Between Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer, you may have a favorite browser that you like for personal use. But, one of them is far better than the others for managing WordPress. Read on to see my two top picks and why you will want to use them too. Plus, the worst browser may not be what you think.
The Best Browser for WordPress
I’m not going to keep you in suspense about my top browser choice. It’s FireFox and here’s why. It works without freaking out. WordPress has some quirks and, as a site owner, you’ll save yourself frustration if you throw some of your logic out the window and just get with WordPress’ way of doing things. Firefox handles the quirks better than any other browser.
Here’s how I know.
Seen It, Done It
I teach WordPress classes to folks all over the globe via secure desktop sharing meaning that I see the client’s screen and it’s like I’m sitting right next to them. They learn by doing on a real WordPress site. It’s far more effective than having them just watch me do things.
Teaching classes this way also means that I have to interface with every type and level of browser on their computers.
By far, the most stable browser of them all, on both Windows and Mac, is Firefox.
The Next Best Browser
The next most stable browser is Safari on Mac. It can handle just about everything WordPress throws at it and only becomes unstable when you jump back and forth about ten times on the same tab when viewing/editing a page.
(There are several ways to view/edit pages and some work better than others. See the short video tutorial on How to View WordPress Pages and Posts.)
The Worst Browser for WordPress
The worst browser for managing WordPress is one that needs updating. An old browser is not going to handle new features well and will become unstable quicker.
If you’re using an older browser, the moment you log in to WordPress and land on your Dashboard, it may boldly display a module stating that you have an outdated browser. It will show up where the Right Now module is in the top left. If you see that notice, update your browser.
The Worst All-Around Browser
The worst browser on the planet is Internet Explorer, and has been for years. It is the bane of every site designer and WordPress has even cut off support for older versions. If you’re using it for anything, you’re missing way too much of what the Web has to offer. Yeah, it’s a pain to get to know a new browser, but you’ll get over that quickly when you see so many more fun things on the Internet. Then you’ll wonder what took you so long to switch.
Other Reasons to Use FireFox
Most all of the web designers I know use FireFox because of the super duper add-ons that aid in figuring out how a site is put together. Those little insights go way beyond viewing source code.
There are also add-ons to make managing social media platforms a breeze too.
A Word About Chrome
Chrome has a lot of nice features and nifty add-ons. However, I found that it was not as stable for me as FireFox. But then, I try to blow up sites as part of my job testing them. Unfortunately, I’ve also seen it become unstable during training classes too often to recommend it either.
What Browser Do You Use?
Some folks are very attached to the browser they have for personal use. If that’s not FireFox, then they only use it for managing their site. So, you don’t have to switch permanently if you don’t want to.
What browser do you use? Have you tried other browsers? Why do you like the one you use better?
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I’m a Firefox man through and through and have been ever since I started writing DHTML – the javascript console and Firebug were gifts straight from Freya!
Plus I have a large set of plugins that I use for different tasks that most other browsers can’t compete with, and I prefer not to live without them :) Depending on what I’m doing, I open it up with different profiles with different sets of plugins – one set for dev work, one set for personal browser, one set for social media management (ie, it doesn’t have privacy protection like Ghostery so I can test social media stuff & log in to sites that only have social media login methods), etc. And that way I can keep my tabs & sessions for different profiles separate too, and if I’m doing dev work in one profile and it crashes it doesn’t take my reference material windows and personal browsing windows with it :)
For those not in the know on how to use multiple profiles simultaneously: “firefox -no-remote -P ” (if you don’t know how to access the profile manager, it’s “firefox –ProfileManager” – don’t omit the caps, they’re important)
PS: if you’re in the design stages for a theme, browsershots.org is a godsend as you don’t have to waste time loading in every browser – one click and it’s done.
Note: also posted on the LinkedIn WordPress discussion group.
Tyler, thanks for all the extra info about the dev side of websites and browsers. Very helpful!
I loved Firefox, but ended up changing for Chrome as Firefox is eating all my RAM. I like to have many tabs open….
And in fact, Chjrome comes quite njice :)
Firefox eats up my RAM when I have a lot of tabs open too, Agnes. That is the number one complaint I hear for folks not wanting to use it for personal browsing.
I used to use Firefox exclusively, but lately I’m moving more towards Chrome as it catches up as far as add-ons. The only issue I have with Chrome is that some web designers still insist on incorporating features that only work in IE. I’ll use Chrome for browsing unless I run into one of those. I also use it for development a lot as it has the built-in element inspector. That said, Firefox still has better development tools available so I use it when I need those tools.