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?
Replies
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
Product Hunt
@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.
Product Hunt
@ash_grover I totally missed that they added vertical tabs. It seems like since Arc, a lot of browsers are starting to adopt that!
Hedy AI
Switched to @Brave for privacy, and it's been awesome. Feels me much smoother without all the tracking.
Product Hunt
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/
Product Hunt
@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?
Velocity: AI User testing
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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.
Milestone Content Studio
You can try Sidekick browser once for work related tasks.
@ajay27324 Sidekick was my favorite browser for a very long time, I was never as productive as in that time. Unfortunately, it is discontinued.
Im using safari BUT in work matters the best browser is firefox from @Mozilla 🫡
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?