SeaMonkey Review

SeaMonkey’s best feature is it’s an open-source web browser with a large community of contributors.

Top Ten Reviews Verdict

SeaMonkey's open-source code gives you a lot of control over the brower's tools and functions. However, it's best suited to users who are a bit tech savvy and understand source code.

Pros

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    SeaMonkey is an all-in-one internet suite with browsing, email and chat features

Cons

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    Its startup speed is sluggish, and its interface is clunky and dated.

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SeaMonkey’s best feature is it’s an open-source web browser with a large community of contributors. Built on the Mozilla platform, programmers of various coding abilities provide add-ons and source code for features you may want to add to the base program. If enough people use a specific add-on, the community releases a new version of the base program with it included. However, these releases are sporadic, which is one of the browser’s drawbacks.

The program itself is less than 40MB, so it doesn’t require much storage space and doesn’t use a lot of computer resources to run. Also, its current version includes all the features found in more popular internet browsers like Chrome and Firefox, including pop-up blockers, tabbed browsing and an integrated search engine. Further, you can set SeaMonkey to clear your cookies, browser history and cache each time you close it, or you can use the privacy browser setting that hides your history as your work online.

SeaMonkey is an all-in-one internet suite – in addition to a browser, it has an email client, built-in chat and a web editor that helps you build basic websites. Each of these features is easy to access with the icon pinned to the SeaMonkey toolbar.

However, SeaMonkey has several drawbacks. First, it looks very dated. Also, some basic actions, such as opening a second browser tab, take several steps – and that’s after you find find where the function is hidden in the tool. SeaMonkey also takes significantly longer to navigate between pages, almost twice as long as other browsers.

Since this browser doesn’t automatically update itself, you must download new security updates directly from the SeaMonkey website. And while it does a good job of protecting against some malware, threats may still slip through, especially since so many programmers contribute to the browser. During our in-house security tests, SeaMonkey blocked a couple of phishing schemes, one of the most common internet threats, but it didn’t recognize some dangerous webpages or stop threats, including ransomware, from downloading.

SeaMonkey is compatible with some third-party browser extensions. As such, we suggest you invest in a good antivirus program that includes safe browsing, a feature that uses browser extensions to block and warn you about malware before your computer is infected.

The SeaMonkey internet browser is a good choice if you want the freedom to design your own web browser. It uses the same basic program as Mozilla Firefox, and its community of contributors creates add-ons you can plug into the code. It takes a bit longer to navigate to and load pages than other browsers and doesn’t block malware on its own, so you need to invest in an antivirus program if you use it.

Nicole Johnston

Nicole writes for multiple Future Publishing brands covering topics from antivirus to kitchen appliances to SAS. She has over 15 years of research and writing experience, including eight years of testing and reviewing consumer products. Nicole earned bachelor’s degrees in both English and Political Science with a focus on empirical research. In her spare time, Nicole serves as a member of several school councils and volunteers for a local arts board.