Firefox vs Silk: Choose The Right Browser For Your Fire TV

Amazon Silk and Firefox are both leading browsers and offer a wide range of functionalities and features.

We have compared Firefox vs Silk features based on their ease of use, control, navigation, the scope of modification, among others. 

Firefox has always been a commonly preferred browser ever since its premiere in 2002, and users who are accustomed to the

The user interface will notice that the Fire TV version of the browser contains just about all the features seen in the mobile and desktop editions, such as a search bar and bookmarks.

Amazon has designed the Silk interface to work with the Fire TV’s remote. You may browse the web using the configured microphone on your Fire TV remote, and page scrolling has been linked to the remote’s controls.

Like other internet browsers, the Silk homepage has a diverse collection of major websites and your personal saved URLs for convenient access.

Firefox vs. Silk – Comparison

REVIEWSFIREFOXSILK
OVERALL4.34.5
EASE OF USE4.85
DESIGN4.74.6
SUPPORT4.64.8
FEATURES4.64.7

AMAZON SILK

If you’d like to connect a website browser with your Echo device, Amazon Silk is the most appropriate choice.

The great part with Silk Browser is that you won’t have to maintain several accounts to configure your browser back-up and Amazon Echo.

You will only need a single Amazon account to set things up and configure them for your gadget. It would also make it handier and a better alternative for people who may not be as tech-savvy but want to experience a simpler, less complicated initializing procedure.

Furthermore, if you pick Amazon Silk, you will have a considerably better reliable experience. Amazon Silk provides the finest compatibility with an echo device that you’ll get with any browser.

You will not experience any connectivity glitches or other malfunctions, but there are some pitfalls that you may encounter.

You will always get the proper optimization and stability as part of the installation process.

Still, you’ll have to sacrifice a few features such as background streaming, web extensions that you wish to install on your browser, and any browser data that you’d like to use.

Amazon Silk features:

  • Compatible with Alexa
  • The option to play video from any website
  • You can store your credentials for easy login.
  • Bookmarking feature
  • Parental control

Pros:

  • Simple to use
  • Make your own bookmarks.
  • Trending videos are displayed depending on your surfing history.
  • Private Browsing is now accessible.
  • Allows you to alter the default search engine.

Cons:

  • Sign-in and cross-device synchronization are not available.
  • Doesn’t quite cast tabs from other devices.

MOZILLA FIREFOX

Mozilla Firefox is widely regarded as one of the fastest internet browsers. It is exceptionally fast, secured, and comes with a plethora of features that will make your experience even better and more enjoyable.

On top of this, Firefox has a superior firewall and security that is unsurpassed by most of the other browsers.

The greatest thing is that you can utilize all of your history, bookmarks, stored passwords, and much more if you choose to use Firefox with your Echo device and give Alexa accessibility to all this.

In addition, it is a rather faster and more reliable browser, so you should have no problems running it with your Amazon Echo device.

Another great feature of Firefox is that you may continue to listen to music and videos even when the browser window is minimized, which is not available in just about any other browser.

Firefox also represents a significant improvement over all the other browsers since you can install a multitude of customized add-ons or featured web extensions to the browser to improve your experience.

Even though Firefox is a fantastic browser, there may be a few downsides to using it on an Echo device. To begin with, installing Firefox is a difficult job, and the User interface could be more complex to use than on other devices.

You might even encounter a couple of optimization challenges with the Echo device.

Firefox features:

  • You may use your Fire TV to search the web.
  • Your home screen now has neatly categorized videos.
  • Compatible with YouTube, Pocket, Flickr, and Rotten Tomatoes.
  • It is possible to store favorite websites on the home screen for ease of accessibility.

Pros:

  • Simple to use
  • Allows you to pin/bookmark web pages.
  • Can easily cast tabs from mobile devices and desktops

Cons:

  • Google seems to be the default search engine, and you cannot switch it.
  • The gadget does not store the viewing history.
  • Even when you’re signed in, it doesn’t sync your history with other gadgets.
  • There are limited options for personalizing the experience.

Firefox vs. Silk for Fire TV- Which one is better?

For Watching YouTube

According to several users, Firefox loads movies quicker than Silk, and buffering was far less frequent. However, in our tests, the distinction was scarcely detectable.

On Silk, unnecessary and regular re-authentication may be problematic for some users. A lot of users claim to have to re-enter their credentials multiple times every week.

If you spend too much time watching YouTube videos, this condition will become bothersome.

For User Interface and Ease of Use

If you are using Firefox on the computer or on your smartphone, you could discover most of the same capabilities in the Fire TV version of the application.

Unfortunately, you will be displeased. The Firefox browser app for Fire TV is quite limited in terms of capabilities. 

Silk, on the other hand, offers a far more comprehensive user experience. For example, the Settings panel allows you to modify the pointer, alter your auto-fill choices, pick the default behavior for credentials, modify privacy controls, adjust parental settings, and manage website access.

Although Firefox has less functionality, it isn’t necessarily a big deal. In reality, the majority of individuals won’t want or require the same amount of information that their desktop app provides.

Firefox is the wisest option if you want a browser that simply works. Silk is the way to go if you enjoy experimenting.

For Bookmarks

Silk allows you to customize the home screen by adding your personal bookmarks. As a result, they provide easy accessibility to the websites you visit more than any other.

Firefox, on the other hand, provides just eight pre-selected shortcuts. They can’t be edited or added to, and they’re not particularly helpful.

For Cloud Features

Silk majorly depends on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). It minimizes the load on your Fire TV and increases speed for websites with either a large number of pictures or that search a large number of domains.

The capacity of the local browser cache is also reduced when pages are rendered on the cloud. However, due to the limited memory of Fire TV Sticks, this is a huge benefit.

On the flip side, the usage of the cloud generates certain privacy issues. For example, many individuals may be uncomfortable with Amazon functioning as an intermediary for almost all of your internet usage; the company would be able to observe every single activity.

You can disable the cloud’s capacity to interfere with your privacy if you want to use the rest of Silk’s services without jeopardizing your confidentiality.

Go to Settings > Advanced > Cloud Features and switch the toggle to the Off setting.

For Search

Silk’s default search engine is Bing, while Firefox uses Google. There is just no method to modify Firefox’s default behavior. Silk users have the option of using Bing, Google, or Yahoo, as their search engine.

These default settings might be a game-changer for such users.

For Parental Controls

If parental restrictions are essential to you, the Silk browser is really for you. Unfortunately, there seem to be no parental controls options in Firefox on Fire TV.

If you don’t want your children having unrestricted internet access using your Fire TV’s browser, particularly when you’ve spent several hours reading a guide to parental controls and meticulously configuring all the other access points in your house.

To enable parental restrictions on Silk, run the application and navigate to Manage > Settings > Parental controls.

For Page Rendering

Silk allows you to choose between you want the mobile or desktop variant of a web page to be displayed. Unfortunately, Firefox will not provide the same level of functionality.

It is simple to transition between the two with Silk. First, open the Silk app and, using your remote, tap the More option, then select the Request Desktop Sites button within the page’s header.

We hope that with this information, you can make an informed decision about Firefox vs Silk.