Brave Browser Review (2021) - Is Brave better than Chrome?

⚠️ If you want to learn about Brave Browser and looking for an honest Brave Browser Review, you’ve come to the right place.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 2 February 2021

Sorry, but your browser sucks and it is holding you back, period. ☝️🙄🤷‍♂️

Moreover, we at How What Why won’t let you go, until we have convinced you to try out Brave.

 Apple recommends Brave browser as one of the “new apps we love.”

Cookies, trackers, and other data collection parasites are always following you side by side as you browse the Internet. Therefore, they drain your battery, slow down your loading speeds, and they cost you extra money in data charges.

As of today, Google Chrome browser still controls around 65 to 70% of the market share. But change is on the horizon, and it’s coming rapidly. As a longtime user of Google Chrome, last month was a huge wake-up call for me.

We went through the YouTube censorship debacle, where they were taking down and removing many cryptocurrency channels. As a result, I have realised that I need to stop being so reliant on Google services.

Besides, I’ve been following the development and growth of Brave browser for years. In the last few weeks, I have done a deep dive into the browser to figure out what’s better, Chrome or Brave.

So I turned to the crowd for their opinion on this one…

Instead of just using my anecdotal evidence, first I went on Twitter. Second, I asked my followers to tell me any valid reason to keep using Chrome over Brave browser. Additionally, is Brave superior in every way?

As for me, I think it was a big surprise to find that out of 1600 people, 75% of you guys said that Brave was the clear winner. 🏆

Click Here To Download Brave

Therefore, in this Brave browser review, we’re going to take a look at where Brave is today in early 2021. In addition to this, we’ll talk about the common myths and misconceptions about this browser. Additionally, I’ll show you why I have completely jumped ship from Chrome.

Undoubtedly, if you’re new to Brave, this review will explain what this browser is all about, and why Brave is gaining in popularity so quickly. 📈

Table Of Contents

1. What is Brave browser?

2. Is Brave browser safe and secure?

3. Why use the Brave browser?

4. Is Brave browser faster than Chrome?

5. What are Brave rewards?

6. What is BAT (Basic Attention Token)?

7. Why Become A Brave Creator?

8. How to set up Brave browser?

9. What is Brave Today?

10. Brave browser FAQs

11. How Does Brave Make Money?
12. Can Brave Browser Be Trusted?
13. Is Brave free?
14. How to turn on dark mode in Brave Browser?
15. How to download and install Brave on Mac?
16. How to download and install Brave on Windows?
17. How to download and install Brave on Ubuntu?
18. Can I use brave in a Chromebook?

⚠️ Disclaimer: If you click some of the links in this Brave Browser Review, I may get a small commission. Since Brave is FREE, it does not cost you a dime and does not affect my opinion on this Brave browser review.

What is Brave browser? 🤔

First and foremost, let’s start this Brave browser review by explaining what Brave is.

Brave is a privacy-focused browser, faster and more efficient than other browsers.

Brave is a free and open-source browser owned and developed by Brave Software Inc. based in Santa Clara, California. The head of the project was Brendan Eich, an American technologist, who also created the JavaScript programming language and co-founded the Mozilla project.

In contrast to Chrome, Brave shows you the time you save by all the ads and trackers that it blocked. Hence, you can see how Brave is optimising your browsing experience in real-time.

As well as that, Brave is also implementing and testing a new economic model. Due to the model, users and creators can interact with each other in a closer and more transparent way.

In my opinion, it is huge because big companies like Google and Facebook have been exploiting our data without being transparent about it.

Switching to Brave was a seamless transition…

Undoubtedly, one of the most significant objections that people usually have when they think about changing browsers, is ‘well I know the browser that I’m using and it works fine’ but what about my bookmarks and my extensions and my password manager?

It should also be noted that one of the many things that’s nice about Brave is that it’s based on Chromium. Even though it is the baseline to Chrome, Brave doesn’t have all of Google’s spyware.

As a result, it looks and feels very similar to Chrome. Also, I’ve been able to import and use all of my bookmarks. So far, I haven’t had any issues using any of the existing Chrome extensions.

Besides, I’ve been able to import my password manager, all the SEO tools that I use, so really it was a seamless transition for me.

Click Here To Download Brave

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Is Brave browser safe and secure? 🤔

First of all, ask yourself the same question about the browser you are using right now.

Unquestionably, it’s tracking all your behaviour and exploiting it. For instance, some websites allow over 100 cookies to track and follow everything you do online. What’s more, you don’t know what data is being recorded. Additionally, you don’t know who is getting all of these details about your life.

To sum up, we shouldn’t allow browsers to be like that.

In contrast, Brave isn’t like that!

In particular, it’s safe and secure. Apart from this, the shields menu located next to your address bar tells you precisely what is being blocked.

Additionally, Brave browser uses the more secure HTTPS connection at all times. If a website doesn’t have HTTPS, Brave tells you that with a clear “not secure” warning.

Why use Brave Browser? 🤔

Brave shields against malware and phishing attempts,👏stops auto-playing videos, fingerprinting scripts from exploiting you, 👏and terminates malicious attempts to steal and exploit your private information. 👏

Again, that’s why this Brave browser review is so positive, and that’s why I use Brave browser. For the same reason, you should use it too!

Consequently, I am the owner of my browsing data. In fact, unlike other browsers, my data never leaves my device.

Brave is open-sourced, privacy law compliant, and optimized for security. Through all of that, it provides greater accountability for its users.

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Is Brave browser faster than Chrome? 🤔

In this section of our Brave browser review, we’ll cover what the developers of Brave have to say about the speed.

Firstly, Brave claims to be able to load pages three to six times faster. Secondly, Brave is a lot lighter and faster than Chrome because a lot of the extra extensions that I would have to load into Chrome for privacy stuff are built natively into the Brave browser.

Last but not least, this feature allows websites on Brave to load faster than Chrome. To demonstrate, check out a speed test between Brave, Chrome, and Firefox below.

After all, I can confirm that Brave was faster from my own experience. 👌👏

Brave’s speed increase is especially noticeable on sites with heavy tracking (ex: news sites) and sites with content-blocking video ads (ex: YouTube).

For example, a lot of the ad-blocking stuff, HTTPS, just all of the things that are important for browsing in today’s world, are natively built into Brave.

So I think that’s pretty nice, and another thing that Brave has built-in privacy windows with Tor, and it is the best way to browse anonymously on the web.

Click Here To Download Brave

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What are Brave Rewards? 🤔

At this time, let’s talk about Brave rewards, which is the economic model that Brave is currently testing on the world right now.

Brave Rewards allows you to help the sites you visit anonymously.

With Brave Rewards, your browser enumerates the time you spend on the sites you visit, and splits up a monthly BAT contribution based on your attention.

I’ll start by saying this, anytime there’s a new token or a new cryptocurrency, or a new economic model being proposed in the crypto space, it usually brings much scepticism.

We saw a lot of scams and a lot of ICO’s from 2017 that did exit-scams. The only utility tokens that I like in the crypto space are ones that are tied to real products.

Brave is an excellent example of that. We may fast-forward a few years and say: ” Wow what a success Brave Rewards was,” or it could equally as well, turn out to be a colossal failure.

I think it’s exciting, and it’s an excellent test and a push in the right direction because the old-school economic model of how the Internet makes money today based on data mining and ads is just not right.

I celebrate Brave for taking a step in that direction of trying to redefine and democratize how ads work and how users get compensated and how content creators get compensated.

The two main ways that Brave rewards work are:

○ As a user, you can get paid Basic Attention Tokens or BAT which is Braves native crypto token
○ As a Content Creator, you can get tips or monthly automatic contributions from other people that are using Brave browser.

To check out the Brave Rewards section, go to settings and click on Brave Rewards tabs. There you can choose to turn on ads so you can get paid to view ads. If you don’t want to view ads, you can turn those off.

You can also set up a wallet, and you can auto contribute, which splits up whatever monthly contribution you want to make to the community based on the sites that you visit, or you can select tips to your favourite creators.

These options give you more control over this.

Testing new economic models like this are so so important because they provide power and control back to you and me, the creators, the users, and we can directly contribute to each other without having that Google or that Facebook intermediary.

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What is BAT (Basic Attention Token)? 🤔

Basic Attention Token is a cryptocurrency token where users get paid for giving attention to ads.

I think the Brave Rewards ecosystem is a step in the right direction. The Basic Attention Token does trade on most of the major crypto exchanges, so there is some decent liquidity there.

As far as a token, I don’t look at this as a speculative thing. The token is most valuable when the most amount of people are using it, and not hoarding it for future profits.

You want to earn rewards and then contribute back to creators, and the better that ecosystem becomes, the stronger the browser and the token becomes.

It fails is if everybody tries to hoard it and get rich with price appreciation.

If nobody’s using the token, then it very well could fail, so my goal is to put any BAT that I earn right back into the ecosystem to other creators and websites and contributors that are adding value in the cryptocurrency community.

Click Here To Download Brave

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Why Become A Brave Creator? 🤔

If you are a content creator such as a blogger, influencer or you have a well established Youtube channel with tons of followers, as a Brave Creator, you can earn more for doing what you do best.

All you have to do is to sign up as a verified Brave Creator on Brave Rewards and keep creating excellent content as you usually do.

Invite your subscribers, followers, or readers to download and start using Brave and get tips from them automatically, and earn up to $7.50 in BAT for each qualified referrals* that download and install Brave using your referral link.

Here is how it works.

Click Here To Download Brave

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How to Set Up Brave Browser

To set up Brave browser on your devices, you only have to do a few simple steps:

1. Download Brave Browser 👉 here

2. Install

3. Import your bookmarks, and add any extensions that you previously had in Chrome

4. Turn on Brave Shields

4. Set default search engine

4. Set up a wallet, and enable Brave Rewards if you want to participate in the rewards program

6. Turn on ads if you want to earn rewards from watching or viewing ads

6. Get rewarded for browsing the internet

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What is Brave Today? 🤔

Brave Todays is a new, personalised news reader available on both Brave for desktop and Brave for iOS. Watch the video below to learn more about Brave Today!

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Conclusion on Brave vs Chrome

In short, I can say that after just a few weeks of using Brave browser exclusively, it has never crossed my mind: “Man, I really wish I didn’t uninstall Chrome.”

If anything, it’s just been a positive experience in every way. I got to experiment with a new economic model. Most importantly, I think it is just cool and a step in the right direction. In other words, taking the control, the profits, and the power from the centralised entities like Google and Facebook, and giving it back to creators and users.

So, if you have been using Brave browser, please leave me a comment explaining what you like and what you dislike about the browser.

For those of you that are new to Brave or perhaps considering changing to Brave, what is holding you back?

Click Here To Download Brave

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Brave browser FAQ

How Does Brave Make Money?

The „Brave Rewards“ program funds Brave. Advertisers pay for ads, and 70% of the revenue goes back to users who opted for the ads program. The remaining 30% makes up the Brave revenue. Brave also made $35 million in just a few seconds with their initial coin offering back in 2017.

Can Brave Browser Be Trusted?

Yes, Brave can be trusted. The browser is all about privacy, and that’s where it stands out the most.

Is Brave free?

Yes, Brave is free, and it always will be. In other words, you can block ads and tracking and not paying a dime.

How to turn on dark mode in Brave Browser?

Turning on dark mode in Brave is really simple. Just click ‘Brave’ at the top left > Preferences > Appearance> Brave colours. This is where you can switch between Dark and Light mode.

How to download and install Brave on Mac?

1. Download Brave Browser 👉here
2. If you are on a PC or Linux, you’ll see this line “Also available for Windows 64-bit, Windows 32-bit, macOS and Linux.”
3. Click on macOS and download.
4. Open the file.
5. In the window that opens, find Brave.
6. Drag Brave to the Applications folder.
7. Enter your admin password.
8. Open and set up Brave. All done.
○ Open Finder.
○ On the sidebar of your Finder click Eject.

How to download and install Brave on Windows?

1. Download Brave Browser 👉here
2. If you are on a Mac or Linux, you’ll see this line “Also available for Windows 64-bit, Windows 32-bit, macOS and Linux.”
3. Click on the bit version of your PC. It’s either 64-bit or 32-bit and download.
4. If prompted, click Run or Save.
5. If you chose Save, double-click the download to start installing.
○ Windows 7: A Brave window opens once everything is done.
○ Windows 8 & 8.1: A welcome dialogue appears. Click Next to select your default browser.
○ Windows 10: A Brave window opens after everything is done.

How to download and install Brave on Ubuntu?

1. Download Brave Browser 👉here
2. You’ll see this line “Also available for Windows 64-bit, Windows 32-bit, macOS and Linux.”
3. Click on Linux and find your version of Ubuntu
4. Open your terminal
5. Follow the instructions for your version of Ubuntu

Can I use brave in a Chromebook?

Until recently installing Brave on Chromebook was not possible, but with the latest updates of Chrome OS now it is a piece of cake. You can install Brave with a few simple steps on your Chromebook. You can find the required steps and ‘Hows’ in this article 👉 here.