NetSurf icon
NetSurf icon

NetSurf

NetSurf is a free, open source web browser written in C and released under the GPLv2 license. NetSurf has its own layout and rendering engine entirely written from scratch. It is small and capable.

NetSurf screenshot 1

Cost / License

  • Free
  • Open Source

Application type

Alerts

  • Discontinued

Platforms

  • Mac
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • BSD
  • Haiku
  • AmigaOS
  • Xfce
NetSurf screenshot 1
NetSurf screenshot 2
NetSurf alternatives  
Discontinued

The latest version (3.11) was released in December 2023.

42likes
139alternatives
0articles

Features

Properties

  1.  Lightweight
  2.  Privacy focused

Features

  1.  HTTPS Support
  2.  Non profit
  3.  Activity history
  4.  Bookmarks
  5.  Ad-free
  6.  Tabbed browsing

NetSurf News & Activities

Highlights All activities

Recent News

No news, maybe you know any news worth sharing?
Share a News Tip

Recent activities

Ad
Screenshot
Opera icon
Opera

An advanced browser with a built-in VPN for privacy, ad blocker, Speed Dial, AI, cloud sync, and rich extensions, tailored for various devices.

 
Learn More

Comments and Reviews

   
Top Positive Comment
tux0r
0

NetSurf is a lightweight alternative to Chrome and other contemporary web browsers, "good enough" for large parts of the web, and it's very portable - it even has a version for Plan 9.

Top Negative Comment
TBayAreaPat
0

Windows download 2023 is a demo. Latest usable is 2020. Appears to use British servers. It feels lightweight, but you will likely struggle w/stripped interface. Way to make bookmark isn't apparent. No Multi-tab.. nope.

Kelson V
0

Extremely fast and light, and good for reading web pages (but not so much for running web apps) on low-spec hardware or virtual machines running Linux or other Unix-like OSes and RISC-OS. Haiku version mostly works but things like settings aren't built yet. A little more capable than Dillo, a little slower, and runs on a slightly different set of platforms.

Unfortunately it can't access AlternativeTo because of the JavaScript requirements.

MarMi
1

Too lightweight for me: no tabs, no session restoration (Windows).

CDeath
0

When I want to search in google/video popup tab and write: Memory error, free up some memory. I have 2Gb RAM and browser want more..

Review from a new or low-activity account — shown here, but not counted in the app rating.
lunolas
1

Hopefully better HTML support will come to this small and excellent browser

Featured in Lists

Free lightweight web browsers that may speed up your web navigation

Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari, Microsoft Edge, these are probably browsers the majority of you use....

List by Paul with 15 apps, updated

Lightweight Browsers

A list with 10 apps by ferfp without a description.

List by ferfp with 10 apps, updated

Official Links

AppStores & Other Links

What is NetSurf?

Small, fast and free.

Whether you want to check your webmail, read the news or post to discussion forums, NetSurf is your lightweight gateway to the world wide web.

Features

  • Web standards: HTML 4.01 and CSS 2.1
  • Image formats: PNG, GIF, JPEG, SVG, and BMP
  • HTTPS for secure online transactions
  • Unicode text
  • Web page thumbnailing
  • Local history trees
  • Global history
  • Hotlist manager (bookmarks)
  • Cookie manager
  • URL completion
  • Text selection
  • Scale view
  • Search-as-you-type text search highlighting
  • Save pages complete with images
  • Fast, lightweight layout and rendering engine

RISC OS only

  • Image formats: Sprite, Drawfile and ArtWorks
  • Drawfile export

Written in C, features its own layout engine. Why choose NetSurf?

Speed

  • Efficiency lies at the heart of the NetSurf engine, allowing it to outwit the heavyweights of the web browser world. The NetSurf team continue to squeeze more speed out of their code. Interface innovation
  • Simple to use and easy to grasp. Lean requirements
  • From a modern monster PC to a humble 30MHz ARM 6 computer with 16MB of RAM, surfing the web whatever your system. Originally written for computer hardware normally found in PDAs, cable TV boxes, mobile phones and other hand-held gadgets, NetSurf is compact and low maintenance by design. Portable
  • NetSurf can be built for a number of modern computer platforms 'out of the box'. Written in C, with portability in mind, NetSurf is developed by programmers from a wide range of computing backgrounds, ensuring it remains available for as many users as possible. Standards compliant
  • Despite a myriad of standards to support, NetSurf is striving for complete standards compliancy. NetSurf aims to stay abreast of new and upcoming web technologies.

See the project goals and progress page for further information on where NetSurf is headed.

NetSurf information

AlternativeTo Category

Web Browsers

Popular alternatives

View all

Our users have written 6 comments and reviews about NetSurf, and it has gotten 42 likes

NetSurf was added to AlternativeTo by dholm on and this page was last updated .