DuckDuckGo Review: An All-Around Great Browser, Not Just in Terms of Privacy

When you hear the name DuckDuckGo, privacy is the first thing that comes to mind. The search engine has become popular by providing an alternative to Google, and the company offers other products, including extensions and mobile browsers, and now a macOS desktop browser as well.

While you may think DuckDuckGo is only for users who care about privacy above all else, there’s a lot more to it than that. Yes, there are a lot of features geared towards preserving your online anonymity, but you also get a faster browsing experience, built-in ad blocking, automatic cookie pop-up handling, and Bitwarden integration.

A swift browser based on WebKit

Most desktop browsers rely on Chromium nowadays, with Firefox and Safari being the two major exceptions. Safari is based on Apple’s WebKit, which is understandably optimized for macOS better than any other engine.

Unlike most browser alternatives on the market, DuckDuckGo runs on WebKit. This translates to a small resource footprint and optimal performance, while also opening the door for better macOS integration.

Moreover, the fact that the app aggressively blocks trackers also leads to better performance while browsing, since third-party trackers won’t even be loaded when opening a website, thus reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred.

Minimalistic, Safari-like user interface

Privacy is still the number one focus

It wouldn’t be DuckDuckGo if privacy wasn’t at the top of the feature list, and there’s a lot to talk about in this regard. First of all, unlike most tracker blockers, this browser prevents trackers from being loaded in the first place. If these were simply blocked after loading, information such as your IP address would still be leaked and could be used to profile and track you.

The browser is also bundled with other protections like Global Privacy Control, Link Tracking Protection, Google AMP Protection, and CNAME Cloaking Protection. These send automatic opt-out requests, remove tracking parameters from URLs, replace AMP links with the original URLs, and help identify third-party trackers disguised as other domains.

Watch YouTube videos privately through Duck Player

Try as we might, YouTube is almost impossible to replace as a video sharing platform. Since this is Google we’re talking about, it goes without saying that you cannot watch anything on YouTube without profiled and shown targeted ads.

With DuckDuckGo, when you load up a video, you’ll be given the option of opening it in Duck Player instead, which features a YouTube-like interface but prevents the website from delivering targeted ads or adding any information to your YouTube advertising profile.

Duck Player lets you watch YouTube videos privately

One downside is that if you have the feature enabled at all times, you’ll have no way to interact with videos like you would on YouTube. You can’t rate, read or write comments, or even read descriptions.

Can handle cookie consent prompts automatically

The privacy benefit of being able to manage cookies on the web is invaluable, but it comes with the annoyance of having to figure out how to pick the most private settings when navigation cookie pop-ups with various layouts. It gets even worse if you often clear your cookies or use a VPN, as you’ll be shown these prompts repeatedly.

DuckDuckGo is capable of going through these pop-ups and selecting the best settings for you automatically, making for a much more streamlined browsing experience. However, only the most popular types of cookie prompts are supported for now, though it’s certain that more and more will be added with each update.

Clear browsing data instantly, with exceptions

Many users like to delete browsing data regularly, but this usually takes quite a few clicks, and clearing all cookies will log you out of websites and remove any preferences you might have configured.

Clear browsing data from specific websites

DuckDuckGo’s Fire button lets you clear all browsing data from a specific tab, window, or the entire browser, and it only takes two clicks. You can also select which websites shouldn’t be cleared by unchecking them from the Details drop-down.

Any website can be made Fireproof, which means that some useful information will be kept for them specifically, allowing you to remain signed in the next time you visit them. This is a good way to ensure you can quickly clear all browsing data while safeguarding a few trusted sites.

Bitwarden integration and password autofill

DuckDuckGo has its own built-in password manager, which is quite capable and can automatically fill in your account credentials. You can also import data from other browsers and password managers to make the transition easier.

Of course, if you want to have access to your passwords on other devices and platforms as well, you probably use something like Bitwarden, which can be fully integrated into DuckDuckGo. The downside is that the password manager needs to be running in order to autofill credentials in the browser.

Autofill credentials from Bitwartden or the built-in password manager

Very promising but still in Beta

We can clearly see that this is not meant to be just an obscure browser for privacy nuts. It comes with features that you don’t see in any other popular browser, which help to provide a better experience beyond just making sure your privacy is respected on the web.

Nevertheless, it’s worth remembering that this is still an early Beta version, and many features have yet to be added. Extensions are not supported, many Safari features—such as tab groups and tab overview—have not been implemented, and customization options—both functional and visual—are still very limited.

The Good

The Bad

The Truth