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What is your most used iPad browser?

  • Safari

    Votes: 8 80.0%
  • Firefox

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Firefox Focus

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Google Chrome

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Opera

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Brave

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Edge

    Votes: 2 20.0%
  • Dolphin

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • DuckDuckGo

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (specify if you don’t mind)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    10

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2022
618
538
TL;DR - Does anyone know of a better than, or similar to, browser as Firefox for ipad? It’s way better for MacOS but even given its limitations on ipad, I prefer it for being open source and other reasons. My browsing is 95% reading text, minimal Youtube or other non-text sites.
I‘ve been getting tired of Firefox crashing fairly often, about 1-2x per day lately. I use Safari too, mostly for work email and work websites I have to use. For the sake of keeping login/passwords separate and other reasons, I find Firefox preferable and necessary for personal reading, usually this site and 5-10 various newspapers, a few other tech sites, etc. It’s also a drag how iPad Firefox doesn’t have the clean-start feature that MacOS Firefox does, where each time the app starts cookies and similar crud can be cleared away.
Chrome is installed on my ipad for emergencies and one-off uses, but there is no way I can use it regularly given Google’s nefarious business model and practices.
Similarly, I also have Firefox Focus installed but like Chrome it’s more of a backup for special occasions usage, given its lack of tabs I can rely on it from day to day.

Any ideas from folks who do a fair amount of regular web browsing / reading on iPad would be much appreciated.

Edited to add Poll and the crash error message that keeps happening.
 

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Sheepish-Lord

macrumors 68020
Oct 13, 2021
2,220
4,558
Any browser on an iPhone or iPad is just a reskinned version of Safari so you’ll actually get reduced functionality using different browsers in most cases.
 
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ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2022
618
538
Any browser on an iPhone or iPad is just a reskinned version of Safari so you’ll actually get reduced functionality using different browsers in most cases.
Interesting, thanks for the comment. Is there anywhere I can read more details about this idea? I haven’t heard it before. And if you don’t mind sharing, does this mean you use Safari for most ipad reading/browsing?
 

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2022
618
538
Switching to Firefox Klar isn’t on option?
I don’t know what this is since searching the App Store yields no results. I’m guessing this might be a German version of Firefox Focus, in which case, yes I do have and use it. I just don’t prefer it given the lack of tabs. I’m not an “I need to have 20-100 tabs” person, but I do need 2-3 tabs at a time often.
 
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sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,074
28,805
Seattle WA
I've used a number of browsers on my iPads over time but have ended up back at Safari. It's extremely stable and functional and, important for me, it has a Favorites bar. I still have Chrome, Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Edge, Puffin, and iCabMobile installed.
 

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2022
618
538
I've used a number of browsers on my iPads over time but have ended up back at Safari. It's extremely stable and functional and, important for me, it has a Favorites bar. I still have Chrome, Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Edge, Puffin, and iCabMobile installed.
Thanks for sharing this experience. I suspect the only answer is going to be similar to this —-^, I just need to accept it and deal with Safari. I agree about it being stable and functional. Among other things, one reason for using Firefox for some browsing for me is their “Strict” setting seems to stop many of the more obnoxious spam elements of web sites like auto-playing videos that follow you as you scroll, popups, etc. See pic for what I mean if interested. Safari doesn’t seem to have this.

I have Adguard for Safari installed, which is helpful, but not usually as effective as Firefox’s built-in “strict” mode feature.
 

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sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,074
28,805
Seattle WA
Thanks for sharing this experience. I suspect the only answer is going to be similar to this —-^, I just need to accept it and deal with Safari. I agree about it being stable and functional. Among other things, one reason for using Firefox for some browsing for me is their “Strict” setting seems to stop many of the more obnoxious spam elements of web sites like auto-playing videos that follow you as you scroll, popups, etc. See pic for what I mean if interested. Safari doesn’t seem to have this.

I have Adguard for Safari installed, which is helpful, but not usually as effective as Firefox’s built-in “strict” mode feature.

Yeah, those videos are especially irritating.
 

sracer

macrumors G4
Apr 9, 2010
10,303
13,044
where hip is spoken
Although it is true that all iPadOS browsers use the same rendering engine, the functionality and features can vary greatly. For cross-platform I prefer Edge followed by Brave. Both provide ad blocking natively and provide syncing across platforms.
 

ndouglas

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2022
618
538
Although it is true that all iPadOS browsers use the same rendering engine, the functionality and features can vary greatly. For cross-platform I prefer Edge followed by Brave. Both provide ad blocking natively and provide syncing across platforms.
Thank you for the ideas, I’ll try those soon!
 

tarsins

macrumors 65816
Sep 15, 2009
1,179
854
Wales
I've tried many browsers on iPhone, iPad, and Mac over the years and I've always returned to Safari. None of them perfect but Safari is, for me, the most perfect and consistent across all three Apple devices. I find the iPhone versions of other browsers particularly horrible.
 
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