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:
Safari (for Mac users)
Firefox (#1 if not using a Mac)
Arc
Chrome
Opera GX