Best Mac Browser - The Contenders
I'm often asked which is the best Mac browser to use. My answer is always the same: It's the one that you like the best. Many individuals want a more quantifiable answer, though, so to see if we can put some measurements behind browser performance, we decided to perform a Mac browser benchmark test.
As the name implies, this shootout will be repeated at least once a year, perhaps more often, as browsers evolve or new browser developers enter the market.
Read the latest browser shootout
The first decision I faced in putting together this Mac browser benchmark was which browsers to include. So, I turned to About: Mac readers, and the browsers you use to visit the site. The most often used browsers are Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. But this test isn't about which browsers are the most popular, but which are the best, at least in terms of benchmark tests. So, I added seven more Mac browsers to the list, to round out the shootout to an even 10 participants.
Here are the Mac browser shootout contestants for the fall of 2010:
Almost all of the browsers in our test are based on one of two underlying architectures: Mozilla's Gecko browser engine, which powers Firefox, and WebKit, which Apple originally created to power Safari. WebKit started life as a fork of KHTML, the browser engine used in the Konqueror web browser found in many Linux distributions.
WebKit, like Gecko, is an open source project, which is one reason these engines are used as the base for many browser projects.
The Gecko-based browsers in our test are:
Firefox, Camino, Flock, SeaMonkey
The WebKit-based browsers in our test are:
Safari, Chrome, Stainless, iCab, Omniweb
That leaves Opera, which uses Presto, its own layout engine.
Because only three different underlying technologies run our ten browsers, you might expect to see similar browser performance within groups. However, just because browsers use the same base engine doesn't mean they will test the same. Browser developers have their own goals for what they think are key areas that need improvement, and browsers may use different versions of the same underlying browser engine.
Best Mac Browser - The Tests
To test our 10 Mac browser candidates, we're going to turn to four publicly available browser benchmark tests. We'll use two of the tests to measure how well each Mac browser handles JavaScript, a major underpinning of web site design. We'll also check conformity to standards, and look at overall rendering performance.
Peacekeeper measures a browser's performance in rendering pages, using social networking systems, which are heavily JavaScript based; text parsing; complex graphics manipulation; and data and DOM (Document Object Model), a standard way to describe objects that can be manipulated in an HTML, XHTML, or XML document.
Acid3 is a web standards test that measures how well a browser complies with selected web standards. Specifically, it tests how well a browser supports CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), ECMAScript (a standard version of JavaScript), DOM Level 2, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), XML (Extensible Markup Language), and data URI (Uniform Resources Identifier).
V8 Benchmark v6 is a JavaScript benchmark suite that Google created for fine tuning its own V8 JavaScript engine, which is used in Chrome. Overall, this benchmark test is a good indicator of how well a browser's JavaScript engine will perform.
Since we will be testing Google's Chrome, it didn't seem fair to rely on Google's own benchmark, which some consider to be optimized for the Chrome JavaScript engine, so we added a second JavaScript benchmark.
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tests how well the JavaScript engine in a browser works with real-world problems for which a web developer may use JavaScript. This makes it a good indicator of the overall JavaScript performance you would actually perceive when visiting web sites.
The Test Procedure
We'll be using the 2010 edition of the Mac Pro, configured with a 6-Core 3.33 GHz Intel Xeon Westmere processor and 6 GB of RAM for the testing. The only applications that will be running at the time of the testing are the browser and TextEdit, for taking notes before and after each test. The browser will always be the front most application.
Before each test, we reboot the Mac and launch the web browser and Text Edit. This ensures that the web browser doesn't contain any cached information in its local memory or on disk.
With the exception of the Acid3 test, each test is performed three times; the final result is an average of the tests. In the case of Acid3, the test is only performed once, because it's essentially a pass/fail test, rather than a test that measures performance.
Best Mac Browser - Camino 2.0.4 Results
Camino had no issues completing any of the JavaScript-based tests, but it did have problems with the Acid3 test. Forty percent of the browsers we tested, including Camino, had problems completing the Acid3 test.
Camino received the lowest overall score in the Peacekeeper benchmark, and was in the running to be the slowest in the two JavaScript benchmarks.
While Camino didn't fare well in the benchmarks, it's important to note that in actual use, Camino is a solid, stable browser that works well with complex web sites.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Did not complete: 72/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Chrome 6.0.472.63 Results
Chrome aced all of the tests we threw at it, and captured some of the top marks in many of the test categories. Chrome’s speed is the result of Google’s concentration on the browser’s JavaScript engine, which is used heavily, both in our benchmarks and by most modern-day browsers.
The other secret to Chrome’s speed is the use of the latest version of the WebKit engine. Unlike some browser developers, Google tries to integrate the latest WebKit improvements into Chrome on a regular basis.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Completed successfully: 100/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Firefox 3.6.10 Results
Firefox was mostly a middle-of-the-roader in the various tests. It only produced one 'best' score, in the Math subtest of the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark. Firefox was unable to complete the Acid3 test, but it came about as close as possible to completing the test without actually crossing the finish line.
Firefox's middle-of-the-road performance doesn't mean it's an also-ran. Firefox remains one of the standard browsers against which all web developers test their products.
Because of Firefox's dominant position, you can be pretty sure that any web site will work with it.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Did not complete: 94/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Flock 2.6.1 Results
Flock was the only Mac browser that was unable to complete the V8 Benchmark v6 test, specifically, the RegExp (Regular Expression) test, which could conceivably prevent Flock from working with some web sites. It was also unable to complete the Acid3 test, and had a poor showing in many of the remaining JavaScript tests.
Flock's poor performance caught us by surprise, because it was built to work with social web sites, such as Facebook, and one hallmark of social web sites is their heavy use of JavaScript and other technologies.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Did not complete: 72/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - iCab 4.8 Results
iCab completed all tests, and posted some of the best numbers. None of the numbers quite qualified as the best for a specific test, but they came very close. iCab's broad performance range should help ensure that it performs very well with just about any web site.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Completed successfully: 100/100
Larger numbers indicated better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - OmniWeb 5.10.1 Results
OmniWeb failed to complete the first part of the Peacekeeper benchmark test, which was rendering. OmniWeb kept locking up, forcing us to quit the browser, so we were unable to run any of the remaining Peacekeeper tests on it.
OmniWeb's performance in the remaining tests was middle-of-the-road overall, when compared with the other browsers in our test, and the worst performance for browsers that use the WebKit browser engine.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Did not complete: 94/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Opera 10.63 Results
Opera performed well, passing every test and posting the best marks in three Peacekeeper tests and one V8 Benchmark v6 test. It came in second overall, in both the Peacekeeper and V8 benchmarks; Chrome came in first.
Opera uses its own in-house browser engine, and its level of performance is simply amazing.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Completed successfully: 100/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - SeaMonkey 2.0.8 Results
Safari was able to pass all tests, and picked up three of the highest scores, one in Peacekeeper and two in SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark. Safari placed third overall, in Peacekeeper and the two JavaScript benchmarks.
Although it developed WebKit specifically for Safari, Apple tends to keep Safari at the same release level longer than other WebKit developers do with their browsers, which gives them time to move ahead in raw performance.
The difference that makes is noticeable here, with Safari being slightly older than its competitors. It's likely that the next release of Safari will once again lead the pack, only to quickly fall behind again.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Completed successfully: 100/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Stainless 0.7.5 Results
SeaMonkey displayed a number of weak spots. It was unable to complete the Acid3 test, and it gathered six of the worst scores; one in Peacekeeper, four in the V8 Benchmark, and one in the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark.
SeaMonkey can take solace in the fact that it's not the worst performer in our tests, but that's not a lot to hang your hat on.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Did not complete: 92/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Overall Results
Stainless did very well, finishing all tests with very good results. Stainless displayed a solid foundation, and even tied with Chrome for the fastest RegExp results in the SunSpider JavaScript test.
Stainless is the only browser we chose to include that hasn't yet matured to a 1.0 release level. But even at this stage of development, Stainless can hold its own against the rest of the pack, always placing somewhere in the top five.
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Completed successfully: 100/100
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Recommendations
After we finished the benchmark testing on our ten browsers, a few points became clear. First, regardless of the underlying browser engine, a browser could still fail to complete our tests; this happened with both Gecko and WebKit-based browsers. Second, the WebKit browser engine routinely outperforms the Gecko engine, but Opera's Presto engine can give WebKit a run for the money.
Aside from these simple observations, picking winners from these benchmarks is more difficult than it may first appear.
The reason for this is twofold. First, the concept of faster performance, which after all is what these tests are designed to measure. Consider Firefox, which completed the overall SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test in 591.6 ms. Chrome completed the same test in 197.6 ms. Is a difference of 394 ms enough of a reason to prefer one browser over another? Can you actually detect that difference in performance, or is this just a numbers game, with little practical meaning?
The second part of the reason may be much more important. Speed isn't the only reasonable criteria to use when choosing a browser for your Mac. Features, compatibility, ability to customize, security, and performance are all valid criteria.
Nevertheless, since this is a performance test, here's how the browsers stacked up. We established the rankings by assigning 1 to 10 points for performance in the overall tests; we then combined the scores. The browser with the lowest score is the overall winner.
With the Mac browsers sorted by performance, it’s time to make recommendations for which browsers should have a home on your Mac.
Our first recommendation is to keep a copy of Firefox on your Mac, even though it came in at the number six spot in our tests. Why? Two reasons: compatibility and customization. Compatibility, because all web developers test against Firefox. We sometimes launch Firefox just because some web service won’t work with our favorite day-to-day browser.
Customization, because there are so many Firefox add-ins that let you configure Firefox to do just about anything that’s browser-related.
Our next recommendation for browsers to keep resident on your Mac is Safari. Although currently in fourth place in performance, like Firefox, Safari is a must-have. Its performance relative to other browsers is going to seesaw because of its longer release schedule, but you know it will always work with any important Mac-related site.
Our final recommendation is one of the three top finishers: Chrome, iCab, and Opera. They all perform very well, and you can’t go wrong giving one of them a home on your Mac. As the fastest of the three, Chrome is the logical choice to have around, but Opera and iCab have some unique features that may give them the edge.
In the end, there’s nothing to prevent you from having multiple browsers on your Mac, at least until you decide for yourself which is the best Mac browser for you.
I'm often asked which is the best Mac browser to use. My answer is always the same: It's the one that you like the best. Many individuals want a more quantifiable answer, though, so to see if we can put some measurements behind browser performance, we decided to perform a Mac browser benchmark test.
Browser Shootout 2010: Which Mac Browser Is the Best?
As the name implies, this shootout will be repeated at least once a year, perhaps more often, as browsers evolve or new browser developers enter the market.
Read the latest browser shootout
The first decision I faced in putting together this Mac browser benchmark was which browsers to include. So, I turned to About: Mac readers, and the browsers you use to visit the site. The most often used browsers are Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. But this test isn't about which browsers are the most popular, but which are the best, at least in terms of benchmark tests. So, I added seven more Mac browsers to the list, to round out the shootout to an even 10 participants.
Here are the Mac browser shootout contestants for the fall of 2010:
- Camino 2.0.4
- Chrome 6.0.472.63
- Firefox 3.6.10
- Flock 2.6.1 (no longer available)
- iCab 4.8
- OmniWeb 5.10.1
- Opera 10.63
- Safari 5.0.2
- SeaMonkey 2.0.8
- Stainless 0.7.5
Who's Who?
Almost all of the browsers in our test are based on one of two underlying architectures: Mozilla's Gecko browser engine, which powers Firefox, and WebKit, which Apple originally created to power Safari. WebKit started life as a fork of KHTML, the browser engine used in the Konqueror web browser found in many Linux distributions.
WebKit, like Gecko, is an open source project, which is one reason these engines are used as the base for many browser projects.
The Gecko-based browsers in our test are:
Firefox, Camino, Flock, SeaMonkey
The WebKit-based browsers in our test are:
Safari, Chrome, Stainless, iCab, Omniweb
That leaves Opera, which uses Presto, its own layout engine.
Because only three different underlying technologies run our ten browsers, you might expect to see similar browser performance within groups. However, just because browsers use the same base engine doesn't mean they will test the same. Browser developers have their own goals for what they think are key areas that need improvement, and browsers may use different versions of the same underlying browser engine.
Best Mac Browser - The Tests
To test our 10 Mac browser candidates, we're going to turn to four publicly available browser benchmark tests. We'll use two of the tests to measure how well each Mac browser handles JavaScript, a major underpinning of web site design. We'll also check conformity to standards, and look at overall rendering performance.
The Four Mac Browser Benchmark Tests
Peacekeeper measures a browser's performance in rendering pages, using social networking systems, which are heavily JavaScript based; text parsing; complex graphics manipulation; and data and DOM (Document Object Model), a standard way to describe objects that can be manipulated in an HTML, XHTML, or XML document.
Acid3 is a web standards test that measures how well a browser complies with selected web standards. Specifically, it tests how well a browser supports CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), ECMAScript (a standard version of JavaScript), DOM Level 2, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), XML (Extensible Markup Language), and data URI (Uniform Resources Identifier).
V8 Benchmark v6 is a JavaScript benchmark suite that Google created for fine tuning its own V8 JavaScript engine, which is used in Chrome. Overall, this benchmark test is a good indicator of how well a browser's JavaScript engine will perform.
Since we will be testing Google's Chrome, it didn't seem fair to rely on Google's own benchmark, which some consider to be optimized for the Chrome JavaScript engine, so we added a second JavaScript benchmark.
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark tests how well the JavaScript engine in a browser works with real-world problems for which a web developer may use JavaScript. This makes it a good indicator of the overall JavaScript performance you would actually perceive when visiting web sites.
The Test Procedure
We'll be using the 2010 edition of the Mac Pro, configured with a 6-Core 3.33 GHz Intel Xeon Westmere processor and 6 GB of RAM for the testing. The only applications that will be running at the time of the testing are the browser and TextEdit, for taking notes before and after each test. The browser will always be the front most application.
Before each test, we reboot the Mac and launch the web browser and Text Edit. This ensures that the web browser doesn't contain any cached information in its local memory or on disk.
With the exception of the Acid3 test, each test is performed three times; the final result is an average of the tests. In the case of Acid3, the test is only performed once, because it's essentially a pass/fail test, rather than a test that measures performance.
Best Mac Browser - Camino 2.0.4 Results
Camino had no issues completing any of the JavaScript-based tests, but it did have problems with the Acid3 test. Forty percent of the browsers we tested, including Camino, had problems completing the Acid3 test.
Camino received the lowest overall score in the Peacekeeper benchmark, and was in the running to be the slowest in the two JavaScript benchmarks.
While Camino didn't fare well in the benchmarks, it's important to note that in actual use, Camino is a solid, stable browser that works well with complex web sites.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 1562 **
- Rendering: 2102 **
- Social Networking: 1709 **
- Complex Graphics: 2435 **
- Data: 1797
- DOM: 956 **
- Text Parsing: 1511 **
Acid3
Did not complete: 72/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 267
- Richards: 243 **
- DeltaBlue: 278
- Crypto: 266 **
- RayTrace: 160
- EarleyBoyer: 302
- RegExp: 191
- Splay: 579
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 1840.2 ms
- 3D: 226.6 ms **
- Access: 269.8 ms
- Bitops: 188.4 ms
- Controlflow: 23.2 ms
- Crypto: 114.4 ms
- Date: 211.8 ms
- Math: 199.4 ms
- RegExp: 162.2 ms
- String: 444.4 ms **
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Chrome 6.0.472.63 Results
Chrome aced all of the tests we threw at it, and captured some of the top marks in many of the test categories. Chrome’s speed is the result of Google’s concentration on the browser’s JavaScript engine, which is used heavily, both in our benchmarks and by most modern-day browsers.
The other secret to Chrome’s speed is the use of the latest version of the WebKit engine. Unlike some browser developers, Google tries to integrate the latest WebKit improvements into Chrome on a regular basis.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 10443 *
- Rendering: 5693
- Social Networking: 6191 *
- Complex Graphics: 11228
- Data: 24561 *
- DOM: 8007
- Text Parsing: 17927
Acid3
Completed successfully: 100/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 6269 *
- Richards: 5828 *
- DeltaBlue: 7286 *
- Crypto: 6752 *
- RayTrace: 8649 *
- EarleyBoyer: 20557 *
- RegExp: 2656 *
- Splay: 2811
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 197.6 ms *
- 3D: 30.8 ms
- Access: 21.2 ms *
- Bitops: 20.0 ms
- Controlflow: 1.8 ms
- Crypto: 14.0 ms
- Data: 19.0 ms *
- Math: 21.6 ms
- RegExp: 9.6 ms
- String: 59.6 ms *
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Firefox 3.6.10 Results
Firefox was mostly a middle-of-the-roader in the various tests. It only produced one 'best' score, in the Math subtest of the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark. Firefox was unable to complete the Acid3 test, but it came about as close as possible to completing the test without actually crossing the finish line.
Firefox's middle-of-the-road performance doesn't mean it's an also-ran. Firefox remains one of the standard browsers against which all web developers test their products.
Because of Firefox's dominant position, you can be pretty sure that any web site will work with it.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 3144
- Rendering: 2942
- Social Networking: 2777
- Complex Graphics: 4177
- Data: 4087
- DOM: 2618
- Text Parsing: 3516
Acid3
Did not complete: 94/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 679
- Richards: 2306
- DeltaBlue: 235
- Crypto: 2425
- RayTrace: 452
- EarleyBoyer: 377
- RegExp: 363
- Splay: 819
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 591.6 ms
- 3D: 88.6 ms
- Access: 87.2 ms
- Bitops: 23.8 ms
- Controlflow: 24.2 ms
- Crypto: 34.4 ms
- Date: 98.2 ms
- Math: 18.0 ms *
- RegExp: 32.4 ms
- String: 185.0 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Flock 2.6.1 Results
Flock was the only Mac browser that was unable to complete the V8 Benchmark v6 test, specifically, the RegExp (Regular Expression) test, which could conceivably prevent Flock from working with some web sites. It was also unable to complete the Acid3 test, and had a poor showing in many of the remaining JavaScript tests.
Flock's poor performance caught us by surprise, because it was built to work with social web sites, such as Facebook, and one hallmark of social web sites is their heavy use of JavaScript and other technologies.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 1645
- Rendering: 2185
- Social Networking: 1735
- Complex Graphics: 2455
- Data: 2071
- DOM: 976
- Text Parsing: 1577
Acid3
Did not complete: 72/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: DNC (Did Not Complete)
- Richards: 249
- DeltaBlue: 275
- Crypto: 289
- RayTrace: 191
- EarleyBoyer: 325
- RegExp: DNC
- Splay: 512
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 1886.0 ms **
- 3D: 224.8 ms
- Access: 293.8 ms **
- Bitops: 202.8 ms **
- Controlflow: 24.4 ms
- Crypto: 118.0 ms **
- Date: 225.4 ms **
- Math: 200.8 ms **
- RegExp: 163.6 ms **
- String: 432.4 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - iCab 4.8 Results
iCab completed all tests, and posted some of the best numbers. None of the numbers quite qualified as the best for a specific test, but they came very close. iCab's broad performance range should help ensure that it performs very well with just about any web site.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 7349
- Rendering: 3052
- Social Networking: 4397
- Complex Graphics: 6541
- Data: 12529
- DOM: 10317
- Text Parsing: 12364
Acid3
Completed successfully: 100/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicated better performance.
- Overall: 4426
- Richards: 5221
- DeltaBlue: 3957
- Crypto: 5722
- RayTrace: 5427
- EarleyBoyer: 6046
- RegExp: 1684
- Splay: 5207
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 199.2 ms
- 3D: 27.4 ms
- Access: 23.6 ms
- Bitops: 15.2 ms
- Controlflow: 2.0 ms
- Crypto: 11.8 ms
- Date: 21.2 ms
- Math: 19.0 ms
- RegExp: 10.2 ms
- String: 68.8 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - OmniWeb 5.10.1 Results
OmniWeb failed to complete the first part of the Peacekeeper benchmark test, which was rendering. OmniWeb kept locking up, forcing us to quit the browser, so we were unable to run any of the remaining Peacekeeper tests on it.
OmniWeb's performance in the remaining tests was middle-of-the-road overall, when compared with the other browsers in our test, and the worst performance for browsers that use the WebKit browser engine.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: DNC
- Rendering:
- Social Networking:
- Complex Graphics:
- Data:
- DOM:
- Text Parsing:
Acid3
Did not complete: 94/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 3498
- Richards: 5405
- DeltaBlue: 4141
- Crypto: 5572
- RayTrace: 3601
- EarleyBoyer: 5477
- RegExp: 1559
- Splay: 1641
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 400.2 ms
- 3D: 87.2 ms
- Access: 40.6 ms
- Bitops: 22.4 ms
- Controlflow: 1.8 ms
- Crypto: 29.0 ms
- Date: 39.6 ms
- Math: 53.0 ms
- RegExp: 11.8 ms
- String: 114.8 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Opera 10.63 Results
Opera performed well, passing every test and posting the best marks in three Peacekeeper tests and one V8 Benchmark v6 test. It came in second overall, in both the Peacekeeper and V8 benchmarks; Chrome came in first.
Opera uses its own in-house browser engine, and its level of performance is simply amazing.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 8836
- Rendering: 8801 *
- Social Networking: 5984
- Complex Graphics: 17685 *
- Data: 7796
- DOM: 6323
- Text Parsing: 21370 *
Acid3
Completed successfully: 100/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 4741
- Richards: 4280
- DeltaBlue: 3273
- Crypto: 5015
- RayTrace: 6431
- EarleyBoyer: 6204
- RegExp: 2038
- Splay: 9510 *
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 239.2 ms
- 3D: 33.4 ms
- Access: 28.8 ms
- Bitops: 9.6 ms
- Controlflow: 2.2 ms
- Crypto: 16.0 ms
- Date: 34.2 ms
- Math: 18.4 ms
- RegExp: 9.8 ms
- String: 86.8 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - SeaMonkey 2.0.8 Results
Safari was able to pass all tests, and picked up three of the highest scores, one in Peacekeeper and two in SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark. Safari placed third overall, in Peacekeeper and the two JavaScript benchmarks.
Although it developed WebKit specifically for Safari, Apple tends to keep Safari at the same release level longer than other WebKit developers do with their browsers, which gives them time to move ahead in raw performance.
The difference that makes is noticeable here, with Safari being slightly older than its competitors. It's likely that the next release of Safari will once again lead the pack, only to quickly fall behind again.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 7282
- Rendering: 3054
- Social Networking: 4362
- Complex Graphics: 6601
- Data: 12113
- DOM: 10503 *
- Text Parsing: 12082
Acid3
Completed successfully: 100/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 4477
- Richards: 5228
- DeltaBlue: 4095
- Crypto: 5646
- RayTrace: 5914
- EarleyBoyer: 6185
- RegExp: 1550
- Splay: 5256
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 200.0 ms
- 3D: 27.0 ms *
- Access: 23.6 ms
- Bitops: 14.4 ms
- Controlflow: 1.8 ms
- Crypto: 11.6 ms *
- Date: 21.6 ms
- Math: 18.4 ms
- RegExp: 12.8 ms
- String: 68.8 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Stainless 0.7.5 Results
SeaMonkey displayed a number of weak spots. It was unable to complete the Acid3 test, and it gathered six of the worst scores; one in Peacekeeper, four in the V8 Benchmark, and one in the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark.
SeaMonkey can take solace in the fact that it's not the worst performer in our tests, but that's not a lot to hang your hat on.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 2160
- Rendering: 2438
- Social Networking: 2371
- Complex Graphics: 3633
- Data: 1624 **
- DOM: 1955
- Text Parsing: 2575
Acid3
Did not complete: 92/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 389
- Richards: 2323
- DeltaBlue: 141 **
- Crypto: 2025
- RayTrace: 115 **
- EarleyBoyer: 248 **
- RegExp: 249
- Splay: 340 **
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 818.6 ms
- 3D: 122.8 ms
- Access: 122.6 ms
- Bitops: 24.2 ms
- Controlflow: 53.4 ms **
- Crypto: 34.4 ms
- Date: 135.4 ms
- Math: 26.6 ms
- RegExp: 38.8 ms
- String: 249.4 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Overall Results
Stainless did very well, finishing all tests with very good results. Stainless displayed a solid foundation, and even tied with Chrome for the fastest RegExp results in the SunSpider JavaScript test.
Stainless is the only browser we chose to include that hasn't yet matured to a 1.0 release level. But even at this stage of development, Stainless can hold its own against the rest of the pack, always placing somewhere in the top five.
Peacekeeper
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 6835
- Rendering: 2491
- Social Networking: 4245
- Complex Graphics: 6363
- Data: 10354
- DOM: 9800
- Text Parsing: 11779
Acid3
Completed successfully: 100/100
V8 Benchmark v6
Larger numbers indicate better performance.
- Overall: 3976
- Richards: 4402
- DeltaBlue: 3736
- Crypto: 4359
- RayTrace: 5840
- EarleyBoyer: 5225
- RegExp: 1587
- Splay: 4547
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Time in milliseconds; smaller is better.
- Overall: 225.6 ms
- 3D: 30.6 ms
- Access: 29.8 ms
- Bitops: 20.6 ms
- Controlflow: 2.4 ms
- Crypto: 13.4 ms
- Date: 23.4 ms
- Math: 22.0 ms *
- RegExp: 9.6 ms
- String: 73.8 ms
* Highest score in a test
** Lowest score in a test
Best Mac Browser - Recommendations
After we finished the benchmark testing on our ten browsers, a few points became clear. First, regardless of the underlying browser engine, a browser could still fail to complete our tests; this happened with both Gecko and WebKit-based browsers. Second, the WebKit browser engine routinely outperforms the Gecko engine, but Opera's Presto engine can give WebKit a run for the money.
Aside from these simple observations, picking winners from these benchmarks is more difficult than it may first appear.
The reason for this is twofold. First, the concept of faster performance, which after all is what these tests are designed to measure. Consider Firefox, which completed the overall SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test in 591.6 ms. Chrome completed the same test in 197.6 ms. Is a difference of 394 ms enough of a reason to prefer one browser over another? Can you actually detect that difference in performance, or is this just a numbers game, with little practical meaning?
The second part of the reason may be much more important. Speed isn't the only reasonable criteria to use when choosing a browser for your Mac. Features, compatibility, ability to customize, security, and performance are all valid criteria.
Nevertheless, since this is a performance test, here's how the browsers stacked up. We established the rankings by assigning 1 to 10 points for performance in the overall tests; we then combined the scores. The browser with the lowest score is the overall winner.
Best Mac Browser as Measured by Benchmark Performance
- Chrome: 1+1+1 = 3; First place in all of the overall categories
- iCab: 3+3+2 = 8; Second place
- Opera: 2+2+5 = 9; Third place
- Safari: 4+3+3 = 10; Fourth place
- Stainless: 5+5+4 = 14; Fifth place
- Firefox: 6+7+7= 20; Sixth place (did not complete Acid3 test)
- SeaMonkey: 7+8+8 = 23; Seventh place (did not complete Acid3 test)
- Camino: 9+9+9 = 27; Eighth place (did not complete Acid3 test)
- Omniweb: x10+6+6 = 22x; (did not complete one or more tests)
- Flock: 8+x10+10 = 28x; (did not complete one or more tests)
With the Mac browsers sorted by performance, it’s time to make recommendations for which browsers should have a home on your Mac.
Our first recommendation is to keep a copy of Firefox on your Mac, even though it came in at the number six spot in our tests. Why? Two reasons: compatibility and customization. Compatibility, because all web developers test against Firefox. We sometimes launch Firefox just because some web service won’t work with our favorite day-to-day browser.
Customization, because there are so many Firefox add-ins that let you configure Firefox to do just about anything that’s browser-related.
Our next recommendation for browsers to keep resident on your Mac is Safari. Although currently in fourth place in performance, like Firefox, Safari is a must-have. Its performance relative to other browsers is going to seesaw because of its longer release schedule, but you know it will always work with any important Mac-related site.
Our final recommendation is one of the three top finishers: Chrome, iCab, and Opera. They all perform very well, and you can’t go wrong giving one of them a home on your Mac. As the fastest of the three, Chrome is the logical choice to have around, but Opera and iCab have some unique features that may give them the edge.
In the end, there’s nothing to prevent you from having multiple browsers on your Mac, at least until you decide for yourself which is the best Mac browser for you.
SHARE
