5 Most Secure Browsers for 2024
When you have a website, addressing security issues and points of vulnerability is usually on the top of your list of priorities. You might be taking steps to secure your WooCommerce store, looking for security plugins for your WordPress website, or installing a security scanner to check the status of your website. Either way, you’re acting because the internet is not a safe place.
It’s not just the websites that are under a threat, though. Every person who goes online can have their activities tracked and logged, their passwords brute-forced, their email addresses, and instant messages targeted for phishing attacks.
To stay safe online, you have to be aware of potential threats and the forms they might take, the types of behavior that make you vulnerable, and the tools that can enhance your safety. The web browser you choose is an important brick in the wall that keeps you safe online. In this article, we’ll talk about the most secure browser you could be using in 2024.
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One of the most important things we all need to understand when it comes to browsing the net securely is that security is often at odds with convenience. All of those things that make it easier for you to browse the web – browser history, session cookies, autocomplete, stored passwords – can be seen as troublesome from the standpoint of security and privacy.
It’s usually up to web browsers to find the correct balance between a secure and private browsing experience and an experience that won’t make users give up this thing we call the internet altogether. There are different approaches to managing those tradeoffs, as you’ll see from the list. In general, some of the things you could be looking for include:
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Privacy settings that include anti-fingerprinting measures and blocking of trackers
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Disabling pop-ups and redirects, with the option to turn off scripts
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HTTPS-redirection
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Robust password management options
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Sandboxing
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Regular automatic updates
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Control of your history and cache
Some browsers will come with all of these options dialed up to eleven. Others will have you sift through the settings for all the important checks – not to worry, there are plenty of guides on doing it online for any browser, whether it’s on the list or not. So with no further ado, let’s see some of the most secure websites you could be using in 2024.
If you’re drawn to Tor, you must be taking your online security and privacy very seriously – avoiding-government-surveillance type of seriousness. Tor browser is advertised to protect you against “tracking, surveillance, and censorship,” and as such has become a favorite for anyone from shady people to dissidents and activists in oppressive regimes and the journalist working on incredibly sensitive stories. It’s also a favorite for regular folks who don’t like being tracked or geo-restricted online. Of all the browsers on this list, Tor – the browser and the network – might be the most culturally significant.
So how does Tor keep you safe? Simply – you use Tor to connect to a network that bounces around your traffic, making it incredibly difficult to track. Everything you do when you use the Tor browser properly gets routed through three different nodes, greatly enhancing your security, and helping you circumvent geo-restrictions, for example.
As for the browser itself, it will automatically remove any cookies after any session, and it won’t keep any browsing history. It won’t allow anyone to see the websites you’re visiting, and it will make your digital fingerprint look uniform, making it virtually indiscernible from thousands of others. Any traffic you send and receive is encrypted, and it will enforce automatic HTTPS redirection, provide partial sandboxing – it being a fork of Firefox – and you can expect regular updates. The only downside to this is that your browsing might become slower.
Just like the Tor Browser was based on Firefox, Brave is a browser-based on Chromium, which is the open-source version of the popular Chrome. This might make it easier for Chrome users to find their way around the browser and its many features. It might also serve as a reminder of just how important transparency and good privacy practices are – Chrome is a browser infamous for its data collecting practices, and Brave is a browser using the same underlying technology that doesn’t stockpile your data.
Brave aims to help you take back control of your browsing experience. To those ends, the browser will help you, for instance, block ads and trackers that want nothing more than to log your data. What’s important to notice about Brave is that it promises its default settings will provide sufficient protection against malware, phishing, and plugin vulnerabilities. Other browsers could have the same settings, but you might be required to find and enable them before use. With Brave, they’re on from the get-go.
Brave will also automatically redirect to HTTPS, provide a partial Tor integration – an interesting feature, block scripts, prevent fingerprinting, and do lots and lots more. You just need to make sure which features are supported on the platform where you plan to use it. Finally, we have to mention Brave Rewards, an economic ecosystem that rewards you for viewing ads and lets you reward creators you appreciate.
What’s a better way to get a secure web browser than downloading and installing one that’s been created and supported by one of the top antivirus software manufacturers? Avast Secure Browser can surely turn heads only on its name, but if you give it a closer look, you’ll find that it has plenty to offer besides a recognizable name.
Avast was built on the Chromium platform, just like Brave. It’s not the first Avast’s foray into the world of browsers – its’ SafeZone browser was discontinued a couple of years back. Even though it’s a part of Avast’s offering, it works as a standalone product, which means you can use it without using the antivirus itself. The implication of it being built by the people who are in the online security business might be enough to recommend this browser even without a deeper dive into its features.
The features aren’t at all lacking, though. Avast Secure Browser will block known phishing and threat sites, harmful download links, and make sure that your connection to a website is encrypted whenever it can be. You’ll also get the benefit of blocking ads, trackers, cookies, and all those pesky things that want to keep tabs on you and interrupt your browsing experience. Finally, the browser is integrated with Avast’s SecureLine VPN, which is an additional level of security you should strongly consider regardless of the browser you’re using.
The first – and only – mainstream browser on the list, Firefox secured its place for its mix of good security features, great accessibility, and the fact that it’s one of the most widely used browsers in the world, and as such a great entry point into taking browser security in consideration when making a choice. Not as popular as Google’s Chrome, but not as prone to shady practices, it might be the secure browser for the masses – if the masses started using it, already.
Firefox is an open-source browser developed by a non-profit organization, Mozilla. The fact that it’s open-source is important because it opens the core code to scrutiny. Much like Avast’s browser, Firefox promises that its default settings will provide enough security and privacy protection for the average user, but it pays off to give the setting a deeper look and identify areas that could need improvement. With Firefox, you might also want to get a couple of useful add-ons such as the Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, and Facebook Container, to beef up security even more.
Firefox will protect against fingerprinting, block trackers, it will offer some sandboxing, and let you force HTTPS connections when available. Firefox also has one of the rare password managers that get endorsements from online security sources – as long as you set the Primary Password, that is.
DuckDuckGo is known as the privacy-oriented search engine that makes up for its lack of quality search results with sheer charm and good will to keep your info away from the greedy hands of people who’d snatch it all and sell it. But did you know that DuckDuckGo has a browser, too? It does, but you won’t be able to use it on your desktop computer, as it’s only available for Android and iOS.
For starters, DuckDuckGo will let you know how much you can trust any website that you’re visiting on your phone. You’ll see whether it’s using an encrypted connection, how many trackers from it you’ve blocked, and a list of poor privacy practices. You’ll also get the benefits of ad-free browsing, and if encryption is available, it will be enforced. For the searches, you’ll rely on DuckDuckGo’s search engine.
The downside of this browser? It’s the fact that it’s only available for Android and iOS. You can still use DuckDuckGo as your search engine from a desktop computer, but for a quacking browsing experience, you’ll have to go mobile.
Let’s Wrap It Up!
As the number of things we can do online grows, it’s becoming increasingly important to pay special attention to our security. We share an incredible amount of personal information day in and day out, and that information can be valuable to people for many different reasons, from criminal ones to those that simply infringe on our privacy. For those reasons, it’s more important than ever to make sure that the web browsers we use have the features and tools that can protect us online.
