Brave

Brave was launched in 2016 as a safer and more privacy-oriented alternative to Google Chrome. While it may resemble the latter, you get better security features. The company claims to provide privacy features better than Firefox and a browser faster than Chrome, the difference is negligible.

While there is nothing wrong with the browser, it is fast and efficient, one almost fails to find a specification that sets it apart from the other browsers in the market. The biggest drawback is how certain functions aren’t compatible with all the devices.

PROS

• Many Chrome extensions are supported.

• Neither views nor store browsing history.

• A number of search engines can be used.

• Blocks ads and trackers by default.

• Advanced security features.

• Memory-efficient and fast.

CONS

• No unique features

• Functionality is limited as it depends on the device

FEATURES

If you have been using Chrome or Firefox, you can import your autofill data, bookmarks, favourites, and history into Brave. There is also an option to import from an HTML file.

Although it comes with its own search engine, you can opt any of the six other available engines. These include- Bing, Brave, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Google, Qwant, and Startpage.

One of the standout features is the Playlist feature. Audios and videos can be added from different sources (Youtube, spotify, podcasts etc) to your Playlist. These can be listened to online or offline, depending on your convenience. The only problem being, that this feature can only be used on an iPad or iPhone with iOS 13 or above.

Brave earns money with its private ads and the user gets rewards for watching these. By viewing Brave Private ads, you win tokens that can be used by you to support your favourite content creators. Since, there is no option of opting out, you will have to donate a part of your earned tokens to the creators. Apart from this, the tokens can also be used to buy digital content and goods.  

PRIVACY

Much like how Mozilla puts privacy first with Firefox, Brave also does the same with its browser.

As stated on their website, the servers of Brave neither see nor store your browsing data. Hence, they don’t sell it to third parties. Your data is completely private and until you delete it, it remains on your device.

The browser’s settings block the advertisements (that could be a security risk) with the intent to spread malware, phishing, and plugins by default.

There are additional privacy and security features that include cookie control, Tracker blocking, Password manager, Script blocking and so on.

USER EXPERIENCE

The dashboard is simple and clean and absolutely no clutter or extra tabs or icons are visible. the top-left corner displays the stats for how effectively the browser has been blocking ads and trackers, while saving bandwidth and time. When you continue to scroll down, you can see the news stories. An option, FTX, allows you to switch between what you want to be displayed in the bigger space below.

Overall, the dashboard is minimalist and can be personalised by making additional changes in the Settings. The background, stats, news, clock, images, etc can be customised.

PLATFORMS

The browser is available for macOS, Linux and Windows on desktop and iOS and Android on the mobile. To be even more specific, Brave can only be used on the following systems:

Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.0 or later

Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 or later

Linux 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04+, Mint 17+, Debian 9+, openSUSE 15+, Fedora Linux 28+, or CentOS/RHEL 8+

Android version 5 or later

iOS version 13 or later.