Comparison

Maxthon Browser vs Via Browser

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Maxthon Browser

A mobile web browser designed for a streamlined and personalized experience. It offers a fresh interface, enhanced features like customizable favorites, and tools for privacy and eye comfort.

Highlights
  • New UI design
  • Re-planned homepage layout
  • Optimized feature layout
  • Enhanced favorites with text and images
  • Personalized data treasure chest
  • Incognito mode
  • Night mode
Read full description

The world changes every day but our beliefs remain the same. We firmly believe that good interaction is less while good product is neither more nor less, and good experience always comes from the heart. A fresh new Maxthon Browser for iPhone will become the treasure chest for you on mobile Internet. We made great efforts in this revision in a visual sense to get rid of complicated design. According to a large amount of users' feedback, we perfectly combined design and practical features to build a browser that suits you like no one does. Named “The Best Browser” by famous North American and European agencies many times : Download82 2017 Software 5-Star Award DEAL crunch 2017 Editor’s Choice About.com Most Popular Browser Award Share Networks Full-Stars Recommendation Award ...... All Awards can be checked here: http://www.maxthon.com/awards New Features: 【Video Enhancement】Support video speed adjustment, floating pop-up video and background video playback for a better viewing experience. 【Userscript Support】Tampermonkey userscript engine available to customize web pages and unlock more possibilities. 【Webpage Read Aloud】Text-to-speech for web content, free your eyes and listen to articles on the go. 【New design】Global UI interaction、fresh new design style; 【New Homepage】Re-planned page layout from traditional two-stage to three-stage, easily to view. 【New Layout】Optimized on overall features level, which highlighted the often used main features according to users feedback, greatly improved the convenience of operations. 【New Favorites】Breaking the traditional Favorites structure that can only save URL, re-identifying the favorites feature that can conclude pictures and text content. 【Personal Customized】 The new Maxthon Browser will not only be your information access platform, but rather your personal customized treasure chest for data that comes with a powerful edition of notes, password management, and numerous extensions. Others feature: 【Incognito mode】Browsing on the incognito mode will never record your cache, Cookie, history, and download record. 【Night mode】Make adjustments to brightness to reduce the damage to the eyes when browsing at night. More Info: Report Bug: http://www.maxthon.com/mx/bug/post/ Help Center: http://www.maxthon.com/mx5/help/question/ Contact us:contact@maxthon.com Website: http://www.maxthon.com/ Maxthon Community: http://www.maxthon.com/ Facebook:www.facebook.com/maxthon Twitter:www.twitter.com/Maxthon YouTube:www.youtube.com/MaxthonCloudBrowser LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/company/maxthon-international-limited

About

Via Browser

A minimalist and lightweight web browser designed for speed and minimal memory usage. It offers extensive customization options, ad blocking, and essential browsing features for a clutter-free experience.

Highlights
  • Quiet browsing experience
  • Low memory usage
  • Minimalist design
  • Customizable interface
  • Ad blocking
  • Night mode
  • Request desktop site
Features
Read full description

• Quiet Browser Via browser won’t push news and other things to you. No bother to your device. • Mini Browser Via browser use much less memory usage on your device. Keep your device as fast as new. • Lite Browser Via browser is designed for Minimalism. Best choice for geek user and who enjoy lite products. • Customized Browser You can easily customize Via browser. This is your own web browser. • Fast Browser Via browser is smooth for your device. And we optimized a lot for fast browsing. Here are some features of Via browser • iCloud sync • Ad blocking • User-script support • Night mode • Request desktop site • Translate • Find in page • Multi search engine support • Saving webpages • ... Enjoy your time with Via Browser.

Screenshots

Maxthon Browser4 screens
Via Browser4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Maxthon Browser at every 2 weeks against Via Browser's every 3 months. Maxthon Browser also leads on ratings volume (701 vs 116). Via Browser's advantage is review sentiment (79% vs 71%) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Maxthon Browser against 4.5 for Via Browser. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Maxthon Browser has 701 ratings behind it against 116, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 71% of Maxthon Browser's written reviews are positive against 79% of Via Browser's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Maxthon Browser ships an update every 2 weeks, Via Browser every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Maxthon Browser versus Via Browser: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMaxthon BrowserVia Browser
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (701 ratings) — better4.5 (116 ratings)
Positive reviews70.5% of reviews79.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings701 — better116
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB5 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperMaxthon Technology Limited亚锋 涂

Customer experience

Maxthon Browser

All ratings701 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral3.4%
Negative7.7%
Written reviews217 reviews
Positive70.5%
Neutral5.1%
Negative24.4%

Via Browser

All ratings115 ratings
Positive87.0%
Neutral4.3%
Negative8.7%
Written reviews77 reviews
Positive79.2%
Neutral11.7%
Negative9.1%

User reviews

Maxthon Browser

From 701 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and efficient browsing
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 🔒 Secure and private browsing
  • 💡 Useful features like cloud sync and note-taking

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 👎 Cluttered and confusing UI after updates
  • 🚫 Forced login/account creation

Via Browser

From 116 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Extremely fast and lightweight browser
  • 💾 Minimal storage footprint (4.8MB)
  • ⚙️ Advanced customization options (CSS/JS injection, ad-blocking rules)
  • 🔒 Strong privacy controls and data management
  • 🎯 Clean, minimalist UI design

Room to improve

  • ❌ Sync functionality completely broken across devices
  • 🐛 Bookmarks disappear after several days of use
  • 💾 Excessive cache accumulation (200MB+ after minimal use)
  • 🔧 iOS version lacks many Android features
  • ⚠️ Website compatibility issues (iCloud, some sites block access)

Bugs and requests

Maxthon Browser

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Freezing and unresponsiveness
  • Bookmark and history sync issues
  • Incompatibility with older devices
  • Problems with file downloads and attachments

Requested features

4 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Improved tab management
  • Ability to customize homepage and bookmarks
  • Better video/audio playback support

Via Browser

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • Sync not working between devices
  • Bookmarks disappearing after days of use
  • Cache not clearing properly, excessive memory usage
  • Settings URL field resets on app restart
  • Userscripts install but don't execute
Show 7 more
  • Desktop site request not functioning reliably
  • iCloud website compatibility error
  • Untitled sleep tabs making navigation difficult
  • Text file downloads open instead of saving
  • Status bar not appearing consistently
  • Meta theme color not respected for dark/light mode
  • Memory usage increases dramatically with minimal browsing

Requested features

17 requests
  • Set as default browser
  • Cross-device bookmark synchronization
  • Resource sniffer/traffic inspection tool
  • QR code scanner functionality
  • Userscript/Tampermonkey full support
Show 12 more
  • Configuration import/export functionality
  • Video download capability
  • Background video playback
  • Bookmark drag-and-drop reordering
  • Floating action buttons and gesture customization
  • Search engine switcher in search bar
  • iCloud Keychain and passkey support
  • Weather and homepage customization widgets
  • Zoom functionality
  • Russian language support
  • JavaScript disable toggle
  • Redirect blocking feature

In-app purchases

None

Maxthon Browser

No in-app purchases

None

Via Browser

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Maxthon Browser free?
Maxthon Browser is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Via Browser free?
Via Browser is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Maxthon Browser or Via Browser?
Maxthon Browser is rated higher. Maxthon Browser averages 4.5 out of 5 from 701 ratings, while Via Browser averages 4.5 from 116 ratings.
Do Maxthon Browser or Via Browser have ads?
Neither Maxthon Browser nor Via Browser shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Maxthon Browser or Via Browser?
Maxthon Browser ships an update every 2 weeks, and Via Browser every 3 months. Most recently, Maxthon Browser was updated on September 20, 2026 and Via Browser on September 19, 2026.

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