Brave has announced a new minimalist version of their popular browser, dubbed "Brave Origin."
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2026/04/21/brave-launches-paid-bloat-free-brave-origin
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.privacyguides.org/news/2026/04/21/brave-launches-paid-bloat-free-brave-origin
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Much of the community sentiment around “Brave Origin” has been thoroughly discussed in the topic: wish for clean brave browser
Personally, I think it is good that Brave is offering an official de-bloated experience, even if I may not be the biggest fan of the pricing structure. It is also nice, and interesting to see that Brave so far have made “Brave Origin” free for desktop Linux users.
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Very Brave move 
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Origin is available as a free download for Linux desktop users.
Incredible!
Thanks for Linux support. That’s how companies can stimulate users to switch from shitdows.
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So what am I gaining by paying? If I can just follow PG’s guide and disable everything manually to save money, then that’s better. I’m only going to consider paying if I get some new exclusive features.
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Would this make the standalone Origin version on Windows, Mac and Linux technically more secure? Because of all those things not actually being in the code (instead of being disabled)…
I don’t get how people expect someone to make a free browser for them and not seek to monetise it.
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well i guess you gain not having to do that. It might be useful for less techy family members. I am considering to get them this.
I am thinking actually this is an interesting concept. They allow you to choose how to pay for in a very allowing way, while not removing the ability for current Brave users, which is something to aplaude for in my opinion.
Technically, though simply disabling these extra features also goes a long way, and as far as I know, is more or less how the Brave Origin upgrade path from regular Brave browser is intended to function.
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So the browser is proprietary or is it a case where the binaries are paid but the source code is free ?
Actually, LibreWolf does exactly that. No monetization. Pure enthusiasm and pure experience. So it is not impossible
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Convenience.
In general, It’s a very tedious process to disable all the bloat, especially if you have multiple profiles and you regularly reinstall Brave. So this Origin version is quite a breath of fresh air for me.
Yeah you could also do it with group policies and whatnot, but I don’t like that process.
So for me, it’s a very good offering, since I only use Brave on Linux. If I were using any other operating system, there is no way in hell I’d pay $60 for it, though. That’s just crazy.
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They just modify a few things from Firefox though
Would Brave Origin not make users stand out bit more in terms of fingerprinting verses other Brave users? Especially with the $60 entry fee I imagine there won’t be many people initially wanting to pay for this.
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I think you are severely misjudging the amount of work that goes into maintaining a browser with same day updates for multiple platforms.
I have ~2k contributions since November 19th
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Generally speaking I don’t think so, but websites could detect/ask to connect to a wallet. If Brave doesn’t respond then they know either the user disabled the wallet or use Origin. But this would be extremely sketchy for a website to ask to connect to a wallet if it doesn’t need to.
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Hope so. I suppose we have wait to see more data. Probably be a great second browser for GOS users, Vanadium is great but its adblocking is a major let down sadly.
So how does this differ from the standard version with these group policies applied?
I use Vanadium and I can’t remember the last time I saw an ad.
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Librewolf doesn’t develop the browser.