Avant Alternative?

[arcman]

I've used Avant since 2009 and, sadly, it's never worked properly. What a shame, because it has, by far, the best interface of any browser I've used since NetCaptor. I like the look, the tabs, the bookmark bar, autofill and the ability to lay it out the way you want it. Honestly, it's perfect for me. Too bad it's done nothing but crash pretty much every time I use it. I prefer the Firefox interface but it would crash with Chrome also.

Thinking maybe it's been my system all these years, I recently had a virus and had to reinstall Win7. I installed 2017 b12 only to find Firefox was useless. Pages wouldn't even load. Installed build 10 Ultimate and Firefox works but locks up just like before. And, page load times take five times as long as a stock Firefox install. Why is that? Seriously... page load times are pathetic. A standard install of Firefox never crashes. Too bad most of the extensions for Firefox that I want don't work with Quantum.

Anyway... Has anyone found an alternative that has similar features? One that has some of the customization that Avant has would be nice. Toolbar at the top, bookmark bar, (maybe) a management bar, autofill and tabs. I wouldn't think finding something like this would be all that tough, but so far, I haven't found anything close. It would be nice to stick with the Firefox engine.

Thanks,
Arcman

[abuser]

Arcman,

Agree with you on the number of bells and whistles what Avant offers. As far as I remember even back then no browser had so many features and not even now!

I started using Avant in 2008 and used it till 2017…..looking at number of issues, basic bugs never fixed, ignored requests and no response from Avant team so had no choice other than switching!

After days of searching, testing I settled with Slimjet (https://www.slimjet.com/) – this is chrome based browser and offers good number of features.

In case if you switch to FF or GC you may have to search and add addons which can be tedious and cumbersome on browser performance. Where in slimjet includes some of the most essential by default…

Here is a list of some of the main features for your reference:
 Built in ad blocker with whitelisting and additional filter lists
 Multiple connections download manager with resume
 Video downloader with audio extraction
 Screenshot capture including selected area mode
 Built-in video recording of current tab via Screencastify extension
 Customizable toolbar with 21 buttons and profile switch button remover
 Enhanced tab options
 Mouse gestures with basic super drag to search and open links
 Photo shrink and upload with photo enhancer and clipboard upload
 Tracking prevention with social network javascript and Google ad blocking
 Custom cache directory and size
 Memory management with idle tab unload and auto optimize memory
 Facebook integration with one click share text/image/link
 Customizable new tab/Start page with built-in weather forecast
 Smart form filler with quick fill and auto fill
 Url alias shortcuts
 Proxy manager with quick switcher toolbar button
 Save web page as PDF
 Profile switch button remove, hide/auto hide bookmarks bar
 Auto refresh current or all tabs at specified intervals
 Tracking prevention with remove search engine indirect links and block third party content
 Official portable version

But this too has its own bugs! Hoping it will be addressed sometime soon….

Compared to other chrome based browsers this is light on resource so can be used on older systems without any issues.

More details on slimjet features and resource usage refer to following links:
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/chromium-br ... -features/
https://www.raymond.cc/blog/battle-of-t ... ory-usage/

Even after searching several days (still searching as and when time permits) I haven’t come across any FF based browser with additional features what Avant or Slimjet offers (I prefer features built in and not add-on based)

With Slimjet I use following add-ons for added functionality:
1) Close Left – to close leftside tabs
2) Ghostery for add blocking
3) Hotspot Shield VPN Free Proxy
4) IE Tab – Unlike Avant Slimjet doesn’t have built in IE support so this comes handy when pages to be viewed using IE in Slimjet
5) Tab-Snap – to copy multiple Tabs & URLS, if you have to pass to someone then this comes handy
6) Tabs Backup & Restore – though Slimjet has builtin tab restore feature but suppose if you want to open a particular session then this is very useful and comes handy
7) Video Downloader professional – to download videos from different sites

Hope this helps you or anyone who is looking for an alternative….

Missing Avant!!

[DUNSEL]

I've used maxthon on and off the whole time, and now I"ve gone back to it fulltime because of avant's instability. I've never gone through a day without avant crashing. Rarely even 1 hour. Biggest omission; gecko engine. Maxthon doesn't have it.

[abuser]

Fortunately, I never had any major issues with Avant but always had issues with accessing FF & GC addons interface due to the way Avant is designed! This was/is a major disappointment….

BTW I always used portable version….

I tried using maxthon several times but was kept coming back to Avant despite issues! Somewhat never felt much comfortable with maxthon….one major problem I found is adding required chrome addons to it! Though it has its own addons but list is pretty small…

[DUNSEL]

It's not ideal for me either, I miss the gecko engine for certain pages, but I had little choice. Avant isn't usable for me. I'm talking 4 different machines, win7 64 or win10 64. Never seems to improve.

[abuser]

If you want best of FF and Avant then only choice is staying with FF version 54 which is part of “Avant Browser 2017 build 8, Released 6.28.2017” build as this has support for legacy FF addons. But security can be a risk!

Otherwise Avant as an IE shell is still excellent choice but due to outdated ad-block filters ads can be a headache!

[DUNSEL]

I only use gecko for a few things, trident for most, and webkit for a few. That's why avant was my 1st choice. Who else has all 3?

[abuser]

check this out: http://www.lunascape.tv/

https://techcrunch.com/2008/11/25/lunas ... ll-in-one/

it has all the 3....but interface is not as simple as AVant!

[DUNSEL]

I tried that about 2 yrs ago. Didn't like it. I started with Avant back in 2004, and been alternating bet. it and maxthon since. Nothing else I've tried was worth using for any length of time.

[abuser]

Then give a try to Slimjet you may like it....I am quite happy with it.

[DUNSEL]

That's webkit only though. Can't use that. Need trident at least, and preferably gecko too.

[abuser]

if you find one with all 3 (other than avant and lunascape) then share the details.....

[DUNSEL]

Oh, I will for certain. I doubt I'm going to find any though. Have to live without gecko.

[DUNSEL]

I'm trying lunascape again.

[DUNSEL]

Sure is a pain in the butt to set up.

[DUNSEL]

Noticed one thing with Avant. If you stick to one engine it doesn't crash so much.

[DUNSEL]

Since I stopped mixing engines it hasn't crashed once. Usually i can't go 30 min without a crash or severe hang

[abuser]

Started using latest version Avant (Avant Browser 2018 build 1, Released 2.15.2018) and haven’t faced any issues with any of the engines! (touch wood!)

The only addon I have been using is Ublock Origion both in FF & GC

BTW I always use portable version of Avant……

Apart from this tested Bisilisk browser: https://www.basilisk-browser.org/ from palemoon team and it’s good! Supports all legacy FF add-ons

[creep]

If you're happy with a chrome-based browser, Vivaldi is good and getting better ...

I've used it on and off for a long time, but not for a while. Despite Avant's shortcomings, it still has too many advantages so Avant is still my main browser

[abuser]

I am not much of a fan of chrome based browsers.
Prefer mostly FF due to ease of handling, bookmarks management and some of its variants support all legacy add-ons like Basilisk browser….

But the most major drawback is none of the chrome or FF based browsers have built in form filler and password manager (except slimjet)!
I don’t prefer using external password managers like roboform, lastpass….etc. This is one of the major reason to go with Slimjet. Apart from this it has some most required features built in.

But this has some strange issues like keeps crashing with few sites and some bugs were not addressed till date by developer! More details in Slimjet forum…

Vivaldi is good but consumes lot of memory and doesn’t have any bells and whistles!
Compared to Vivaldi Opera is better but once again nothing great here other than built in ad-blocker and VPN.