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In what browsers do you test your websites?

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not part of the question but operating system can also be important. I have noticed rendering difference between Safari on Windows and on OSX. Mostly just to do with text size differences but its worth noting. – WalterJ89 Aug 1 '10 at 6:21
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this should probably be a community wiki – adamldavis Aug 3 '10 at 21:44

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14 Answers

up vote 12 down vote

IE6-8, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and Safari. I also test with JavaScript disabled. In the future and as resources allow, I'd consider the iPhone, iPad, Android for mobile platforms and text-only browser like Lynx for accessibility purposes. Beyond that, for me at least, the percentages get so low that there are diminishing returns for each additional browser.

For IE testing, I use IETester and IE8, both regular and in compatibility mode. The other major browsers have a much quicker release cycle, so I find it's not as important to test their older versions.

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+1 for Lynx. IETester don't work for me, as I want it. So I have IE6-8 installed through VM, but I don't use the compatibility mode yet. – stacker Aug 1 '10 at 4:42
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Having a VM is probably a better route than IETester. – Virtuosi Media Aug 1 '10 at 4:46
We stopped testing IE 6/7. Yes, there are businesses and even some governments that are stuck on IE 6, but we've decided 1. it's too burdensome on us for little benefit; and 2. we don't want to enable continued use of those browsers due to their serious security flaws. – Chris Lively Aug 4 '10 at 20:55
There is an Opera mobile application for testing in Opera's mobile browser, which is a good way to get an idea of your site on mobile devices. – DavidYell Aug 5 '10 at 10:20
IMHO and excluding IE6, I think using IE Developer tools is easier than IETester: webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/10865/… Still IMHO I think now IE6 support should be abandoned expecially considering the new Google policy since August/1/2011 google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33864 – Marco Demaio Jul 25 '11 at 19:52
up vote 7 down vote

I currently testing my websites in this browsers. I have this browsers installed through virtual machines.

Internet Explorer 6 on XP
Internet Explorer 7 on XP
Internet Explorer 8 on Window 7

Firefox 1.5 on XP
Firefox 2 on XP
Firefox 3 on Windows 7

Safari 3
Safari 4
Safari 5

Chrome 5

Opera 9
Opera 10

http://www.oldapps.com/old_version_list_web_browser.php

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I do pretty much the same thing. Another thing to add on is testing on a Mac (possibly linux too). I have had problems with safari rendering differently on Macs and Windows. Usually just minor text size differenced but sometimes that enought to break something. – WalterJ89 Aug 1 '10 at 6:20
+1 to WalterJ89 for testing on mac. Testing on Firefox 1.5 & Safari 3 seem like overkill. – Doug Harris Aug 3 '10 at 18:45
up vote 3 down vote

I test IE6 - 8 and Opera, Safari, Chrome and firefox.

I only test the latest version of Safari, Chrome, and Opera because I have noticed that people who use these browsers tend to keep them updated. I check the last 2-3 versions of FireFox.

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Good point about Opera, Safari and Chrome - little point in testing older versions of these. – Dan Diplo Aug 1 '10 at 10:32
up vote 3 down vote

Maybe its overkill, but I tend to follow the BBC's browser supports standards (this also looks good when talking to clients), whilst remembering Andy Clarke's words:

"If you’re one of those people who is hiding behind the outdated notion that web sites should look, or be experienced, exactly the same in every browser, you are in for a nasty shock."

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up vote 3 down vote

My list of browsers that I test is substantially the same as many of the answers here, but none of these really tell you which you should test.

You should examine your logs or other web analytics data to see which browsers your users are using. My sites' users are generally non-technical -- we have higher than average use of IE6 (sigh) but virtually no visits from Opera. A Mac news site like Daring Fireball is disproportionately Mac/Safari and probably has single digit percentage for all IE versions combined.

Look at the aggregate numbers. Test for the browser versions which combine for at least 99% of your traffic.

A couple more notes:

  • If you get Mac traffic, test on a Mac. Don't assume that Safari, Firefox and Chrome will render the same on Windows. The same goes for Linux.
  • Even if the CEO or some other important person is the only one viewing your site on a Blackberry, then you might consider testing that as well.
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+1 for Even if the CEO or some other important person, (they will often also use IE6) – Ian Ringrose Aug 6 '10 at 15:29
up vote 2 down vote

I test regularly in Firefox, IE8 + compatibility mode, Opera & Chrome.

Safari uses the same rendering engine (WebKit) as Chrome, so the results will be pretty much the same as those of Chrome. I tested that a few times and the results were as expected, so I dropped Safari from my testing loop.

That covers 99% of my total visitors anyway. I can live with 1% having potentially a less than optimal browsing experience.

Every once in a while I test on other computers. Typically, I drop by a cybercafe or two after a major change, and see what it looks like on other hardware configurations.

My opinion is that trying to get that last 1 percent covered is not a good investment of my time, and probably isn't a good investment for most webmasters. That one percent will take a disproportionate amount of work that would be better invested in improving my site for most of my customers, the other 99%.

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We're seeing roughly 33% of home users running Safari on a Mac. We could easily drop chrome, but not safari... – Chris Lively Aug 4 '10 at 20:58
@Chris: what matters is the total percentage of visits. Safari may be dominant on Mac, but overall, all OSes combined, Chrome & Safari users represent almost the same percentages of visits, 9.16% and 10% respectively. Since Chrome is one of my usual browsers, I check Webkit in Chrome. Installing Safari on Windows would not necessarily give me a good picture of how safari reacts on Mac, and nearly nobody uses safari on Windows. – Sylver Aug 5 '10 at 12:42
up vote 2 down vote

I usually test in Firefox, IE8, Chrome, Safari and Opera on PC and Mac. For other versions of browsers I use http://browsershots.org/, which provides screenshots of the site in different browsers. It's not ideal since you can't test everything on the site (Browser Shots just provides images), but it's far less time-consuming than going through every possible browser/OS combination.

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+1 for browsershots – Marcel Apr 23 at 6:16
up vote 1 down vote

I have Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 8, Safari, and Opera on my desktop for testing because they are popular (I only use Firefox for normal Internet activites), and a browser testing service such as browsershots.org for a greater selection for testing the final website (I use the default recommended browsers).

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up vote 1 down vote

I use IE collection on a virtualBox (from a mac).

Some sites i test up to (down to) IE6, but most sites i check (and hack and pinch the bugs out of them, the most i could) in IE7 and up.

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Thanks for the link to IE Collection. I've been using IE Tester for the past year or so, but I like IE Collection better, plus it has built in Debug Bar and FireBug into the browser. So far I like it better than IE Tester. – Shane Stillwell Aug 5 '10 at 13:34
up vote 0 down vote

Windows XP:

  • IE 6
  • Safari 4
  • Firefox 3
  • Opera 10
  • Chrome 5

Windows 7:

  • IE 8
  • Safari 5
  • Firefox 3
  • Opera 10
  • Chrome 5
  • Flock

Mac OS X:

  • Safari 5
  • Firefox 3
  • Opera 10
  • Chrome 5
  • Camino 2
  • Flock 2
  • iCab 4
  • OmniWeb 5
  • Shiira
  • Sunrise (2 versions)
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While I'm impressed that you're one of the few who realizes that it's necessary to test Safari on Mac in addition to Windows, I think this list is overly comprehensive and yet lacking because it leaves out IE7. In my experience, once you take away IE, Firefox, Chrome and Safari, the remaining traffic is less than 0.5%. – Doug Harris Aug 3 '10 at 18:43
I'm planning to install IE7 on a virtual machine :) – Alex Aug 4 '10 at 6:16
up vote 0 down vote

I tend to just follow A-grade supported browser from Yahoo! for testing. Though I no longer spend much time fixing anything minor on IE6.

Graded Browser Support

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up vote 0 down vote

My boss uses Opera so I have to test in it too! He actually found a jQuery issue that happens only in this browser.

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up vote 0 down vote
  1. If it is a local web application software for client means i only test clients main browser and any common one other browser.
  2. if it is a public website or application i check in all major browsers and support for maximum versions also like from IE6 to IE9
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up vote 0 down vote

Windows 7 - Firefox - Opera - Google Chrome / Iron Browser - Internet Explorer 10 (with Compatibility mode)

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