Browsers & devices reference

Your website doesn't look identical on every device and browser. Understanding what your visitors use helps explain why we test your site across multiple environments, and why some design decisions are made the way they are.

Web browsers

Market share moves every month, so the ranking below is more useful than a number. For the current figures, check StatCounter's browser market share.

Browser	Made by	Roughly where it sits	Key notes
Google Chrome	Google	First by a wide margin	The most used browser worldwide, on well over half of all devices. Fast, feature-rich, developer tools are excellent. Available on every major desktop and mobile platform.
Safari	Apple	Second	The default browser on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Dominant on Apple devices. Has its own rendering quirks. Always test on Safari.
Microsoft Edge	Microsoft	Third, low single digits	The browser that ships with Windows 10 and 11. Built on Chromium (same engine as Chrome), so it generally behaves like Chrome.
Mozilla Firefox	Mozilla	Low single digits	Open-source. Strong privacy features. Fewer users than Chrome but important to test, particularly for desktop users.
Samsung Internet	Samsung	Low single digits	Preinstalled on Samsung Galaxy phones. Based on Chromium. Important for sites with many Android/Samsung visitors.
Opera	Opera Software	Low single digits	Chromium-based. Small worldwide share.
Brave	Brave Software	Small	Privacy-focused Chromium browser. Blocks ads and trackers by default: affects some analytics tracking.
DuckDuckGo Browser	DuckDuckGo	Small	Privacy-focused. Available for iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows.

Browser engines

A browser engine is the core software that reads HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and renders the visible page. Knowing the engine explains why different browsers behave similarly or differently.

Engine	Used by	Notes
Blink	Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave, Samsung Internet	The most common engine. If it works in Chrome, it usually works in all Blink browsers.
WebKit	Safari, iOS browsers	Apple's engine. Apple's App Store rules require apps that browse the web to use WebKit, so Chrome for iPhone renders pages the same way Safari does. Important for web compatibility testing.
Gecko	Firefox	Mozilla's engine. Slightly different behavior from Blink in some CSS and JavaScript areas.

Why your iPhone Chrome is really Safari underneath

Apple's App Store rules say apps that browse the web must use the WebKit framework, so Chrome on iPhone, Firefox on iPhone, and Safari on iPhone all render pages the same way. A developer can apply for permission to use a different engine, but only in the European Union and Japan, and only from iOS 17.4 onwards. Testing on Safari on desktop is the closest proxy you can get for iOS behavior.

Device categories

Category	Examples	Typical screen width	Notes
Mobile phone	iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Pixel	About 320px to 440px	Worldwide, phone and desktop traffic are now about level, so phones always need testing. Your own analytics will tell you your own split.
Tablet	iPad, Android tablets	About 600px to 1024px	Less common than phones or desktops, but important for some audiences.
Laptop	MacBook, Windows laptop	About 1280px to 1440px	Common desktop size range.
Desktop monitor	iMac, external monitors	About 1440px to 2560px	Wide screens need maximum-width containers to stay readable.
4K / large display	High-end monitors, TVs	2560px and up	Very wide: designs should cap at a max-width to avoid content becoming too spread out.
Smart TV / gaming console	Samsung TV, PlayStation	Varies	A very small slice of web traffic. Less common for business sites.

Operating systems

OS	Made by	Typical users
Windows	Microsoft	The most used desktop OS by a wide margin. Most enterprise environments.
macOS	Apple	A sizeable minority of desktop users. Common in creative, marketing, and tech industries.
iOS	Apple	Every iPhone. iPads run iPadOS, a close relative. Second-largest mobile OS.
Android	Google	The most used mobile OS globally. Wide variety of screen sizes and manufacturers.
ChromeOS	Google	Chromebooks. Primarily schools and some enterprise users.

What "browser support" means

When we say a feature has "good browser support," it means it works correctly in all major modern browsers. Some newer CSS features or web APIs aren't supported by all browsers yet. We track this and choose approaches that work for your audience.

The website caniuse.com is the industry reference for checking which browsers support a specific feature.

Why we test across browsers and devices

Your visitors use different combinations of browser, device, and operating system. A layout that looks perfect in Chrome on a MacBook might have spacing issues in Safari on an iPhone, or a button might overlap text on a smaller Android screen.

We test your site at key screen sizes and on real devices (or emulators) to catch these issues before they reach your visitors.

Common questions

Which browser is safest to use?

All major modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge) are regularly updated and secure. The most important thing is keeping your browser up to date. For extra privacy, Firefox or Brave are good choices.

Why does my site look different in Safari vs Chrome?

Safari uses the WebKit engine, which interprets some CSS and JavaScript differently from Chrome's Blink engine. This is normal: we account for these differences during development and testing.

How do I know which browsers my visitors are using?

Check your Google Analytics. Go to Reports, then Tech, then Tech details: the report lists browser, device category, operating system and screen resolution. This helps prioritize which browsers matter most for your audience. See A tour of the GA4 dashboard.