Please note some features became available in Firefox after we added them, not related I believe it was just coincidental.
A high level overview of what Waterfox offers vs Firefox:
* DNS over Oblivious HTTP to encrypt and anonymise DNS requests. Currently the only browser on the market to do so by default I believe? Just a note that we've partnered with Fastly for this and they control the "relay" node in the middle, for proper privacy sanitisation. More info: https://blog.cloudflare.com/oblivious-dns/
* In-depth configuration of numerous preferences within the Firefox codebase, striking a balance between privacy and web usability.
* Full support for JPEG-XL (including for animation, alpha, progressive decode, and colour profiles).
* Vertical tabs and sidebar support: https://www.waterfox.net/blog/waterfox-x-treestyletab/
* In-depth UI customisations. Currently working with black7375, on Lepton for customisations specific to Waterfox. You can view all the UI changes not available in Firefox but available in Waterfox at https://github.com/black7375/Firefox-UI-Fix/wiki/Options.
* "Classic" about:config available at about:cfg and "classic" password list at about:passwords
* Removal of all telemetry within the browser.
* Removal of all A/B testing within the browser.
* Removal of all unnecessary external connections (Google, Mozilla, Meta, etc.) where feasible.
Quality of life changes:
* Ability to disable auto-updates (not available in other forks)
* Integration with Ubuntu's Unity menu on Linux
* Ability to "restart" the browser in one click
* Ability to right-click "unload" tabs not in use
* Ability to "copy" tab URLs
* Ability to enable an old-school status bar—allows you to pin functions and addons to the bottom of the browser UI.
* Ability to disable Ctrl+W (or cmd+W) with a preference.
* Ability to play DRM content such as Netflix, Disney+, etc., not available in any other open source forks.
* Private Tabs (you don't need to open a new private window if you don't want; you can instead open a private tab).
* Ability to have tabs above address bar, below address bar, or at the bottom of the browser UI.
* Extensive changes to the about:preferences page, allowing changing of browser settings usually hidden.
* Technical support for Chrome and Opera extensions (this needs work!)
* Usage of a more privacy-centric search engine when in Private Window mode.
There's a bunch more, but still need to collate them more.
Oh and also no AI bullshit that siphons your data off to 3rd party providers. Doesn't mean I'm completely against it, but it has to be local only and performant IF it were to ever make its way to Waterfox.