Alternatives to Thorium
Use a Chromium-based browser with CPU-specific builds. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Thorium
Use a Chromium-based browser with CPU-specific builds.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Thorium.
Chromium
The open-source browser project that Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera and Vivaldi are all built from.
Chromium gives the open-source upstream engine without CPU-specific builds, and its official builds do not auto-update on Windows or macOS.
Google Chrome
Google's browser, the Chromium-based one most web development is tested against.
Google Chrome drops CPU-specific builds for updates every four weeks and the largest extension library, but it is proprietary and tied to Google accounts.
ungoogled-chromium
Plain Chromium with every connection to Google web services stripped out, and nothing else changed.
ungoogled-chromium stays open source and strips Google web service calls, with Windows, macOS, Linux and portable builds, but extensions must be installed by hand.
Brave
A Chromium browser that blocks ads and trackers out of the box, with no extension to install first.
Brave keeps Chromium compatibility with ad and tracker blocking on by default and adds an Android build, but ships a crypto wallet and rewards programme.
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft's Chromium-based browser, bundled with Windows.
Microsoft Edge adds vertical tabs, sleeping tabs and a PDF reader and runs Chrome extensions unchanged, but it is proprietary and pushes Bing and Microsoft accounts.
Vivaldi
A Chromium browser for people who want tab stacks, split screen and a mail client in the same window.
Vivaldi replaces processor-tuned builds with tab stacking, tiling, built-in mail and deep settings, though only its modified Chromium parts are published as source.
Helium
An open-source Chromium browser that blocks ads, trackers and cookie banners by default without telemetry.
Helium is an open-source Chromium browser with no telemetry and ad, tracker and cookie banner blocking on by default, plus vertical tabs and split view.
Mercury
A Firefox fork with compiler optimizations and privacy patches taken from LibreWolf, Waterfox and GNU IceCat.
Mercury also offers compiler-optimized builds but on Firefox instead of Chromium, adding privacy patches from LibreWolf and Waterfox, maintained by a single developer.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Thorium as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
SRWare Iron
Chromium rebuild that strips out Google's tracking and reporting features.
Thorium is an open-source Chromium browser with CPU-specific builds for Windows, macOS and Linux, focused on processor tuning rather than removing Google tracking.
Supermium
A current Chromium-based web browser that runs on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8.x and later.
Thorium is an open-source Chromium browser with builds tailored to several instruction sets and platforms, but the roster does not say it runs on older Windows versions.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Speedometer
A browser benchmark that measures web app responsiveness by simulating user actions in demo applications.
JetStream
A JavaScript and WebAssembly benchmark suite that measures how fast browsers start up and run advanced web apps.
MotionMark
A browser graphics benchmark that measures how well a browser animates complex scenes at a target frame rate.
Slimjet
Chromium browser with ad blocking, form filling and download tools built in.
