Firefox has been my web browser of choice for roughly 5 years continuously, on both Windows and Linux. I would say I’m very used to it, and containers. I would agree they are better in some ways, but there is one single, major flaw with them that was enough to make me switch. The way containers handle multiple copies of the same website.
I’m just going to use Pinterest as a random example website. This problem occurs with any website that requires login however. Let’s say you have a single Pinterest account. You make a Firefox container for Pinterest, tell it to always open Pinterest in that container and you are done. Every time you click a Pinterest link, Firefox seamlessly opens it in the correct container. This works great, and is actually a place containers at better than profiles.
The problem starts when you have multiple accounts. Maybe sometimes you want to visit Pinterest while logged out, and other times you want to visit your account for viewing landscape images, and others your account for character references. Now you need at minimum three separate containers, and every time you want to open Pinterest you have to manually launch the container you want it in, which takes a lot of clicks. Now you can no longer just type in the url and hit go.
This is where profiles work so much better for me. I can have a work profile, a personal profile, etc and decide which accounts to login to on each profile. Then when I am in a given profile, I can use it just like a normal web browser without the container system getting in my way.
I tried using those (albeit fairly briefly) and I could not find a way to make profile switching as fluid as I needed.
As a long time Firefox user, I didn’t really understand how much I would enjoy using profiles until I had them. It’s my understanding Firefox can’t replicate Brave’s ease of use. Features such as:
- Clicking the main browser icon/shortcut and being prompted to pick a profile.
- Having a button in the browser to switch profiles on the fly.
- Being able to right click any link and immediately open it in a different profile.
All of these features, and the overall robustness of profiles is great from both a workflow and privacy standpoint in my opinion.
How about Session or SimpleX?
Both are E2EE. Unlike Signal, they also have the benefit of not requiring a phone number, so your account isn’t linked to you that way. In my experience, Session feels more mature, having apps on more platforms and more reliable notifications. However SimpleX has some really nice features, like the ability to have multiple profiles (including hidden profiles).