Brave vs Edge – Which Is Better?

With the release of Windows 10 in 2015, Microsoft let out the news about their new Microsoft Edge browser featuring an EdgeHTML rendering engine. Three years later, the browser underwent constant improvement, but still, users and developers didn’t accord it a very positive response.

But this changed in 2019 after the software giant finally chose to integrate the Chromium engine into the Edge browser. Interestingly, at that same time, Brave, a privacy-oriented browser, came out.

Both browsers are Google Chrome’s major competitors. I have both Brave and Edge browsers installed on my computer and I use them interchangeably. So, the question is, which one is better?

Keep reading to learn more.

What is Brave?

Brave is a free and open source web browser developed by Brave Software, Inc. Brave Software is among the latest entries in the browser industry. They previewed this Browser in 2016 and released it in 2019. Brave’s founder and CEO, Brendan Eich, is also Mozilla’s co-founder and JavaScript creator.

Brave is built on Chromium, which is an open source project maintained by Google and others. It’s worth noting that Google Chrome’s source code is provided by Chromium. In other words, both Chrome and Brave browsers are powered by the same back-end technologies. These technologies include the V8 JavaScript engine and Blink rendering engine.

Like other standard browsers, Brave allows you to navigate websites, watch videos, run web apps, and much more. Like most browsers, Brave is available for free download and use. It can block ads from showing up on sites, bookmark your web pages, save passwords for various sites, and so on.

The browser is accessible on Windows, iOS, macOS, Linux, and Android. Its major focus is speed and security, which is achieved by blocking trackers and ads automatically. Besides, Brave has a rewards program in which advertisers can pay you to view non-invasive ads, but you’ll have to opt-in first.

The browser integrates with Chrome extensions; if you click on extensions in the browser’s Window menu, it directs to the Chrome store where you can select and download the extension of your choice.

What is Edge?

Edge is a free, cross-platform internet browser that was created and developed by Microsoft. It’s the default web browser on Windows 10 mobile, Windows 10, Windows 11, Xbox One, and Series S and Xbox Series X consoles. The Edge browser replaced Internet Explorer 11 and Internet Explorer Mobile. Edge also runs on macOS, Android, and iOS.

Edge debuted for the first time in 2015 with the Project Spartan codename and has undergone many changes, with the major one being the move to build it on the open source Chromium.

Microsoft Edge’s appearance is better than Internet Explorer’s. Like most modern browsers, Edge features a combined address and search bar. And it comes with the typical browser features, including a reading list, favorites, downloads, browsing history. Edge supports extensions too.

Other features that I find impressive in this browser are the InPrivate mode, color themes, online tracker blocking, a kid’s browsing mode, integrated PDF viewer, and a Microsoft Defender SmartScreen that protects you against malware and phishing.

All your personal passwords and bookmarks are synchronized in the Microsoft account. Edge lets you enjoy a continuous browsing experience on your devices. Simply put, if you’re using Edge on Windows 10 on your computer, you can access the same bookmarks, browsing history, and other data on your mobile devices.

Edge integrates well with Microsoft’s online applications to provide search functionality, voice control, and other dynamic information that relates to searches in the address bar. For example, you can make annotations to a web page to be shared and stored with OneDrive. You can also save MHTML and HTML on your computer.

Ease of Use

Brave

I have used Brave on both desktop and mobile and noticed the interface is responsive and sleek on both platforms. It’s easy to understand and navigate.

There’s nothing unusual regarding the desktop interface, and if you’ve used a Chromium-based browser like Chrome or even Opera, you shouldn’t find Brave difficult to navigate.

Tabs are at the top and right below them is the address bar. Navigation controls are on one side while the other side contains settings buttons, Brave rewards, your profile, and shields. While you may pin tabs, grouping them isn’t possible.

You can customize the browser’s look and feel using Chrome Store themes or even install the Unsplash Chrome extension that gives a uniquely beautiful image each time you open a new tab. You can also change the browser’s color scheme between dark and light.

The appearance settings have many options that you can easily toggle on or off to choose what you want. For example, you can show or hide Brave rewards, bookmarks, home button, full URLs, and so on.

How does the mobile interface look? The history, bookmarks, and settings are on the top left menu close to the address bar. Brave makes it easy to edit, manage, and delete bookmarks or create their folders.

The shields menu is on the address bar’s other side and provides the same information as on the desktop., which includes trackers, ads and scripts blocked, and the ability to enable or disable security settings.

Edge

The browser features a user-friendly and slick design that anyone familiar with Chrome or other Chromium-built browsers won’t struggle to understand.

When installing Edge for the first time, you’ll see an introduction to help you with the setup. First, you’re allowed to import any bookmarks from Internet Explorer or Chrome. But if you’d like to import them from other browsers, you’ll have to export the bookmarks to an HTML file before importing them.

Next, you’ll be required to set up a sync process and select a suitable tab style, which refers to what you see after opening a new tab. You may select between informational, focused, inspirational, or custom.

Besides, you can customize the overall appearance by choosing a default dark or light theme. You may also choose from several themes such as sunny day, juicy plum, icy mint, and more. Plus, there’s an option to get more themes from the Chrome store.

On mobile, the start menu consists of your history, favorites, settings, and reading list. Additionally, we also have advanced controls, such as the read-aloud feature, desktop mode, and search. You can rearrange the menu as you wish.

Verdict

When looking at Brave vs Edge in terms of ease of use, Edge wins hands down because of the advanced yet user-friendly mobile features like the read-aloud functionality and the ability to rearrange the themes. The Kids Mode feature on Edge makes it superior to Brave as well.

Performance

Brave

Brave is an insanely fast browser. No wonder, their website claims the browser loads news websites up to six times faster than Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. While on the desktop, Brave beats Mozilla Firefox and Chrome in terms of speed.

On mobile, this browser loads as fast as its competitors. Brave reaches top speeds with a much lower RAM consumption compared to other browsers. This is fantastic, as Chromium-based browsers are known to consume a lot of resources.

One of the reasons Brave is fast is that it blocks ads and trackers, which are known to slow down browsing speeds.

Edge

Before integration with the Chromium framework, Edge was a slow browser. Sure, the latest Edge version is as fast as Chrome on mobile and desktop. And it even performs slightly better than the latter.

Two recent updates from Microsoft have boosted Edge’s speed even further. The updates are the startup boost and sleeping tabs.

The startup boost lets the browser fire up faster by keeping a couple of crucial components running within the background. The processes are lightweight and don’t take up a lot of device resources even when Edge isn’t in use. You can turn the feature off anytime.

The sleeping tabs feature freezes any active pages you’ve pinned without visiting for a long time to help free up resources. However, you can set the duration the browser should take before putting the tabs to sleep. You may also filter those sites you wouldn’t like Edge to interfere with.

Edge has a tracking prevention feature that you can customize to block trackers and improve loading speed.

Verdict

Brave is the winner when it comes to performance. Brave blocks trackers and ads automatically, thus saving time and downloading less. This feature makes it faster than Edge.

On the other hand, Edge can only block trackers according to how you set it. It can also block ads if you install the AdBlock extension. That means it doesn’t automatically block these elements and that can make it a little slower than Brave.

Privacy and Security

Brave

What differentiates Brave from the other Chromium browsers is that it focuses on user privacy; it blocks ads, trackers, and scripts by default. So, when you use Brave to open a web page with ads, the areas that contain ads show up as blank spaces.

But, you may realize some pages won’t load properly, and to fix that, you may need to switch the privacy setting to ‘Shields Down’ from ‘Shields Up’ which disables the security and privacy protection on your device.

By default, Brave uses HTTPS Everywhere, which forces sites to use secure connections. If you choose to turn the feature off or visit a site that lacks SSL protection, you’ll see a clear warning that says “not secure”.

The browser’s built-in ad blocker is a good security feature as well because sketchy ads may contain trackers or malware. Brave lets you set a passcode on mobile to safeguard your saved logins. This passcode helps to keep the data safe in case you lose your mobile device.

Additionally, Brave encourages private browsing with Tor right in the tab. Not only does Tor hide your history, but it also hides your location from the websites you visit. The browser achieves this by routing your browsing activity via various servers before reaching your destination. The connections are encrypted for increased anonymity.

You can also browse incognito or in a private window with this browser. That means Brave won’t save your cookies or browsing history. But your employer or ISP might still see it.

Edge

Microsoft Edge has handy private and security features that can protect your browsing activity. At the top of the list is the Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which is a filter that ensures you don’t visit malicious and untrustworthy sites.

But that’s not all. The SmartScreen also warns you when you download any file that’s potentially dangerous. The feature cross-checks files and websites with Microsoft’s database to analyze known threats. If users have downloaded a file many times and haven’t reported it or Microsoft Defender hasn’t flagged it, it’s termed safe.

Like most browsers, Microsoft Edge has an added privacy layer that lets you manage the degree of access you offer to particular websites. This includes settings like webcam permissions, GPS access, and microphone access.

Most of the sites you visit use trackers to know more about your browsing behavior. That’s how you start seeing ads related to the products you may have searched. And sometimes, malicious trackers may be installed on your device and cause a lot of harm if unnoticed.

The good news is Edge lets you block specific trackers or even all of them. To enable this feature, use the Privacy, search, and settings option under the browser’s settings and choose the level of tracking prevention. You can select Basic, Balanced, or Strict.

Besides, Edge allows Incognito or InPrivate browsing where your browsing history, site data, cookies, passwords, form data, and addresses are deleted. But, this feature doesn’t stop your internet service provider, employer, or school from seeing your browsing details.

Verdict

Both Edge and Brave have elaborate privacy and security features, but Brave has superior features. The built-in ad blocker and Tor in the tab when browsing makes this browser more secure than Edge. Plus, private window browsing lets you choose the DuckDuckGo search engine which doesn’t store your search history.

Compatibility

Brave

Brave is compatible with various operating systems. On Windows, Brave works with Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, or newer. It also works with an Intel Pentium 4 processor or newer version, with SSE2 support.

If you’re on Mac, macOS X El Capitan 10.11.0 or newer will do. Linux users will need versions like 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04+, Debian 9+, Fedora Linux 28+, Mint 17+, OpenSUSE 15+, or CentOS/RHEL 8+.

Want to use Brave on your iPhone or iPad? It works with iOS version 13 and above. Android users, on the other hand, need version 5 or newer.

There’s no official way to install Brave on Chrome OS yet, but you can run the browser on Silicon Macs.

Edge

The browser works across several operating systems. First, it’s compatible with Windows clients, including Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. But the support for Windows 7 is likely to be discontinued, as the operating system is out of support, so using it with Edge on your PC may pose security risks.

Edge also works on Windows Server, in particular, version 2008 R2 (to be discontinued), 2012, 2012 R2, 2016 (LTSC), 2019 (LTSC), 2022 (LTSC), and SAC.

Microsoft Edge for iPhone or iPad Pro requires iOS 11.0 or later. What about Android? Sure, Edge works on Android devices that run Android KitKat 4.4 or newer featuring an ARM-based processor.

And if you use a Mac, you’ll need macOS Sierra 10.12 or newer.

Apple Silicon Macs running on Stable version 88 can support Edge. But when it comes to Linux, only preview builds are available. Lastly, Edge doesn’t support Chromebooks.

Verdict

In terms of system compatibility, Brave is the winner because it supports the latest versions of these operating systems. Edge works on older versions, which can pose security concerns, as cybercriminals can find and exploit vulnerabilities in non-updated OS versions. Further, Edge doesn’t work properly on Android.

Support

Brave

Brave understands the common issues that users encounter, which is why they’ve set up a Help Center with useful content, tips, and answers to the common issues users encounter.

At the Brave Help Center, you’ll find useful guides and articles on a variety of topics in different categories, such as rewards, sync, mobile, shields, Brave search, and desktop browser. The topic categories are arranged in a grid, making it easy to click on relevant areas and access the content quickly.

What if you have a specific issue that’s not covered in the guides and one that requires a specific response? Well, Brave has a ‘submit a request’ page that uses Zendesk to create support tickets for users with questions.

But, by far, the easiest way to ask for help is through the Brave Community. Brave is an open source browser, which attracts a team of developers and loyal users to keep sharing insights to make the software better.

The community forum has various post categories, including desktop support, mobile support, firewall + VPN, sync, ad blocking, web compatibility, and wallet.

You can view the questions posted by other members and the number of replies, views, and time of posting. You can filter the posts by topic, tags, top, latest, solved, and more.

If you want to report a bug or request a special browser feature, the community forum is the place to post about it.

Edge

Microsoft has elaborate support for Edge users. They have an FAQ page for mobile users (both Android and iOS) where you can find answers to common questions related to Edge.

Examples of questions addressed on the FAQ page include how to block ads, how to block pop-ups, how to change the news feed settings, how to clear your browsing history, and how to choose a search engine.

If you dig through the FAQs and can’t find a solution to your issue, you can start a chat and interact with their support team. But if you want to talk to someone on the phone, Microsoft has several phone numbers to call for assistance.

And if you have Windows 10 installed on your device, install the Get Help app from the Microsoft Store and find solutions to questions, such as what to do if Edge isn’t working, how to remove or add browser extensions, how to block pop-ups in Edge, and more.

Furthermore, Microsoft offers support for all their apps, including Edge. They have a page with how-to articles and tutorials to help you handle common browser issues like clearing the cache, troubleshooting browser installation, and updating.

Verdict

Edge offers more support options and has a team of product experts to respond to customer issues more promptly than Brave. The community forum is Brave’s greatest support platform, but if you have a quick question, you may not receive a prompt response. So, in terms of support Microsoft Edge is the winner.

Pros and Cons

Brave

Pros

• Brave builds on Chromium’s strength. It has a minimalist interface that enhances performance and speed. Besides, it’s compatible with Chrome extensions that you can use to improve your browsing experience.
• The browser protects you and your data. It automatically blocks ads and trackers. There’s also the Tor browsing feature to enhance anonymity while browsing.
• Brave boasts of fast loading speeds too. The fast speed results from the fact that the browser blocks ads and website trackers, causing it to load fewer contents from a certain site than browsers that lack the tracker and ad blockers.
• I find Brave’s simplicity and organization impressive. The menu options are neatly arranged and the user interface is easy to navigate. When installing the app, I was able to import passwords, bookmarks, extensions, and browsing history from the Chrome browser.
• I also liked the browser’s private window browsing feature. The ability to use Tor or switch to DuckDuckGo while browsing through the incognito tab boosts privacy, as that means no one is recording my browsing history.

Cons

• The browser blocks ads from other platforms but runs its revenue-generating model based on ads.
• Some websites that open well in other browsers may not open properly here.
• It consumes a lot of resources when in use.

Edge

Pros

• The application works on most operating systems, making it easy for you to sync your browsing history and passwords.
• Customization is spot on. You can change the browser’s theme from the available options, select Chrome themes, or even switch to a dark theme. It’s also possible to change the font size and type to what you prefer.
• Edge comes with a distraction-free reader mode that lets you focus on consuming your favorite articles online. You can also switch to read aloud, dark theme, or change the text preferences (text size, text spacing, font type, and page theme).
• The Kids Mode is another advantage of using Edge, as it lets children browse the internet privately and safely with exciting colors, a fun design, and web filtering protection.
• Faster browsing: The browser’s low memory consumption improves the surfing speed, page loading, and contributes to a better user experience.

Cons

• It doesn’t work well on Android.
• Edge hasn’t been officially released on Linux.
• The browser fetches its search results from Bing, which doesn’t bring up the best web pages in search results for a particular keyword.
• The home page features MSN news by default, which isn’t a preference for everyone.
• It has a limited extensions library.

Brave vs Edge: Similarities

• Both Brave and Edge integrate with Chrome, allowing you to install your best Chrome extensions.
• During installation, both browsers let you import passwords, browsing history, bookmarks, and extensions from other browsers like Chrome.
• Both are free; you won’t pay anything to download and use the application.
• Both are built on Chromium source code, making them render the same way as Chrome.
• Both have a user-friendly interface with tons of customization.
• Both Edge and Brave have support for incognito browsing.
• Both have a reader mode.

Brave vs Edge: Differences

• Edge’s default search engine is Bing, but Brave uses Google and lets you select other search engines like DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Bing, Qwant, and Startpage.
• Edge has an automatic blocker for ads and trackers, but Edge lets you choose the tracking level you want; it could be basic, balanced, or strict.
• Brave features the ad reward program, but Edge doesn’t.
• Edge’s reader mode has more customizations than Brave’s.
• Edge features the Kids Mode but Brave doesn’t.

Conclusion: Edge vs Brave – Which Is Better?

I have been using both browsers for about a year and they are both excellent. But if I had to choose one, I would go for Edge.

To begin with, this browser is lightweight and loads super fast. I prefer it when streaming videos.

The Kids Mode on Edge is a difference-maker as it makes it a safe browser for children. Did I mention Edge loads faster and consumes low memory too?

This browser is compatible with most devices and Microsoft offers superior support to its users as well.

The customizations are another win for Edge; you can customize the overall appearance, browser, toolbar, and more. The reader mode is exceptional and has even further customizations like the dark mode, text preferences, and read-aloud.