Waterfox

Waterfox is a privacy-focused browser aimed at power users who want deep control without assembling a stack of extensions. It's built on Firefox's engine but strips out telemetry, remote experiments, and anything that phones home, then adds features that most browsers reserve for add-ons.

The ad blocker is native, not bolted on. It uses a Rust-based engine with full uBlock Origin filter list support, including scriptlets and custom styles. No extension required, no compatibility drift after updates.

What ships out of the box:

• Oblivious DNS hides both what you're asking and who is asking, combining encrypted DNS with the anonymity layer that standard DoH doesn't provide.
• Zero telemetry means no analytics, no A/B experiments, no personalization pings. The code you install is the code that runs.
• Tree-style vertical tabs build parent-child hierarchies automatically as you open links, with keyboard shortcuts to promote, demote, collapse, or close entire branches. No add-on required.
• Private containers let you isolate a single tab's session without switching your whole window to incognito mode.
• On-device translation is the only machine learning present. No LLM sidebars, no summarizers, nothing sending page content to a remote model.

Where Brave leans into its own ecosystem and Firefox still ships telemetry by default, Waterfox's position is simpler: collect nothing, ship useful features natively, and leave the chatbots out entirely. The tree tab implementation is particularly well-considered for researchers and heavy multitaskers. Sessions with dozens of tabs stay navigable because the hierarchy is automatic, not something you have to maintain manually.