Both are good. Librewolf is more like vanilla Firefox, just configured way better by default. Mullvad Browser is like a port of the Tor Browser (also based on Firefox) for the clear web (or for use with Mullvad's VPN, or whatever). Also configured very well by default. Mullvad Browser has better anti fingerprinting stuff built-in but as a result of its unusual configuration some sites might be broken. Librewolf is kind of the opposite in that regard - sites won't be broken but you'll be easier to fingerprint. In any case, they both are at the top of the best Firefox variants I'd say.
this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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Librewolf and Torbrowser both include hardening and privacy optimizations.
Kind of separately, but Librewolf, Mull (Android) often take the configs of Torbrowser.
So calling them opposite makes no sense. They may just leave out some settings.
Yeah, they're like 80% the same idea at the very least
The "opposite" was just referring to those 2 aspects - Mullvad has stronger anti-fingerprinting which leads to more breakage. Librewolf has that aspect reversed. Of course, both browsers are similar overall. That's just one detail where they prioritize differently.
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Librewolf uses Torbrowser configs, Mull uses the Torbrowser repo and entire config.
Torbrowser always uses the private browsing mode, which is really restrictive. Tabgroups do not work, cookies cannot be saved etc.
This makes MullvadBrowser way worse for daily browsing.
Torbrowser cannot use normal browsing mode, because they want to avoid saving data on the disk. Everything is in RAM.
Both are good
I use Firefox since all distros package it.
Librewolf comes packaged by my distro (GNU Guix) so that's what I use. I'm sure most "privacy" or "hardened" Firefoxes are more or less interchangeable. The only one that's really noteworthy is GNU IceCat, because it's more focused on software-freedom and includes the LibreJS addon, but I switched to Librewolf once it was packaged for Guix.
I like LibreWolf, but I don't like that it wipes cookies and session tokens each time you launch it. I understand why they do it, but it's a consideration outside my threat model, so it just annoys me.
In Settings, Privacy & Security, Manage Exceptions, I "Allow" only a handful of sites to store my perma-cookies...so I'm not nagged for user & pw
I don't know why this never occurred to me. This is what I'm going to do from now on.
You can also easily set specific sites' cookies not to be wiped, I use this to have websites I trust to store my data for convenience, but any random tracker-infested blog to forget me as soon as the browser closes!
And also, Mullvad Browser does this by default, as well. I think theirs can't even be configured on a per-site basis.
That's a good idea.
- trust: The biggest trust factor difference to me is, who manages the package and how it is installed. Both are not packaged by my distribution maintainers, therefore I have trust issues with a program that important. However both are available as Flatpak. So I would recommend to install it this way.
- updates: Another big factor is how often these are updated, especially security patches. In example for any Firefox based browser, I would not want to wait longer than 1 day before the fork is on the same version as the mainline Firefox.
I personally would prefer LibreWolf over Mullvad, because it is based off Firefox.
I personally would prefer LibreWolf over Mullvad, because it is based off Firefox.
They both are.
- LibreWolf ← Firefox
- Mullvad ← Tor ← Firefox
Personally I like librewolf.
Honestly at this point, normal firefox with ublock and custom user agent switched to chrome.
The thing is youre telking websites you are using chrome so theyll look at their stats and say "everybody ises chrome, lets just design for chrome "
I know im just tired of stuff breaking on purpose just because of the stupid ~~fingerprinting~~ user agent
Maybe there should be a addon that enables chrome agent only when one visits a chrome dependent website?
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Just uses the one that works best for you.
They are about the same, ie good.
I've had Mullvad installed for around a year or more. I turn to it from time to time when I wanna keep things separate from my regular browser, like if I'm looking into items on Amazon that I only need once and don't want recommendations to get polluted. For example, I was looking at the price of spinning platter HDs after one failed in a NAS. I don't want Amazon trying to sell me more old-tech drives once I replace it.
Has worked well so far. Haven't tried the other one.
Hardening aside, I like that LibreWolf actually lets you turn on JPEG XL.
How can I do that?
IIRC it might be on by default (tho this would hurt anonymity if you can request JXL files & stock Fx cannot), else open about:config & search for “jxl”. Upstream has kept this flag—toggle on or off—only working in Fx Nightly.
Wait. Mull browser is mullvad browser?
No, mull is a fork of Firefox meant for android and developed by the divestOS team, while mullvad is a completely different fork, only for desktop atm and developed by mullvad (the VPN company)
they both focus on privacy and integrate Tor patches and modify some configs to better resist fingerprinting, but mullvad browser goes a step further with the tor integration, going as far as storing all data in RAM, so it deletes every cookie, history etc on restart. Could be an advantage, could be a disadvantage, up to you
Thanks for such a detailed response. Saw someone commenting it as mull and in thought I relied to them. Once again thanks a lot.
Firefox + Arkenfox ... :P Using Mullvad as a backup before having to use chromium for any dirty stuff. Librewolf seems to be like a good recommendation for non-technical people. Although I am not sure which browser has less breakage Mullvad or Libre.