Maxthon really surprised us here at Softonic. If you are a person who likes lots of options, you should really check it out - the IE-based browser has more buttons, menus and configurations options than Photoshop, and you can really customize it to the max. All aspects in Maxthon can be re-sized, moved or taken away and there are multiple skins, interface styles, and language options.

Maxthon generally opens its configuration options in new tabs, rather than windows. This means they are easy to see and modify, which is just as well, as there are so many of them. These options, including the standard File, View, and Tools types, can be found in the Menu Bar, while there are even more in the lower Status bar. If things are beginning to sound a bit crowded, you can disable most, leaving the whole Maxthon interface much cleaner.

It would take a very long time to detail all of Maxthon's options, so suffice to say that as well as the standard ones (tab behavior, display, encoding), there are a multitude of other features, from content control to image and script disabling, an in-built ad-blocker, auto form-filler and advanced screenshot function.
In fact, some of the options are quite complex, and you might want to take a look at the user manual before jumping straight in.

If you like a simple browsing experience, or are a big fan of your Firefox add-ons, Maxthon probably isn't for you (although there are a good selection of Maxthon add-ons).

If you are an Internet Explorer user who wants more options, however, or are just interested in life beyond Mozilla, give Maxthon a try. You might be as surprised as I was.

Download Maxthon 3.3.9.1000 in Softonic

The similarities to Chrome are more obvious than the differences. There is the same combined search and address bar, and the general layout is the same.

When you open a new tab, however, a drop down panel of suggested or most-visited sited appears. This can be easily edited. When you type into Yandex.Browser's search bar, as well as suggested addresses, you can also choose from one of four search engines. Next to the search bar there is also a button that takes you to the Russian language Yandex home.

Overall, Yandex.Browser is fast and easy to use, but there is little reason to recommend it over Chrome or other Chromium based browsers unless you use Yandex's search and email services. If Yandex.Browser develops more of its own personality and features it could be a serious alternative browser.

As an official Yandex product, Yandex.Browser is guaranteed a some success. Outside of Russia, it would be improved if links to the Russian Yandex site were internationalized.

Built with Chromium, Yandex.Browser is a solid browser that looks modern and is easy to use. It's ideal for people who use Yandex services.

Download Yandex.Browser 1.0.1084.5402 in Softonic

Sleipnir is a complete web browser that can fully replace Internet Explorer or Firefox. In fact, it uses the Internet Explorer core engine but you can replace it by the Mozilla Gecko engine if you want. Sleipnir also comes bundled with Roboform, a handy password and web form manager.

When running Sleipnir for the first time, you can import data from quite a varied amount of browsers. I must say however that my first impression of Sleipnir wasn't very good: the interface is simply bloated with buttons and toolbars, too many for someone like me who loves minimalist design.

That said, Sleipnir does have many positive sides to it. You can browse the web comfortably (thanks to its powerful tab management system) and safely (with a wide array of security tools). Sleipnir also features a complete built-in search tool, an RSS manager similar to Firefox Live Bookmarks, support for proxy servers and many other interesting tools.

Sleipnir is a powerful alternative web browser that's definitely worth a try, even if you're happy with your current browser.

Download Sleipnir 3.8.2 in Softonic

Built on the open source Chromium project, RockMelt is unusual for a browser in that you have to log in to use it properly. It looks like Google Chrome with two slim sidebars. On the left is a Facebook bar with all your online friends, and on the right a notifications bar, that houses pop-ups for your Facebook wall, Twitter feed plus any RSS feeds you want. You cannot add email at the moment.

Clicking the Facebook or Twitter button opens a neat window for the appropriate feed. You can disconnect these window, and float them anywhere on your desktop. The same is true of chats on the left sidebar. Next to the address bar RockMelt has a Share button, allowing you to quickly post interesting links to Facebook or Twitter.

If you're a heavy Twitter and Facebook user, RockMelt will really suit you. It's fast, very well thought-out and the social integration is better than anything else available. It may be in Beta, but RockMelt looks and feels like a finished product already.

RockMelt is a genuinely excellent social browser, building on the already great Chrome to make a uniquely attractive and useful application. Essential.

Download RockMelt 0.16.91.371 in Softonic

When you first open up QupZilla, you'll instantly feel at home if you've ever used Chrome or Firefox. If you're not satisfied with the default theme, there are a few included with the application. QupZilla will provide an identical user experience across all platforms.

In terms of features, QupZilla is good, but not great. There is support for extensions, but there aren't many to choose from. Luckily QupZilla includes a built-in Flash player and adblocker. This takes out the work of having to install these manually. Unfortunately, QupZilla doesn't sync bookmarks between systems or devices, which Firefox and Chrome both do.

In terms of performance, QupZilla is excellent. Pages loaded quickly. This is no surprise as the browser blocks ads and Flash content until it's clicked on. This can be disabled if the user wants to view the contents of the entire page.

Overall, QupZilla proved to be a stable and great performing web browser. Unfortunately, in most cases, it just can't match the integration and features of its more popular rivals.

Download QupZilla 1.2.0 in Softonic

We'll leave this one up for a while in case advanced users would like to download it for other purposes!

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If you're familiar with Chrome, you'll find Comodo Dragon very easy to use. Even if you're not a Chrome user, it won't take you long to figure out how things work. The overall appearance of Comodo Dragon is very similar to Chrome and you can even use the same themes, which makes it an attractive and flexible browser.

What makes it different?

Obviously, Comodo Dragon's security features are its main draw. How exactly it implements these features, however, is a bit of a mystery. Even the Comodo website doesn't shed any light, saying that users need more privacy and security, but not explaining how they provide it. If you compare Chrome and Comodo Dragon's options side-by-side, you'll see differences, but you'll need a good knowledge of the browsers to understand what these differences mean in practical terms.

Comodo Dragon is a comfortable browser that is easy to use. Existing Comodo fans might be happy to trust in the company's vague-sounding "Superior Security and Privacy", but the rest of us would like just a little more information.

Comodo Dragon's claims sound great, and using it is a smooth ride, but its security advantage over Chrome needs way more explanation.

Download Comodo Dragon 25.1 in Softonic

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Flock is a web browser based on Google Chrome which integrates Facebook, Twitter and Youtube into your browsing.

Flock used to be based on Firefox 3, but the move to Chrome has meant improved speed, along with the clean minimalism that defines Google's open source browser.

Flock has now pared down the social integration to three services, which makes it more focused. The social bar on the right of Flock shows updates from Twitter and Facebook. It can be closed at the touch of a button, and you can update your statuses from both the sidebar and a button next to the address bar.

If you use Facebook and Twitter a lot, being able to update and respond to tweets and wall posts without opening a new browser tab is useful. Click on a tweet, and a neat bubble pops up where you can reply, retweet or direct message the user.

Facebook posts are treated in the the same way. While Flock is functional, it's not perfect. The sidebar is bulky, meaning you won't want to keep it open while you're browsing. Flock also fails to integrate other Facebook features like Chat. You can add RSS feeds too, but this can make the feed bar extremely busy!

Firefox fans may mourn the move to Chrome, but it has made Flock a cleaner, more efficient social browser. However, it's not quite got the integration perfected yet.

Download Flock 3.5.0.4641 in Softonic

The aim behind Pale Moon Portable is to build a completely customized version of Firefox that's tailored to make the most of your Windows system. Pale Moon Portable has rebuilt Firefox from source, optimizing the web browser to obtain higher speed rates in page rendering, scripting and menu managing.

Being based on Firefox, Pale Moon Portable features the same stability and reliability as the original browser, as well as support for Firefox extensions and themes. You'll also be able to use most of the program's features and options, though some of them – such as accessibility options and parental controls – have had to be sacrificed in order to use less memory.

Graphically speaking, Pale Moon Portable is identical to Firefox, so you won't notice any difference here. Now, are you really going to notice any significant improvements in speed? That's probably something you will only be able to tell in the long run.

Pale Moon Portable is an interesting Firefox-based browser that promises higher speed and an optimized usage of system resources.

Download Pale Moon Portable 12.1 in Softonic

Overview

Opera 12 keeps the general design and functionality of the highly-praised Opera 11, but adds convenient improved features like themes, web cam access and hardware acceleration. As for the the interface, Opera 12 features a slightly cleaner GUI with a focus on webpages instead of buttons and menus. Overall, Opera 12 isn't a huge change compared to the last version, but it has been improved with some nice new features.

Innovations and speed

The big innovation in the last version of Opera was extensions and while the choice of browser enhancements is still fairly limited, when you install or uninstall add-ons, you don't have to restart your browser. They are also sandboxed, so if one crashes, your browser won't. Opera 12 runs just as quickly as Google Chrome (the developer claims it's even faster) and the rendering engine has been tweaked slightly to offer an even faster browsing experience.

Visual Tabs and Tab Stacking is useful if you often have too many open, and there are now visual mouse gestures. These are well implemented, and accessed by holding the right mouse button which brings up a translucent guide to mouse gestures. This is a great introduction for people who've never used gestures, and hopefully allows for greater use in the future.

There's still an integrated mail client, which continues Opera's move towards doing everything you need in one application. The newest features or improvements of note are themes and web cam access. The most notable improvement has been to Speed Dial which instead of simply giving easy access to your favorite sites, now allows you to embed your Speed Dial with dynamic information - in other words, web apps within Opera. Meanwhile Password Syncing allows you to sync passwords across machines and devices - just sign-up for an account and Opera does the rest. There have also been some HTML5 improvements for developers such as Session History, Navigation and the W3C File API.

Conclusions

Opera 12 is a definite improvement on Opera 11 although the changes aren't revolutionary. However, if you're looking for a new browser, this is probably the most innovative currently on the market and is well worth installing.

Download Opera 12.15 in Softonic

Based on Internet Explorer's engine, Avant Browser offers secure support for most pages you visit. It's also fully compatible with IE9.

This browser is conveniently ad-free. It also has tabbed browsing, a feature internet users have come to expect in recent years due to its practicality and convenience. Another useful option offered is the ability to disable all kinds of items such as ActiveX, scripts and Java applets.

Avant Browser can also disable sounds imbedded on websites, flash animation, images and videos. It's also quite fast when it comes to loading pages.

Avant Browser is good alternative if you're looking to try something new but want the familiar feel of Internet Explorer.

Download Avant Browser Ultimate Avant browser ultimate in Softonic