Betterfox
31% faster than regular Firefox<sup>1</sup> :rocket:
about:config tweaks to enhance Mozilla Firefox.
:new: Now with ESR support.
Made for everyday browsing
A secure, blazing fast browsing experience. Without breakage.
Betterfox is an opinionated preference list inspired by the law of diminishing returns and the minimum effective dose.
Required reading
If you don’t have it already: Get Firefox
- Create a backup profile.
- Download the user.js file here (Right click >
Save Link As…). - Review Common Overrides and make any necessary changes.
- See also Optional Hardening for other recommendations.
- Open Firefox. In the URL bar, type
about:profilesand press Enter. - For the profile you want to use (or use default), click Open Folder in the Root Directory section.
- Move the
user.jsfile into the folder.
After restarting Firefox:
- Get an ad blocker like uBlock Origin with our recommended filters.
- Enable DNS-level protection with NextDNS. <sup><i>Use the link and support this page!</i></sup>
- Check out our configuration guide for the best experience.
- See how to quickly enable secure DNS in Firefox.
Simple goals
- Minimalism: get what isn’t needed out of the way
- Efficiency: unleash Firefox’s ability to be fast and performant
- Privacy: protect your data without causing site breakage
Simple configs
Fastfox, Securefox, Peskyfox, and Smoothfox are guides to settings within Firefox.
The user.js — a configuration file that controls Firefox settings — is curated from these guides.
| List | Description |
|---|---|
| Fastfox | Increase Firefox’s browsing speed. Give Chrome a run for its money! |
| Securefox | Protect user data without causing site breakage. |
| Peskyfox | Provide a clean, distraction-free browsing experience. |
| Smoothfox | Get Edge-like smooth scrolling on your favorite browser — or choose something more your style. |
| user.js | All the essentials. None of the breakage. This is your user.js. |
Recognition
Browser Integration
- Midori | files (Dec 2023?)
- Mercury | files (Sep 2023)
- Waterfox | files (Sep 2023)
- Floorp <sup>1 2</sup> | files (Apr 2023)
- Pulse | files (Dec 2021)
- Ghostery Private Browser <sup>1 2</sup> | files (Feb 2021)
YouTube
- The ULTIMATE Browser Tier List (Mar 2023)
- I Hate Firefox. But I’m Still Switching Back to It. (Nov 2022)
- [Español] Optimize and Accelerate Firefox (Nov 2022)
- How To Improve Firefox Performance (Dec 2021)
Podcasts
- [Italian] Digitalia.fm | 1:41:35–1:42:41 (July 2023)
- GhoSTORIES with Franz & Pete | 17:05–18:40 (Feb 2021)
Articles
- Browsers for Daily Using (Jan 2024)
- Avoiding Manifest V3 – Escaping the Ad-Pocalypse (Dec 2023)
- [German] Pulse Browser Review: Firefox fork with Turbo tweaks and Opera sidebar (Apr 2023)
- 2023 Browser Showdown: Comparing Chrome, Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi, and Opera (Jan 2023)
Guides
- FMHY Browser Tools: Privacy Tweaks
- Firefox-UI-Fix
- Narsil/desktop_user.js
- pyllyukko/user.js comparator
Reviews
- “I use this one … The performance is absolutely amazing. There’s definitely a huge difference when it comes to loading sites.” - DIRIKtv
- “BetterFox … will provide good-enough privacy and help with performance.” - Qdoit12Super
- “…drastically changed the experience with Firefox for me. Improved speed, security, smoothness, and removed clutter.” - AppDate
- “Firefox with uBlock Origin extension and tuned with Betterfox is faster than Safari.” - cugeloid
- “I don’t think I could use Firefox without Betterfox.” - Professional_Fun4616
- “The best collection of tweaks available.” - AuRiMaS
- “FF is now much snappier!” - whotheff
- “…the experience is so good now I don’t think I’ll go back to any of the chromium based browsers.” - Mr_Compromise
Support
If you like the project, leave a :star: (top right) and become a stargazer!
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Credit
- Betterfox mirrors the ongoing work provided by arkenfox. Additionally, this repository includes content reproduced or adapted from other sources. Credit for overlapping material goes to the original authors.
- Appreciation goes to the Firefox team and developers working on Bugzilla, fighting for the open web.
- A special thanks to Alex Kontos of Waterfox for his collaboration in v.116.
- Many thanks to the 2021 Ghostery team for testing Betterfox at scale in its early days.
<div align=‘center’> <a href=‘https://www.websitecounterfree.com’><img src=‘https://www.websitecounterfree.com/c.php?d=9&id=19653&s=1’ border=‘0’ alt=‘Free Website Counter’></a><br / > since 23 July 2022</div>
Sure, just be aware that if you apply this without reading up on virtually every single option this changes, you’ll soon be joining the legion of people that always post about how “Firefox uses so much memory at idle!” or “Firefox won’t even render page xyz!” or “Firefox stutters like hell on pages with animations!” and so on.
Because there’s a reason that the devs have not applied these to be the default. They don’t come without any cost.
And for a lot of options the reason is the advertisement partner’s money.
Yeah? Which ones?
Sssh, don’t tell the sheep that! Next you’ll tell them about the earth’s shape or the alien butt probes we all get implanted after birth in hospitals! Don’t let them know!!
Even assuming they did make development decisions to benefit advertising partners, how on earth would choosing not to optimize performance actually benefit them?