Surfs Up! What’s the Best Browser for Mac?

When it comes to accessing the internet on a Mac, the default Safari browser just doesn’t live up to the abilities of other options. 

If you’re interested in upgrading your web experience, you’ll have to make a switch. But the question remains: Which is the best browser for Mac?

In this article, we will cover all the best browsers to choose from, not just one. Keep reading to find out which you should use for the optimal web surfing experience.

Brave Browser

Brave is a modern advancement in the world of browsers. It’s base on the Chromium API and looks much like Chrome does. If you’ve used Chrome before, you won’t have trouble using Brave. As a bonus, you can use any of the extensions available on Chrome on this browser.

However, Brave is better than Chrome all around. It has a strong focus on security and privacy with a built-in tracker and ad blocker. Brave also has the same browser apps, which are loaded with security features, and a bookmark syncing feature, which works without accounts. 

It also helps with page load speed, though it isn’t compatible with some websites depending on their functionality. You can easily turn off this feature for a specific website if you need to.

If you like, you can choose to see relevant ads, which will reward you with Basic Attention Tokens, which are also earned by browsing. The crypto is then used to pay yourself or other creators on the web. 

It’s a completely new approach to the web experience, but it can be a little overwhelming with all of the additional sign-ups. Users are required to link their accounts to an Uphold wallet to turn the BAT into real money. It’s also useless to donate BAT to a creator who doesn’t use the same system, so make sure all your friends and colleagues make the switch if you want to contribute to each other.

Chrome

Up next is Google Chrome. Chrome is fast and has lots of flexibility with extension features. Due to its popularity, Chrome is now practically the standard of web experience.

This means that almost any service or app will work on it. If you use Mac and have other non-Apple products, such as a Samsung, you can still sync your information, bookmarks, and history using a Google account.

Chrome is available for all devices and you can access a variety of extensions on mobile as well. Its mobile features aren’t as verbose as desktop, but they’re still useful.

The downside of Chrome is the upside of Brave: privacy. Google collects all of your data to provide a better user experience and targeted ads. If you want privacy, you’ll need to run special third-party scripts.

Also, Chrome eats up a lot of resources on your computer, so it might not be the best option for laptop owners.

Edge

Microsoft, after many years of trying to do something unique, finally switched to Chromium. And obviously, they’ve released a version for Mac.

Edge doesn’t have many features, but that’s the beauty of it. It has integrated tracking prevention with multiple settings and also has a variety of Microsoft integration options to coordinate your content across all apps created by Microsoft.

Edge now works with all Chrome extensions, which is a big upgrade to their previous lacking selection. Also, you can download Edge on IOS and sync your favorites and passwords. However, open tabs cannot be synced just yet. 

Edge is great, but there’s really no reason for it unless you are heavily involved in the Microsoft framework. Something like Brave or Chrome is a better option if you’re a Mac purist.

Firefox

Firefox is an old-timer in the world of browsers. The beauty of its age is that it still receives quick updates and concentrated efforts on reliability and speed.

Recently, Firefox has been updated to improve battery life on laptops, which is a problem for the Safari browser. Firefox is also heavily invested in privacy and has both an included tracker blocker and a password syncing system that relies on local encryption.

Mozilla Firefox has a library of many extensions that aren’t available on Chromium applications and vice versa. Its developers care more about making your web experience better than mirroring the competition.

Firefox works on IOS and allows full-syncing of all your information. It can’t use Gecko rendering, which is used on the desktop, but it still provides a great mobile experience. Not to mention, it works very well with dark mode on.

Internet Explorer

IE for Mac is another great option but is rarely used by people. It has a very long history of failures in the past and was consequently replaced by Edge. Even now, most modern computers don’t have it pre-installed and use Edge instead. 

Nonetheless, if you want to use Internet Explorer on Mac for development purposes (or nostalgia), it is possible. You just need to place some effort in making it work with your system.

Choosing the Best Browser for Mac

Now that you have uncovered a variety of browsers for Mac, you can finally decide on the best browser for Mac. It’s not us, it’s you who gets to decide.

If you want the best privacy, go with open-source Brave. If you want a standardized experience, go with Chrome. If you want a comeback, go with Edge. If you want a classic, go with Firefox. If you want a throwback, go with IE.

After all, this browser will be yours to use, so you might as well find the best option for yourself.

If you’re interested in reading similar articles, check out the rest of our blog.