Opera GX vs Chrome: Which is the best?

A web browser is a software that is required to surf the internet. If we talk about the best web browsers, Edge, Chrome and Firefox are the top browsers. Apart from these popular browsers, there are plenty of browsers that are available for free. Opera is not as popular as these three browsers but most users use Opera to surf the internet. If you are an Opera user, you might have heard of Opera GX. Opera GX is a gaming browser that is specially designed for gamers. In this article, we will compare Opera GX and Chrome.

Opera GX vs Chrome: Which is better?

We will compare Opera GX and Chrome on the basis of different factors. This comparison will help you choose the best browser of these two.

User Interface
Features
Performance
Extension support
Security and privacy

Let’s start.

1] User Interface

Opera GX has a clean interface with a sidebar containing apps and other features. Because it is a gaming browser, its default theme is dark. However, users can change the default dark theme in Opera GX Settings. Like most browsers, its new tab shows quick links, which is called Speed Dial. These quick links include links to different platforms, like gaming platforms, YouTube, shopping websites, etc. There is also an option to add a custom site to Speed Dial. The top left side of the Speed Dial shows the current temperature. You can customize it and set your city to display the temperature for the same.

On the top left side, just next to the Opera menu icon, there is a GX Corner which is completely designed for gaming. It contains the games release calendar, free games, upcoming games, and more.

Google Chrome is not a gaming browser. Therefore, its interface is designed for a regular web browsing experience. On the home page, quick links and a search bar are available. On the top right side, the links to Gmail, Google Images, and Google Apps are available. You can set a custom wallpaper background on the home page.

2] Features

Opera GX has a lot of features beneficial for gamers and regular users. Have a look:

Built-in Resource Controlling Tools: High resource consumption is a major issue in web browsers. If your web browser consumes high RAM and CPU most of the time, it impacts your system’s health and performance. Opera GX has built-in CPU and RAM limiters. If you see that Opera GX is consuming high CPU and RAM, you can limit its usage.
Apps integration: The sidebar of Opera GX contains some built-in apps, including Twitch, YouTube Music Player, and Whatsapp. This feature provides users with a facility to access and use these apps without opening a separate tab in Opera GX.
GX Corner: GX Corner is located on the top left side of the browser. By default, it is pinned to Opera GX. Here, you will get the release date of games, free games collection, free game demos, new and upcoming games, daily news, and more.
VPN: Opera GX has a built-in free VPN. You can turn it on in settings.
Screenshot: Opera GX also has a built-in screenshot-capturing tool. Using it, you can take a snapshot of any web page. This feature is really helpful for gamers. You can access it from the top right side of the address bar.

Let’s see what features Google Chrome offers to the users.

A pool of extensions: No web browser can beat Chrome when it comes to browser extensions. Undoubtedly, Chrome has a pool of extensions. A browser extension is an add-on that can be installed additionally. Extensions can make our work easier.
Cast: When it comes to screen mirroring, most of you have definitely heard of Chromecast. Chromecast is a screen mirroring technology developed by Google. Therefore, it is available in Google Chrome. You can access it from Chrome settings.
Live Caption: Live Caption is an interesting feature of Chrome. As the name implies, it displays the subtitles of a video being played in Google Chrome irrespective of the fact that the video has subtitles or not. You can turn it on in Chrome Settings. Go to “Settings > Accessibility” and turn on the switch next to Live Caption.
Tab Group: Using this feature, you can group opened tabs in Chrome. This feature can increase productivity because you can group tabs according to your work.

3] Performance

When it comes to web browser performance, it should display the results faster and consume fewer system resources. Browsing speed depends on many different factors. Some websites take more time to load, whereas, some load in less time. It also depends on the graphics quality of a website. If a website uses too many heavy images and heavy videos, it will take more time to load. Therefore, we tested the performance of both these browsers on the basis of system resource consumption.

We opened the same websites in 4 tabs in both of these browsers and noted that Google Chrome was consuming more CPU and DIsk but less RAM than Opera GX. Have a look:

Google Chrome: 84% CPU, 83% Memory, and 41% Disk.
Opera GX: 12% CPU, 87% Memory, and 1% Disk.

4] Extension support

When it comes to extension support, the only browser that ranks at the top is Google Chrome. The extensions that are available on Chrome can also be installed on other Chromium-based browsers. Since Opera GX is a Chromium-based browser, Chrome extensions are also available for it. But we are not sure that all Chrome extensions work well in Opera GX.

5] Security and privacy

Because of increasing cyberattacks, the security of users has become important when it comes to surfing the internet. Therefore, you should choose your web browser wisely. Google Chrome, being a Google product, is 100% safe and secure. It automatically blocks malicious websites when a user clicks on a malicious link. On the other hand, Opera GX also has a malicious website-detecting feature. By default, this feature is turned on. In addition to this, it also has a built-in VPN that makes users’ connections more secure.

If we talk about privacy, the browser that is the choice of most users is Mozilla Firefox.

Is Chrome better than Opera?

Both Opera and Chrome are good browsers. If we say, which of these is better, it depends on the user’s choice. If the user is searching for a browser with a free VPN, he will go with Opera and if he is searching for any other feature that is only available in Chrome, he will definitely go with Chrome.

Is Opera GX slower than Chrome?

Usually, users call Chrome a Memory hog. But when we tested this on our system, we found that Opera GX was consuming more RAM as compared to Google Chrome but Chrome was consuming more CPU and DIsk than Opera GX.