Serious Discussion Brave 1.0 is now six years old

[Miravi]

Brave has been around and familiar long enough for us to take its presence in the market for granted. Brave 1.0 celebrated its birthday yesterday, six years after launching across desktop and mobile (Android/iOS) platforms. What's so special about Brave, anyway? Isn't it just a thin Chromium wrapper?

As it turns out, Brave is a marvel of privacy that diverges significantly from the Chromium codebase, making it a deep fork that implements extensive surgical changes. Brave's Github keeps a Deviations from Chromium wiki page detailing the 5.7+ million lines of code deviations that the project maintains on its own. Compare that to the estimated 100–200K lines of custom code that Edge superficially layers over Chromium.

What Brave removes or disables​

Category	Removed/Disabled	Why It Matters
Google Telemetry	All usage stats, crash reports	No data sent to Google
Google Sign-In	Sync, login via Google	Uses Brave’s encrypted P2P sync
Direct Safe Browsing	safebrowsing.google.com	Proxied (your IP hidden)
Update Checks	update.googleapis.com	Uses Brave’s update system
Component Updates	dl.google.com, gvt1.com	Proxied to avoid tracking
FLoC / Privacy Sandbox	Google’s ad-tracking tech	Completely gone
Infura (Web3)	Default Ethereum RPC	Replaced with privacy nodes
DevTools Hosting	Google-hosted frontend	Proxied or local
Favicon Service	t0.gstatic.com/faviconV2	Proxied

Brave proxies these through its own servers (Google never sees your IP or identity)​

• Safe Browsing
• Component & dictionary updates
• Extension update checks (only if you install Chrome extensions)
• Favicon fetching
• Web3 RPC (Infura)

Brave features added & enhancements to Chromium​

Privacy & Security​

• Shields – Blocks ads, trackers, cookies, scripts
• Farbling – Scrambles fingerprinting (canvas, fonts, WebGL)
• Bounce Tracking – Removes utm_, fbclid from URLs
• CNAME Uncloaking – Exposes hidden trackers
• HTTPS Everywhere – Forces secure sites
• Tor Mode – Private browsing via Tor
• Forgetful Browsing – Auto-wipes data on tab close

Speed & Battery​

• 3–6× faster pages (no ads/trackers)
• Longer battery life (less background junk)
• Lower RAM use

Sync & Freedom​

• Brave Sync – Encrypted via P2P, no Google account or central server
• No Google Sign-In – Full browser, zero Google

Crypto & Web3​

• Brave Wallet – Built-in (ETH, SOL, BTC, etc.)
• IPFS Support – View ipfs:// sites
• Web3 DApp Ready – Connect to Uniswap, etc.
• BAT Rewards – Earn tokens for opt-in ads

Customization​

• New Tab Page – Backgrounds, news, etc.
• Sidebar – Bookmarks, AI, reading list
• Vertical Tabs – Modern layout option

You won't find anything to truly substitute Brave Shields, either. This native adblocker engine is written in future-proof Rust for memory safety and performance, announced as being up to 69× faster than its C++ predecessor. It operates at the lowest level possible in Chromium's network stack, as a Node.js module, or even WASM—including bindings for JS/Python. It isn't subject to the restrictions of extensions, including the infamous Manifest V3.

Brave keeps a lean, efficient team with ~25-30 consistent maintainers on the project. The majority of commits (as much as 80–90%) comes from full-time employees, with 1,000+ patches applied per release cycle. Total commits have increased year over year to reach ~10K/year in 2024–2025. Since its launch, the usage of Brave has grown tremendously:

• ~1.1% global market share
• 101M monthly active users – doubled from 50M in 2021
• 42M daily active users – quadrupled from 10M in 2019
• 1.6B Brave Search queries/month; 15M AI answers/day

Here's to another bold year of Brave!

 

[Sorrento]

Works well here for many months along with Firefox...

 

[stonjean633]

Ads hate Brave. For that, I like it.

 

[Marko :)]

My only beef with Brave is inability to make cryptocrap entirely gone from the browser without using Group Policy. Recently on Android they finally added ability to remove Brave VPN, Rewards and such from menu and I applaud them for that.

I also don't like their ad blocker because it doesn't support all syntaxes just regular ABP ones. And it doesn't have any additional settings which would give users more control. But as long as it lets me install normal version of uBlock Origin, I'm willing to let this pass.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

My only beef with Brave is inability to make cryptocrap entirely gone from the browser without using Group Policy. Recently on Android they finally added ability to remove Brave VPN, Rewards and such from menu and I applaud them for that.

I also don't like their ad blocker because it doesn't support all syntaxes just regular ABP ones. And it doesn't have any additional settings which would give users more control. But as long as it lets me install normal version of uBlock Origin, I'm willing to let this pass.

I've been using it without UBO and for the 30 or so sites I visit everyday I've seen no ads at all. So for now UBO is not needed in my case.

 

[n8chavez]

My only beef with Brave is inability to make cryptocrap entirely gone from the browser without using Group Policy. Recently on Android they finally added ability to remove Brave VPN, Rewards and such from menu and I applaud them for that.

I also don't like their ad blocker because it doesn't support all syntaxes just regular ABP ones. And it doesn't have any additional settings which would give users more control. But as long as it lets me install normal version of uBlock Origin, I'm willing to let this pass.

Try CatsXP. It's essentially Brave without the crap. Odd ,name, true. But it's a surprising powerful browser.

 

[Marko :)]

I've been using it without UBO and for the 30 or so sites I visit everyday I've seen no ads at all. So for now UBO is not needed in my case.

I tried it and while it did block ads on websites I visit, I'd still like to have more control over its blocking. Especially in cases it blocks something it shouldn't. With uBO I could easily unblock things myself while with Brave's ad blocker, I'd either have to disable it completely or report to their team to fix it (which could take days/weeks).

Mobile web version of Reddit is broken due to hidden and not closed pop-up asking you to open Reddit in app. I reported this using built-in too few times this week and it still isn't fixed.

Try CatsXP. It's essentially Brave without the crap. Odd ,name, true. But it's a surprising powerful browser.

No thanks! I try to avoid Chinese software at all costs. Firefox + uBlock Origin for the win!

 

[n8chavez]

You know that MV2 and Firefox are not long for this world right? Firefox has no money expect from Google and barely any marketshare. Why would Gorhill keep developing uBo for little to no users? Like it or not, Gecko is done.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

With uBO I could easily unblock things myself while with Brave's ad blocker, I'd either have to disable it completely

Absolutely, UBO has more flexibility.

 

[Marko :)]

You know that MV2 and Firefox are not long for this world right? Firefox has no money expect from Google and barely any marketshare. Why would Gorhill keep developing uBo for little to no users? Like it or not, Gecko is done.

Actually, MV2 and MV3 aren't the problem; the permission APIs are. uBlock Origin and other ad block extensions work in limited capacity because when Google introduced MV3 change, they decided to disable blockingWebRequest API altogether which is what ad blockers and many other extensions rely on.
They could totally keep this permission API with MV3, but chose not to do so in order to harm ad blockers.

Mozilla hasn't announced when they will phase out support for MV2 extensions, but they did clarify even when they introduce MV3, they will continue to support blockingWebRequest and declarativeNetRequest API so no extension will stop working. Beside, Mozilla itself advertises uBlock Origin and recommends it on their website, as well as on AMO. See this article on Mozilla's blog explaining their approach to MV3.

Their agreement with Google doesn't forbid them supporting ad blockers as Google pays them to be default search engine and in order to keep competition alive. Without Mozilla, Google is doomed because it's essentially monopoly. And yes, money won't stop flowing as court in the US allowed Google to pay Mozilla.

 

[TairikuOkami]

Brave is Google's side division, still it is pretty impressive, it shows/proves, how advertisements work, pretty well. Reverse psychology at it's best.

 

[Miravi]

Brave is Google's side division, still it is pretty impressive, it shows/proves, how advertisements work, pretty well. Reverse psychology at it's best.

Not to say that Brave is beyond reproach, but what evidence is there that they actually belong to Google? Brave Search is a completely independent index as of 2025, earning revenue through non-tracking ads and premium subscriptions. Brave Search API just gained SOC 2 attestation after an independent three-month audit certified their systems and processes for security and privacy, after which it will be repeated every year.

 

[n8chavez]

It's so funny how people hang on to software so tightly, with a death grip on what used to be. It doesn't matter if it was awesome. It doesn't matter if it was better than what exists now. The past is past. MV2 and Gecko are not technically gone. That's true. But they are both slowly decaying corpses, that will ceases to exists whenever Google decides their time is up and pull funding from Mozilla. Gorhill himself says uBo is on its way out in favor of uBo lite. There are Gecko browsers I really like, suck as Floorp and Zen. But it's time to stop propping up nearly-dead browsers weekend at Bernie's style. Is it ideal? No. But it is reality.

 

[TairikuOkami]

Not to say that Brave is beyond reproach, but what evidence is there that they actually belong to Google?

Background Youtube playback on Android is a paid feature, Google regularly takes down any app bypassing that, any app but Brave.
Google literally ignores Brave, as if it does not exist, yet it bypasses Youtube ads for years without a single action or a lawsuit from Google.

 

[Sampei.Nihira]

I would just like to add a comment regarding what has been written here:

• 3–6× faster pages (no ads/trackers)

Unfortunately, website loading speed does not depend solely on the above factors.
Gorhill has demonstrated that Dynamic filtering greatly affects website loading speed:

Blocking mode

Furthermore, under the same conditions, the adblock used also affects the speed at which the website opens:



Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

The website opening speed obviously increases if you use Dynamic filtering in uBlock Origin Lite.

With my Hard Mode + TLD rule, all websites not included in the TLD exclusion list (pure Hard Mode) will open as quickly as possible in uBoL.

 

[simmerskool]

fwiw: I try Brave about every 3 months or so, but end up uninstalling it for various reason(s), I installed it 1.84.139 (142.0.7444.163) today with Hibit Uninstaller install monitor feature, and the Brave installation "broke" Hibit such that Hibit installation log never completed, so Brave devs apparently do not want its installation into win10 tracked, OR that's what happened here. For me, this does not instill "confidence" with Brave. I realize this is perhaps unique to me.

 

[Marko :)]

It's so funny how people hang on to software so tightly, with a death grip on what used to be. It doesn't matter if it was awesome. It doesn't matter if it was better than what exists now. The past is past. MV2 and Gecko are not technically gone. That's true. But they are both slowly decaying corpses, that will ceases to exists whenever Google decides their time is up and pull funding from Mozilla. Gorhill himself says uBo is on its way out in favor of uBo lite. There are Gecko browsers I really like, suck as Floorp and Zen. But it's time to stop propping up nearly-dead browsers weekend at Bernie's style. Is it ideal? No. But it is reality.

Actually, I was a very long time Brave user; I'm still using Brave on Android as it's perfect for me there. I switched to Firefox a year ago or so as I find it way better and faster than any other Chromium web browser out there. It was always a plan for me to switch to more private browser and Firefox simply ticked all the boxes for me. Initially, I had issues with it that seemed unsolvable so I kept both Brave and Firefox, until I fixed the issues and now Firefox is the only web browser I have installed on my PC; my first and only choice.

Firefox far from "slowly decaying corpse" or dead. We're talking about Mozilla's flagship product; product that made them famous. What iPhone is to Apple, that's Firefox to Mozilla. Even if Google pulls out from financing Mozilla, they will always find a way to keep their flagship product afloat, even if that means shutting down every other business. In reality, Google will never stop paying Mozilla just how they'll never stop paying Apple; this could land them in serious trouble. Paying for default search engine in browser with less than 3% marketshare is just an excuse for paying them to be a competitor in the field—nothing else.

Could you link where gorhill said uBO is going away in favor of uBO Lite? The only thing I could find is him saying he'll keep these projects separate. Nothing else.

Background Youtube playback on Android is a paid feature, Google regularly takes down any app bypassing that, any app but Brave.
Google literally ignores Brave, as if it does not exist, yet it bypasses Youtube ads for years without a single action or a lawsuit from Google.

That is suspicious. There must be some kind of deal between Brave and Google we don't know about.

 

[Sampei.Nihira]

@Marko :)

It's unlikely that Firefox is faster than Chromium-based browsers.
For example, it's slower in the Speedometer 3.1 test.
But this test says everything and nothing.
In my opinion, you should measure web page loading speed.
In this regard, the most relevant factor is:

DOMContentLoaded

, which, in simple terms, is a value that quantifies when the user can interact with the loaded web page.

I took these measurements and saw that on my PC and with my network, Firefox has twice the value of Chrome on very heavy web pages.

You need to clear your browser cache with a cleaner such as CCleaner and open a web page for the first time (without reloading it) with the browser development tools open (I open them from a new tab), then go to the network:

Firefox:



Chrome:



I used uBo in both browsers with the same filter lists enabled.
Note that:

DOMContentLoaded

in Firefox is higher (slower).

 

[Marko :)]

@Marko :)

It's unlikely that Firefox is faster than Chromium-based browsers.
For example, it's slower in the Speedometer 3.1 test.
But this test says everything and nothing.
In my opinion, you should measure web page loading speed.
In this regard, the most relevant factor is:

DOMContentLoaded

, which, in simple terms, is a value that quantifies when the user can interact with the loaded web page.

I took these measurements and saw that on my PC and with my network, Firefox has twice the value of Chrome on very heavy web pages.

You need to clear your browser cache with a cleaner such as CCleaner and open a web page for the first time (without reloading it) with the browser development tools open (I open them from a new tab), then go to the network:

Firefox:

View attachment 293046

Chrome:

View attachment 293047

I used uBo in both browsers with the same filter lists enabled.
Note that:

DOMContentLoaded

in Firefox is higher (slower).

I told you, Firefox loads DOM faster for me.

The Verge:

Firefox

Brave

Engadget:

Firefox

Brave

NY Times:

Firefox

Brave

By Speedometer terms, yes, Firefox is a bit behind. I'm measuring 17.1 vs 21.3 on Brave, but this doesn't really tell anything. I bet that I could make this score go higher tinkering with about:config; I'm not gonna do that. Overall, Firefox simply feels faster on my laptop and it blocks ads better with uBO (as uBO is more capable in Firefox than it is in Chromium browsers).

 

[Miravi]

Background Youtube playback on Android is a paid feature, Google regularly takes down any app bypassing that, any app but Brave.
Google literally ignores Brave, as if it does not exist, yet it bypasses Youtube ads for years without a single action or a lawsuit from Google.

The same workaround used by Brave, which is loading the desktop site to retrieve the video as a standard media object, works on Firefox, Vivaldi, etc. They're not abusing APIs.

You could guess that it has to do with integration with Brave Shields (privacy tools), the built-in option of rewarding YouTube creators, and First Amendment protections for adblocking—Garcia v. Google (2015) upheld users' rights to control what loads on their device. Brave obviously has quite a bit of weight compared to little apps.

Perhaps this apparent exception raises eyebrows. I won't lean too hard into speculation.