I've always had trouble choosing the right web browser. Whether it's because it's too slow, too invasive on privacy, or doesn't have the features I'm looking for, the search for the perfect browser has been a long journey. At the start of 2023, I ended up choosing Brave as my main browser on both my laptop and phone. I loved it, but as time went on, I found myself with new needs, and unfortunately, Brave wasn't keeping up, especially in the productivity department. I knew I needed something else.

Candidate 1: Opera

The first candidate was Opera. At first, it wasn't as bad as I thought. It had a nice sidebar that helped me a lot with productivity, and it also had great sync capabilities, spaces, and a built-in ad and tracking blocker. However, Opera is very sketchy on privacy, and compared to Brave, it was slower, even though a lot of people claimed that Opera was lightweight. So, I ended up going back to Brave.

Candidate 2: Vivaldi

The second candidate was Vivaldi a shot. Why Vivaldi? It had a sidebar that was more robust than Opera's, with the ability to add web panels to it without messing around with flags. It was also more responsive, and there wasn't any sketchy process running. Additionally, I had the customization level of my beloved old friend Firefox, and I also had support for PWA and Workspaces, which is a similar feature to Spaces in Opera.

The company seems pretty trustworthy, with a small privacy policy compared to Opera's giant policy. Funny enough, the Co-Founder and CEO of Vivaldi was the Co-Founder and CEO of Opera back in the 2000s but left Opera because he didn't agree with some of the changes.

Although I'm still getting used to Vivaldi, I think it may be the perfect browser for me. Of course, I can switch anytime soon, but for now, Vivaldi has won me over.