I have been utilizing Courageous for some time now, and it does precisely what it guarantees. The privateness defaults are stable, the advert blocking works, and the Chromium basis means it runs proper. Nevertheless, I discovered myself curious whether or not one thing even leaner existed, a browser that coated the identical privateness floor with out accumulating fairly so many options round it.
Courageous has grown into a reasonably full-featured platform, which is nice if you would like that, however I needed to seek out out what the expertise felt like nearer to the necessities. That curiosity finally led me to Helium, an open-source browser constructed by a two-person group with a transparent and virtually cussed philosophy: do much less, however do it proper. I wasn’t anticipating it to carry up for various days of testing. A number of weeks later, it is nonetheless my essential browser.
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It wastes no time telling you precisely what it’s
Minimalism, however make it intentional
The second Helium’s setup display seems, you already know it is completely different. It is a clear, unhurried wizard that walks you thru selecting a default search engine (DuckDuckGo out of the field, however Startpage, Courageous Search, and Google are all choices), importing your bookmarks and extensions from one other browser, and toggling a handful of privateness options on or off.
When you’re carried out with that, you may discover that the brand new tab web page is actually a clean canvas with a single “Add shortcut” button sitting within the center. It is a intentionally minimal place to begin, and as soon as you agree into it, that simplicity turns into one of many extra comfy components of the expertise. Shortcuts populate robotically as you go to websites, or you’ll be able to add them manually. The toolbar follows the identical logic: solely the advert blocker, extensions, and profile icons are seen by default, however you’ll be able to head into Settings, Look, and Toolbar to floor no matter else you need, together with the split-view toggle, which is hidden by default.
That split-view characteristic is price discovering. Enabling it helps you to open two web sites aspect by aspect inside a single window, which is admittedly helpful while you’re researching one thing and need your notes and your sources on the identical display without delay. You activate it by right-clicking any hyperlink and deciding on “Open in Break up View,” or by enabling the toolbar button first. It isn’t flashy, but it surely solves an actual drawback with out requiring a separate app or a second window.
Below all of this sits Ungoogled Chromium, a model of Chromium that has been methodically stripped of Google’s background providers and data-sharing hooks. Meaning each extension you already use from the Chrome Net Retailer works right here with none fiddling, and Helium proxies these extension requests by means of its personal servers so Google cannot log what you are putting in. It additionally ships with uBlock Origin preinstalled and lively, which issues so much proper now provided that Google’s Manifest V3 transition has pushed many to ditch Chrome by degrading uBlock’s effectiveness in commonplace environments.
The options that do the heavy lifting
It will get fascinating below the hood
Every little thing that touches your information is surfaced in Settings, the place you may discover a devoted Helium Providers part — alongside commonplace Privateness and Safety controls — that lays out every safety individually. You’ll be able to tighten any of those additional, or, in the event you’re significantly skeptical of the builders themselves, self-host Helium’s proxy providers (used for anonymizing extension updates and filter downloads) utilizing the open-source code on GitHub.
One design selection that raised my eyebrows at first is the deliberate absence of a built-in password supervisor. Helium’s reasoning is simple: your passwords should not reside inside your browser, as a result of that makes them solely as safe as your browser session. It is a honest level that almost all browsers ignore. When you use a very good password supervisor like Bitwarden or KeePassXC, the transition is painless since each are extensions. When you’ve been counting on Chrome’s or Courageous’s native password storage, you may have to export and migrate your passwords earlier than switching, but it surely’s price doing so no matter which browser you land on.
The bangs characteristic is one other differentiator. Borrowed from DuckDuckGo however applied regionally so nothing will get despatched wherever, bangs allow you to leap on to any web site by typing a shortcut within the handle bar. When you kind “!w banana,” you land on Wikipedia’s banana web page. When you kind “!gh,” you are at GitHub. When you kind “!chatgpt” adopted by your query, Helium opens a contemporary ChatGPT session together with your question able to go, with out routing your immediate by means of any Helium server first. There are over 10,000 bangs accessible, and the total, searchable listing is at Helium.pc/bangs.
A number of trustworthy caveats earlier than you commit
A piece in progress price watching
Helium remains to be in beta, and it reveals in a few particular locations. Digital Rights Administration (DRM) assist just isn’t but inbuilt, which suggests Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and related streaming providers will not play content material contained in the browser. The group has flagged this as one thing coming in a future replace, however for now, you may have to preserve one other browser round if streaming is a part of your every day routine. Computerized updates are additionally solely accessible on macOS in the intervening time; in the event you’re on Home windows or Linux, you may have to seize new releases manually from GitHub. That is not a deal breaker, but it surely does require you to recollect to verify.
There’s additionally no native sync between units. Bookmarks, historical past, and settings reside solely regionally, which is philosophically in line with every part else Helium does, however could be inconvenient in the event you usually transfer between a desktop and a laptop computer. Third-party options like Nextcloud or a synced folder can fill the hole for bookmarks, but it surely takes a little bit of setup.
It is well worth the detour
None of this can be a purpose to dismiss it. Helium is among the most targeted browsers I’ve used. For anybody whose frustration with Courageous, Chrome, or Edge is rooted within the feeling that the browser needs one thing from you, it provides a uncommon various: a device that browses the online, and nicely, asks nothing in return.
OS
macOS, Home windows, Linux
Value mannequin
Free
Helium Browser is a privacy-focused, open-source net browser designed for individuals who worth a clutter-free expertise. It options unbiased ad-blocking, no bloat, and a user-friendly, noise-free interface.
