Alternative browsers for Apple iOS: the top five. Choosing the new best Yandex browser for iPad Comparison of browsers for iPhone

26.10.2023

Read the article: 5 212

Although Flash technology has been persecuted for its insecurity and has been replaced by more modern developments, it is still popular on the Internet for watching videos and playing games. Flash is not officially supported on Android and iOS, so you'll need to do it yourself to access the games you want. We have already written about, now it’s time to consider the iOS operating system for iPad tablets and iPhone smartphones. Among the browsers there are both free and paid options with Flash support.

Key Features: Fast loading, Adobe Flash support via cloud, Theater mode, Flash quality settings, Virtual trackpad, Mobile and desktop modes, Incognito tab.

Puffin Web Browser is a fast, Flash-enabled browser for iPhone and iPad. Using servers on the Internet, it brings an analogue of the desktop to smartphones and tablets. The browser quickly and reliably displays full versions of web pages, including those with Flash. Puffin Free Flash does not support. The browser also supports HTML5 videos and games.

If desired, you can work with a mouse and keyboard, there are page bookmarks, search, pop-up blocker and popular sites. The browser has a rich design and is available in free and paid versions.

Photon Flash Player

Key Features: Support for Facebook games with Flash and video, Remote cloud browsing, Flash music streaming, iPhone mouse pointer mode, touch and drag mode, Flash zoom, private browsing, AirPrint printing.

Photon Browser is a great Flash-enabled application for extending the functionality of your iPad. It is a powerful alternative to the Safari browser, which does not have Flash. Flash content can be seen by clicking on the Lightning Bolt button.

The browser allows you to change bandwidth to get sharper images, higher frame rates, or when internet access is slow. You can play free games on Facebook and others with Flash support, listen to music and watch videos. The latest version of Adobe Flash is used.

You need to click on the Lightning Bolt button and enter broadcast mode to view sites. Otherwise, you will receive standard Adobe messages telling you to install or update Flash. Go to Settings > Bandwidth to get the most out of this mode.

You won't be able to access some sites because they block traffic from certain IP addresses. If you have a slow 3G internet, features like dial-up may also be slow. Flash mode works best over Wi-Fi. The browser has free and paid versions.

Virtual Browser for Firefox

Key features: support for Flash and Java sites, applications, games and videos, login via Mozilla ID, synchronization with Firefox, support for Firefox extensions, full screen mode, mouse mode.

This is a Firefox browser with additional support for games and videos in Flash and Java. Judging by the application description, Flash and Java run in a virtual cloud. You can synchronize data with your Firefox account, install extensions, plugins, and toolbars.

iSwifter Games Browser

Download

This browser will also allow you to watch Flash content, websites, videos, and interactive games on your iPad. It requires access to Wi-Fi networks to operate. The browser is free for the first 7 days, but after that you will need to install a paid version using an in-app purchase. This will give you access to all functionality and improve productivity.

Skyfire Web Browser

Download

iCab Mobile is one of the few cases where the developers managed to load the mobile browser with functions to the fullest, but at the same time it is really convenient to use, and the navigation is intuitive.

Today it is extremely difficult to find a worthy alternative to Safari, and there are two main reasons for this. First, Safari is the default for opening links in almost all apps (at least those that don't have a built-in browser). Secondly, and here it is worth paying tribute to Apple's designers, Safari is one of the few iOS browsers that looks modern and is scaled for the user's convenience.

However, Safari also has a lot of shortcomings. As we already mentioned in the best apps for iPad Pro (2018), Safari is updated extremely rarely - only with the release of a new version of iOS - and sometimes you have to wait literally years for bugs to be fixed or new features added. In addition, the functionality of mobile Safari is significantly reduced compared to desktop browsers.

If you want more control over your browser's interface and settings, consider iCab Mobile. This application is not new. Not at all, the first version of iCab Mobile was released back in 2009, and now the current build is 9.11.3, released in July of this year.

Interface and functionality

The first thing that greets you in the browser (besides the vintage iCab site as the default start page) is a huge number of buttons and settings. Fortunately, understanding most of them is not difficult.

The icons at the bottom of the screen speak for themselves. The leftmost key calls Action Menu, where you can manage tabs and forms, add a page to the Today or Quick Launch widget, and much more. Panels follow Personal Information And Reading list. In the latter, you can add pages to your reading list not only in iCab Mobile, but also in Safari, which is convenient if you prefer to read in the default browser.

The next two icons are an alternative way to navigate between tabs and full screen mode. In the settings you can enable the status bar in full screen mode if you need it. Icon with a puzzle piece - menu of modules (extensions for iCab). Here you can use connected modules - for example, add a page to Pocket or Evernote to read later.

Finally, the last three icons are Downloads, Dark Mode and Settings. It would seem that the purpose of all three is extremely clear, but here I would like to note the ability to save files in Dropbox and copy them to the clipboard, as well as create rules for downloads. For example, you want all books in .EPUB format to be automatically moved to the Downloads folder on your smartphone. Just a couple of taps is enough to add such a rule!

Important Features

It’s convenient that the search can be configured directly, forgive the tautology, in the search bar. You can choose whether to show search results in a separate tab or in the current one, change the search engine, or even switch to page search mode (!). A nice bonus - in search mode, an additional autocomplete line appears on the keyboard with symbols and popular domains: com, net, edu, etc.

It's definitely nice to be able to customize the interface to suit you. And we are talking not only about navigation elements, but also about design. If you find modern design too boring, you can switch to classic and change the color of contrasting elements.

In the Privacy settings menu, you can see how much space the cache takes up and clear it with one touch. The same goes for browser history, tabs, and search. It’s nice that you don’t need to go into your smartphone’s settings to do this, as is the case with Safari.

Finally, the last feature of iCab Mobile that I would like to talk about is the ability to change users. In addition to the admin, you can also add a guest profile with limited access to settings and separate browsing history and open tabs. You don’t need to close your personal tabs before giving your smartphone to another person - you just need to switch the user to Guest, this is done in two taps.

Conclusion

iCab Mobile is a great option if you are looking for a mobile browser that is as close in functionality as a desktop one. However, this app definitely looks better on larger screens due to the large number of icons and tab system.

A person always looks for an alternative when something does not suit him. Is Photoshop expensive? Hello Pixelmator! Not happy with Windows? You need to try OS X and Linux. And, as a rule, there are plenty of alternatives. So, from the very first days of its existence on the iPad, the standard built-in Safari browser had so-called alternatives.

Now I want to make a rather superficial but useful overview on the topic: “Why are alternative browsers needed?”

Safari gets better with every version of iOS. Now this is an excellent mobile browser with many useful features and settings. But there are a number of useful functions that iOS developers, for one reason or another, did not build into it. And the creators of alternative browsers are practically unlimited and therefore their solutions are often more advanced than Safari. The question is, does the user need it? I don’t encourage you to switch to them (I myself am a supporter of standard solutions and use Safari), but you need to know about other programs.

I will give examples of alternative browsers and point out some of their important advantages...

Apple doesn't like Flash, so Flash is not supported in Safari. The most popular and long-running solution is Puffin. Puffin allows you to not only watch videos in this outdated format, but even enjoy Flash games.

You can play with a virtual joystick.

Puffin also boasts loading acceleration technology. Visually, indeed, sites load much faster in it than in Safari.

Red Onion – Tor Browser

Are you paranoid? Got Ros thief surveillance that blocks sites?

Then Tor is coming to you.

Tor (short for The Onion Router) is free and open source software for implementing the second generation of so-called onion routing. This is a proxy server system that allows you to establish an anonymous network connection that is protected from eavesdropping.

The Red Onion Browser allows you to anonymously surf the World Wide Web. And you are not afraid of any blocking. Tor technology makes it easy and painless to bypass all restrictions. The main thing to remember is that Tor works slowly, this browser is only convenient for use for its intended purpose.

Also a nice bonus to Tor technology is the download manager.

Download Red Onion 75 rubles

iCabMobile

The oldest paid browser in the App Store. Huge functionality: from a built-in loader (able to work with archives) to support for a bunch of lazy reading services. No one else has such a huge number of settings...

This is a browser for those who want to control everything and everyone in the program. The developer constantly updates his creation.

Download iCabMobile 149 rubles

In one line mode about other notable browsers:

Mercury is not bad, but there are inadequate in-app purchases (1,790 rubles full version and subscription). Goodbye!
Dolphin is annoying with its constant crashes... But overall it was once good. We are waiting for updates. Now it’s bad...
The Firefox web browser is only for unassuming Fox fans. In terms of functionality, nothing...
UC Browser – works VERY poorly on iPhone and iPad. I think the developers merged - there were no updates for 2 years. In terms of potential at the time of release, it was among the leaders.
Chrome - the rating speaks for itself :)

Here's a short review. I hope someone will take away something necessary and useful. What browsers do you use (survey below) and why (in the comments)? Are you satisfied with your choice?

What browsers do you use regularly?

Safari (47%, 383 goals)
Google Chrome (18%, 146 goals)
Yandex.Browser (9%, 75 goals)
Puffin (8%, 63 goals)
Opera Coast (4%, 29 goals)
iCab Mobile (3%, 28 goals)
Red Onion (3%, 24 goals)
Firefox (2%, 19 goals)
UC Browser (2%, 19 goals)
Mercury (2%, 18 goals)
Dolphin (1%, 8 goals)
Maxthon (0%, 4 goals)
Atomic Web Browser (0%, 0 goals)

The question arises: which browser for iPhone from the AppStore is the best? We'll tell you about several quick and convenient options.

There is no doubt that Safari, provided by default to Apple technology users, is an excellent and fast browser, however, it is not without its shortcomings. For example, in playing Adobe Flash videos, the Safari browser is not an assistant: fans of the VKontakte and Odnoklassniki applications will have to try other options. Fortunately, there are many possible alternatives - some of them have unique features.

Price: 149 rub. +

According to many users, iCab Mobile is the best browser for iPhone because it includes everything that standard Safari lacks. Particularly pleased presence of real tabs, which remain familiar thanks to desktop browsers. iPhones of the 4th and 5th generations will hardly allow you to appreciate this advantage, but for 10-inch iPads this format is more convenient.

For those who think that tabs take up too much space on the screen, iCab Mobile has a second trump card - the ability to switch to full screen mode. The far right button in the bookmarks bar removes everything unnecessary from the screen.

Another plus - flexible setup. The user can activate modes such as Site Compression And Private Browsing: the first is necessary to save traffic, the second allows you to keep secret the pages that the user visited.

iCab Mobile also has a minus: it is a paid browser, and the price is steep - 149 rubles. There are many free alternatives, so users are hesitant to spend money.

Yandex.Browser

Price: Free

Yandex.Browser is a free program that offers the user no less features than iCab and Safari. When you first launch the browser for iPhone, the user sees a very convenient “Tableboard” menu, where you can place up to 15 stickers to quickly launch pages. Other benefits include:

Traffic saving mode “Turbo”. The built-in Safari is one of the most power-hungry browsers. In this regard, Yandex.Browser is the best alternative: the activated “Turbo” mode allows you to save up to 40% of traffic.
Smart search. The browser can predict the user's request and easily translates foreign words.
Built-in protectionProtect warns that the site you are going to may contain malware.

Yandex.Browser also has disadvantages, but they are very minor: for example, users do not have the ability to search by text or export pages to PDF format. In general, Yandex.Browser is the most convenient and effective free program that can be found in the AppStore.

Dolphin

The Dolphin browser is more popular among Android users (the audience is more than 9 million users), however, it has recently been presented in the AppStore. This browser runs on the same engine as Safari (Webkit), but has a number of advantages over standard software:

Gesture input. To activate this function, you need to click on the hand icon on the bottom line. Next, draw, say, the letter G on the screen with your finger and go to the Google search engine. The function is configured by the user.
Sonar– voice control tool. Voice can be used not only to search the Internet, but also to control.

For domestic users, Dolphin is less convenient than, for example, Yandex Browser, because it does not support Cyrillic domains.

Conclusion

Domestic iPhone users do not consider Safari such a bad browser to pay for its replacement. However, the AppStore is regularly updated with many free alternatives that can provide the user with additional features. The most promising browser for iOS among those that can be downloaded for free seems to be Yandex.Browser: already now it is preferable and more convenient than most options - if Yandex takes care of eliminating a number of minor shortcomings through updates, this browser will be far ahead of the rest.

With the speed with which the number of iPad owners increases, the activity of software developers for them also increases, especially in terms of browsers. And how could it be otherwise, when the iPad itself is based on the function of providing convenient access to flash information posted on the pages of Internet sites. But each iPad user has his own priorities and interests, and therefore, his own requirements for the form of information provided. Therefore, the best browser is different for everyone - which one you choose.

It is immediately necessary to pay attention to the fact that most of them do not support the function of viewing flash information, but one of the supporting flash, the most common, will be described. The browser for the TOR project will also be analyzed, but more on that below.

UC Browser on iPad

The speed is achieved through the use of cloud traffic processing technology, which may be attractive for those who use their iPad to surf the web. Pages load significantly faster even compared to Safari, not to mention the Opera browser, so the flash player is “in its place” here.

It should be noted that traffic compression does not come at the expense of performance. The developers provide 4 GB for storing their files, this is in addition to the standard functions of downloading information.

One of the features worth paying attention to is creating your own bookmarks, since they and open tabs function only with the creation of your own account.

Coast by Opera

A new browser that, with its entire appearance, claims to be individual and even unique. This is especially noticeable in the fact that if in other browsers there are simply bookmarks, then in this one your favorite sites are displayed in the high-speed access panel, although only a few sites can be placed there. The issue of quick search was also solved in an original way - based on the first characters of the input, the browser will guess the most frequently used search addresses.

The developers have tried to use the screen area with maximum efficiency. No unnecessary information, not even website addresses, only two functions, one of which opens the quick access panel, and the other – the last opened sites.

Fans of online shopping will be especially pleased with the function of checking the loyalty of online stores, which is calculated using at least three indicators.

InstaWeb

This one-page browser somehow simply fantastically clears web pages of all advertising fluff. You receive clean text without spam or advertising. At the same time, all the main graphics of the site are preserved. It looks similar to Google's. By its type it is a convertible browser, but it only works with pdf files, but it opens them with almost any program; its highlight is a good flash player.

The interface is clear even without Russification; all basic operations are performed in a couple of touches. In terms of functionality, speed and cost (in most cases, when you go to the InstaWeb corporate page, the program can be downloaded for free), this is one of the best browsers; it does not slow down, since the flash player is “in its place.”

Offline Pages

The Offline Pages application allows you to save information for offline viewing, which makes it stand out among others. This information can subsequently be viewed in both Safari and Chrome. At the same time, in prof. version has the ability to save multi-page sites and video information, but the cost of this version is high.

The function of switching to full-screen mode and sending the saved page to social networks is retained.

Yandex

Yandex search, which was unsuccessful in all respects, was almost recently replaced by a full-fledged Yandex browser. Not only the name has changed, but also the content. Although the main thing is not in the design, but in the smart search function, when a request takes you to exactly the sites you were looking for. At the same time, it is possible to view the list of issued links on the left side of the screen, and the contents of sites on the right, which is quite convenient.

Among the additional features, it is worth noting the ease of working with tabs. Several dozen selected addresses can be placed in the central display. Built-in voice dialing capability in several languages, including Russian.

Despite all its awards and praise, this product must be approached with sober assessments. After all, what the user is always interested in is the speed of loading information (a powerful flash player) and how quickly he can find it. The creators of the Chrome browser tried their best to combine these two qualities.

The interface takes some getting used to. Particularly unusual is the lack of bookmarks, and the quick access panel is not universal. However, this is compensated by high performance, which, however, can sometimes fail when the screen is quickly enlarged. Voice input also wants better functionality, sometimes it's easier to enter text into the search bar.

Dolphin Browser HD

Most iPad users agree that it is better than others, although it is far from perfect. However, it contains all the functions familiar to us, which is why people are in a hurry to download it. There are bookmarks, a quick access panel, tabs, and its own feature. This is where we will focus our attention.

In the upper right corner there is a conventional “Signs” icon. When you click on it, a black board appears, just like in school. On this board, you can use your finger to draw a symbol installed by the browser, or created by you, which immediately displays the required page to which the drawn symbol corresponds.

Puffin - flash for iPad

Unlike the Skyfire browser, which only partially solves the problem with flash playback, Puffin solves this problem in full. True, the price for this was rather weak functionality.

One of the features worth noting is the ability to download flash videos as needed, and not constantly, which speeds up its work a little.

Tor Browser Bundle

This software product allows you to quickly and without unnecessary knowledge start using the anonymous network of the TOR project. It includes the tor itself and the Vidalia graphical shell, together with the portable version of Firefox.

Using the tor product allows you to hide not only your presence on the network as much as possible, but also encrypt all your traffic, both transmitted and received.

As you can see, there are different browsers, and you can download whichever one you like best to work with. This could be tor or Puffin, in which the flash player loads quickly, give preference to Yandex or any other.

views

Save VKontakte