A side-by-side comparison
Brave vs DuckDuckGo browser
DuckDuckGo is mostly known for their private search engine. However, they do offer a Web browser that’s available on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. It’s marketed as a privacy-protecting alternative browser, but when measured against other major browsers its feature set is limited.
So how does the DuckDuckGo (DDG) browser stack up against the Brave browser?
Let’s compare.
Is the Brave browser more private than the DuckDuckGo browser?
The DuckDuckGo browser does afford users some limited privacy protections. It blocks some ads (but only “intrusive” ones). It blocks some trackers (but allows Microsoft trackers). And provides some protection against fingerprinting.
Ultimately, the DuckDuckGo browser does not offer nearly as many privacy protections as Brave:
Chart describes default settings.
- Full protection
- Limited protection
- No protection, or off by default
As you can see, the Brave browser still wins against the DuckDuckGo browser when it comes to privacy. And, importantly, the privacy improvements DDG is able to make are earned by losing other essential browser features. When it comes to privacy in the DuckDuckGo browser, the included protections are unfortunately paired with an underpowered browser on just about every other front.
Note: The DuckDuckGo browser is listed as having “Limited support” for Global Privacy Control because it only sends the GPC header on their Mac browser to five websites (one of which is actually the test website), unlike Brave which is not limited in this way.
Does the Brave browser have more features than the DuckDuckGo browser?
As mentioned above, the DuckDuckGo browser has far less functionality than Brave. Using DuckDuckGo as your browser means you’d have to install multiple other apps on your phone or device, each of which could slow down performance, or introduce new vectors of risk for data theft.
Even basic things like Chrome-based extensions don’t work in DuckDuckGo’s limited browser:
Better browsing
Privacy & security
Web3
Better browsing
Privacy & security
Web3
Chart describes default settings.
- Full functionality
- Limited functionality
- No functionality, or off by default
Without question, Brave is the clear winner when it comes to browser features. That’s on advanced features and on the convenient basics, too.
FAQs
Does Brave work on mobile and desktop? Does it work on all operating systems?
Brave is available on Android and iOS, macOS and Windows, and even Linux. No matter which device or operating system you use, Brave will run better than the default browser—and certainly better than DuckDuckGo—on that device.
DuckDuckGo’s browser is available on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android devices.
Who makes Brave?
Brave is an independent company, based in North America. And since it’s not owned by anyone, it’s not beholden to anyone. Note that DuckDuckGo is also an independent company, but since their browser is basically just an overlay on your device’s rendering engine, they don’t necessarily have their own full browser tech stack either.
Is Brave Search better than DuckDuckGo search?
DuckDuckGo is entirely powered by Microsoft Bing. If you like Bing, then you’ll likely not mind DuckDuckGo’s search experience. Brave Search is the default search engine in the Brave browser, and is available in any other browser at search.brave.com.
As for quality, Brave Search has indexed more than 20 billion pages (and counting). And while Bing’s index has more pages, it’s important to note that a huge percentage of that is either duplicate content, spam pages, or other junk. Brave Search actually delivers results that are higher in relevance, timeliness, and utility. It also delivers those results in a variety of innovative formats beyond the traditional search results page (SERP). These formats include the AI Summarizer, Discussions, and Featured Snippets, among others.
Can I use DuckDuckGo Search in the Brave browser?
It depends. The DuckDuckGo browser is a standalone experience, so it can’t be used within the Brave browser.
However, you can easily use the DuckDuckGo search engine within the Brave browser. (Though, as mentioned above, Brave Search is better in terms of features, results quality, and privacy protections; Brave Search comes as the default browser in new downloads of the Brave browser.)
If you’d still like to use DuckDuckGo search within the Brave browser, simply download and open the Brave browser, and visit duckduckgo.com/. To set DuckDuckGo as the default search engine in the Brave browser, open the browser’s Settings menu and navigate to Search engine. From here you can set DuckDuckGo as default in standard and private windows.
Does DuckDuckGo block ads?
The DuckDuckGo browser focuses on privacy, not ad-blocking. Sometimes the trackers it blocks will prevent an ad from loading, but DuckDuckGo doesn’t set out to block ads while you’re browsing. And, due to its limitations as a rendering engine, the DuckDuckGo browser doesn’t support extensions—which means you won’t be able to install ad-blocking browser extensions to improve its ad-blocking capabilities. On the other hand, Brave is designed to block ads, trackers, and more—by default.
