Why I Use Qutebrowser as My Daily Browser (But You Probably Shouldn't)

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Qutebrowser is an amazing and very unique browser. The modern browser today is filled with unnecessary features, and qutebrowser helps eliminates that and makes browsing the web... Just browsing the web! Like any other browser though, Qutebrowser has its cons and trade-offs.

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Table of Contents

1. What is Qutebrowser?
2. Why Even Bother Learning Qutebrowser Anyways?
3. What's Wrong With Qutebrowser?
4. Final Thoughts

What Is Qutebrowser?

Qutebrowser is an open-source browser based on the QtWebEngine written in Python (which is surprisingly fash for Python). Qutebrowser is keyboard-driven, and uses Vim keymaps (for the most part), to boost your productivity. Similar to [dwb (https://bitbucket.org/portix/dwb/src/master/), if you're familiar with that.

Why Even Bother Learning Qutebrowser Anyways?

I asked the same thing. [Their website (https://qutebrowser.org/doc/faq.html) has a lot of good reasons, but my ones are for productivity reasons. You never realize how many distractions a modern browser nowadays has, and how much they slow you down. Qutebrowser eliminates all of that and not only that, but their keybinds make it so you don't even need to touch your mouse! That's just one small bit of why I use qutebrowser, here are some bullet points:

• Vim and Other Keybinds (insanely boosts productivity)
• Built-in ad-blocker (sadly doesn't work on YouTube.)
• It allows for crazy customization.
• The whole project is Open-source, and maintained with donations

Ever since I started using Qutebrowser I've, seen a huge productivity boost in my developer workflow, which is the main reason why I use it, not only as a developer but for everyday web browsing. The customization part, while not as important, I'm a big fan of (especially as I spend hours in my dotfiles trying to make them look as clean as possible), and I appreciate how Qutebrowser makes it easy to make my browser look the way I want it to look.

But most importantly, qutebrowser is a browser, and nothing else. This is exactly what I look for in a browser, I don't need a fancy start page filled with distracting ads and bloated with trackers. And the good thing is, if you need them, then Qutebrowser makes it easy to add them!

RELATED: ⭐️ Configuring NeoVim with Lua: What You Should Know

What's Wrong With Qutebrowser?

So I've talked about how great Qutebrowser is for me so far, but would I recommend it? It depends...

Qutebrowser Forms

I do have to admit, I miss auto-fill in some forms. I'm usually not a big fan of them for some security concerns (especially when using chromium-based browsers), but I do find that they save some time, and they are honestly useful in some cases, so hopefully, that's something that they add soon.

Qutebrowser Security and Privacy

While qutebrowser doesn't steal your data and does try to block some trackers, it is not nearly as much as what you can get using a Firefox or Chromium extension. Another thing worth mentioning is as the QtWebEngine is chromium based, it does allow google to add some little sneaky things here and there.

Other

other smaller things are a bit annoying about Qutebrowser (mainly the lack of extensions), like no password managers, some weird ad block problems, and videos... are just a pain, but that's not too much of a problem with me since I don't watch YouTube on my laptop, but don't expect to get the smoothest experience when watching videos.

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

Qutebrowser is a great browser, and I don't see myself going back to another browser anytime soon, but it's not for everyone, and it (like any other browser) of course has its cons.

I appreciate you spending your time reading this post, if you'd like to read more, here you go:

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🔥 Configuring NeoVim with Lua: What You Should Know

Comments

[codeyStein]

What are your thoughts on Qutebrowser?

P.S: I'm thinking of doing a post about configuring qutebrowser, simmilar to this one, would you be interested in that?

[Leon]

Have used QB for years and love it. I use an external password manager anyway. Lack of extensions is the main con, but it's a price I'm willing to pay. My other gripe is memory usage, which might just be a QtWebEngine issue. See github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser....

Config article could be interesting but personally I'd love to hear if you've tried jemalloc or similar for allocation as suggested in that issue, and if it works to reduce memory usage without being unstable. Because QB allows to have a small window footprint for tab bar (I use vertical tabs down the left side), I often keep many tabs open for a long time and use tabs more like temporary bookmarks, but the mem usage tends to creep up over time.

Cheers,
Leon