Why People Switching from Chrome to Firefox

I have been in an on-and-off relationship with Mozilla Firefox for the last five years. Every time I get excited about a major new Firefox update – hoping to finally get out of Google Chrome’s leadership – my hopes are shattered as soon as I start browsing the Internet, as I usually do.

Firefox’s performance will noticeably slow down and struggle to keep up with my workflow and send me back to Google Chrome after a few minutes. No matter how forced the rest of the Mozilla offerings were, they could never convince me to press the “Yes” button when Firefox asked if I wanted to set it as my default browser. Chrome’s catch-up has almost seemed like a long-term goal for Firefox – until recently.

In November, full of Chrome’s resource grinding practices and Google’s growing web monopoly, I gave Firefox another chance. Like my previous experiments, I updated Firefox to the latest version, used my usual set of web apps, and crossed my fingers. And somehow, months later, I’m still writing this piece in Google Docs on Firefox.

What prevented me from using Firefox

The biggest feature for me, of course, was the fact that Mozilla Firefox could finally go toe-to-toe with Google Chrome ahead of its execution and get it done regularly. But that didn’t happen overnight. Since the Firefox 2017 review, Mozilla has pushed updates.

In addition to being fast, Firefox is also effective, unlike most of its peers. I don’t have to think twice before opening another tab. It’s rare that I’m forced to close an existing tab to make room for a new one. On Firefox, fans of my 2015 MacBook Pro don’t skip my noise-canceling headphones, which happened pretty often on Chrome because it propelled my laptop fans to their helicopter-like boundaries to keep things going.

This rare balance between efficiency and performance is the result of the myriad upgrades that Firefox has expanded over the last few years. One of the latest major performance updates came in May when Mozilla integrated a handful of smart optimizations that users previously had to rely on for third-party extensions.

Starting with v.67, Firefox began to break down web pages to understand which components to deliver first and which ones can wait. For example, in a news site, it loads the contents of an article before all advertising and newsletter modules.

With this prioritization trick, Firefox can treat popular sites like Amazon and Instagram anywhere from 40% to 80% faster. In addition, Firefox suspends tabs you haven’t visited for a while when your computer has little memory.
Some of these major releases also received very few but notable updates.

In October, Mozilla’s engineering team managed to bypass a critical MacOS restriction to make Firefox more efficient on Macs. In most scenarios and sites, this change is almost halved. Recently, Mozilla quickly resolved a zero-day explosion, leaving your computer open to dangerous hacks.

A better browsing experience

As I passed this performance barrier, I also quickly realized how great the rest of Firefox’s browsing experience was.

Privacy is at the center of most efforts by Mozilla, and the Firefox browser is no different. The enhanced tracking protection framework keeps your identity secure by blocking trackers and cookies that you otherwise follow on the Internet and collecting sensitive information that you probably didn’t even know you provided.

Privacy is at the center of most efforts by Mozilla, and the Firefox browser is no different.

In addition, Firefox can warn if a site is secretly exploiting cryptocurrency. Most of these protections start by default and you have a full range of options to customize them as you wish.

Firefox also lets you see how intrusive a site is. It actively updates your personal privacy report so you can see how many trackers it has closed in general and for a specific site.

There are a number of Mozilla party add-ons that you can install for better security. Firefox Monitor tells you if any of your credentials have been violated. Firefox Lockwise is a free, encrypted password manager that you can use to sync your accounts between devices.

Mozilla’s design language is also much more coherent. The interfaces and themes feel and look modern with subtle accents, their settings are descriptive and accessible, and so are Firefox’s mobile customers.

It may not seem as important as I make it sound, but it is true even if Chrome is open source.