Waterfox is an open-source web browser built on Mozilla's Firefox code and developed by BrowserWorks Ltd, a company registered in London. It is aimed at people who want Firefox compatibility, including its extension ecosystem, without the data collection that comes with the upstream browser. Telemetry, crash reporting, remote experiments and sponsored content are switched off at build time, and the project has said it will not add LLM-based features. An ad and tracker blocker is active by default, and DNS lookups are encrypted and sent through an Oblivious HTTP relay, so no single party sees both a query and who made it. Private tabs can be opened next to regular tabs in the same window, and the browser also offers tree-style vertical tabs and a classic status bar. Waterfox runs on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android.

Alex Kontos started Waterfox as a personal project in 2011. The US advertising company System1 acquired it in late 2019, and in July 2023 it returned to independent ownership. It is now developed and operated by BrowserWorks Ltd, which is wholly owned by Kontos. The source code is published on GitHub under the Mozilla Public License 2.0.

Pricing

Waterfox is free to download and use, with no paid tiers for the browser itself. The project is funded through a revenue-sharing search partnership with Qwant and through an optional paid subscription to Waterfox Private Search. Donations are also accepted.

Hosting