Microsoft Edge is a proprietary web browser built on Chromium, bundled as the default browser on Windows and layered with Microsoft account sync and Copilot AI features. Full details →

Switching from Microsoft Edge to an open source alternative means leaving behind its Microsoft account sync and Copilot integration for a browser you can inspect and configure independently. Firefox offers a fully separate engine (Gecko rather than Chromium/Blink) and strong tracking protection with no account required. Brave stays on the same Chromium/Blink engine Edge uses, so site and extension compatibility carries over directly, while stripping out Microsoft’s telemetry and account services in favor of built-in ad and tracker blocking. LibreWolf takes Firefox’s own privacy settings and hardens them further by default. Tor Browser, a Firefox ESR fork maintained by The Tor Project, serves a different purpose entirely — routing traffic through Tor’s relay network for anonymity and censorship circumvention rather than for faster, everyday private browsing, at the cost of speed and occasional site blocking. All are free of the bundled AI assistant and default-browser prompts that come with Edge on Windows.

Open Source Alternatives

Firefox is a free, open source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation, built on its own Gecko engine and offering strong privacy controls as an alternative to Chromium-based browsers.

MPL-2.0

Brave is a free, open source browser built on Chromium that blocks ads and trackers by default, offering Chrome-level compatibility with stronger privacy.

MPL-2.0

LibreWolf is a free, open source Firefox fork that strips telemetry and data-sharing partnerships, applying privacy-hardened defaults and uBlock Origin.

MPL-2.0

Tor Browser is a free, open source Firefox ESR fork maintained by The Tor Project that routes traffic through the Tor network for anonymous, censorship-resistant browsing.

MPL-2.0