Brave has officially released Brave Origin, a minimal version of the regular Brave browser without a lot of the optional features such as Rewards, Leo AI, and Brave's VPN, for a one-time fee.
Wait, can’t you turn off these functions in a regular browser without this menu? What is the point of asking for payment for this?
Flipping the switch actually removes the whole feature from the settings menu and everything. So for example Wallet is a whole tab in the settings, flipping this one switch removes it entirely and the toolbar icon. I think really the standalone app is the main product here though since the features literally don’t exist in the build, they probably just thought it would be nice to be able to individually flip the ones you want on and off in the regular version.
Also of note in standalone versions of Brave Origin the excluded features are removed at compile time. See: Brave Launches Paid, Bloat-Free "Brave Origin" - #28 by HackOrSwim
This is not the case when “upgrading” to Brave Origin from standard Brave Browser.
However much of the discussion around this browser has already occurred in several separate threads, including:
Among others
I don’t want to hamper discussion in this topic, but it would be unfortunate to see it become a rehashing of issues already discussed in other places.
I understand asking for payment for a separate build. But this? Like, pay so it’s easier for you to make our private browser actually private?
I believe the explanation on Reddit was clearer: users can turn off all features in a standard browser build, but this particular version is an alternative way of supporting Brave. It functions more as a donation than a standalone product.
I can’t find on Reddit where they (Brave team) say it’s meant as a form of support or a donation?
Not Reddit, but they say this on their forum as well. See: Brave Origin is now live on desktop and Android (iOS coming soon) - Brave Origin - Brave Community
The Post I linked about also has some other valuable information about what Brave Origin is (or isn’t) and what features and support it will receive vs standard Brave Browser,
Ok, now I see. They’re not pretending it’s some groundbreaking new product, they explain how to disable features in free version without Origin, they make it clear that it’s is optional and for people who want to support development. They’re not misleading anyone so I have no hard feelings about it.
Yeah but 60€ is crazy tbh. 20 would be okay
Well, not $20, but there’s a promo code BRAVE30 that brings it down to $42.
In cases like this, when I want to support a project that only offers subscriptions, I just subscribe for one month. With Brave there are also Brave Web3 domains, which at this point probably count as a donation too.
I don’t understand why people are mad at this? Like the common sentiment on this forum is “if something is free, you are the product”. Now a paid privacy friendly browser without bloat is there, and people still complain because it used to have bloat. Would it have been better if they just created a new browser under a new name and made it 40 euro? I’ve been saying for years, if a paid browser comes out and it’s privacy friendly, I’ll gladly pay. With the discount it’s 40 euro for lifetime.. that’s nothing honestly..
i am fully with you here.
In the world there isn’t enough privacy to charge for it at a full $60. They said this is something like a donation, support for the company, rather than for server maintenance, development, etc? Then they should make a donation option instead of adding bloatware to their browser and then charging for its removal.
I also have doubts about “without bloat,” since in a previous thread there’s discussion about the inability to disable daily usage pings. You pay $60 for privacy, but your “private” browser still sends a ping to the server. It’s already so ridiculous how typical this is for this company, releasing something without testing, full of bugs.
Really, why people are mad at this?
I don’t understand why they are doing this. This is just a solution to the problem they created, which is bloat in the main browser.
Brave: requires 60$ for simply debloating a bloated privacy browser so that its no longer free and “you are not the product”
Meanwhile, Mullvad, Tor, Librewolf, and even Helium is, was, and will be free, and still, “we” are not the product
Those browsers are free, but how many of them are sitting at 117 million known active users while trying to support a full browser ecosystem at Brave’s scale?
You might prefer that it relies on donations like Tor, or is subsidized like Mullvad, or even worse, end up in a situation like Firefox depending on Google, but what Brave has done has clearly worked.
Running privacy tools for a niche community, where one person is relying on tips or donations, is one thing. Maintaining a browser, search engine, ad block engine, security updates, and everything else at a production grade, mainstream scale standard to support a nine figure user base is completely different.
You can dislike Brave Origin being paid, and that’s fair. Personally, I think 60 is a bit too much. But Brave also does not have the the same sustainability problems as much smaller projects.
Also keep in mind there’s nothing wrong with regular brave. Once you configure it, you’ll forget that those other features are even there. They are not a problem, whatsoever. I feel like this browser is only for purest, and those who want to make somewhat of what is essentially a donation.
Brave doesn’t require 60$ for “simply debloating” Brave.
They have provided free instruction for how to “debloat” brave without paying for origin if that is something users want. See: Brave Support: How do I hide or disable features in Brave which I also linked in my previous reply
in a previous thread there is discussion about the inability to disable daily usage pings
I don’t want to “relitigate” that topic here, but from my testing, and discussion over at Brave’s community forum it seems like a UI bug more than anything else, with the report_enabled [1] configuration variable set to false regardless of user interjection or toggle appearance in browser settings.
This represents the daily usage ping toggle in the configuration file. ↩︎
This is exactly why you use LibreWolf or Helium!
I don’t understand why people keep posting this link without reading its content, why they claim you can achieve Origin-level functionality with just a setting when that’s not the case. The link describes hiding buttons, not disabling the feature. Origin, on the other hand, provides a kill switch in the browser that actually disables the feature and works like a group policy.
How to completely disable / remove features in Brave
The instructions above show how to “hide” features from the browser UI. However, in some cases, you can take the added step of completely disabling the code that runs these features, and/or that keeps these features updated. This is equivalent to removing network calls or the downloading of any new code related to updates for that feature.
In most cases, to completely disable features you’ll need to utilize Group Policy on your machine. Note that this action applies at the level of your device’s operating system, and could have unintended consequences. You should only attempt to disable features via Group Policy if you have a high level of technical knowledge.
Also note that Group Policy is only available on desktop devices. This means you cannot use Group Policy to completely disable / remove Brave features on Android or iOS mobile devices.
Ping is not just a UI bug. There was an issue on GitHub, ping was actually being sent on browser startup. I don’t understand how they could release a bloat-free browser build and simply not test the internet requests it sends. Why this setting even exists in Origin instead of being stripped from the build is also unclear to me.