Let's be honest - most computers come with Edge or Safari, but 70% of us still use Chrome. So if we're not going to use the default browser anyway, why download Chrome when the competition is so much better?
[Source for Chrome market share]
Most people point to Edge or Firefox as alternatives. Edge has some genuinely nice features the Chrome is only slowly catching up with, but is also probably the most privacy-invasive browser in existence - not only does it have Microsoft's telemetry, but since it's built on Chromium (the base version of Chrome), it also has Google's telemetry (maybe Opera is a close second in terms of spyware).
Firefox is often said to be a more private browser, and while it doesn't have the invasive Google telemetry that's in Chrome, it's far from the most private option out there. Firefox has had a lot of nice features added recently (split tabs and vertical tabs on both the left and the right come to mind), but the default aesthetic is bad and there's entire browsers focused on making it look better.
I rounded up five of the best browsers out there - here they are, with the best ones for last.
Librewolf is privacy-focused fork of Firefox. This means all of Firefox's newer functionality features carry over. Unlike normal Firefox, it comes with settings switched to the most private options and also comes with UBlock Origin. In addition, it comes with its own tracking/ads blocker and lots of other security features.
In particular, it has a feature called Resist Fingerprinting, which stops sites from being able to collect your data. However, some sites can break due to Resist Fingerprinting, which is the reason it's at the bottom of this list. Fixing a broken site requires changing the settings and then changing them back afterwards - and the settings can't be changed per-site. Still, merely using Librewolf without even touching any settings keeps you better protected online than 99% of people.
Librewolf is not available for mobile and doesn't support Firefox Sync, so if you care about cross-device sync then maybe Librewolf isn't for you.
Floorp is also a fork of Firefox, focused on making it far more customizable. It's easily one of the most customizable browsers on the market. It has a completely customizable start page, sidebar and menu. It also has a "workspaces" feature which allows you to switch out which tabs are in view - like tab groups, but on another level (normal tab groups within workspaces are also supported). Being Firefox-based, it also has fairly good privacy.
However, it's a fairly new browser, so some of the features are buggy, and lots of UI customizations can lead to visual artifacts.
Floorp supports Firefox Sync, which means you can sync it with Firefox for Android/iOS on you phone. Firefox is the only major browser that supports extensions on mobile, so you can have extensions like UBlock Origin for adblocking and Dark Reader for dark mode enforcement on there.
This was the browser I went to first after ditching Edge and it worked well for me for a few months, after which I found a better browser.
Brave is another privacy-focused browser, but it's based on Chromium rather than Firefox, which means it has better compatibility with webpages compared to Librewolf. The key feature of Brave is Brave Shields, which provide ad/tracker blocking similar to Librewolf. Unlike Librewolf, which treats it as a setting that applies to all pages at once, Brave lets you lower Brave Shields per-website and remembers your settings the next time you visit the page, which makes the feature a lot more usable than in Librewolf.
Brave also provides access to the Tor network, which hides your IP and encrypts all your data and routes it through several Tor servers, so as to hide your browsing data from your ISP and anyone who might try to spy on you. If you find yourself running from the FBI you might need to use Tor 😶. Tor has a dedicated browser, but because Tor requests have to go through multiple servers, they can be really slow and also prone to breaking websites, so it's more convenient to use a browser that doesn't put everything through Tor while still letting it be an option if you need it.
Brave comes with UBlock Origin on both mobile and desktop, and also has a feature which enforces dark mode on websites (so you won't need mobile extensions to get that functionality). This makes it a very compelling mobile browser. Brave is not the most customizable option out there - for the most part, it just looks like Chrome - but if you're willing to sacrifice that for ultimate privacy then Brave is the way to go.
Zen is a Firefox-based browser that is all about aesthetics. Like Firefox, it supports Sync, has a few of the new features, and shares the same rendering engine of course, but the similarities end just about there. The interface is completely redesigned, with vertical tabs, workspaces, and a very simple and uncluttered UI being the main features.
Zen has rich tab management features that try to make your tab bar as uncluttered as possible. It allows you to have workspaces, and swiping on the tab bar swithes the workspace you're in. You can have tab groups inside your workspaces, different pinned tabs in each workspace, and a section of pinned tabs that isn't tied to any workspace. Zen lets you choose a different color for each workspace. Zen doesn't have new tabs like most browsers - instead, it has a floating search bar that only creates a new tab after you hit enter. If you find you tend to have a lot of blank tabs lying around, Zen should help.
Zen also has good privacy controls, but not as extensive as Librewolf or Brave.
The tabs are vertical by default and collapse to the side, which is a feature that I usually find myself hunting in settings for in other browsers. If that's not what you prefer, it may be difficult to adjust to, but the main appeal of Zen is that it's nearly perfect without extensive customization.
On that note though, Zen is not as customizable as other browsers - I managed to flip through every setting in just 5 minutes. There is a feature called Zen Mods, which allows you to stack community-maintained modifiacations to the UI, but you'd have to be a little technically inclined to make your own Zen mods (you'll need to know CSS). Whether you end up liking it really depends on whether you get the default aesthetic or not.
An important thing to note is that Zen does not have DRM support, so streaming/Netflix won't work properly there.
Vivaldi is the browser for power users. It's the most customizable browser in existence. Vivaldi has four major components - the tab bar, bookmarks bar, search bar, and panel. You can place any of these components on any side of the screen, and you can choose whther to have any of them always visible or auto-hidden. Vivaldi has lots of themes and over 7000+ community made themes.
It's also pretty easy to make your own themes and share them with others. The themes are more than just a background color - you get to control background color, text color, accent color, the opacity of the tab bar and panel, the highlight color, the background image, corner rounding, blur intensity, and icons without having to ever touch a line of CSS.
The panel is where things get interesting. It's the ultimate control center for managing all the things that Vivaldi gives you. Here's a list of some of the things you can access and manage in the panel:
Bookmarks
Downloads
Browser history
Markdown notes
Translation
Reading list
Website shortcuts
RSS Feeds
Tasks
Calendar
That's right - Vivaldi even has a built-in mail & calendar client. You can launch them from the panel and they'll open as normal tabs in your browser. (This is a desktop-only feature - you'll still need a separate mail client on your phone).
Vivaldi for mobile syncs well with desktop. You can also have your own Vivaldi account, which not only gives you access to Sync, but also the Vivaldi forums, social, and blog (can be interesting but it seems dead useless to me - raayed.net > raayed.vivaldi.net). In my opinion, the only drawback is that mobile doesn't have as detailed theming options as desktop - it's just a background color.
Vivaldi comes with all the same tab management features as Zen, but still uses a start page. The upside is that the start page is really customizable - not only can it have shortcuts, but it can even have widgets!
Vivaldi comes with an ad/tracker blocker, but being based on Chromium the privacy is not that good. It's still better than Chrome, but not as good as Brave or a Firefox-based browser. Vivaldi, like Brave, also has a feature that enforces dark mode on websites so you usually don't need to install Dark Reader.
I ended up sticking to Vivaldi because of the mail client and customization. I no longer use Floorp on my computer, but I still keep around Firefox alongside Vivaldi on my phone if I ever need UBlock Origin or some other extension (such as DevTools) on there.