LibreWolf vs Waterfox: Which Firefox Fork Should You Use?
Both strip telemetry at build time. LibreWolf locks down fingerprinting by default and updates manually; Waterfox stays comfortable, auto-updates, and runs on Android.
Published September 28, 2026· By Juan Martinez
LibreWolf and Waterfox both start from the same place: take Firefox, strip out the parts that phone home, ship it as something you can actually read the source of. Both compile telemetry out at build time rather than toggling it off, so there is no switch to accidentally flip and no Mozilla-side experiment channel left open. Past that shared floor they diverge hard. LibreWolf turns on fingerprinting resistance by default and accepts that some sites will look wrong, that Netflix will not play, and that you update it yourself. Waterfox keeps the browser comfortable — streaming works, updates arrive on their own, there is an Android build — and leaves the strictest protection as an about:config option you have to find. LibreWolf scores 7.8 to Waterfox’s 6.7, and nearly the whole gap is one category.
| LibreWolf | Waterfox | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 7.8 | 6.7 |
| Engine | Firefox (stable) | Firefox ESR |
| Open Source | full | full |
| Telemetry | none | none |
| Anti-Fingerprint | standard | basic |
| Ad Block Built-In | ✅ | ✅ |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux, Android |
| Est. | 2020 | 2011 |
Anti-Fingerprinting: On by Default vs Left to You
This is the 8-versus-4.5 category, and it comes down to a single preference. LibreWolf enables Resist Fingerprinting, the setting that came out of the Tor Uplift project, on a fresh install. It masks your timezone, reports a generic OS and browser version, disables WebGL behind a per-site permission, and gates canvas reads. Waterfox’s own support article treats RFP as an advanced option to switch on if you want it — not a default. Without it, Waterfox’s protection is Enhanced Tracking Protection in standard mode, which blocks known fingerprinting scripts from the Disconnect list but does nothing to the values your browser reports. Canvas, WebGL, fonts, screen dimensions, audio — all real, all readable.
Neither one solves fingerprinting, and the honest version of this matters. LibreWolf leaves letterboxing off, so window dimensions still leak, and a fresh install still tests as nearly unique on EFF’s Cover Your Tracks. Waterfox tests the same way as stock Firefox does. The difference is that LibreWolf raises the cost of building a stable identifier across sessions and Waterfox does not try. If you assumed a VPN covers this gap, it does not — that’s a different layer entirely.
DNS: Where Waterfox Is Objectively Ahead
Waterfox resolves DNS over Oblivious HTTP on new profiles, and the design is the strongest default either browser ships. The relay, run by Fastly, sees your IP but not what you asked for. The resolver, run by Cloudflare, sees the query but not who sent it. Neither half holds both pieces, which is a materially different guarantee from ordinary encrypted DNS where one provider sees everything.
LibreWolf ships encrypted DNS off entirely. That is deliberate — the project’s position is that picking a DNS provider for you is itself a choice users should make — but the practical result is that out of the box your DNS queries go to whoever your network hands you, in plaintext. You can configure it yourself. You have to know to.
Updates, DRM, and the Cost of Strictness
LibreWolf has no auto-update mechanism at all. Not a delayed one, not an opt-in one — updates come through your package manager or you download the new build yourself. On Linux with a package manager this is a non-issue; on Windows and macOS it means a browser that can silently fall behind on security patches unless you keep checking. It is the complaint that shows up most in user reports, and for a privacy browser it is a genuine security cost, not just an inconvenience.
DRM is off by default too, so Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, and Spotify do not play until you enable it per site. The built-in password manager is disabled by design. RFP itself adds friction: web content renders in a forced light theme, the startup window is a fixed size, and canvas-dependent sites break. Waterfox pays none of this. It updates like a normal browser, DRM works on install, and without RFP nothing renders oddly.
There is one place Waterfox’s defaults bend the other way. Its built-in blocker — which uses uBlock Origin’s filter syntax and bundles core, privacy, and cookie-annoyance lists that work offline from first launch — permits ads on its own search-partner pages by default. That is a funding decision, it’s documented, and you can switch it off. LibreWolf ships actual uBlock Origin with custom lists and strict tracking protection, with no carve-out.
Who Maintains Each One
LibreWolf is community-run under MPL 2.0 with a Docker-based reproducible build, meaning you can verify the released binary matches the published source. It refuses donations on principle — the stated reasoning is that no funding means no dependency — so there is no sponsor to lose and no investor to answer to. There is also no single accountable owner, no independent security audit, and no bug bounty; reports go to a PGP address shared by three maintainers. In February 2023, LibreWolf was found writing full visited URLs into the systemd journal on Fedora and Debian, pulled from JavaScript error messages, including from private windows. It was specific to LibreWolf’s build and did not reproduce on stock Firefox.
Waterfox has the better paper trail and the thinner structure behind it. Its privacy policy enumerates every outgoing connection the browser makes on its own, what it’s for, and how to disable it, and invites you to verify the list yourself with network logging — the most detailed documentation of that kind between the two. The governance page names the operating company, its official registrations, and its sole director. There is a written policy against building an LLM into the browser by default. But the sole director is also effectively the whole development team — the founder has described the project as just him with occasional contributors. Funding is thin by his own account: after Microsoft wound down its search partnerships, revenue went from healthy to, in his words, “okay, not much,” and independence now leans on a paid metasearch subscription. The browser itself spent 2019 to 2023 owned by an advertising company before the founder bought it back. There are no reproducible builds, so the binary can’t be checked against the source. Neither browser has an independent security audit or a bug bounty; Waterfox’s security-disclosure page is an inherited Firefox document pointing at Mozilla’s own bug tracker.
Platforms and Day-to-Day Use
LibreWolf is desktop only — Windows, macOS, Linux — and the team has said mobile isn’t being worked on. Waterfox has official Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android builds, distributed through Google Play on Android. Neither has an iOS build. If you want the same browser on your phone, there is one answer here.
Waterfox also adds things Firefox doesn’t have: a filter-list manager for the built-in blocker, tree-style tabs with split view and tab groups, and interface customization running past a hundred options. Extensions don’t need to be signed, so you can install from anywhere. The cost of a one-person team shows up in the release cadence — a recent version broke most customization settings during a codebase update, and the next one rewrote the customization system from scratch. Both browsers support Firefox Sync with end-to-end encryption, off until you sign in; LibreWolf additionally lets you point it at a self-hosted server instead of Mozilla’s.
Bottom line
Take LibreWolf if fingerprinting resistance is the thing you came for and you’ll accept what it costs: a forced light theme on pages, a fixed startup window, occasional canvas breakage, no streaming until you enable DRM per site, and updates you handle yourself. A reproducible build and a no-money governance model make it the more verifiable option here. It suits Linux with a package manager keeping it current, on desktop only.
Take Waterfox if you want a Firefox fork that stays out of your way — auto-updates, DRM on install, an ad blocker that works from first launch, deep interface customization, and the only Android build between the two. Its Oblivious HTTP DNS default is the better design on that axis, and its documentation of outgoing connections is more thorough than LibreWolf’s. Go in knowing that fingerprinting protection is off until you turn it on, that development is one person on uncertain revenue, and that the binaries can’t be independently verified.
If neither the fingerprinting friction nor the one-person bus factor sits right with you, the answer isn’t a third Firefox fork with the same structural problems — it’s deciding which risk you actually face. Against cross-site tracking, LibreWolf’s defaults do more work today. Against a browser quietly going stale on your machine, Waterfox’s updater does.