Download the Vivaldi browser† Now. And in the few, painless seconds it takes to download and set up Vivaldi, let’s convince you Why this will improve your browsing experience.
Running a secondary browser is one of the easiest and most drastic decisions you can make on your computer. Why? Since you don’t actually need to switch browsers, downloading a second browser won’t change your existing settings at all. Plus, pretty much every browser is free, including Vivaldi. And importing your bookmarks is almost instantaneous, so a test drive with Vivaldi will literally take seconds off your day – if you don’t like it, it can’t hurt. But you might find that it adds a new dimension to your browsing that you didn’t even know you were missing. Heck, you might even find yourself digging chrome fully. So let’s try it!
At press time, Vivaldi had released Vivaldi 5.2† About the only “annoyance” is that, like many browsers, Vivaldi encourages you to sign up and log in with a custom account to keep your bookmarks, reading list, and more on multiple PCs. Vivaldi also offers an Android version of its browser, allowing you to share tabs via desktop and mobile browsing. (Note that you are absolute) not required to enter an account to use Vivaldi.)
Privacy and Ad Blocking
Privacy isn’t what you probably think about when downloading Vivaldi, but you’ll probably be surprised at how well it works right away. You know that Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge see ads as a source of revenue because anything is allowed by default without an ad blocking plugin. With Vivaldi, ads and inline video blocked standard – no plugins or add-ons required. The result is a very smooth, seamless experience that intelligently blocks the ads you don’t want to see, while keeping other content intact. Vivaldi tamed the messiest, media-heavy sites I visit, like ESPN.com or SFGate.com, with no bugs or flaws.
Vivaldi is built on Chromium’s open-source rendering engine that Google Chrome builds on, meaning you can use Google plugins from the Chrome Web Store. However, Vivaldi does not collect any user data.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Interestingly, Vivaldi also includes a “Reader View”, an outdated control that appears in other browsers – the little “text” icon that appears to the right of the URL bar. In “Reader View”, an article on the web is usually stripped down to a simple background, minimal art and navigation elements, and absolutely no ads. With Vivaldi, there’s little reason to use Reader View, as the default view is simply more effective. In some cases, Reader View added visual cruft because it spelled out certain normally hidden elements on the page.
With Vivaldi, you’ll notice a difference in your browsing experience right out of the box.
Vivaldi’s selling point: the side panel
Vivaldi cleverly realizes that most larger monitors have a ton of extra white space that goes unused. Vivaldi cuts into this space to add a narrow column of icons that link to a number of utilities, from RSS feeds to even email and a nicely organized calendar feature. A small switch in the lower right corner completely hides the panel; otherwise, you can click on one of the icons – bookmarks, for example – and the panel will slide out to reveal the full feature. Figuring out what all the icons represent and where they live is probably the most unfriendly part of Vivaldi, as it kind of feels like you’re poking around the instrument panel of an unfamiliar car.
Not all panel options are particularly new. There is a “Reading List” for articles you want to save and view later, along with the default downloads and bookmarks, called Bookmarks. Unfortunately, I’ve exported my bookmarks so many times that they’re a bit of a mess, although it’s pretty easy to drag and drop them into the Vivaldi bookmarks folder or to the favorites bar at the top.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Certain features may not be as useful as well, such as a built-in Google Translate widget. (Vivaldi, like most browsers, will automatically translate a page into a foreign language.) I didn’t find a dedicated Wikipedia panel particularly helpful, although you may think otherwise.
Personally, my favorite of all the options is the built-in Feeds panel, which allows you to import RSS feeds and quickly scan what various websites have published. Sure, that’s an outdated feature for reporters like me who have to keep an eye on different websites, but RSS usually requires a standalone service or app. The only thing I don’t like about it is that while you can drag and drop Bookmarks wherever you want, you can’t rearrange the RSS feeds for whatever reason.
If all this sounds like too much hassle, you can turn it off. Part of the Vivaldi setup process is deciding “how much Vivaldi” to start with.
Tabs, tabs, tabs
Speaking of tabs, tab management is Vivaldi’s bread and butter. There really are almost too many options, even for power users! Not only does a Vivaldi user have the option to place their tabs left and right and top and bottom, but there are also several ways to organize them: a traditional layout, but also in tab stacks, “accordion tabs” that sitting on top of each other and then out, or just a double row with one on top of the other.
Mark Hachman / IDG
It’s almost ridiculous: you can use your thumbwheel to scroll back and forth between tabs, even horizontally; stack the tabs by host, close all tabs to the right or left of the current tab, clone a tab, and so on. You can even Ctrl-click a few tabs, right-click them and tell Vivaldi to open them in tile format – that tab will then display the other tabs as tiles, but keep the formatting of your other tabs. Like we said, ridiculous!
Mark Hachman / IDG
Built-in email and calendar
Another unique feature that Vivaldi offers is an optional built-in email reader and calendar, which are also built into the side panel. Vivaldi does not allow you to sign in to Microsoft 365 or Exchange; it only supports POP3 and IMAP, which means it’s a better choice for personal email than for business contacts. I think that’s fine. In any case, Vivaldi’s RSS feed reader filters through the email client, so I just saved my “real” email in Windows 11’s Mail app and used the Vivaldi mail as a dedicated feed reader.
I feel a little guilty about that decision, though, because I like the Vivaldi calendar. Organizing a calendar in a vertical column, like the Vivaldi app does, really lends itself to a quick, scannable overview of your day, but less so if you’re looking at a week or month. There you can bring out your monthly calendar in a special tab.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Hotkey
Unlike Google or Microsoft, Vivaldi does not encourage you to look at the licensed content in the new tabs like Chrome or Edge. Instead, opening a new Speed Dial tab opens up some great shortcuts to popular sites. You can of course add one yourself.
You could dismiss this as a bit simplistic, but figuring out a bookmark can take a while. Being able to configure a new tab page with useful bookmarks is a handy feature, even if something like that can be found in other browsers.
Controls on the bottom navigation bar
Vivaldi also includes a small set of shortcut icons at the bottom of the screen (if you’ve configured your tabs to appear at the top). I find this extremely useful. Not only are they the right size for my 4K monitor, they’re just handy. There’s a slider to zoom in and out, a shortcut button to take a snapshot of the page, and controls to turn the current page into a tile as well. I also like the little “trash can” icon in the top right corner: if you accidentally close a tab, you can click the trash can to bring it back.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Like pretty much every other feature on this list, there’s no obligation to use it. And there are others, hidden in the Settings menu, that I don’t use: mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, and more. There are even “chains of command”, or browser macros that you can use to perform multiple tasks in one fell swoop. Those are for the real power users.
If you’re determined to customize your browsing experience, Vivaldi might be the browser for you. Take a few seconds and find out!
