Comparison of web browsers

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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.

Web browser history

Web browsers by year

A rough estimation of usage share by percent of layout engines/web browsers, see usage share of web browsers.

This is a table of personal computer web browsers by year of release of major version, in chronological order, with the approximate number of worldwide Internet users in millions. Note that Internet user data is related to the entire market, not the versions released in that year. The increased growth of the Internet in the 1990s and 2000s means that current browsers with small market shares have more total users than the entire market early on. For example, 90% market share in 1997 would be roughly 60 million users, but by the start of 2007 9% market share would equate to over 90 million users.^[2]

See also microbrowser

Historical web browsers

This table focuses on OS and browsers of the 1990s and turn of the century. The year listed for a version is usually the year of the first official release, with an end year being end of development, project change, or relevant termination. Releases of OS and browser from the early 1990s to before 2001-2002 time frame are the current focus.

Many early browsers can be made to run on later OS (and later browsers on early OS in some cases), however, most of these situations are avoided in the table.Note, 'terminated' means the same as yes, it was supported in the final release but development stopped. Dropped means that major development has ended but development on other versions continued, while the reverse situation of added is not yet shown.

^{[4] [5]}

^  QNX, Cell phones, Symbian, Wii, Windows Mobile

General information

Basic general information about the browsers: creator/company, license/price etc.

• ^  There are five different products which all carry the name Netscape: Netscape versions 1 to 4, properly called Netscape Navigator, was a browser based on the original Netscape engine. Netscape 4 also was available as an Internet suite, properly called Netscape Communicator. Netscape 6 and 7 was a new Internet suite based on the Gecko engine and the Mozilla Application Suite user interface. Netscape 8, properly called Netscape Browser, is a new browser based on Firefox that can use both the Gecko (Firefox) and Trident (Internet Explorer) engines. Netscape resumed use of the Navigator name from Netscape Navigator 9.0 beta 1. See Netscape for more info.

Release history

A brief overview of the release history.

• ^  As of February 2007, at least Windows XP SP2 or Windows Server 2003 SP1 is required to install the latest version (v7) of Internet Explorer for Windows. Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 is the last version that supports Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 SP6a, and Windows 2000. Internet Explorer 7 is bundled with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
• ^  Safari is included with Mac OS X and the latest version is always available only from the OS install or OS updates.

Operating system support

The operating systems the browsers have been compiled to run on without emulation; for the given browser/OS combination, there are seven possibilities:

• No indicates that it does not exist or was never released.
• Partial indicates that while the browser works, it lacks important functionality or is extremely unstable compared to versions for other OSs (that is to say it has roughly alpha or pre-alpha quality). It is still being developed however.
• Beta indicates that while a version of the browser is fully functional and has been released, it is still in development (e.g. for stability).
• Yes indicates that the browser has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.
• Dropped indicates that the latest stable version of the browser does not work on the operating system, although an older version is available that does. The number in parentheses is the last known stable version which was officially released for that OS.
• Terminated indicates that while the browser works (e.g. Internet Explorer for Mac), development has ceased and no new versions will be released; the number in parentheses is the last known stable version.
• Included indicates that the browser comes pre-packaged as part of or has been integrated into the operating system.

Please note that the list is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common OSs today (e.g. Netscape Navigator was also developed for OS/2 at a time when Mac OS X did not yet exist) but does not include the growing appliance segment (for example, the Opera web browser has gained a leading role for use in mobile phones, smartphones, the Nintendo DS and Wii, and Personal Digital Assistants, and is also used in Interactive televisions).