Brave Browser Review – Is It Worth Switching Your Internet Browser?

Brave, the web browser, is a relatively new internet browser that has gained popularity in recent years. Since its launch on January 20, 2016, it has offered users regular internet browsing with a specific focus on privacy. While privacy may be its primary focus, there’s no indication that it contains any privacy features that are unique to this browser in particular. Its competitors, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, offer most of those features. Nevertheless, there are some interesting things about this web browser, as we’ll explain in greater detail in this Brave browser review. So, read on and learn more about it if you plan on switching your current browser.

Pros and Cons

A Brave browser review wouldn’t be complete with an appropriate pros and cons list of the software. This list will help summarize what the web browser has to offer to users. Some of the critiques mentioned in these lists come from user reviews.

Pros

We’ll begin with the positives first. So here are some pros of Brave.

• The browser is relatively quick at loading pages. However, it may not necessarily be much faster (if at all) than its competitors. In some cases, results from search engines may show after they do on competitor browsers when searched at the same time.

• It includes a variety of built-in privacy features, including an adblocker, an anti-browser-fingerprinting feature, a VPN, cookie control options, and more.

• The browser’s default privacy setting ensures that users browsing data is not stored or viewed by Brave. Instead, it’s saved on the user’s device, allowing the data to stay out of third-parties’ hands.

• Users have claimed that the web browser is a good choice for those who want to expand their knowledge about crypto wallets and blockchain. They managed to learn things simply by using the browser.

• It includes the Playlist feature that allows users to save media that they can consume at a future date. Unfortunately, this feature is only available to users who have an iPhone or iPad with version 13 or later.

• The browser offers users to avoid viewing online ads when they’re browsing the internet. In addition to that, it allows users to get rewarded with its crypto tokens, BAT, which can be used to make digital transactions or donations to content creators.

• It includes a total of 7 search engines to choose from.

• The browser supports a variety of Chrome extensions, meaning you don’t have to give up some of your favorite extensions if you make Brave your default browser on your desktop.

Cons

There’s no doubt that Brave has its own share of downsides. This Brave browser review lists some of them below.

• There is a lack of some noteworthy features that competing browsers, such as Chrome and Firefox, have.

• Depending on the device, there is some limited functionality, as mentioned above.

• Some users have complained about the fact that users must have 15 BAT tokens to be able to verify themselves and use the built-in crypto wallet. Therefore, it may discourage new users from considering using the wallet feature and the potential benefits it may provide.

What Is the Brave Browser?

It’s best to give you a better understanding of Brave before we begin to review it. It’s a standard internet browser, for the most part, created by Brave Software. Therefore, it performs basics such as the following:

• Allows users to visit websites

• Runs web apps

• Displays online content

• Remembers website authentication data

Brave is also free like most other internet browsers. It also includes an ad-blocking feature that blocks online ads that appear on websites. That said, this doesn’t mean that there are no ads on Brave. What’s different is that the ads are replaced by Brave’s own ads that are not individually targeted. Thus, clicking on these ads can also benefit you. We’ll explain more of this below in the review.

Brave Browser Review

Below you’ll learn everything you need to about the browser, such as its features and privacy. Moreover, we’ll highlight the positives and negatives of the software so that you have a clearer picture of what to expect if you use it.

Features of Brave

Here’s an overview of some of the features of Brave.

Search Engine

Brave has its proprietary search engine with the same name. You can use that if you prefer, but you don’t have to stick with it if you don’t particularly like it. There are 6 other options to choose from as your default browser. These search engines are listed below.

1. Bing

2. Google

3. DuckDuckGo

4. Startpage

5. Qwant

6. Ecosia

Earning Crypto Tokens by Clicking Ads

As mentioned above, Brave has replaced online ads on websites with its own ads. These ads are not targeted individually but are aimed at an anonymous aggregate of Brave’s users. In addition to swapping the ads, the browser also has developed a cryptocurrency-based system that compensates those websites. This crypto-system has yet to show much in terms of earnings for websites, but that’s the theory of the model.

While this system is designed to pay off websites, it also helps reward users for clicking on ads. This system is a user-centric model. Therefore, the ads appear as pop-up notifications instead of the ads themselves on the websites. So, when a user clicks on the ad, the original advertisement opens up in a new tab on the browser, where the user can view it.

By clicking the ads, users will be rewarded in the form of crypto tokens. These tokens are Brave’s own tokens called Basic Attention Tokens (BAT). At the time this article was published, the value of BAT was $0.96. Therefore, users can use these tokens to make purchases, donate to their favorite content creators (e.g., Wikipedia), and more. You should also note that users will have to support content creators from their earned tokens. There’s no option for you or other users to select zero support, but you can choose how much to support. Moreover, you can select how many ads you want to see per hour. You must remember that viewing more ads will result in more earned tokens. That said, you shouldn’t expect to earn much money from viewing ads; nevertheless, it is an interesting concept and feature to include in a web browser.

Playlist Feature

Users with an iPhone or an iPad with iOS 13 or above can enjoy a fantastic feature known as Playlist—which is a standout feature on Brave. What this feature allows you to do is add video and audio from a variety of sources, such as YouTube, podcasts, etc., to your personal Playlist. Thus, you can view the saved content (whether stored online or offline) whenever you want. All of the content in the Playlist is available right from your browser, making it easy for users to navigate through saved content.

Privacy

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In this Brave browser review, it’s critical to talk about the various privacy features this browser has to offer. Privacy has been a major focus of this browser, and it’s one of the reasons why many people have continued to choose it over other more popular browsers. Here’s what you must know.

Built-in Adblocker

What’s worth mentioning in this Brave browser review is that the software has a built-in advertisement blocker. With many web browsers, you have to download and install a third-party adblocker. There are several low-quality adblockers out there that don’t do a great job at what they were designed to do. Thus, this in-built advertisement blocker offers you an effective blocker right as you start it up. You can also use this advertisement blocker to block trackers.

The purpose of this blocker is to keep users safe from “malvertising.” This term is used for advertisements that are designed to spread malware. Therefore, this browser has the blocking setting enabled by default to prevent users from falling prey to malware and phishing. In addition to that, the default privacy settings also notify users of plugins that present potential security risks.

Your Data Stays Private

Brave claims that its servers do not view or store any of the users’ browsing data. In addition to that, it also does not sell any of the data to third parties for advertising purposes. Therefore, all of your data stays private. Everything is stored on your device, be it your desktop, mobile, tablet, etc. The information will also remain on your device until you choose to delete it. This level of privacy can be attractive for users who don’t want to share their personal data with other parties.

You can choose to customize your privacy settings so that it’s unique for individual websites. If you want the settings for all websites you visit on the browser, you can alter browser-wide settings instead. Also, it’s important to note that these privacy settings are enabled by default, so you don’t have to enable them before you start using the browser.

Anti-Browser-Fingerprinting  

It’s also worth mentioning in this Brave browser review that this platform includes anti-browser-fingerprinting. Therefore, it makes it harder to if you’re using the same system or device over various sessions or accounts. It achieves this feat by randomizing data about the browser.

So, browser fingerprinting is a process that detects various unique features of your web browser to use that data to identify you. Anti-browser-fingerprinting, thus, helps keep your identity anonymous.

Additional privacy features of Brave

There are, of course, a variety of other privacy features of this browser, so we figured you should know some of them in this Brave browser review. Thus, the features are listed below.

• “Do Not Track” requests for browsing

• Cookie control

• Script blocking

• Password manager

Now, these features aren’t unique to this browser, but they are important for maintaining users’ privacy. So, it’s necessary that they’re there.

A Few Things to Know about Brave

If you’re still on the lookout for a new web browser to select as your default, you may want to take a quick look at some of the following things about the Brave browser.

Brave’s Userbase Continues to Grow

In the few years that it has been operative, Brave has managed to secure a considerable userbase. By the end of 2021, the browser had more than 50 million active users, which was more than double what it was at the end of the year before that (24 million). There is certainly promise that this web browser will grow, as its yearly performance indicates.

The Platforms You Can Brave On

Brave is available on a variety of platforms, allowing you to use it on various devices. Here are the supported systems.

• Android version 5 or greater and iOS version 13 or higher for mobile users

• Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows, 8.1, Windows 10, and later versions

• Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.0 and later versions

• Linux 64-bit Ubuntu 16.04+, Debian 9+, Mint 17+, Fedora Linux 28+, openSUSE 15+, or CentOS/RHEL 8+

Facilitates Google Chrome Extensions

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention in this Brave browser review that the platform allows users to install Chrome extensions onto it. Therefore, you can choose many of the extensions available on the Chrome Web Store. All extensions don’t work.

Verdict

Brave is a great web browser, and it has managed to secure a considerable userbase. The browser is relatively fast—though it may not be faster than some of its competitors. However, one of its standout features is that it does not view or store any of your personal information on its servers, keeping your data secure. In addition to that, its built-in privacy features, such as the VPN, allow users to browse the internet anonymously without giving up their location and IP. That said, there are some negatives as well, such as limited functionality on certain devices, and its privacy options are not unrivaled by its competition.

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