Desktop browsers, ranked

Note: This is my testing on MacOS on Apple Silicon. May not be applicable for other OSes or platforms.

Chrome: Everyone’s default

+ Pros: Everything is tested in Chrome, so sites always work. Lots of extensions.

- Cons: Uses SO MUCH RAM. Mid developer tools. Chromium is kinda mid in general.

Arc: Basically reskinned Chrome

+ Pros: Well designed, having tabs on the side is so much smarter.

- Cons: Some features are hard to understand and not really needed. Chromium based, so see the cons of Chrome

Firefox: The dark horse

+ Pros: Haven’t tried it much but anything is better than Chromium. Made by a nonprofit. Good dev tools. Lots of extensions. Generally one of the best browsers.

- Cons: I don’t really know.

Opera GX: The weird kid

+ Pros: High performance (got over 400 in speedometer). Cool design. Ram limiter.

- Cons: Bloat. Also, it’s Chromium.

Safari: Overly hated on

+ Pros: Uses almost no energy on Apple silicon Macs. Simple design, no bloat. High performance. The best dev tools of any browser.

- Cons: Sites aren’t always tested for desktop safari (they are tested for mobile though). Not very many extensions (it supports chrome extensions with a rename but you need to have an Apple developer account to publish them).

My final ranking:

1. Safari (for Mac users)

2. Firefox (#1 if not using a Mac)

3. Arc

4. Chrome

5. Opera GX