{"slug": "webkit", "name": "WebKit", "category": "browsers", "category_name": "Browsers and extensions", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.671, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-25", "latest": "2026-08-13", "why": "Gecko, WebKit and\u2014hopefully\u2014Ladybird are the true alternatives.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Gecko, WebKit and\u2014hopefully\u2014Ladybird are the true alternatives.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://webkit.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["WebKit"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 788684993, "item_id": 49292812, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49292812", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple's stubbornness on the iPhone is literally the only thing stopping Google.", "excerpt": "Chrome and Chromium browsers have around 80% of the browser market. Without Apple sticking to WebKit on the iPhone, Chrome would have a full monopoly over the browser and the direction of the web... even Microsoft caved to Google's monopoly in this space. You can argue that this would allow things to move faster, but faster in which direction? Would ad blocking be killed once and for all? Would tracking be embedded i", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What browser do you use?"}, {"id": 775557522, "item_id": 48472345, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48472345", "by": "JumpCrisscross", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gecko, WebKit and\u2014hopefully\u2014Ladybird are the true alternatives.", "excerpt": "Won\u2019t Brave follow Google\u2019s lead on this? Gecko, WebKit and\u2014hopefully\u2014Ladybird are the true alternatives. I used to think this was too extreme. But the ad vendor dragging ad blockers out of the engine flipped my view.", "context": "", "use_case": "independent browser engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Edge, Opera to follow"}, {"id": 736769264, "item_id": 46048079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46048079", "by": "igrunert", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WebKit on Windows has progressed since ~5 years ago.", "excerpt": "WebKit on Windows has progressed since ~5 years ago. The gap between the Windows port and the Linux WPE/GTK ports is shrinking over time. Every JIT tier has been enabled for JSC on Windows[1], and libpas (the custom memory allocator) has been enabled. The Windows port has moved from Cairo to Skia, though it's currently using the CPU renderer AFAIK. There's some work to enable the COORDINATED_GRAPHICS flag which would", "context": "", "use_case": "browser engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Orion 1.0"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["independent browser engine", "browser engine"], "compared": [{"slug": "safari", "name": "Safari", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49286427", "title": "Ask HN: What browser do you use?", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48471970", "title": "Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Edge, Opera to follow", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46047350", "title": "Orion 1.0", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 788684993, "item_id": 49292812, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49292812", "by": "al_borland", "date": "2026-08-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Apple's stubbornness on the iPhone is literally the only thing stopping Google.", "excerpt": "Chrome and Chromium browsers have around 80% of the browser market. Without Apple sticking to WebKit on the iPhone, Chrome would have a full monopoly over the browser and the direction of the web... even Microsoft caved to Google's monopoly in this space. You can argue that this would allow things to move faster, but faster in which direction? Would ad blocking be killed once and for all? Would tracking be embedded i", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What browser do you use?"}, {"id": 775557522, "item_id": 48472345, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48472345", "by": "JumpCrisscross", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Gecko, WebKit and\u2014hopefully\u2014Ladybird are the true alternatives.", "excerpt": "Won\u2019t Brave follow Google\u2019s lead on this? Gecko, WebKit and\u2014hopefully\u2014Ladybird are the true alternatives. I used to think this was too extreme. But the ad vendor dragging ad blockers out of the engine flipped my view.", "context": "", "use_case": "independent browser engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Chrome is killing all uBlock Origin bypasses, Edge, Opera to follow"}, {"id": 736769264, "item_id": 46048079, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46048079", "by": "igrunert", "date": "2025-11-25", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "WebKit on Windows has progressed since ~5 years ago.", "excerpt": "WebKit on Windows has progressed since ~5 years ago. The gap between the Windows port and the Linux WPE/GTK ports is shrinking over time. Every JIT tier has been enabled for JSC on Windows[1], and libpas (the custom memory allocator) has been enabled. The Windows port has moved from Cairo to Skia, though it's currently using the CPU renderer AFAIK. There's some work to enable the COORDINATED_GRAPHICS flag which would", "context": "", "use_case": "browser engine", "switched_from": "", "story": "Orion 1.0"}]}