Microsoft Edge

Best for

People with dozens of tabs who want Chromium compatibility plus memory-saving features and good PDF handling.

Why it deserves attention

Edge runs on Chromium, so every Chrome extension and web standard works, but it adds features the competition still lacks: vertical tabs, sleeping tabs that free memory for inactive pages, Collections for gathering research, a strong built-in PDF reader with ink annotation, read aloud, and split-screen tab pairing. It ships on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android with profile and password sync, and the Windows version gets launch acceleration. It is free. The caveats are real: Microsoft steers search and shopping toward Bing and its affiliate links, telemetry is extensive, and Copilot features push deeper AI integration than some users want — most of it can be turned off, but not always obviously.

Can replace

• Google Chrome

Related and alternatives

• Brave
• Vivaldi

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