Vivaldi browser
Origins and Philosophy
Vivaldi is a modern web browser with a unique origin story. It was founded in 2016 by Jon von Tetzchner, who was also the co-founder of the original Opera browser. After leaving Opera following disagreements about its direction, von Tetzchner decided to build a browser for people who were disappointed by the trend toward minimalism and data collection. Vivaldi was created with a simple but powerful philosophy: the browser should serve the user, not advertisers or corporations.
Unlike most mainstream browsers that try to appeal to everyone, Vivaldi targets power users, productivity enthusiasts, and anyone who craves control over their software. The browser is built on the Chromium engine, ensuring compatibility with virtually all websites and Chrome extensions. However, what makes Vivaldi special is the dense layer of customization and features added on top of that core. It is a browser designed by former Opera developers for people who actually use browsers for serious, daily work.
Vivaldi is completely free and respects user privacy. The company does not track your browsing habits, does not sell your data, and funds its development through partnerships and bookmarks. This commitment to privacy is a core part of its identity. For anyone who feels that modern browsers have become too simple, too intrusive, or too generic, Vivaldi offers a refreshing alternative.
Deep Customization: The Heart of Vivaldi
The most defining feature of Vivaldi is its unparalleled level of customization. Nearly every aspect of the browser's appearance and behavior can be changed. Users can adjust the position of the address bar, tabs, and side panel. You can choose between placing tabs at the top, bottom, left, or right side of the window. This is a rare feature that makes Vivaldi ideal for modern widescreen monitors.
Vivaldi also offers complete theming control. You can change the accent color, background color, and even apply your own wallpapers. The browser includes a built-in theme editor with real-time preview. Users can create dark modes, light modes, or anything in between. Additionally, Vivaldi supports custom CSS modifications, allowing advanced users to redesign the interface entirely.
The browser includes a powerful feature called "Command Chains." This allows you to record sequences of actions and bind them to a single keyboard shortcut or mouse gesture. For example, you could create a command chain that opens a specific website, scrolls to a particular element, and takes a screenshot. This level of automation is not found in any other mainstream browser.
Keyboard shortcuts in Vivaldi are fully customizable. You can assign any action to any key combination. There is even a built-in "Quick Commands" palette, similar to Spotlight on macOS or the command palette in VS Code. Pressing F2 opens a searchable menu of every action, setting, and open tab in the browser. This alone saves power users hours of navigating menus.
Mouse gestures are also built directly into Vivaldi. You can hold the right mouse button and draw gestures to go back, forward, refresh, close tabs, or perform dozens of other actions. Unlike extensions that add mouse gestures, Vivaldi's implementation is native, fast, and works on every webpage. This feature is a favorite among users who remember the golden age of Opera.
Tab Management for Heavy Users
Vivaldi has arguably the most sophisticated tab management system of any browser ever created. For anyone who routinely opens dozens or hundreds of tabs, Vivaldi is a lifesaver. The browser includes a feature called "Tab Stacking." You can drag tabs onto each other to create stacks, which appear as a single tab with a dropdown arrow. You can name these stacks, color them, and even collapse them to save space.
Within tab stacks, Vivaldi offers "Tab Tiling." This allows you to view multiple tabs side-by-side within the same window. You can choose from various tile layouts: horizontal split, vertical split, grid, or even a custom layout. This is incredibly useful for comparing documents, monitoring dashboards, or coding with reference materials open. No other browser makes multi-tab viewing this seamless.
Vivaldi also includes "Tab Cyclers" and "Tab Scrolling" for navigating large numbers of tabs. Instead of shrinking tab titles until they become unreadable, you can scroll through tabs horizontally. Alternatively, you can use the "Two-Level Tab Bar" which shows a second row of the most recently used tabs. This keeps your most important tabs always visible.
The browser features a "Tab Hibernation" feature. Tabs that have not been used for a while can be automatically put to sleep, freeing up system memory and CPU. You can also manually hibernate individual tabs or stacks. When you click on a hibernated tab, it reloads instantly. This is essential for anyone who keeps dozens of research tabs open for weeks at a time.
Vivaldi's "Window Panel" provides a tree-style view of all your open tabs, tab stacks, and windows. It shows the full hierarchy of your browsing session. From this panel, you can search, close, hibernate, or move tabs between windows. This is far more powerful than the standard tab bar, especially when you have multiple browser windows open across multiple monitors.
Built-in Tools That Replace Extensions
Vivaldi includes a suite of built-in tools that eliminate the need for dozens of extensions. The most prominent is the Sidebar. This vertical panel on the left side of the window can host web panels, bookmarks, downloads, history, notes, and even external websites. You can add any website as a web panel, which will open in a compact view within the sidebar.
For example, you could add WhatsApp, Twitter, or Spotify as a web panel. These panels stay open as you browse, allowing you to check messages or control music without switching tabs. This transforms Vivaldi into a unified workspace. The sidebar is also where you access Vivaldi's built-in Notes feature. You can take notes while browsing, and crucially, you can attach screenshots and even specific page locations to each note.
Vivaldi also includes a built-in Email Client, Calendar, and RSS Feed Reader. These are not simple links; they are full-featured applications integrated directly into the browser. The email client supports multiple accounts, labels, filters, and even PGP encryption. Having these tools inside the browser means one less application to switch to throughout the day.
The browser has a native Screenshot Tool that captures full webpages, not just the visible area. You can capture entire articles, dashboards, or social media threads in a single image. This tool also includes basic annotation features such as arrows, boxes, and text. The screenshot is saved to your downloads or copied to your clipboard for easy sharing.
Vivaldi includes a Calculator and Unit Converter directly in the address bar. Simply type "5+7" or "10 USD to EUR" and the answer appears instantly without navigating to a website. There is also a built-in Page Zoom that can be set per site and remembered permanently. These small tools add up to a dramatically more efficient browsing experience.
Privacy, Sync, and Performance
Vivaldi takes privacy seriously, though it is not as aggressively privacy-focused as Tor or Brave. The company does not track your browsing history, does not profile you for advertising, and does not sell your data. All data collection is opt-in and anonymized, used only to improve the browser. Vivaldi also includes a built-in tracker and ad blocker that can be enabled with one click.
Vivaldi's end-to-end encrypted sync allows you to synchronize bookmarks, passwords, history, and settings across multiple devices without sending data to Vivaldi's servers in an unencrypted form. You create a sync phrase known only to you, and Vivaldi never stores that phrase. This means that even if Vivaldi's servers were compromised, your browsing data would remain private.
In terms of performance, Vivaldi uses the same Chromium engine as Chrome, so it is fast and compatible. However, because of its additional features, Vivaldi can use more memory than very minimal browsers. The trade-off is worth it for users who need advanced functionality. The browser also includes a built-in performance manager that shows you exactly how much memory and CPU each tab, extension, and panel is consuming.
Vivaldi is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. The iOS version is more limited due to Apple's restrictions but still offers excellent tab management and privacy features. The mobile version also syncs seamlessly with the desktop browser. This cross-platform availability makes Vivaldi a viable option for users who want a consistent experience across all their devices.
Who Should Use Vivaldi?
Vivaldi is not for everyone. Casual users who open three or four tabs and rarely change settings will not benefit from its complexity. For those people, Chrome or Safari are perfectly adequate. However, for anyone who feels constrained by other browsers, Vivaldi is a revelation. It is for students researching with fifty tabs open, for developers juggling local servers and documentation, for writers managing multiple drafts, and for designers comparing many versions of a layout.
It is also for privacy-conscious users who want control without complexity. It is for former Opera users who missed the features that made Opera great before it was sold. And it is simply for anyone who believes that software should adapt to the user, not the other way around. Vivaldi is a browser built with love, patience, and respect for the user. It proves that in an era of homogenized software, true innovation and deep customization are still possible.
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