Best WebView2 ActiveX for VBA — 2026 Buyer's Guide
If you need to embed a modern Chromium browser inside Excel VBA, Microsoft Access, VB6, or another COM host, there are not many real options. This guide walks through every realistic one — including the official Microsoft offerings — and gives you an honest recommendation by persona.
1. Why this guide exists
Microsoft deprecated the legacy WebBrowser control years ago without shipping a replacement that VBA developers can use. The WebView2 SDK exists but only as a .NET / C++ / WinUI binding — it cannot be hosted directly inside Excel, Access, Word, or VB6. Microsoft Access 365 added a built-in Edge Browser Control, but it exposes roughly four navigation methods and is only available in Access.
That leaves consultants and internal developers maintaining production VBA applications in a hard spot. This guide answers the question they actually search for: "What is the best WebView2 ActiveX / COM control I can use from VBA?" Answers below. I'm the developer of one of the options — I'll tell you when it is and is not the right pick.
Short answer. If you need a programmable WebView2 surface inside Excel VBA, Access (any version), VB6, .NET via COM, Delphi, Python, or PowerShell — LiteView2 is the only actively maintained commercial COM control that ships today. If you only need basic navigation in Microsoft Access 365 and never need DOM access, JavaScript execution, printing, downloads, or popups, the built-in Microsoft Edge Browser Control in Access is free and sufficient.
2. How to evaluate a WebView2 ActiveX control
Before comparing products, decide which of these matter for your project. Most evaluation failures come from buying something that doesn't match the host or deployment model, not from the product being bad in absolute terms.
Mandatory criteria (almost everyone needs these)
- Host compatibility. Where do you need the browser to run? Access only? Excel? VB6? Multiple hosts in the same product?
- Bitness. 32-bit VBA, 64-bit VBA, or both? Some hosts are still 32-bit; some clients have moved to 64-bit; ARM64 is increasingly relevant.
- Programmable surface. Do you need DOM access from VBA? Execute JavaScript with a return value? Handle navigation, downloads, popups, authentication, cookies? Or just point-and-render?
- Rendering engine. Chromium-based (Edge / CEF) gives you modern HTML5, CSS3, ES2020+. MSHTML (legacy WebBrowser) does not.
- Deployment model. Will your end-users have admin rights to register the control? If not, you need registration-free deployment.
- Licensing for client work. If you build apps for clients, you need redistribution terms that don't charge per-deployment.
Common but optional criteria
- Print and PDF. Many VBA apps need to print rendered HTML or save it as PDF. Most controls don't expose this.
- OAuth / auth popups. If you embed third-party services (Power BI, Microsoft 365, Google), you'll hit OAuth flows that require popup window handling.
- Local file / virtual host serving. Hosting a small HTML app inside an Access database without writing temp files needs virtual host name mapping.
- JSON parsing inside VBA. If you call REST APIs, you'll wish for a native JSON parser rather than slow VBScript or external libraries.
- Multiple browser instances. Excel and Access apps frequently need 3–20 browsers in one workbook / database, each with isolated state. Pool management matters for performance.
Trust criteria (often overlooked)
- Vendor longevity. If the vendor disappears, your perpetual license should keep working. Check whether activation is online-only.
- Support model. Email a presales question. How fast did you get a substantive reply? That same speed is what you'll get post-purchase.
- Visible changelog. Is the product still being updated? When was the last release?
- Reference customers. Can you talk to one before buying?
3. The contenders
LiteView2 Recommended
When it fits:
- You build production Access or Excel applications and need a real browser inside a form.
- You ship apps to client end-users without admin rights and need registration-free deployment.
- You need DOM access, JavaScript execution with return values, printing, file downloads, cookies, or OAuth popups from VBA.
- You're maintaining a VB6 codebase and need a modern browser without rewriting the whole app.
When it doesn't:
- Your app is pure .NET WinForms/WPF — use the official WebView2 SDK directly; LiteView2 adds a COM layer you don't need.
- Your app is Microsoft Access 365 only and your only requirement is rendering a static URL — the built-in Edge Browser Control is free and adequate.
- You have hard procurement constraints that prohibit small-vendor purchases. (LiteView2 is a one-developer product. See the About page for the honest trade-offs.)
Licensing: Developer $99 early-bird (standard $199), Site $699, Enterprise $1299. Royalty-free redistribution at every tier. Permanent license, one-time payment. See full pricing →
Trial: 30 days, fully functional, no feature lock, no watermark.
Microsoft Edge Browser Control (built into Access 365) Free, but limited
When it fits:
- Access 365 only — you don't need cross-host compatibility.
- You only need to point the control at a URL and let the user browse.
- You don't need to interact with the page from VBA.
When it doesn't:
- You need DOM access, JavaScript execution from VBA, printing, downloads, or authentication. None of these are exposed.
- Your app must run in Access 2010 / 2013 / 2016 / 2019 (the control isn't there).
- Your app is Excel VBA, Word VBA, VB6 — the control doesn't exist outside Access.
Cost: included with Access 365.
For a detailed breakdown of what you can't do with the Edge Browser Control, see Access Edge Browser Control limitations →
Microsoft WebView2 SDK Wrong audience
When it fits: .NET-only applications where you control the entire stack.
When it doesn't: any COM host. The SDK does not register a COM/ActiveX control. There is no supported way to host it directly from VBA.
Cost: free.
Legacy WebBrowser control / Shell.Explorer / MSHTML Don't use for new work
When it fits: maintaining a legacy app that was built around it and that you cannot rewrite — and that you don't ship to end-users who reach modern websites.
When it doesn't:
- Anything new. The MSHTML engine has not received feature updates since 2016.
- Modern HTML5 / CSS3 / ES2020+ — many features simply don't work.
- Anything embedded from a third party (Power BI, Stripe, OAuth providers) — many providers actively refuse IE traffic.
See WebBrowser control replacement for VBA → for the migration story.
Open-source .NET Chromium libraries Wrong audience for VBA
When they fit: .NET applications that want the CEF engine specifically (Chromium with full extension support, not the slimmer Edge build).
When they don't: any VBA, VB6, Office, Access, or Excel scenario. The COM layer needed to make a .NET Chromium library callable from VBA is non-trivial to maintain, and you would be reinventing what a dedicated WebView2 ActiveX already does.
Cost: generally free / open-source.
Third-party commercial CEF/Chromium ActiveX controls Verify status
When they fit: you have a long history with a specific vendor, a stable existing integration, and the vendor is still active and responsive.
When they don't:
- The vendor has not shipped a release in 12+ months — verify before relying on the product for new work.
- The control bundles a full CEF runtime (typically 200+ MB) where you need a lightweight footprint.
- You need a Microsoft Edge / Chromium-Edge engine specifically rather than upstream CEF.
What to verify before buying: last release date, response time on a presales email, redistribution license terms, whether the activation is online-only.
Open-source GitHub WebView2 wrappers Hobby-grade
When they fit: personal projects, prototypes, learning experiments where you can read the source and fix problems yourself.
When they don't: production client work. There is no commercial support, no documented bug-fix SLA, no redistribution license terms, no commitment to API stability across updates, and typically no answer to "how do I deploy this to 50 client machines without admin rights."
4. Side-by-side comparison
The honest one-screen summary. "✔" = supported. "✗" = not available. "⚠" = partial / requires workaround.
| Capability | LiteView2 | Access Edge BC | WebView2 SDK | Legacy WebBrowser | .NET Chromium libs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Excel VBA | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ |
| Microsoft Access | ✔ (any version) | ✔ 365 only | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ |
| VB6 | ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ |
| .NET WinForms / WPF | ✔ via COM | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Chromium-based | ✔ Edge | ✔ Edge | ✔ Edge | ✗ MSHTML | ✔ CEF |
| Number of programmable methods | 270+ | ~4 | full SDK | limited | full |
| Execute JavaScript with return value | ✔ | ✗ | ✔ | ⚠ | ✔ |
| DOM access from host code | ✔ | ✗ | ✔ | ⚠ | ✔ |
| Print + Print-to-PDF | ✔ | ✗ | ✔ | ⚠ | ✔ |
| File downloads programmable | ✔ | ✗ | ✔ | ✗ | ✔ |
| Cookies / auth management | ✔ | ✗ | ✔ | ⚠ | ✔ |
| Registration-free deployment | ✔ | ✔ (built-in) | ✔ | ✔ (built-in) | ✔ |
| Royalty-free redistribution | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Commercial support | ✔ direct email | Microsoft general | Microsoft general | unsupported | community |
5. Recommendation by persona
If you only read one section of this guide, read this one.
Pick: LiteView2 — unless you are exclusively on Access 365 and only need to render a static URL with no interaction. In that case the built-in Edge Browser Control is free and sufficient. For anything beyond basic navigation — DOM, JavaScript, printing, OAuth, downloads — the Edge Browser Control runs out of API surface within hours and you'll be back here.
Pick: LiteView2 — nothing else works inside Excel. The built-in Edge Browser Control is Access-only. The official WebView2 SDK is .NET-only. Open-source .NET Chromium libraries are .NET-only. Legacy WebBrowser is a dead end. For embedding a modern browser inside an Excel UserForm or worksheet, LiteView2 is effectively the only commercial option that ships today.
Pick: LiteView2 — you are in the same position as the Excel persona. The official Microsoft offerings don't reach VB6 at all. LiteView2 is also the only commercial control I'm aware of with active VB6 + modern Chromium support in 2026.
Pick: official Microsoft WebView2 SDK — not LiteView2. If you are writing C# / VB.NET native code, the official SDK gives you the same engine with no COM layer between you and the API. Use LiteView2 in .NET only when you need to expose the control to a COM host (e.g., an Office VSTO add-in that also has a VBA macro talking to the browser).
Pick: LiteView2 via COM. Delphi can call Microsoft's native WebView2 SDK directly, but the COM-based path is dramatically simpler for VCL applications and gives you a consistent surface across any other Delphi or COM project you maintain.
Reconsider whether you need this — if your Python app is standalone, look at Python-native browser-embedding libraries first; they were built for Python and have larger communities. Use LiteView2 from Python only if you specifically need a COM control because your Python is being orchestrated by an Office host or a legacy COM application.
Reconsider whether you need this — PowerShell scripts rarely embed a browser. If you need scripted browser automation, a dedicated automation framework is the better tool. If you need a GUI form with a browser inside it from PowerShell, LiteView2 will work, but you're likely solving the problem with the wrong tool.
Pick: LiteView2 Site or Enterprise license — if you build Access/Excel apps for multiple clients, the Developer license technically covers your work but the Site/Enterprise licenses cover your entire team without per-developer math. The royalty-free redistribution at every tier means your clients deploy without per-end-user fees.
6. Open source vs. commercial
The honest framing. Open-source WebView2 wrappers exist on GitHub. They are useful for learning, prototyping, and personal projects. They are not generally appropriate for production client work, and the reasons are not religious — they are practical:
- Redistribution license. Most OSS Chromium / WebView2 wrappers are MIT or LGPL. Many of them have ambiguous terms when bundled inside a binary you ship to a paying client. A commercial license eliminates the question.
- Bug-fix SLA. When your production client's Access app breaks because of an upstream WebView2 Runtime update, who fixes it on what timeline? With an OSS wrapper, the answer is "you, on your time." With a commercial control, the answer is part of the deal.
- ABI stability. A commercial control commits to keeping its COM interface stable across releases so your VBA code doesn't break. An OSS project changes its API whenever its maintainers feel like it.
- Deployment edge cases. Registration-free activation, 32-bit vs. 64-bit hosts, ARM64, locked-down corporate machines, anti-virus false positives — these are the categories where commercial controls have years of accumulated fixes that hobby projects don't.
This is not "OSS is bad." It is "OSS solves a different problem." Use the OSS wrapper for the Saturday project; use the commercial control for the client deliverable.
7. FAQ
Does Microsoft ship a WebView2 ActiveX control?
No. Microsoft ships the WebView2 SDK for .NET, C++, and WinUI but does not ship a WebView2 ActiveX / COM control that VBA, VB6, Excel, or Access can host directly. Microsoft Access 365 includes an Edge Browser Control with about four navigation methods — it is Access-only and exposes no programmable surface.
What is the best WebView2 ActiveX control for VBA in 2026?
For Microsoft Access, Excel VBA, VB6, .NET via COM, Delphi, and other COM hosts that need a programmable Chromium surface, LiteView2 is the only actively maintained commercial COM control that exposes a full API. The free built-in Edge Browser Control in Access 365 is sufficient only for trivial navigation use cases.
Can I use a .NET Chromium library from VBA?
Not directly. Open-source .NET wrappers around the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) are not registered as COM/ActiveX controls, so VBA hosts cannot create or host them without writing a custom COM-callable wrapper.
Is the legacy WebBrowser control still usable in VBA?
It still loads, but uses the deprecated MSHTML rendering engine. Modern web pages render incorrectly or refuse to load, JavaScript is stuck at ES5, and Microsoft has not shipped security updates since 2016. Not viable for new development.
Should I build my own WebView2 wrapper?
You can. Realistic cost is 6–12 months of full-time COM/C++ development plus ongoing maintenance. For most teams the math favors buying. Build when your organization has dedicated COM/C++ engineering capacity and a multi-year roadmap that justifies the cost.
How do I evaluate vendor longevity for a one-developer product?
Email the vendor a presales question and time the reply. Look at the public changelog or releases page — is the product still shipping? Ask whether the license is perpetual and whether activation is online-only. With LiteView2 specifically: the license is permanent, activation works offline, and the developer responds personally within one business day. Read more →
Ready to evaluate LiteView2 in your actual project?
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