Vivaldi vs Opera Comparison

Nowadays, we spend most of our time online, and, therefore, it’s crucial to use the best tools available, especially when it comes to your browser. It’s also typical for us to be doing various tasks at the same time, so if the software can combine different aspects to make multitasking a breeze, all the better. Vivaldi and Opera both focus on this aspect and come with various built-in features to make your life online easier. However, the veteran in the browser industry – Opera, and the freshman – Vivaldi, have some differences and are more suited to a specific type of work. Depending on your preferences and lifestyle, only one will work the best for you.

More than customization, Vivaldi wants you to have everything one click away without the need of changing tabs as well. That’s why Vivaldi comes with a sidebar on the left containing some of Vivaldi’s features, and the possibility to add web panels that will open any website on the side of whatever you are doing. Even with this massive amount of customization, Vivaldi is still reliable to use on shared computers since it has a profile manager where customization, settings, history, bookmarks, etc. are entirely separate.

When it comes to privacy, Vivaldi does not have access to your browsing information, but it will phone home daily to get your user ID, CPU architecture, screen resolution, and time since last use. However, it disguises users’ IP addresses by removing the last octet so that your specific location isn’t shared. On top of that, the syncing feature uses end-to-end encryption preventing third-parties from getting access to your data while your information is going from one device to another.

When it comes to multitasking, Opera lets you do most of your online activities without leaving the browser. On the left, there is a sidebar that enables you to chat on popular messaging apps, reach the instant search, speed dial, bookmarks, My Flow, history, and personal news. With this sidebar, you will be able to do the most generic online tasks without leaving the webpage you are visiting.

When it comes to privacy, Opera comes with more features than usual. There’s a built-in VPN, though it works more like a proxy than an actual VPN since it does not have a tunneling protocol; as well as a built-in ad blocker, though in this case, you should visit the whitelist list since Facebook and Google come whitelisted by default.

However, it’s important to know that a group of Chinese companies and investors purchased Opera in 2016. It’s not new information that the Chinese government is known for forcing companies to provide backdoors into their software to spy on its users, which makes Opera less trustworthy now than it was before the venture.

Though created in different centuries, both Vivaldi and Opera are strong players in the browser industry, especially for users who love to multitask. However, though they have similar interfaces, they operate in different ways. While Vivaldi offers much more customization than Opera, the latter has more features to play with. Moreover, although Vivaldi has the option to add web panels, Opera’s sidebar works better with its messaging apps and news feed making it more straightforward than having several web panels.

In the end, the choice is yours, and it will depend on what you do with your browser the most. For example, if you are a blogger who does a lot of research, Vivaldi is ideal for you due to its notes feature. On the other hand, if you’re one of those people who needs to be in constant contact, the messaging software on Opera is a fantastic option.