this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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Safari has been very slow on my iPad recently, so I'm considering some alternatives.

My google search brought me some options like Opera Mini and Puffin but I don't like Opera and Puffin is deprecated.

I've been using Orion browser for a while since I thought it was faster than safari but it's so unstable that it grays out about once in 10 minutes.

I just tried installing Firefox Focus (since it says it's lightweight), not sure if it's the best option.

Is there any browser that is as simple as just a tabbed WebView? ( I mean, I'm looking for something dead simple like NetNewsWire for rss that is written in pure swift.)

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (2 children)

everything use webkit by apple decision, i don't think you're very luck here

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It sounds like OP is looking for a different App, not a different engine. Not sure what the actual issue is, though, maybe it is engine related.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Safari is a very thin wrapper around the WebKit rendering engine. Oversimplifying, but it basically only handles bookmarks and tabs. The actual webpage is handled with WebKit and all web browsers on iOS use WebKit.

So if Safari is acting slow, then you can presume that all browsers on iOS would act slow in those same situations.

In practice though, Safari/webkit slowdown tends to be one of two things:

  1. Poorly designed website: Think tons of trackers, ads, and analytics that bog down the website for no benefit to the user.

  2. Browser Extension issues:

Some extensions can speed up websites, mostly in the form of blockers than prevent unnecessary resources from loading in the first place…

On the other end of the spectrum, there are extensions that slow websites down that need to read and inject content into the source. It may be prudent to examine your extensions and see if there are conflicts.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

(except for puffin)

Where do you think I should ask this question in? Asklemmy?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You are in the right place, but there is no solution. All browsers are basically safari with a different „skin“ on iOS.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They do behave differently, though. In fact, Firefox Focus worked surprisingly fast compared to Safari.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Firefox on iOS uses WebKit.

I think you’ve inadvertently narrowed down that the issue is an extension you have enabled for Safari. Since it’s not the website itself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have enabled only 1Password for Safari. There's no other extension enabled/installed.

It appears that it's not about rendering engine, although everyone mentions about that. The problem is in the app itself, not webkit.

And I know that every browsers on iOS use WebKit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I was going to say Opera Mini. But maybe try some safari ad blocker extensions, could speed things up. Not sure if it helps.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I’m with OP. Safari on iOS has been brutally slow lately, which is weird. But it seems to only be the case when I enable the AdGuard extensions. Unfortunately, I still need an on-device blocker to catch what Pi-hole can’t.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve been using Wipr for a long while now, seems to be fairly light weight. Haven’t noticed any slowing really. Also dark night and Amplosion extensions.

Wipr is one of the few app I’ve paid for as it seems to just work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm trying Adblock Pro now and it's working really well, with no impact. I'd tried Wipr years ago but it didn't work well at the time. Maybe I'll give that another try.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have AdGuard and NextDns and I didn’t notice any slowdown

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Interesting. I had the same setup and didn't really notice much benefit so I canceled NextDNS and stuck with the AG Home.

That said, removing AG from my phone (or disabling the extensions) immediately sped things - it's an entirely different experience. I tried a different adblocker now and it hasn't impacted speeds at all so I'm inclined to believe it's something with how I set up AG on my device.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you tried Mullvad’s or Aha’s DoH with adblocking?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Def used Mullvad on desktop, not on mobile. Thanks for the heads up on Aha's Blitz. I've tried NextDNS and Control-D. Will gladly give this a shot.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

DuckDuckGo works well for me

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah that's worth considering. Thank you for your advice.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Try adding a lightweight content blocker to safari like wipr or adguard , it should speed things up

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I used to use Hush, but it didn't improve the performance I remember.