For iPad you don't like it at all? Even though Apple requires all web apps on the iPad to use the WebKit framework, there are plenty of options that can be used as alternatives to Safari.
One of the most common competitors to the default app is Chrome. It's a fast tabbed browser for iPad that can be synced with a similar desktop or laptop app. One of its useful features is the ability to open web pages on your tablet that are already open on one of your other devices. In addition, it is completely free.
Another browser for iPad - ICAB - is for those who want to get more productivity while browsing the Web. An important feature is the ability to upload files, a feature not found on Safari and most other tablet web apps. This means that you can easily upload photos to Facebook or similar sites without having to install additional programs. ICAB can also be useful for bloggers for the same reason. We can say that this is the best browser for iPad, because it has the ability to save and restore forms, as well as support for Dropbox.
Photon is the best solution for people who want to watch Flash videos or play on iPad. Even though not all such applications will be supported by said browser, this feature is useful. In addition, it is endowed with all the characteristics necessary for a full-fledged work on the Internet.
Another good iPad browser, Mercury, has a number of interesting features that make it unique. For example, the ability to disguise yourself by impersonating or Firefox. This is great if you're visiting a site that loads by default on mobile when you need a full web page. This browser can be synced with Firefox, supports Dropbox and private browsing, and has options to improve performance (such as image blocking).
Another interesting all-in-one offering is Atomic. This browser for iPad has a wide range of features including tabbed browsing, privacy mode, full screen with Dropbox and iTunes, features and the ability to save pages to read in. angle. In addition, in this browser for Ipad 4 you can connect your own search engine.
Opera Mini can't compete with some of the other browsers on this list in terms of features, but it does allow you to view compressed versions of websites, helping you get the most out of limited traffic. Even though there is a slight pause before the site loads, this is a very fast application. This is due to the fact that all resources are loaded at once as a whole, and not in parts. In addition, this browser is completely free.
Safari on iOS is fast, convenient, and syncs data between your devices out of the box. Indeed, the standard browser for iPhone and iPad is very good. But there are worthy alternatives that have more features, are better integrated with certain services, and are simply more comfortable to use. We scoured the App Store looking for third-party browsers and found the top 5.
Chrome
iPhone + iPad | 70.7 MB | Free | DOWNLOAD
One of the most well-deserved candidates to replace Safari is Google's Chrome. Popular browser last week and got handy gestures to move forward / backward through the pages from the edge of the screen.
Chrome is tightly integrated with Google services and is available on OS X, iOS, Android, Linux, and Windows. The browser syncs tabs, passwords, favorites, history and other data that will appeal to device owners across platforms. By the way, even if you have Safari on Mac and iPhone, both browsers will be friends and work through Handoff.
The browser interface is made in Google's proprietary Material Design, so it is not only convenient, but visually pleasing to use. Of the useful features of Chrome, I note a pop-up panel when scrolling from top to bottom, which allows you to quickly open / close a tab and refresh the page with swipes.
In the browser, it is convenient to type website addresses and enter search queries thanks to a panel with Internet symbols (dot, .com, etc.).
Opera Coast
iPhone + iPad | 35.8 MB | Free | DOWNLOAD
Opera's Coast browser offers an atypical approach to using the Web. In the program, you find yourself as if in a separate operating system, where websites are applications.
The main page - icons with programs, that is, favorite pages, if we draw an analogy with traditional browsers. Here you can change their order and set background images.
Tabbed window - multitasking menu.
Coast attracts with the concept, speed and quality of work. Beautiful interface with smooth animations and fast page loading speed. Everything we love.
The web address entry field displays a selection of current news, great site suggestions, and completes search queries.
Mercury Browser
iPhone + iPad | 54.9 MB | Free | DOWNLOAD
One of the most advanced browsers in the App Store. Mercury Browser has everything a demanding user might need: support for extensions, AdBlock, the ability to change User Agent, reading mode, themes, offline reading list, full screen mode, cloud services support, gestures and much more.
Virtually every component in the Mercury Browser is customizable. For example, you can choose to display tabs like you would on a desktop, or keep the classic iPhone thumbnails.
The search box supports working with third-party sites.
A widget in the Notification Center provides quick access to your favorite sites.
Mercury Browser is stuffed with features to the eyeballs, but this has not affected the performance of the browser. The program is smart, you can browse the Web with comfort and high speed.
Yandex browser
iPhone | 66.1 MB | Free | DOWNLOAD
The browser of the same name from the Russian search engine stands out at the expense of another by placing the address bar. It is at the very bottom, which eliminates the need to reach up each time to enter the address.
It is a balanced browser, without any outstanding features, but fast, convenient and neat.
The main screen of Ya.Browser is divided into beautiful blocks with sites from your favorites.
iCab Mobile is one of the few cases where the developers managed to load the mobile browser browser with features to the eyeballs, but at the same time it is really convenient to use it, and the navigation is intuitive.
Today it is extremely difficult to find a worthy alternative to Safari, and there are two main reasons for this. First, Safari is set by default to open links in almost all applications (at least those that do not have a built-in browser). Secondly, and here it is worth paying tribute to the designers of Apple, Safari is one of the few iOS browsers that looks modern and is scaled for the user's convenience.
However, Safari also has enough shortcomings. As we mentioned in Best iPad Pro Apps (2018), Safari rarely gets updated - only with the release of a new version of iOS - and sometimes bug fixes or new features can take literally years. In addition, the functionality of mobile Safari is significantly reduced compared to desktop browsers.
If you want more control over the interface and browser settings, check out iCab Mobile. This application is not new. Not at all, the first version of iCab Mobile was released back in 2009, and now the current build is 9.11.3, released in July this year.
Interface and functionality
The first thing the browser will greet you with (besides the vintage iCab site as the default start page) is a huge number of buttons and settings. Luckily, most of them are easy to figure out.
The icons at the bottom of the screen speak for themselves. The leftmost key calls Action Menu, where you can manage tabs and forms, add a page to the Today or Quick Launch widget, and more. Panels follow. Personal Information And Reading List. In the latter, you can add pages to your reading list not only in iCab Mobile, but also in Safari, which is handy if you prefer to read in your default browser.
The next two icons are an alternative way to navigate between tabs and full screen mode. In the settings, you can enable the status bar in full screen mode if you need it. Icon with puzzle fragment - menu of modules (extensions for iCab). Here you can use plug-ins - for example, add a page to Pocket or Evernote to read later.
Finally, the last three icons are Downloads, Dark Mode and Settings. It would seem that the purpose of all three is very clear, but here I would like to note the possibility of saving files to Dropbox and copying them to the clipboard, as well as creating rules for downloads. For example, you want all .EPUB books to be automatically moved to the Downloads folder on your smartphone. Just a couple of taps is enough to add such a rule!
Important Features
It is convenient that the search can be configured directly, sorry for the tautology, in the search bar. You can choose whether to show the search results in a separate tab or in the current one, change the search engine, or even switch to page search mode (!). A nice bonus - in the search mode on the keyboard, an additional auto-complete line appears with symbols and popular domains: com, net, edu, etc.
Definitely pleased with the ability to customize the interface for yourself. And we are talking not only about navigation elements, but also about design. If modern design seems too boring for you, you can switch to classic and change the color of contrasting elements.
In the Privacy settings menu, you can see how much space the cache takes up and clear it with one touch. The same goes for browser history, tabs, and searches. It’s nice that you don’t need to go into the smartphone settings for this, as is the case with Safari.
Finally, the last feature of iCab Mobile, which I would like to talk about, is the ability to change the user. In addition to the administrator, you can also add a guest profile with limited access to settings and a separate browsing history and open tabs. You do not need to close your personal tabs before giving the smartphone to another person - just switch the user to the Guest, this is done in two taps.
Conclusion
iCab Mobile is a great option if you are looking for a mobile browser that is as close to desktop as possible in terms of functionality. However, this app definitely looks better on larger screens due to the large amount of icons and the tabbed system.
Strictly speaking, there is only one full-fledged browser for iOS - Safari. All alternatives are actually graphical add-ons and sets of Java scripts for the WebKit open source engine that is the basis of Safari.
And it is all the more curious how different developers, using the same platform and similar tools, can achieve results that are very far from each other both in appearance and functionality. All the seven browsers we mentioned for iOS (more precisely, for the iPad tablet with a large diagonal screen) differ primarily in the set of functions and controls. And even the download acceleration technologies used, for example, in Opera Mini, are not as impressive here as in the "desktop" versions. But in terms of capabilities and usability, they all differ very clearly.
1.Chrome
One of the most popular alternatives to Safari on the iPad is, of course, the main advantage of which is that it allows you to take advantage of the features of your Google account. Yes, yes, oddly enough, among the users of Google services there are many who prefer not Android, but iOS.
Through mobile Chrome, you can sync bookmarks, passwords, and other data with the desktop version of this browser, so if you fundamentally prefer Chrome, then this is what you need.
Otherwise, it's still an add-on to the Safari engine, so don't expect fast page rendering or any of the extensions supported in "desktop" Chrome.
2 Opera Mini
The "mini version" is best known for its "turbo mode", in which user requests are routed through the company's cloud servers, where they are compressed, resulting in many pages loading faster than the original ones. The "side effect" of this feature is that it allows you to access resources blocked by local providers, and for this alone you can fall in love with Opera Mini once and for all. However, compression does not work correctly with any content: layout is broken on some sites, headings and fonts are distorted, and some scripts do not function. But if you access the Internet on slow mobile connections or on tariffs with traffic restrictions, then these shortcomings can be forgiven, since the savings with Opera Mini can be significant.
In all other respects, Opera Mini does not differ in anything outstanding, it has only a standard set of functions: saving pages for offline viewing and synchronization with the desktop version. In addition, this browser has two separate fields for entering web addresses and search queries, which already looks rather old-fashioned.
3.Coast
The free one was developed by Opera programmers specifically for the iPad. This is not just another modification of Opera Mini, and it has a single input field for the address bar and search queries.
coast- a full-screen browser that, when launched, displays "tiles" for popular sites. There are simple gestures to go to the previous and next pages, save a page to the tablet's memory, and quickly open the Favorites panel by pressing the icon at the bottom of the screen.
All browser functions work very quickly, which cannot be said about page loading speed: it is the most common. Coast doesn't shine with any original features either: it's a simple browser for those who visit a small number of sites regularly. As for the design, someone will definitely like it, but someone will definitely not.
4.Puffin
The only iOS browser that supports Flash. Do we really need it? Probably not so much anymore. Moreover, even the most primitive flash toys in Puffin shamelessly slow down, and it's time to forget about this technology as the day before yesterday.
Of the small bonuses, it is worth noting the ability to upload files from Puffin directly to your cloud on Dropbox, so that they will be immediately available on all connected devices.
5.iCab
Addressed to active Internet users: it is richly stuffed with all sorts of additional features. The design of iCab resembles Safari and fits perfectly into the graphical style of iOS 7. However, iCab has a lot in common with Safari: for example, you can directly add pages to the Safari reading list from it. There is a full screen mode with translucent navigation buttons.
iCab supports multiple user accounts with their own settings, passwords, and even color schemes. A complete list of all iCab features would take several pages, so it is not surprising that you will have to pay for this browser - however, only 66 rubles. So if you're looking for a versatile Swiss Army knife, then the iCab is definitely the best choice.
6. Dolphin
Dolphin, as befits a modern mobile browser, supports bookmarks (tabs) and gesture control, and you can even come up with some unique gestures (symbols) to navigate to specific sites. Synchronization is provided between desktop and portable versions of Dolphin and even synchronization with "desktop" Safari, Firefox and Chrome after installing the appropriate extensions.
7. Sleipnir
There is also a function of synchronization with the desktop version: for this you need to create a free Fenrir Pass account. Full screen mode available. The browser has built-in support for popular online services, including Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, and Twitter.
Articles and Lifehacks
The device based on iOS is equipped, according to tradition, with a good built-in Safari browser. However, not all users are satisfied with it, and therefore they often wonder how to choose a browser for the iPhone.
What should be guided by when choosing a particular browser? And how can you make the standard Safari browser work more efficiently? Let's try to understand this in more detail.
Safari browser: how to improve its performance
- It should be noted that, despite some functional shortcomings, Safari is still a full-fledged browser that is optimally suited for smartphones based on iOS.
- With its help, a person will be able to open all the links of interest to him - from e-mail, incoming messages, and so on. Let's try to figure out how to make using Safari more efficient.
- Let's start by deleting data about all visited sites and clearing the history. To do this, go to the settings and go to the tab called "Safari".
- The smartphone display will display 2 options - to clear information about visited sites, as well as to clear the history. All of these can be removed.
- The owner of a device running iOS 6 and higher now has the ability to save web pages in their entirety. To remove them, he goes into the main settings and finds the "Safari" item in the statistics menu.
- Disabling the function of automatically filling in personal information (“Autofill” in the “Safari” item through the settings) will also help improve browser performance.
- It is recommended to delete any account data as well.
It will be useful to learn how to share links through Gmail and open links in the background. - The work of the Safari browser will also be accelerated by quickly entering the name of the site in the address bar (that is, without www). In the ".com" zone, it is even allowed not to add these same three letters, that is, the domain.
- An excellent alternative to the standard browser on an Apple smartphone is Atomic Web Browser, which has a user-friendly interface and numerous features to be customized.
- Many are also interested in the functional features of Opera Mini, as well as how compatible it is with iOS devices. If the user is accustomed to working with the traditional Opera browser on their desktop computer, it will be very easy to master Opera Mini.
For the iPhone, this browser is convenient because of the ability to save traffic, support for syncing bookmarks from the full version of Opera, and versatility. The licensed version can be downloaded for free.
- For anyone who watches a lot of flash videos, SkyFire is fine. However, you should be aware that it will not allow the owner of the smartphone to view individual sites. In addition, its licensed version costs more than the Atomic browser.
- Outwardly, iCab Mobile looks like Safari. The browser has many additional features, but not a very large functional arsenal.
- A bit similar to Mercury's Atomic browser. It also works quickly, is quite versatile, inexpensive and functional. An interesting feature is the integration with Dropbox.
