Is there a customizable browser for Android supporting add-ons?

Maybe Icecat mobile or an older version of Firefox?

Good Morning.

I have tried this Dolphin Browser on my old Surftab (Android 4.4 I think).
It "worked" and seemed ok,but the Surftab was really very slow.....but maybe worth a Try.

https://www.giga.de/apps/dolphin-browser/

Good luck,Sinchen.

@IC_ Can't find a browser named Icecat on apkpure. Where to download? And I'd rather not use unsupported (old) browser versions.

@alexander1970 Customization options are a bit better on the dolphin browser but I did not find add-on support. A switch "adblock on/off" without any possibilities to add own filter(-list)s is not enough.

Thanks for the recommendations!
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There are countless "privacy" Firefox forks out there I've never heard of, but none of them looked very promising. For now I'll stay with "Kiwi". Played around with this one yesterday after uploading this blog. Kiwi seems to be a Chrome fork, has addon support and allowed turning off most crap.

The question for me is not really "What is the best browser on Android?" but "Which browser sucks the least?"

Am I really the only one wanting more options in the settings of a browser?! Not every person has the same preferences, so why not offer more instead of less? What is it with the trend to show a "convenient" start page full of predefined garbage bookmarks? (Even bild.de was in some of them).

I think it's on f-droid. I don't have an android device and I never used it so I don't know if it's any good compared to the desktop version...

Fennec. Based on Firefox, but without proprietary stuff (requires F-Droid)
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.fennec_fdroid/

The other thing you should install, is a system-wide adblocker which is independent of any browser you might use.
https://blokada.org/

@Henx Latest Fennec apk file from F-Droid site is compiled for arm64-v8a processors. The phone in question has armeabi-v7a → Does not install. A short search shows that "Fennec" is just a recompiled Firefox without some stuff. If this is based on latest Firefox it will miss the same options and features. However: Can't even try (unless there is a package for armeabi-v7a devices and I'm too dumb to find it).


Is there a need for system-wide adblocker on a phone when having a Pi-hole? Having a background service running all the time for what? I don't even run system adblock on my computers. More important for me than adblock: Things like uMatrix or NoScript, some cookie/cache/browser history management and anti-fingerprinting in the browser.

>Is there a need for system-wide adblocker on a phone when having a Pi-hole?
They do the same thing (blacklisting domain names), though of course unless you run your own VPN at home it won't be very useful for your mobile connection

I would recommend Bromite, but do mind that it's just Chromium with built-in adblock (of the actual element removing kind) and very little added stuff, no general purpose extensions for sure, but at least it's fast (and you know someone screwed up when firefox is more bloated than chromium)

By the way, remember firefox was the first browser to remove (outside of about:config) the option to disable javashit to pander to the noobs who accidentally turn that off and complain

I still have a backup apk of firefox v68.11.0 before their shitty update if you want it.

I have been using Iceraven which is basically the latest Firefox (Fenix) but with more addon support and about:config restored. If there is an addon that it doesn't have then just post an issue and the maintainer will add it to the whitelist/allowlist for you unless it is known not to work.

@Ryccardo My mobile connection? Don't have that. Won't buy (paying a lot of €€ for heavily limited data volume… hahaha).
I'm just setting up this phone because my old dumbphone died and I don't have any classic phones left in the drawer.
The most things I do/did on the smartphone are just for learning purposes and it will be used just as an emergency phone, not a computer. But since it actually is a computer it should have an at least acceptable browser – just in case. If the system-wide adblocker on Android does the same (DNS block) as Pi-hole it is useless for now.

Preventing noobs from locking themselves out of whatever can be used as a killer argument for every stupid decision when butchering options. I'm fine with easy, heavily castrated settings as long as there still is a full/expert/advanced version. The about:config page contains everything and more than one would ever need. Removing that option cannot be justified in a sensible manner. If somebody opens about:config they get a warning an must have searched/read before; nobody opens that accidentally. If they mess up they have no reason to complain.

@AnimeIsDead Please no non-supported browser. I already have that package.

@nl255 Will try that as well. The problem with the countless non-mainstream forks is the following:

github.com/fork-maintainers/iceraven-browser said:

No warranties or guarantees of security or updates or even stability!

Click to expand...

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Wow. That are way more replies, suggestions and ideas than expected.

Thank you all!

Yes, that is a problem with unofficial forks but fortunately this one seems to be getting quite popular which generally means better supported. As an example I personally use Waterfox as my daily desktop browser despite being a Firefox fork and it works fine and gets frequent updates.

Note that Fenix, the "new" Firefox for Android, itself is actually still a late alpha to early beta version so there will be things that can't easily be fixed by said fork until they are fixed or implemented by Mozilla.

@KleinesSinchen Neps. Fennec is based on Firefox ESR, which is focused on enterprise and long term support. They won't remove about:config support soon as it is used for deployments.
This fork is kept updated very well. Been using for more than a year now. F-Droid updates it automatically.

Another option is IceCat, GNU version of Mozilla. Includes SpyBlock and LibreJS. It won't work with every website, but it is great for privacy/freedom.
Not sure what is the deal with blocking ads system-wide. With Pi-hole you can disable whatever you want.
@nl255 I haven't heard of this fork yet, but looks as good