Waterfox is afree and open-sourceweb browser andfork ofFirefox. It claims to be ethical and user-centric, emphasizing performance and privacy.[2] There are official Waterfox releases forWindows,macOS,Linux andAndroid.[3][4] It was created in 2012 to provide official 64-bit support when Firefox was only available for 32-bit systems.[5]
Waterfox shares core features and technologies like theGecko browser engine[6] and support for FirefoxAdd-ons[7] with Firefox. It is also compatible withGoogle Chrome andOpera extensions.[2] It disables telemetry by default, which is present in Firefox builds. However, it collects technical information about the user's device to update properly.[5]
Waterfox Classic was a version of the browser based on an older version of theGecko engine that supported legacyXUL andXPCOM add-on capabilities that Firefox removed in version 57.[8][9] It was partially maintained with fixes and patches from Waterfox and Firefox ESR releases. However, its development had been separated due to several changes from Waterfox that were otherwise inapplicable,[10] and with its final published release in November 2022 it is effectively discontinued as of 2026.
Waterfox Classic has multipleunpatched security advisories. The developer states that "changes between versions so numerous betweenESRs making merging difficult if not impossible".[11][10]
Waterfox was first released by Alex Kontos[12][5] on 27 March 2011 for64-bit Windows. The macOS build was introduced on 14 May 2015 with the release of version 38.0,[13] the Linux build was introduced on 20 December 2016 with the release of version 50.0,[14] and an Android build was first introduced on 10 October 2017 in version 55.2.2.[15]
From 22 July 2015 to 12 November 2015, Waterfox had its own search-engine called "Storm" that would raise funds for charity and Waterfox. Storm was developed with over £2 million of investor funding and powered byYahoo! Search.[16][17][18]
In December 2019,System1, an advertising company which portrays itself as privacy-focused,[19] acquired Waterfox.[20][21] In July 2023, Alex Kontos announced that Waterfox had been turned into an independent project again.[22]
An Android release of the browser was made available via theGoogle Play Store in November 2023.[23]
In April 2025, Waterfox launched a privacy-friendly metasearch engine, using Google's search results.[24]
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