Comparison Of Browser Engines
This article compares browser engines, especially actively-developed ones.
Some of these engines have shared origins. For example, the WebKit engine was created by forking the KHTML engine in 2001. Then, in 2013, a modified version of WebKit was officially forked as the Blink engine.
General information
| Engine | Status | Steward | License | Embedded in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WebKit | Active | Apple | GNU LGPL, BSD-style | Safari browser, plus all browsers for iOS; GNOME Web, Konqueror |
| Blink | Active | GNU LGPL, BSD-style | Google Chrome and all other Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Samsung Internet and Opera | |
| Gecko | Active | Mozilla | Mozilla Public | Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client |
| Goanna | Active | M. C. Straver | Mozilla Public | Pale Moon, Basilisk and K-Meleon browsers |
| Trident | Maintained | Microsoft | Proprietary | Internet Explorer browser |
| EdgeHTML | Maintained | Microsoft | Proprietary | some UWP apps; formerly in the Edge browser |
| Presto | Maintained | Opera | Proprietary | server-side for low-end phones; formerly in the Opera browser |
| Flow | Maintained | Ekioh | Proprietary | Flow browser |
| Servo | Maintained | Linux Foundation | Mozilla Public | experimental browsers |
| NetSurf | Maintained | hobbyists | GNU GPLv2 | NetSurf browser |
| LibWeb | Maintained | hobbyists | 2-clause BSD | Ladybird browser |
| KHTML | Discontinued | KDE | GNU LGPL | formerly in the Konqueror browser |
Support
These tables summarize what actively-developed engines support.
Operating systems
The operating systems that engines can run on without emulation.
| Engine | Windows | macOS | iOS | Android | Linux | BSD | Haiku |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blink | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gecko | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Goanna | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No |
Notes
Image formats
| Engine | JPEG | GIF | PNG | SVG | WebP | AVIF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gecko | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Goanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Media formats
| Engine | VP9 | AV1 | HEVC | H264+AAC | Opus | FLAC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Depends | Yes |
| Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gecko | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Goanna | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Typography
| Engine | TTF | OTF | WOFF | WOFF2 | @font-face | Ligatures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WebKit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gecko | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Goanna | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Other items
| Engine | Web Components | WebGL | WebGPU | XHTML |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WebKit | Yes | Yes | Not yet | Yes |
| Blink | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Gecko | Yes | Yes | Not yet | Yes |
| Goanna | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |