Brave is a fast, cross-platform browser built on Chromium that blocks ads and trackers by default. It is not always a popular choice within the privacy community, but it offers a complete package out of the box on all platforms and is suitable for beginners or when setup time is a factor. Wikipedia offers more information about its controversies.
Reviewed by Gabriel Bachmann
Brave
brave.com 4.5 (11)
Rate Brave: No account needed
Threat level
Covered
A covered pick. Anyone can use it as a private drop-in, with no setup or know-how. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
Setting aside the community’s reservations about its crypto and ad features, the plain truth is that Brave blocks ads and trackers well out of the box with no setup, which is rare. The catch is it is Chromium-based, so you are still feeding the engine Google built, and you will want to turn off the rewards and crypto bits you did not ask for. A solid default for non-technical people who will never touch settings; purists who want off Chromium entirely should look at a Firefox fork.
GitHub at a glance
brave/brave-browser
Stars
23,098
+ 247 this week
Last commit
13d ago
healthy
License
MPL-2.0
Latest release
v1.91.180
19d ago
Stars, last 35d
Website at a glance
brave.com
A+ score 115
Strong website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 4d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
Brave alternatives
LibreWolf A modified version of Firefox designed to increase protection against tracking and fingerprinting techniques, while also including security improvements.
Helium Privacy-first Chromium browser with uBlock Origin and tracker blocking on by default. Based on ungoogled-chromium, for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Firefox Reliable, fast and privacy-friendly. Harden it with add-ons, enable DNS-over-HTTPS, and sync across all your devices.
Firefox Focus Dedicated mobile privacy browser with automatic tracking protection and ad blocking. With Focus, your pages load faster and your data stays private.
DuckDuckGo Privacy-focused search engine and mobile browser that blocks trackers and searches without profiling you. Partially open source, based in the US.
Orion WebKit browser by Kagi for macOS and iOS with zero telemetry and support for Chrome and Firefox extensions.
Brave license, in plain English
MPL-2.0 Weak copyleft
Use it freely, even commercially. Changes to the project's own files must stay open, but you can combine it with closed-source code.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source of modified files
- Same license on those files
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Trademark use
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Weak copyleft protects the project's own files: improvements to them stay open, while the code can still sit alongside closed-source software.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.