Help me quit Chrome
I've been using @Google Chrome for years and honestly never thought much about changing. It just always seemed like the best and easiest option. Lately though, I've been feeling like maybe I'm missing out. Chrome doesn't feel like the no-brainer pick anymore, and I'm seeing more and more interesting browsers out there.
Currently, @Horse is my top pick. This is the one I'm most interested in trying out, but it also seems like a pretty different approach. I don't necessarily want my productivity to dip, but that may just be inevitable whenever switching.
I also know a lot of people love @Arc, but it seems like development on it has ended? Not sure if now's still a good time to start using it. Maybe I missed the window?
Of course, there's always Firefox from @Mozilla, but it sounds like some recent terms of service and privacy policy changes made some folks unhappy. I'm a bit out of the loop on that.
Am I missing any other good options for a modern browser?
For those that have made the switch and left Chrome behind, what did you switch to? And what helped with the transition?
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As much as I don't like Google, I always find myself coming back to Chromium-based browsers. I've tried switching to Firefox at least twice now, but the dev experience is just too good on Chromium compared to the others. Currently, my primary browser is @Brave Private Browser , but if you liked Arc, @Zen Browser might be a good alternative.
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@jakecrump Built in ads and tracker blocking is what made me do the switch to Brave. I think they added some features around crypto and AI chat assistant, but haven't really checked those yet :)
Opera, maybe?
Fast, with dedicated widgets for: local AI (not a bad one), WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter/X, Spotify, ChatGPT and a few other things.
I only keep Chrome for specific things that require a plugin.
Purposeful Poop
@conversionrocks ooo hadn't remembered opera, good call out.
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@jakecrump They also have a "flow", basically, a note taker on steroids where you can store pics, text or whatever
@jakecrump deleting everything after I die is something I even need on my smartphones :D
Purposeful Poop
https://ladybird.org/
ladybird is also pretty hot right now! I have no real experience with any of these beyond chrome and firefox, which more or less just feel like a choice of personal dogma.
the arc security blunder would personally give me a lot of pause about using it.
Honestly, I hadn't ever heard of horse, but it seems interesting. chromium based, which means extensions should more or less work. Maybe the value prop isnt super clear to me around tabs because I treat them as disposable. (@Tab Slayer obliterates my tabs every hour)
Purposeful Poop
self-reply to point out that im not sure ladybird is yet viable as a daily driver.
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Purposeful Poop
@ken_miller4 agreed, seems like a massive undertaking. pretty cool to imagine whats possible though when you can shed 18ish years of technical debt..
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@catt_marroll I hadn't heard about Ladybird either. I'm quite curious about how that will look once it's available!
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@jakecrump - I’m using @Horse (and love it for various reasons), but still using it alongside Chrome. I don’t think I’d make the full migration unless Horse
offered diff profile logins
let me install my chrome extensions
was cross platform
I could figure out some workarounds to address the above e.g. make different “areas” and “folders” for my various logins but Horse browser can only remember one profile and I really like being able to have multiple instance opens without logging in and out every time. Also, it's essential that I can pick up where I left off from desktop to mobile.
If the above things don't matter to you, I wouldn't say you'd have a productivity dip if you changed to Horse as I think it beats Chrome in a number of different areas.
It kills the whole overwhelm of millions of tabs and replaces it with trails - which for people who go off into rabbit hole exploration and can't remember where they came from, it's a pretty amazing breadcrumb tracker.
Because it feels like a more quick and organized way to save bookmarks (you don't need to add to favorites or bookmark ANYthing), you can easily drag and drop to organize your browsing by nesting "areas", folders, notes, etc. I have found it really helps organize my thoughts in a way that makes sense to me.
I love that you can add notes. If there was a mobile app, maybe this could eventually replace apple notes!
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@ph_leeanntrang I could actually live with the lack of Chrome extensions and it not being cross platform, but the lack of different profiles is actually a deal breaker for me. I have a ton of stuff split out the way I like between personal and work profiles. Only having one just kind of makes it not an option.
I do love the benefits and features of it, but yeah I don't think I'll be able to make the switch until there's actually multiple profiles available. That's super handy to know!
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I've tried many browsers, including some like Safari and Firefox for years, but I always end up coming back to Chrome. It offers a good balance of UX, functionality, and is well-suited for development. I'll give Horse a try now, but the other two didn’t work well for me
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@kirill_golubovskiy I actually use Safari on my phone because I just find it has a better overall UX than Chrome, but agree that I have not liked it for work on desktop. I haven't tried Firefox in years, but I just couldn't make the switch ~7 years ago when I tried.
It definitely seems to be the consensus that Chrome is pretty much essential for doing development.
Chrome, Brave, Edge, really all the same thing under the hood, just with different skins and a few different features. Brave would be my choice, it's like Chrome but less bad. I've ran Firefox for a long time too, still a great browser with great features, I wouldn't worry that much about the privacy policy change.
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I ditched chrome a few years back. Im all in on Brave.
Some callouts:
Brave shields for blocking ads on the web
Leo AI is decent and right there in the sidebar ready to help
Brave talk for video calls
Brave wallet if into crypto
Its not to different from using Chrome but it feels smoother for me. I also enjoy Braves social commentary on their Instagram hilarious.
I really wanted @Arc to work for me but I just couldn't get what I needed from it so Im watching them until I feel confident to make a switch.
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@techgiant It really seems like Brave is the standout option here! I like the built in ad blocking. Not sure how much I'd use the other features, but it's nice to have them there. And I think a browser that mostly feels like Chrome, but is smoother and has more features is exactly what I'm looking for.
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I'm ready to switch off Chrome too!
Lots of folks in the web3 space use Brave Browser ( @Brave Private Browser ), which is an absolute winner in theory... who doesn't want a browser with native wallets, micropayments, and ad blockers?! But I've heard it's not as good in practice.
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@matty_reed Brave definitely seems to be the most common suggestion here so I think that's the one I'm going to try out. I'm curious if it actually is better or, like you said, if it'll not actually be useful in practice. I'll maybe have to do a write up in a week or two once I've tested it out for a while!
Do you think you'll make the switch as well?
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@jakecrump it's between @Brave Private Browser and @Arc at the moment. still waiting to pull trig.
Let us know when you decide to make the switch!
I switched off Chrome and went on a massive journey trying out SigmaOS, Vivaldi, Waterfox, Orion, Opera, Zen, DuckDuckGo, Floorp, and finally Edge. For me, SigmaOS was probably the coolest browser I have used (due to their single-key shortcut methodology and being a WebKit Browser). Vivaldi was the best for creating workflows because they have a customisable browser where you can create command chains to open particular groups of tabs with specific keywords. Currently, I have no clue why, but I have found myself really liking Edge, it just does everything I need it to, has quite a minimal UI (which I really like), and is probably one of the better in-built PDF readers I have come across.
What browser are you currently using I'd love to know!
Nor Firefox, nor Safari, sorry )) The browser should be Chromium based, because you can choose from a lot of Chrome extensions for your needs. Others have much smaller base of available extensions.
So any Chromium based browser you like. The diff between that browsers is small and many are listed in this tread already, but also i want to mention Yandex Browser which is used mostly in CIS countries. One of it's benefit: it can automatically translate YouTube videos to your language
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@eshangin Yeah being Chromium based does seem to be a key selling point. And a lot of the ones mentioned by folks do seem to be Chromium based. I hadn't heard of Yandex Browser before! The automatic translation seems really useful. Is it converting to your language in subtitles or closed captions? How does that work?
@jakecrump This is how it works:
I open youtube link
It suggests to translate that video, I click OK
It takes sometime to translate
Once complete it mutes original voices and start to talk in my local language
I can't confirm that the result is 100% accurate but anyway I think it is interesting idea and hope it will be improved. Also the voice is synthetic, similar of what you hear when you want to hear the pronunciation of the word in google translate
Also another interesting feature is that it enables special secure mode when you navigate to your bank account pages. That mode at least disables almost all extensions on that page, i.e. they want prevent user data/card info leaked on sensitive pages. I think they maintain the list of banks in our country and probably that feature will not work in others but not sure
Firefox is still pretty good! I really like the new vertical tabs feature they added. It makes browsing a lot easier for me.
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@ash_grover I totally missed that they added vertical tabs. It seems like since Arc, a lot of browsers are starting to adopt that!
Agree that Brave is the best alternative. Arc showed promise for sure, but doesn't seem to be keeping up. Chrome as gotten so bloated - it's like a MSFT product
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On my Windows computer, I use Firefox, Edge, and Chrome.
On my Mac, Chrome, and Safari.
Edge is relatively consistent but heavy. It slows down sometimes, and I have to restart it.
Firefox is mostly great, but I have to switch around on some sites because it does weird things.
I tried Opera for a while, but right now, it feels bloated. Lots of stuff happens that I didn't ask for every time I try to open a new tab.
When so many things are happening in the Google ecosystem, it is hard not to fall back to Chrome...
There's also Zen, which is a Firefox fork that's trying to bring some of @Arc's features to a Firefox experience. It's rough, but totally usable, and development has a lot of momentum. I started using it to replace Arc and it's been decent so far.
I know many people love Brave, but personally I find the sketchiness around their business model/revenue off-putting.
https://zen-browser.app/
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@neilio Zen does seem interesting. I hadn't heard about it until this thread.
I'm actually not that familiar with Brave's business model. I'm curious what is off-putting about it?
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@kevin_mcdonagh1 That's great to hear! Particularly about the ad-blocking. Chrome dropping ublock was one of the things that finally kind of kicked off my search for a new browser. I don't use a ton of extensions, but it would be really nice to bring them over without having to adjust any of my workflow.
Hedy AI
Switched to @Brave for privacy, and it's been awesome. Feels me much smoother without all the tracking.
Im using safari BUT in work matters the best browser is firefox from @Mozilla 🫡
Milestone Content Studio
Totally feel this..Chrome became the default for so long that even considering a switch feels like a risk to productivity.
But I think what’s happening isn’t just about browsers.. it’s about people wanting less noise, less tab chaos, and more intention in how they work.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this on a deeper level:
What if it’s not just the browser, but how much context we’re expected to carry across tools that’s broken?
We’ve been working on something that automates communication-heavy workflows (especially email) the way an EA (Executive Assistant) would to help teams move faster without switching mental tabs 100x a day.
Curious if anyone else here feels like it’s not the browser slowing you down… it’s the everything-between?