There are several reasons why a website may look different on different browsers and operating systems. Below the most popular factors that contribute to cross-browser compatibility issues.
Rendering Engine Differences
Different browsers use different rendering engines to interpret and display web content. Google Chrome uses Blink, Mozilla Firefox uses Gecko and Apple Safari uses WebKit. Microsoft Edge used to have EdgeHTML but now uses the same engine as Chrome. These engines can interpret HTML, CSS and JavaScript in slightly different ways. Reason being is that they each have their own programmed rendering engine, which may lead to variations in how web pages are displayed.
-
Blink:
Blink is used by more recent versions of Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave and other less popular browsers. This rendering engine powers over 72 percent of all browsers, which means it has the biggest market share. It is important to make sure your webpages display correctly on this rendering engine, across platforms.
-
Blink:
Blink is used by more recent versions of Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, Brave and other less popular browsers. This rendering engine powers over 72 percent of all browsers, which means it has the biggest market share. It is important to make sure your webpages display correctly on this rendering engine, across platforms.
-
Webkit:
This is the rendering engine used in Safari and Mobile Safari, used by Apple. Safari is the default browser on all macOS machines and Apple iOS devices. It has a 9.63 percent share of the desktop browser market while Apple's iPhone has 24.7 percent of the mobile market share.
-
Gecko:
Gecko is Mozilla's browser engine. It is mostly found in Firefox browsers, with a 7.87% share of the desktop browser market. Firefox is available on desktop and mobile devices.
CSS Compatibility Differences
Browsers may have varying levels of support for CSS properties and selectors. Some browsers may fully support the latest CSS specifications, while others may lag behind. This can result in differences in layout, styling and positioning of DOM elements on the page.
Javascript Compatibility
JavaScript is another area where browsers can have different behavior. Some browsers may have different JavaScript engines or may interpret certain JavaScript code in a different way. This might lead to functional differences or errors in the behavior of dynamic elements on your website.
A developer working on your website might have tested everything on Chrome, but a customer using Firefox might encounter a Javascript error. This highlights the importance of cross browser testing.
Operating System Differences
Operating systems can influence how browsers render certain elements. Various dynamics such as fonts, spacing and other visual aspects may may vary based on the user's operating system. For example, Windows might render a webpage differently than a browser running on Linux.
Different versions of the same browser
Different versions of the same browser may also cause rendering issues. As feature sets change with time, you need to make sure you test on different versions of the same browser. Newer versions might introduce changes or improvements, that can cause issues with webpages. Newer versions might deprecate or even remove support for a browser feature that your webapp depends on, so it makes sense to test on both older versions, current version and upcoming beta versions of a browser.
These differences highlight the importance of cross browser testing. TestingBot offers a grid of browsers and devices with more than 6000 browser combinations, ready for you to test your website.
