Qupzilla – the Best Browser You’ve Never Heard of?

By Joey Sneddon, Published December 22, 2011

With the browser market dominated by Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer you could be forgiven for thinking that small browsers have little to offer.

But Qupzilla, a multi-platform Qt-based web-browser, is worth taking for a spin. It boasts features comparable to Chrome and Firefox, yet uses less resources than either.

Qupzilla web browser in Ubuntu 11.10

The webkit wonder, developed by Czech Linux user David Rosca, doesn’t reply on any KDE dependencies – thus making it an ideal solution for the performance and space conscious.

Features

Qupzilla is more than able to hold its own against the market leaders when it comes to features, boasting: -

Native look + theme support
One window History, Bookmarks manager and RSS Reader
Integrated AdBlock support
Private browsing
Speed-dial
Configurable interface
Set your search engine
Chrome and Firefox bookmark importing

The speed-dial in particular is extremely well implemented, boasting drag n’ drop positioning, hover over controls, etc.

Bookmarking sites is very feels very ‘Chrome-like’. Just hit the star, edit the info and choose a place to save it to – including directly to the Speed Dial.

The preferences window is well stocked, with some fantastic privacy features included too.

Flawbacks

As much promise as Qupzilla shows it’s fair to say that it is has a number of ‘issues’. The biggest of which is crashing.

If I’m not able to use an application with confidence then, generally, I don’t use it at all. Qupzilla errs dangerously close to the cusp of acceptability with regards to this, but the good news is that with each update things get better – so I’m willing to ride my frustrations out.

How to install Qupzilla in Ubuntu

Adding Qupzilla in Ubuntu requires addition of the Qupzilla PPA.

To install Qupzilla in Ubuntu 11.10 run the following two commands in a terminal, or add the section in bold to your Software Sources before updating and installing ‘Qupzilla’ from the Ubuntu Software Centre.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nowrep/qupzilla
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install qupzilla

Bugs can reported over @ github.com/nowrep/QupZilla/issues

Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

Benjamin
excellent! going to try that!
http://twitter.com/matt_j_bell123 Matt Bell
Ahh… the amazing world of bleeding edge software releases. I remember the days I always beta-tested *everything* I could get my hands on. I will have to try this!

http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
*Yao Ming*
I still do!

http://twitter.com/toetjesman henk de vries
>Bookmarking sites is very feels very ‘Chrome-like’. Just hit the star,
edit the info and choose a place to save it to – including directly to
the Speed Dial.
Fx has the same thing

http://twitter.com/Teh_Big_Boi André Viana
true, and firefox does that for more years than chrome

http://profiles.google.com/alphadelta.fg Guillaume CHAU
It should be “Firefox-like” :D

http://twitter.com/mozilla_fr Mozilla FR
I was about to post the same thing, amazing to see that anything “cool” is labelled as chrome-like even though it’s a carbon copy of Firefox UI (years before Chrome even existed…). That tells a lot about how Chrome marleting brainwashed even the tech savvy people ;)

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
I was going to say the same thing…
It pisses me off. That and the Qt fanaticism!
Anonymous
Well they didn’t brainwash me. I will stay a loyal Firefox user
http://profiles.google.com/ezr.ladislav Ladislav Ezr
^This
http://mark-y-a.myopenid.com/ Marky
amen
Anonymous
chrome came before firefox 4
http://profiles.google.com/ezr.ladislav Ladislav Ezr
Firefox 4 is not the 1st Firefox, you know…
Anonymous
4 was the first to have the tabs on top
http://profiles.google.com/bwat47 Brandon Watkins
Firefox 3 had the same bookmarks star UI bro…
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
to your second comment (quit while you’re behind) – 4 just made that default because of the option to hide the menu. The tabs have always been “on top” – just not above the address bar, but this was a feature of many pre-4 themes, so it was just a matter of not making it default in 3+.
Just because browsers have similar features doesn’t mean they are copying verbatim what each other do…
Samuel Orr
Chrome is great but I really hate the marketing. And this “faster” business I have never seen any advantage or proof other than ambiguous benchmarks. Chrome doubles the score of Firefox on Peacekeeper but they almost have equal fps on all the results.

http://opiniond.com/ Mariano Calixte
I love Firefox, but are you sure they implemented this feature first? As I remember, Chrome included the star bookmarking thing before FF4
(I may be wrong, please don’t flame)

http://twitter.com/mozilla_fr Mozilla FR
Firefox 3 had it, back in 2008, you can even find old blog post decribing the feature with a screenshot ex: http://blog.mozilla.com/blog/2008/04/28/star-worthy-firefox-3-bookmarks/
http://profiles.google.com/bwat47 Brandon Watkins
Firefox without a doubt did this first. And I think IE did it before both lol.

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
And IE years before Firefox.

http://www.icedrake.co.cc Icedrake
And the Big Bang years before IE.

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
And God years before the… wait a minute… the big bang didn’t happen…
I’ll just switch to Arch and take an arrow to the knee before this becomes the next meme

Alex Robinson
The little window that pops up is almost just like the one from Firefox. The main thing different is the ability to enter tags.

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
You can do that in firefox :)…

Matheus Ligabue
Is it me or does it seems that qt apps have been gaining (much deserved, some would say) attention past few days? Razor-qt, for example.

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
aohfg;sjbgkjlfgb;sjbkfgk;sj
Brace myself… the Qt fanatics are coming.

http://jackyalcine.co.cc Jacky Alcine
QT! QT! QT!

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
EFL EFL EFL! :D

http://jackyalcine.co.cc Jacky Alcine
EFL?
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Enlightenment Foundation Libraries :D
Anonymous
GTK! GTK! GTK!
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
For the win.

https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G
Can i log in in Hotmail with it?

http://twitter.com/ralgozino Ramiro Algozino
You get a warning but it seems to work just fine.

https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G
Thanks, I’ll try it out then :-)

http://profiles.google.com/yamilurbina C. Yamil Urbina
Awesome browser. However, to install it I had to use:
sudo apt-get install qupzilla-next

Van Long Pham Cong
indeed

Anonymous
Is it compatible with FF or Chrome addons?

http://twitter.com/shobon (´･ω･)
No, it has its own add-on framework.
It’s built on Qt, it uses the Gecko framework rather than Webkit.

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Joey claims it uses webkit haha

Cuzzie Lee Kel Win
I get this error message when I tried to install qupzilla.
Package qupzilla is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package ‘qupzilla’ has no installation candidate

Georgi Karavasilev
sudo apt-get install qupzilla-next
http://twitter.com/makkay makkay
sudo apt-get install qupzilla-next
I think it needs to be corrected in the article

http://nilux.myopenid.com/ Nilux
try Arch :-) or chech all the 1000 distros on Distrowatch. You choose

http://twitter.com/SarcasticSloth Steven Garza
The lack of userscripts and userstyles is a deal breaker. Sorry.

http://twitter.com/lolraccoon lolraccoon
There are user styles. It’s under Edit > Preferences > Other.

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
“doesn’t reply”
Did you mean:
“doesn’t rely”?

http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
Replying on KDE dependencies — can you imagine that flame war? =D

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
So, what he means is that when you try to install KDE dependencies, the program doesn’t say anything O.o? :D

http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
I love misspellings so ambiguous that the jokes can go oooon and on =D

Anonymous
In fact, one could say you reply on them?
http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
You see, you can even get away with a “that’s what she said” joke ;)
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TOAP2YXEUL6HBNSCRICYVVMKSY Teg
At least you didn’t take an arrow in the knee. :-P
http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
I used to be witty when replying here, just like you. But then…
http://www.icedrake.co.cc Icedrake
The overused joke police has arrived. Please step away from the comment section as we inspect your sanity.
Anonymous
@Icedrake:disqus fine I’ll go to a previous game.
STOP! YOU VIOLATED THE LAW!!! Pay the court a fine or serve your sentence!!! YOUR STOLEN MEMES ARE NOW FORFEIT!!!!
http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Turn off the game console! Turn off the game console NOW!

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
I usually install programs, how come you install dependencies? ;)

http://twitter.com/Xlusively_Harry Harvinder Singh
For me it was IE 6 for linux same status bar and loading speed..

http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
Wow, that was harsh =x
Kumarasingam TamilArasu
You are cruel!

http://twitter.com/Xlusively_Harry Harvinder Singh
Sorry, it was my network :P :D

Anonymous
I don’t understand *WHY* is “the Best Browser I’ve Never Heard of”?

Anonymous
+1
http://petercast.net Peterson Silva
Well, take it like this: *from* the browsers *you’ve never heard of*, this is the best.
It’s a ready-make formula, success guaranteed, because I don’t know which browser I’ve never heard of — since I haven’t heard of them!!! Then, there’s no base for comparison. This is the best because there’s no competition =)
Anonymous
I was under the impression that the article title was a question. If you don’t understand why it would be, then the answer is probably no for you.

https://launchpad.net/~shnatsel Shnatsel
Pretty much like Midori, but in Qt.
Too bad it doesn’t really integrate with any DE, though. Browsers still stick out as a sore thumb, except Midori and Epiphany.
http://twitter.com/weberc2 Craig Weber
“…doesn’t *reply* on any KDE dependencies…” “Reply” or “Rely”?

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Reply :D
When you install KDE dependencies, it doesn’t say a word :D

Anonymous
Errorless?

Anonymous
Give me a browser for linux that supports shockwave, silverlight, activx compatibility and unity web player. Then we can talk “best browser”.
Until then. This is just another one of those clones we really don’t need.
And this is not to sound rude btw. These are facts.

Anonymous
IE7 in WINE sounds like it would fit your bridge-dwelling needs. And I love how you state your own personal preference (and no, desire for ActiveX and Shockwave is NOT universal) as facts. HTH, HAND, GFY.

Anonymous
Okay. I have no idea what you just said there.
Probably technical terms, but okay. IE in wine? thanks. That could probably work. Sounds like too much installation and tweaking and stuff though. And I don’t really wanna do that unless I have to.
But what I’m saying is. Activex, shockwave and unity web player are all important. My bank uses activex, and without it I can’t login. More and more websites are using unity instead of flash now.
This browser is probably very nice if you don’t need these things, but it really doesn’t do anything you can’t do with firefox or chrome. That’s probably also why noone has ever heard of it. And again, I’m not bashing them or anything. It’s just about time to focus on the features we need in linux rather than more web browser clones of firefox and chrome. Right?

Anonymous
While I have nothing against the smaller browser projects, I do prefer a centralized focus (centered around, right now, Fx and Chrome). Do I think it’s a waste of time to push these as real alternatives to the existing *stable and full-featured* browsers? Yes I do. Do I fault them for developing them in an attempt to learn how everything works? Not at all.
As a side note, you do have my pity if you’re with a bank that still requires ActiveX after all this time (that’s the bank’s fault, not yours), but unfortunately that probably isn’t ever going to be supported – it’s a semi-truck-sized hole in the wall of browser security.

Anonymous
Totally agree with you Man.
Activex is probably not that big of a dealbreaker, but it would still be nice if these developers could spend their time developing a some sort of support for Unity player and Shockwave files.
As far as my googleing goes, Unity is not coming to linux. They have nothing against linux, but there’s no money in it. And even though they get 10 votes per week from people who want unity player on linux, that’s not 10 game developers.
See, that’s where the problem is.
Someone needs to figure out how to bring unity to linux.
As for shockwave, that’s compressed flash files, so the fact that noone can figure out a way to let adobe flash player recognize these dcr files is over my understanding and knowledge.
I sure am no developer or expect, but this one doesn’t seem to be too much of a hassle.
Sorry for rambling. It’s just a shame that windows and mac users can do so much stuff we linux users can’t do. And we are always 2 – 5 years behind.
I mean, isn’t the whole point with open source that more people can develop and make better software? It just doesn’t seem to work. Because here’s the thing. Most developers develop software to make money, and not to please people.
They didn’t take computer diploma to work for free.
And for things to happen, someone has to speak up and rage, like I did above.
Nothing’s ever gonna happen if people accept everything and stay quiet.
Why am I still rambling? :D

Akshat Jain
Makes sense
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0agw8pl8jZ8
http://nilux.myopenid.com/ Nilux
Luckily for the ball we live on- silverlight is discontinued

Anonymous
What do you mean? Microsoft will no longer release that crappy silverlight program? Ah, finally!:)
Anonymous
Christmas present!

Mikhail Petrov
Looks like an Opera clone. So I’d compare it to Opera and not to others.

http://hector-macias.blogspot.com Hector Macias Ayala
Are you talking about that Norwegian thing feature packed, 17 years old, pioneer in this industry? Are you serious?

Anonymous
I just wasted 37.25 seconds of my life installing it.
Rodrigo Kataishi
in the instructions, the package name is wrong. It should say “qupzilla-next” instead of “qupzilla”.
I will try it now :)
http://twitter.com/di0nysys Andrew Smith
at least it has tabs!

Anonymous
lol almost a requirement these days.
I remember when some news sites made a big deal about IE 6/7 having tabs. I was like: “WTH MAN LIEK FIREFOX HAD TABZ 6 YRZ BEFORE IE!!!!!”

Thomas Goossens
Not satisfied.
I’m going to try it sometimes. But it feels a bit laggy and crashes often (that does it for me)
http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels
I love QupZilla. Been using it for quite a while now and also made the Dutch translation and I keep updating the Dutch translation also :)
http://profiles.google.com/bwat47 Brandon Watkins
UI looks really nice, but I have a feeling it will be like all the other random little webkit browsers: Very poor js performance compared to chromium and firefox.

Anonymous
+1
V8 should be the default in QWebkit

insanelyapple
OMG Chrome? :p Yet another blog? Then, what happened to OMG Suse? :P Last post is from may 22th :P
Anonymous
Sounds and looks like firefox meets chrome meets opera… Not a bad mix, definitely gonna give it a spin.
Rev. Shawn McDaniel, KSC
Hmm, well after adding this ppa to my repositories and updating, i tried to install qupzilla and got the following error: “Unable to locate package qupzilla.” When trying to install qupzilla-next as mentioned in the above comments, I get this error: “Unable to locate package qupzilla-next.” I also noticed, when looking in Synaptic Package Manager, that the above ppa isn’t even listed in my software sources. (Yes, I sudo apt-get updated, and yes I double-checked and made sure the ppa was added correctly. I even updated my GPG keys with launchpad-getkeys.) When trying to list packages available in the ppa with Y-PPA Manager, the ppa doesn’t show up either. What gives?

Rev. Shawn McDaniel, KSC
UPDATE: was able to install a .deb from this link:
http://www.qupzilla.co.cc/download
Trying it out now…

Rev. Shawn McDaniel, KSC
Finally got it working. Loads fast, seems to work ok. Nice to have I guess, but I doubt I will use it much…

http://www.icedrake.co.cc Icedrake
Why haven’t I heard of this before?

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
*whistles* lalala :D

http://www.icedrake.co.cc Icedrake
You! :O

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
I was actually agreeing with you :D

http://twitter.com/geekshadow Antoine Turmel
I still use Netscape, anything new ? :D

http://2buntu.com Roland Taylor
Awesome! You da man!

Kumarasingam TamilArasu
Nice to read all these comments early in the morning. I had a good laugh at it.
Anonymous
CTRL + Enter shortcut does not work, unfortunately I’m so used to using this shortcut I cannot use this browser yet.

https://launchpad.net/~exeleration-g Exeleration-G
You again? Someone posted this a while ago on the Midori topic as well

Anonymous
Wasn’t me.

Zombifier
Chrome-like? Do some research, Joey. Firefox has this for years.
Kim Allamandola
Semi-OT (and sorry for my bad English)
I smell the official (re)start of a war between Qt and GTk: Ubuntu need
to cut Gnome stuff due tu Gnome team (RH?) behavior and Qt (especially
with QML) is the best available choice. Some people spin-off distro to
be Gnome-ish, Kde-ish etc, new app start to be written in Vala and Qt
doing the best to be tied up with their backends…
However I like the idea of a Qt-based web browser, I prefer the Chrome
GUI, for tab handling and general “aspect”, Firefox sidebar and some
other stuff. I would love a browser extensible with QML and Python!
Hope this can be a beginning not just another lightweight browser used
by a handful of people :-)
http://nilux.myopenid.com/ Nilux
I’m typing this on Qupzilla now. Feels great. They just have to get a proper name. *zilla would be ok if it used gecko. On arch it seems stable enough except the rss-reader. And it doesn’t use the system-settings-proxy
eMcE
hmm.. something is wrong with this browser.. It disables the desktop effects. Strange :|
Jef Tobias
Installed, imported FF bookmarks…doh! They were all imported, but WITHOUT the folders. I have hundreds of bookmarks all neatly organized into folders. Trying to organize them all over in this browser would take hours.
Then, setting up my preferences, it crashed…twice. Can’t set minimum font size, which is a deal-breaker for me (besides the bookmark fiasco).
Enabled the native adblocking which didn’t work for me. Still saw plenty of ads, even after restarting, unchecking, rechecking and then restarting again.
Didn’t get the chance to actually surf much since generally if an app crashes more than once before I attempt to use it, I uninstall it immediately. I’ll keep the ppa in my repository list and revisit it in a few months, but for now, not ready for primetime…not by a long shot.
Mohan
Couldn’t install it on Ubuntu something about QT dependencies were old. So I fired out WinXP VM and installed it on that, liking it so far. The UI is ok, but still works.
http://twitter.com/propagare propagare
May you want to consider to fix:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nowrep/qupzilla
to
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:nowrep/qupzilla

Anonymous
“add-apt-repository”
and
“apt-add-repository”
both work and do the same thing AFAIK. both are commands.

Anonymous
Not so bad.
Alexandre ‘
I’ll sure give it a try ^^
http://comentador.myopenid.com/ Weeber
It does look good and promising. Thanks!
Senina chung
I like small browsers,don’t like the big ones. Small browser are more functional and user friendly.Such as Avant browser, I like the tri-core engines. Is this
Qupzilla can be used in windows? I will try it.
Anonymous
I can’t wait to try this browser out. Double that with the qt-razor environment which is under development and a snappy experience is certain to follow.
Anonymous
Have you heard of Arora? It has been live for a while, it’s cross-platform and built on QtWebKit as well. Instead of making a new browser, why not to develop Arora? http://code.google.com/p/arora/
Eugene Quinn
Crash, crash, crash, forgets bookmarks, crash, crash,crash oh and then crash!
I really love it though ! Its really fast at crashing
Agus Salim
why, development of browser never die….??? gedegedeged
maafin bang kalo kata2 saya salah…. hehe

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