The Kaputniks

Web browser benchmarks: Firefox vs. Waterfox vs. Pale Moon vs. Chromium vs. Chrome

[Webbrowser_Benchmarks]

Webbrowser_Benchmarks

I was curious how some browser perform and what kind of web browser benchmarks were available, so I ran Kraken, SunSpider, HTML5, JetStream, Octane 2.0 and Acid3 on Firefox, Waterfox, Pale Moon, Chromium and Chrome. Here are the results with my rig 2600k @ 4.4Ghz, 16GB RAM, Samsung 840 EVO SSD.

Kraken & Sunspider -> lower is better, in every other test bigger is better. I ran each test 5 times and calculated the average. I also made some Google docs sheet: Link .

Kraken: 907.2ms ± 1.6% SunSpider: 158.1ms ± 4.7% HTML5 Test: 461 out of 555 points JetStream: 177.13 ± 31.144 Octane 2.0: 32297 Acid3: 99/100 [/su_tab]

Kraken: 919.4ms ± 2.3% SunSpider: 171.4ms ± 4.4% HTML5 Test: 484 out of 555 points JetStream: 169.57 ± 10.506 Octane 2.0: 32038 Acid3: 99/100 Discussion on Reddit: Link [/su_tab]

Kraken: 1223.4ms ± 1.8% SunSpider: 127.4ms ± 1.5% HTML5 Test: 406 out of 555 points JetStream: Cannot complete. Hangs at CDJS. Octane 2.0: 20655 Acid3: 100/100 Discussion on Reddit: Link [/su_tab]

Kraken: 931.8ms ± 1.6% SunSpider: 164.6ms ± 1.9% HTML5 Test: 521 out of 555 points JetStream: 199.29 ± 9.6596 Octane 2.0: 34251 Acid3: 100/100 Discussion on Reddit: Link [/su_tab]

Kraken: 882.4ms ± 0.3% SunSpider: 154.0ms ± 0.9% HTML5 Test: 521 out of 555 points JetStream: 205.56± 2.9199 Octane 2.0: 36138 Acid3: 100/100 Discussion on Reddit: Link [/su_tab]

Kraken: 910.3ms ± 0.7% SunSpider: 164.1ms ± 1.0% HTML5 Test: 516 out of 555 points JetStream: 200.94 ± 2.3313 Octane 2.0: 35116 [/su_tab]

Kraken: 971.2ms ± 0.7% SunSpider: 153.8ms ± 0.9% HTML5 Test: 521 out of 555 JetStream: 208.40 ± 1.4020 Octane 2.0: 36184 CSS3 Test: Passed 805 tests out of 1555 total for 350 features. [/su_tab]

Kraken: 949.3ms ± 1.5% SunSpider: 180.9ms ± 6.7% HTML5 Test: 478 out of 555 JetStream: 179.28 ± 7.0070 Octane 2.0: 31586 CSS3 Test: Passed 838 tests out of 1555 total for 350 features. [/su_tab]

Kraken: Can’t pass. SunSpider: 619.1ms ± 0.3% HTML5 Test: 341 out of 555 JetStream: Can’t pass. Octane 2.0: 4051 CSS3 Test: Passed 717 tests out of 1555 total for 350 features. [/su_tab]

Kraken: 19833.8ms ± 2.3% SunSpider: 388.5ms ± 0.5% HTML5 Test: 398 out of 555 JetStream: 43.569 ± 4.2478 Octane 2.0: 5570 (can’t run zlib) CSS3 Test: Passed 725 tests out of 1555 total for 350 features. [/su_tab]

Kraken: 1003.0ms ± 1.2% SunSpider: 141.0ms ± 1.1% HTML5 Test: 437 out of 555 JetStream: 197.77 ± 16.982 Octane 2.0: 33946 CSS3 Test: Passed 800 tests out of 1555 total for 350 features. [/su_tab] [/su_tabs]

It seems to me that Chromium, Waterfox and Firefox are head on head. However Chromium passes more HTML5 tests and on top of that the Kraken (931/919/907 ms) and SunSpider (164/171/158 ms) tests differ by mere milliseconds. So I’d say the overall winner out of these 3 is Chromium.

If we throw Google Chrome into the pool of candidates then the result is quite different: Google Chrome wins the crown even if its SunSpider result is a mite slower than Pale Moon’s! If you know any other good web browser benchmarks or if you want other browser benchmarked, let me know in the comments or via contact form!

That said, take this benchmark test with a grain of salt. There are just too many factors involved for it to be a real representative test about browser speeds. In my opinion though it’s a good starting point.

Edit 2016-02-06: As I’ve been made aware on Reddit, none of the browsers passed the Acid3 test, because no animation was smooth. Something I oversaw. Apologies!

Edit 2016-02-17: A few browser have been added after the publication of this post. They’re marked with a right caret.