Maxthon Browser
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Experience a fast, secure browser featuring cloud solutions, ad-blocking, anti-IP tracking, free VPN, sync across devices, and Web3 AI tools. Maxthon offers user-controlled privacy settings, incognito mode, anti-phishing, tab management, split-screen multitasking, and more.
License model
- Free • Proprietary
Application type
Country of Origin
United Kingdom
Platforms
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
Features
Maxthon Browser News & Activities
Highlights All activities
Recent activities
Maoholguin added Maxthon Browser as alternative to Dia Browser
POX added Maxthon Browser as alternative to Opera Neon
POX added Maxthon Browser as alternative to Kumo Web Browser
OpenSourceSoftware added Maxthon Browser as alternative to Flutter Browser- bbrobb liked Maxthon Browser
POX added Maxthon Browser as alternative to Fiery- Gaian_Aqua_Killdeer thinks Built-in Adobe Flash Player is a important feature of Maxthon Browser
- sanjayjawarikar thinks Extensible by Plugins/Extensions is a important feature of Maxthon Browser
Maoholguin added Maxthon Browser as alternative to Aurora Browser
POX added Maxthon Browser as alternative to Waterfox
Maxthon Browser information
Developed by
Maxthon Ltd Licensing
Proprietary and Free product.Rating
Average rating of 2.1Alternatives
164 alternatives listedSupported Languages
AlternativeTo Categories
Web Browsers, Education & Reference, AI Tools & ServicesApple AppStore
- Updated May 20, 2025
- 4.52 avg rating
Comments and Reviews
This is the best browser I have ever used. I love it. Super easy to send links/files between computers and devices, it is built in.
Stay well away if you value your privacy and security
Maxthon is a privacy and security disgrace.
Data harvesting
Even on Maxthon's privacy policy page they admit to harvesting far more data than they have any reasonable business in taking from users, whilst at the same time saying privacy is important. They grant themselves levels of insight into your browsing habits far beyond what is standard in the industry.
Privacy/security implications
In 2016, security researchers discovered that Maxthon did the following:
The data Maxthon harvested in this way included visited websites, operating system details and lists of installed software. Everything you would need to help attack the Maxthon user online.
In response to this, the Maxthon CEO, Jeff Chen, said they fixed "the bug". That's bullshit. That's no bug. This is the computer equivalent of saying you're interested in motor vehicle safety whilst drugging drivers and taking away their seatbelts. The kindest thing you could say is that it's one of the greatest cases of online negligence ever committed by an online company. But that is also extremely improbable to be the correct interpretation. After all, if you can develop a browser, you know to check your data is transmitted via https.
Alternatives
Almost any browser is better. I recommend open source browsers (because they are more trustworthy). These include:
Firefox is open source, well-supported and has thousands of great add-ons. It will sync your data in encrypted form, too, so you don' t have to worry about privacy. Go for the last two if you want Chromium-compatible performance. Brave is very privacy-conscious, so it will not let you add extensions except from a very small selection.
That said, you'll be better off in security and privacy terms even with these options:
Both are fully featured. Just be sure to ask for "Do Not Track" in the settings and disable WebRTC if you use a VPN when browsing.
Not as fast as my fastest browser. https://browserbench.org/Speedometer3.0/#summary
"Two security firms have confirmed that the Maxthon web browser collects sensitive user information and sends it to its servers, even if the user opts out of such behavior."
https://news.softpedia.com/news/maxthon-browser-collects-sensitive-data-even-if-users-opt-out-506327.shtml
Be warned. Although its web browser functionality is IMO, pretty good; the software is very nosy (more nosy than Google Chrome). It sends out usage tracking to multiple servers, and there's no way to turn that off.
I've tried editing Maxthon's information to reflect this in the past, but someone else (judging by user activity, it looks like someone from Maxthon) has changed it back.
While you can still download a version of Maxthon for Linux, it is not being updated. Maxthon officially discontinued the Linux version, and a simple search on the Maxthon Community Forums would corroborate that. Here's a post from 2015, for example, where a Maxthon admin states, "The development of Maxthon for linux has stopped. There is no plan for new versions at the moment."
I think it's important Linux users are made aware that Maxthon for Linux is no longer receiving updates so that they can avoid the inherent security concerns that accompany using old software, and especially from using an old web browser.
You can download the most recent release of Maxthon for Linux from this thread on the forums.
Other than the lack of Linux support (and the apparent desire of Maxthon employees to prevent people from knowing Linux is no longer supported) Maxthon is a decent browser.
Maxthon is not generally that bad.
It's performance is reasonable.
It gets slow and hogs memory when you have too many tabs, just like other browsers.
The default UI is okay, but is not very customizable.
All in all, it is a reasonable browser that one might chose to use only out of frustration with the other, generally better, and more prominent ones.
I am mostly here to post a warning: the session manager will forget everything from Earlier Sessions if you close the Last Session tab. I am going back to CyberFox or FireFox, at least they have a session manager that doesn't arbitrarily destroy your data.