The European alternative to Firefox
Firefox is in a long, awkward decline: sponsored shortcuts, AI features added by default, ~80% of revenue from a Google search deal, and a board that keeps shipping things its loudest users hate. Dazr is what Firefox was supposed to be: an independent browser that just works for you, not for an ad business or a search-engine partner.
Why Firefox users are looking around
If any of these have been bugging you, you're not the only one.
Mozilla's funding problem
Roughly 80% of Mozilla Corporation's revenue comes from being Google's default search engine in Firefox. The browser whose pitch is "we're not Google" is funded almost entirely by Google. The deal renews periodically, and antitrust pressure on Google may end it.
Sponsored shortcuts on the New Tab
Open a new tab in Firefox and (in many regions) you'll see sponsored tiles. They can be turned off, but they're on by default. The same browser positioning itself as user-aligned ships paid placements out of the box.
AI features added by default
An AI chatbot sidebar, AI-generated tab group names, AI alt-text for images. All shipped on by default in recent versions, all sending requests to providers like OpenAI/Mistral/Anthropic. You can turn them off; you couldn't avoid them being there.
Pocket and other unsolicited additions
Pocket is integrated into the browser and surfaces "Sponsored Stories" by default in some regions. In 2017, an unsolicited Mr. Robot promotional add-on appeared in Firefox installs as part of a marketing tie-in with the show; Mozilla apologized after the backlash. The pattern of "we'll ship this thing and apologize if it lands badly" has come up more than once.
Mozilla added an ad-attribution feature
Yes, you read that right. In 2024 Mozilla shipped Privacy-Preserving Attribution (PPA) — a feature that helps advertisers measure ad effectiveness, built in partnership with Meta. Firefox also sends usage data ("telemetry"), crash reports, and feature experiments ("Studies") back to Mozilla by default. All can be turned off; all start on. Dazr sends nothing.
Mozilla's direction has drifted
Over the last few years Mozilla has had multiple rounds of layoffs on its privacy and platform teams, while expanding into advertising technology (it acquired the ad-tech company Anonym) and AI. Long-time Firefox users say the project feels like it's drifting away from the people who chose it for privacy.
Dazr vs Firefox at a glance
Honest comparison, item by item.
| Feature | Mozilla Firefox | Dazr |
|---|---|---|
| Telemetry on by default | Yes | No telemetry, ever |
| Sponsored content (shortcuts, suggestions) | Yes (regional default) | None |
| AI features by default | Yes (sidebar, alt-text, tab groups) | None, no AI shipped |
| Funded by Google search deal | ~80% of revenue | No Google money |
| Country / jurisdiction | US (Mozilla Corporation) | EU |
| Default search engine | Dazr Search (no logging) | |
| Built-in ad blocker | No (requires uBlock Origin) | Yes, by default |
| Anti-fingerprinting | Partial (resistFingerprinting flag) | On by default |
| Strips tracking codes (utm_*, gclid, fbclid) | Some (Strict mode) | Aggressive by default |
| Encrypted DNS (DoH) | Cloudflare default in some regions | European non-profit DNS |
| Ad-attribution feature (PPA) | Shipped by default | Not shipped |
| Vertical tabs built in | Yes | Yes |
| Browser engine | Gecko | Chromium |
| Account required for sync | Mozilla account | No account, no sync |
What changes when you switch
No sponsored anything, ever
Dazr's New Tab is empty. The address bar suggests pages from your history and bookmarks, that's it. There is no sponsored content because there is no advertising business behind the project. We can't backslide into ads, because we don't have the org structure to do it.
- No sponsored shortcuts on New Tab
- No sponsored search suggestions
- No "Pocket-style" recommended stories
- No promoted extensions on the extensions page
No AI baked into the browser
We removed our AI overview and AI mode features in May 2026 because we didn't think they were what people came to a privacy browser for. There's no chatbot in the sidebar, no AI tab group naming, no AI alt-text generation, no AI summaries. The browser is a browser.
- Zero AI requests originating from Dazr itself
- You can use any AI website you want, that's the web
- No "private AI relay" that's actually a third-party AI provider
Independent funding, EU governance
Dazr isn't funded by Google's search deal, and it can't be, because Dazr isn't a default in any other browser to sell. We don't take VC. We're a small team operating under EU corporate law, accountable to the people who actually use the browser.
- No Google search-deal dependency
- No board pushing for ad-tech expansion
- EU jurisdiction, EU servers, EU-based team
- Transparent funding model published when donations open
What Firefox still does that Dazr doesn't (yet)
- Account-based sync. Firefox Sync moves your bookmarks, history, and passwords across devices. Dazr has no account system by design. If you need cross-device sync, a password manager (Bitwarden, 1Password) handles it cleanly.
- Multi-account containers. Firefox's named containers (work / personal / shopping) are the gold standard. Dazr isolates storage per top-level site by default, which covers a lot of what containers were designed for, but explicit named containers are still on the roadmap.
- A non-Chromium engine. If supporting Gecko (rather than Chromium) is a principle of yours, Firefox is still the only major option.
Frequently asked questions
Is Dazr a fork of Firefox?
No. Dazr is built on Chromium, not on Gecko. That means it renders pages exactly like Chrome and Edge, which is what most websites are tested against. The privacy story isn't about which engine is underneath, it's about what the browser does with the engine.
Will my Firefox extensions work?
Most of the popular ones have Chromium versions: Bitwarden, 1Password, Dark Reader, Vimium, Tampermonkey. Firefox-specific ones (Tree Style Tab, Container Tabs) won't port directly. Vertical tabs are built into Dazr already.
Why leave Firefox at all? Isn't it the privacy browser?
Firefox is still better than Chrome on privacy out of the box. But Mozilla's funding is ~80% Google search-deal money, the New Tab page ships sponsored shortcuts by default, the address bar suggests sponsored results in some regions, an AI chatbot was added to the sidebar by default, and there's been a steady creep of opt-out (rather than opt-in) tracking experiments. For people who chose Firefox to escape Big Tech, the trajectory has been uncomfortable.
Does Dazr block ads as well as uBlock Origin?
Dazr ships Ghostery's ad-block engine with EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and uBlock's quick-fix lists, refreshed weekly, the same blocklists uBlock uses. It's built into the browser at the network layer, so there's nothing to install. You can also install uBlock Origin Lite or any other Chromium-compatible blocker on top.
Does Dazr have container tabs?
Not yet. Per-site storage isolation is on by default (cookies, cache, and DNS partitioned per top-level site), which covers most of what containers were originally built to do. Explicit named containers are on the roadmap.
How do I import bookmarks and passwords from Firefox?
Bookmarks: on first launch Dazr offers automatic import from Firefox. Passwords: export from Firefox (Settings → Passwords → Export to CSV) and import into your password manager of choice (Bitwarden, 1Password, KeePassXC). Dazr doesn't store passwords itself, that's by design.
Is Dazr open source?
Parts of Dazr are open source (the fingerprint-defense extension is being released separately) and the rest is on the roadmap. Chromium, the Ghostery adblock engine, and every dependency are already open. We'll write up the full source story when it's ready.
Pick up where Firefox is leaving off
Same browsing experience, none of the ad tech. Dazr imports your Firefox bookmarks on first launch and runs without ever phoning home.
Download Dazr