Safari is the default browser on the Mac, and it’s pretty good. Apple optimized it for its own chips and operating systems, so it’s fast and syncs well with your iPhone and iPad. But there are plenty of other options out there. You’ve probably heard of them: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, DucksDuckGo, but if you’ve been using Safari for a long time, you’re probably wondering what the difference is. Here are five reasons why you might want to try a different browser on your Mac.
You mainly Google apps and services
If you tend to use web-based apps and services, you may find the experiences with them better in a different browser. Apple tends to focus on its own ecosystem of apps, and the web experience, even for iCloud, isn’t as good as other browsers. For example, Google has several popular web-based apps, such as Docs, Drive, and Maps, and while they can all be accessed with Safari, they generally offer better performance and features when using Chrome. It’s not just Google services that work better in Chrome. Many services were optimized for Chrome and Firefox before Safari, so you’ll probably get a better overall experience with a different browser.
If you are fully invested in Google web services, Chrome is the better browser to use.
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You want to customize your browser
While Safari offers several extensions that improve the browsing experience, it is nothing compared to what Chrome and Firefox offer. Most of the popular extensions are on Safari, but it’s more likely that if you wanted to use a third-party web-based extension on your Mac, more development work was done through Chrome or Firefox. From themes to games and utilities, the Chrome and Firefox add-on store is full of useful extensions and plugins that make your browser more personal. Apple lets you customize the homepage with an image and links, but that’s basically it. In other browsers, the sky is the limit.
Most browsers have support for extensions and plugins, but not all developers make them for every browser.
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You are a web developer
Something that has popped into my head during the recent coding classes I’ve been taking is that if you want to test new web-based code you might be writing (such as HTML, PHP, CSS, Java, JavaScript, and others), Chrome and Firefox offer the best web browsers to act as a litmus test of how your code will run once it’s published. The open source community loves Chrome and Firefox and developers use these browsers as a base. The line of thought is to make sure the code you sweated over works neatly in Chrome and Firefox, then test it on Safari and Microsoft Edge (which is available for macOS).
You value your privacy
After years of data hacks and the bigger revelation that big tech companies have been happy to sell your personal information to advertisers, browser companies have begun to make privacy a critical browser requirement, but if private browsing isn’t enough, there are some excellent options.
Apple prioritizes privacy with Safari, and the company has great features built into its browser, but it’s still very Google-centric. DuckDuckGo, which has built a reputation as a privacy-focused company and has a search engine that works well with Safari, also has a Mac browser in beta built for security and privacy, with search locked, smart encryption, and auto-blocking. cookies. And there’s also the Brave browser that blocks ads and trackers, doesn’t use AMP, and has an independent search engine.
DuckDuckGo’s Mac browser is in a private beta, but the iPhone and Pad browsers are available in the App Store.
DuckDuckGo
You use more than just Apple devices
Apple has developed Safari in macOS and iOS to the point where the two have essentially merged, making it easier to sync content like bookmarks, passwords, and browsing history between your Mac and iOS devices. This is fine if you generally work with Macs, iPhones, and iPads every day. But if Windows or Linux is part of your workflow, Google’s Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers have cross-platform functionality through the Google or Microsoft Live accounts you create with the respective browsers. This account is then used to synchronize your browser settings.
If you use platforms other than Apple’s, Chrome or Microsoft Edge can sync bookmarks and other browser settings.
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No browser is the ultimate Swiss Army knife for everything you need. No web browser requires you to swear allegiance to it, and the best course of action is to download and install several web browsers and see which one handles your day-to-day tasks best. It’s an ongoing browser war, there are no real winners, and even Microsoft went with an open source model to please its users. Keep this in mind, keep the right tools handy and you’ll be fine in the long run.
