some people had problems with add-ons compatibility, but all my add-ons work just fine. Firefox and Flock are my favourite browsers.

  • http://blank.com Mikey

    Interesting how much google optimised their benchmark for Chrome. Given Safari works off the same WebKit core. Nice way to prove that benchmarks mean crap all.
    Chrome sucks as a browser and so does Safari. Both of them off a fresh install end up thrashing my HDD for no reason. Safari is much worse for this than Chrome, but there is an underlying WebKit issue there.
    That leaves IE8, Opera and Fx. I have all three installed and use them for specific things. Opera feels nicest, to me, and is my main browser. Fx becomees too slow when you start adding all the add ons that make it nice to use, which is its biggest problem. IE 8 I use to remind me why I love Opera.

    My choice hasn’t changed since 1996 when I first discovered Opera. I have had no reason to move. Also I love seeing all these javaScript tests. I don’t browse that many sites that are massively javascript intensive where my browsers performance slows me down. Its become a selling ground beyond any reason…

  • ChromeLover

    Chrome pwns all the browsers and it’s sandbox feature makes it almost hack proof. Firefox may have add-ons but it doesn’t even compare to chrome’s speed and crash proof tabs. Chrome is a lot more stable than firefox and definitely more stable than safari and opera. Chrome does not suck, it’s still a developing browser, and it already defeats all the other browsers in all areas except customization.

    • Gabriela

      I don’t agree at all!
      Firefox 3.5 hasn’t crashed and I repeat, it’s WAY FASTER than Chrome and all the others.
      I’ve tried several times so I really know what I’m talking about!
      None of them results as fast as Firefox 3.5 at least regarding the sites I need. Besides none of them and least of all Chrome provides me with the add-ons I need for my online work.
      Keep up the good work Mozilla and I’ll be looking forward to FF 3.6!!!

      • Todd

        firefox is slow, and once you add add ons it gets even slower, not to mention on mac the interface is pretty ugly.

        safari and chrome are the best browsers ever, period.

      • http://opera.com DanielHendrycks

        Why do you always say “I really know what I am talking about.”
        You practically said the same thing in this comment as you did before in another comment in this same topic.

        Chrome works best for HIM and FF works best for you so quit duplicate posting you are just saying it is good for YOU and it is faster for the sites that YOU use. In actuality Chrome (along with Safari and Opera is faster then FF) but if it works for you that is fine. Bye

        • Gabriela

          I say “I really know what I am talking about” because it’s true. Have you even tried copying some text from a site to a field in another one in your beloved Chrome? It just cannot be done! Have you even tried a translating tool in Chrome? It doesn’t have any! Have you tried uploading a 150kb screenshot with Chrome? It takes way longer than it does with Firefox 3.5!

          • Daniel Hendrycks

            Yes but I wanted to stop you so I do not see your thoughts over and over. I do not use Chrome. I use Opera.

        • Kenneth

          Glad to see someone from Opera on here. I always feel like an apple in a bag of oranges. :-P

          • Dax

            Come on kids, grow up!!!!! I have tested all the browsers and of course yes the latest versions of all.. I found that Opera is the fastest one in loading web pages, which makes browsing much faster, especially when the internet speed is low, but there is a slight problem, whenever one tries to play video. Else I urge everyone to go for Opera and give a try….Cheers

  • Todd

    i should probably re phrase my comment above, firefox isnt bad, but if all you do is browse without lots of addons, safari or chrome is the way to go, but if you want to use differnt download managers and use different themes or many other add ons then firefox is the best choice.

    my biggest problem with firefox isnt the browser, but more the plugin library, there about 20 different plugins which do the same thing, and finding out which ones are good and which are crap is difficult.

    speed isnt the only thing determining which is the best browser, but for many people thats whats important to them.

  • erm

    IE works best for me and is faster I really know what I am talking about.

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  • http://none woo hoo!

    FF is the best all around browser, in my opinion. Chrome still has lots of bugs to work out, and is still quite heavy for not having hardly any features. Safari is ok, but also missing features that I use quite frequently. Opera is decent, slow on some stuff, and doesn’t work with some javascript and sometimes has trouble with flash, and the torrent downloader is a bit buggy.

    FF is the browser I least have trouble with (IE specific sites). :(

  • http://www.microsoft.com Microsoft

    IE8 is the best, the rest of the browsers suck balls.

    • Kenneth

      Hahaha…. Wow, you’re dumb as hell. Have fun playing with all the viruses, little boy!

  • eunit3130

    Chrome is hands down the fastest browser available. They it handles memory to reduce crashes while increasing speed is ridiculous. Its only down fall is that it does use ALOT of memory. But since most computer nowadays have 1GB plus memory its not even a problem. I use it on a computer with 667Mhz processor and 512MB on XP and its still faster than any other browser on faster computers.

    Firefox however is the best overall browser that exists. Cant fake on its add-ons and still more than reasonably quick speeds.

  • Aric

    I have used Chrome for the better part of the last year, the last six months of which it has been my primary browser. I was a die hard FF fan, but after seeing the speed at which Chrome handled pages – and for me, at least, the speed at which it started up initially – it trumped all of the addons and themes offered by FF. My wife and I have two notebooks, both with 2 gigs of RAM each, and one desktop with 512MB, and on the desktop, I can literally walk into the kitchen and grab a soda from the fridge in the time a new browser window opens in FF. Chrome is instantaneous. On the notebooks the time difference is marginal, hardly noticeable at all.

    Chrome is bare-bones. But look at what the company is doing with it. It will soon be an OS and the features will be items like Docs, and the other Apps Google currently offers. There are some crash issues, more than FF anyway, but the sandbox feature usually saves the day when something goes wrong. As far as memory usage goes, FF loaded with addons and themes is a far bigger hog than Chrome. FF is literally hemorrhaging processes after an hour or more of multiple tab browsing.

    Overall, I will always have a soft spot for FF. Plus there is the fact that I hate IE and there are times when only FF or IE will work, but in all Chrome is my go-to champ. I like to look at it as the future of the web. A work in progress.

  • SILVERSHADIC

    Safari is the best so far!
    It think…

  • darkknight

    opera 10 beta2 is available. So why alpha version was tested. i dont understand

  • http://www.cleanmpg.com pool’s closed

    adblock plus, and noscript…

    rest of you all can suck my massive black cock

    • Kenneth

      I used to use Firefox all the time, so I know where you’re coming from (minus the black cock comment), but why bog down your whole browsing experience with all those dang add-ons when the functionality of those two can’t-do-without add-ons is already built into Opera. I admit it doesn’t work right on some pages, so it’s good to still have Firefox around, but Firefox is just too slow to startup and too slow to load pages. Combine that with the built in email client so you don’t have to have another email client (Thunderbird) eating up your memory and Opera is really a good choice.

  • billi

    at first i used ie for about 3 years and i was happy except the fact that every 2 hours the program was not responding. later i tried mozilla and it was a cool browser with nice addons and it was way faster than ie. when i used chrome it was a really fast browser. know im using opera and i believe it rocks . its really fast (maybe slightly slower than chrome) and it is really cool. so.. when im in a hurry i use chrome when i wann customize and feel my browser is unique i choose firefox but i usually use opera. and when i want to remember the old days and well actually why i love opera is use ie:P

  • spoot

    Opera is the best. I tried all the browsers and none compete with Opera. Safari and Chrome are fast but tend to slow down over time and they are not as secure. Firefox is good but too heavy and too many add-ons which slow it down. Just my 2cents….

  • opera

    Opera 10 is superior to firefox, all the ways, except complements. time to time

  • Chapulin..

    Opera 10 is superior..
    Opera es el mejor navegador.. mejor que firefox,

    :)PERA

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