16 Best Browsers in 2026

ChatGPT Atlas is a Chromium-based browser built by OpenAI that feels a lot like Google Chrome, but instead of Google Search, you have the full power of ChatGPT available everywhere you go.

While Atlas is technically free, the features that you're probably seeing teased all over social media and the marketing videos are actually primarily paid (at least for now).

To unlock their AI agent functionality, you must be on ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo) or higher. The same goes for memory and file recall (prior uploaded documents) as well.

So while Atlas is free, it's a pretty restricted version of it (although the truth is we pay for multiple ChatGPT accounts and find the value way outweighs the cost).

Do you use ChatGPT? If yes, absolutely install Atlas browser, and just treat it as more of a replacement for the ChatGPT desktop app.

In-fact, use ChatGPT for work and personal, and have 2 separate accounts? Use Atlas to login to one of them, and the ChatGPT desktop app to login to the other one, and boom! You've now got built-in account switching (sorta).

If you're not a paying user of ChatGPT, then I'd recommend you give Comet browser by Perplexity a shot if you want to experience the AI agent mode and other agentic features without purchasing a paid subscription.

Safari is Apple's web browser for that comes out-of-the-box for anyone who uses a MacBook or iPhone.

With Safari, you're not going to get anything too cutting-edge or innovative, because they, like Google Chrome are focused on stability for their 1+ billion users.

Since Apple is a hardware company at the end of the day, the whole point of Safari is that you're going to get a great cohesive experience if you're using all Apple products (Mac + iPad + iPhone).

The largest benefit to be had here, in our eyes, comes from Apple owning both the hardware and software layers. This allows them to go above and beyond with optimizations like battery life and cross-device syncing.

While they have baked in password management

We don't really see much major innovation or differentiation coming to Safari though. Why? Because this isn't Apple's core business. Not only that, but Apple has zero interest in going after the B2B and collaborative browser space. When comparing Arc Browser vs Safari, you'll see first-hand that Arc has a lot more going on in the features and differentiation space as they ultimately want to be the browser for teams and collaboration.

Are you a huge Apple fan? Do you only care about getting the best possible battery performance on your MacBook and nothing else matters to you? Do you absolutely despise change? If so, Safari is probably fine for you.

If you're on the other hand sort of bored when looking at the existing browser market and wish you could get a bit more enjoyment and productivity out of your browser, then that's where you should definitely be giving Arc a shot.

Genuinely, give Arc a shot for a week straight as your daily driver, and I'm willing to bet you that you never come back to Safari again.

Arc Browser is genuinely what Apple could have made, had they re-thought the browser from the ground up, without all the baggage that currently exists with Safari. And for that reason, that's why we rank Arc at the top of our best browsers list. Genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Apple one day acquired Arc and replaced it with Safari as the default browser for MacOS.

Chrome is the most popular browser in the world, owning over 60% of the browser marketshare, so chances are, you're reading this site in Google Chrome right now.

Love it or hate it, you should appreciate it. Without Chrome, the Chromium engine wouldn't exist, and why does that matter? Well the open-source browser foundation that was built by Google is likely powering whatever browser you're using right now.

All-in-all, Chrome is great. It was our main browser for over a decade. And yes, we tried all of leading browsers on the market (Safari, Brave, Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi, even giving Edge fair shot when they introduced OpenAI into the mix).

We continued going back to Chrome, it was just familiar and worked well, especially if your personal and work life are tied to Google (as many are).

Well... That was up until Arc (and now Dia) by The Browser Company.

Google Chrome is the best browser for you if you're solely looking for the most stable internet browser on the market. It's also best for those of you who are tied in with the Google ecosystem via Google Workspace/Gmail, etc.

Also, if you're using Windows, Linux, or an operating system outside of MacOS, Chrome is also for you.

If you're using MacOS, then there's actually some exceptional alternatives on the market. Now, that doesn't mean that Google Chrome isn't for you if this is the case, but what we are saying is that you have options, and should consider trying the browsers listed on our best browsers list.

If you're the type of person who likes to "upgrade apps" (e.g. you use one of the best email clients over Gmail or one of the best daily planner apps over Google Calendar) then you are going to love leaving Chrome for one of the more modern browsers on this list.

Chrome has all of the normal features that browsers have, so we'll cover some of the more standout features (which isn't all that unique as most other browsers also have what Chrome has, and even more).

Before Arc, I've have just told you that the major competitors on the market were pretty much the same thing, with slight opinionation. Take Brave, the privacy-focused opinionation. Looks and feels almost identical to Chrome, but you don't need to sign up with an email address to use it (you instead have a hash key).

If you're on MacOS, give Dia Browser a shot, it's essentially what Chrome could have been if they didn't rely on an ad business (although it's coming soon to Windows as well). It genuinely rethinks from the ground up of what a browser is, and could be. They bake in delight into every interaction, and it just does more.

Brave is a web browser that was originally built more as a cryptocurrency/blockchain-focused browser, tied quite closely to the BAT token (Basic Attention Token).

The whole premise was that you can get paid in BAT tokens via their Brave rewards program, by referring others to use Brave, and simply using Brave in your day-to-day. These tokens could then be used to support creators and websites.

They are essentially trying to take back control from the traditional ad model, and compensate their users versus selling their data, like that of Chrome.

For that reason, they have ad-blocking enabled by default (similar to Arc and Dia, which just enables the uBlock Origin chrome extension on the back-end).

They also have things like a VPN and a crypto wallet baked in at a core—this will either totally connect with you, or mean nothing. If the latter, it's probably not the right browser for you.

Brave browser is a private browser through-and-through. If you're looking for the browser with the most privacy features, like enhanced tracking protection from site trackers, it has those security features baked right in at the core. That's actually what Brave has built it's name on.

So if you're someone that has a major distrust for Google services, and is open to the minor inconveniences that come with focusing on online privacy, Brave may be the browser for you.

That said! It is still built atop the Chromium engine, which is essentially Google's open source project at the core, but it is void of Google Services baked in, so you'd just have to trust that the open source project is truly protecting your data. Most of the leading browsers are built atop Chromium as it stands. This actually makes it way easier to switch over to because all the same extensions and bookmarks will transfer over fluidly.

If you wouldn't identify as a heavily privacy-focused individual, more specifically, someone that is interested in the security benefits that come from leveraging the blockchain, and aren't heavily into crypto, Brave wouldn't be your best choice (here's a list of the best browsers).

If you're someone that usually loses passwords (e.g. aren't using a 3rd party password manager like Dashlane), or wouldn't be great at remembering a seed phrase to backup/restore all of your data (bookmarks, passwords, etc.) then Brave will probably be a bit of a nightmare to use.

Brave often connects most with heavily privacy-focused individuals, for whom are typically more in the crypto space. For example, at Consensus 2023, most people I talked to were using, or at least familiar with Brave.

A asked them what they liked most about it, and their responses were almost entirely around the privacy aspect. For example, "they don't even know what I'm bookmarking—my account is tied to a hashed key, so I can anonymously save my environment, and re-access it with my unique token—no email address/identification required."

And look, I get it, it's impressive to how they are leveraging the blockchain to store some of this information without tying it to identity, but personally for me, I'll take the benefits that come with using a traditional database and user account, like most other modern browsers like Arc and Chrome rely on for storing and syncing your data between devices.

If you're considering Brave, I genuinely think you already know yourself. But if you're not quite obsessed with privacy, to the level of at times potentially inconveniencing yourself (e.g. you forget your unique hash/key, you lose your history and settings—there's no "forgot password" per-say).

If you think privacy is important enough to not want to use Chrome though, there are genuinely other privacy-focused alternatives (in that they aren't trying to sell your data unlike Google with Chrome is), like Arc Browser. If you're on MacOS (Windows coming soon), definitely recommend giving that a shot.

Zen Browser is heavily inspired by Arc Browser, with one core difference. It was built for those who want a Chromium alternative, but love the idea of a modern browser with a powerful sidebar, like Arc.

That said, with it being built atop Firefox, if you're moving over to it from Google Chrome or Safari, you're most notably going to notice how many browser extensions you use that don't exist in Firefox more than anything:

Only 2 of 29 extensions ported over

It's also built by a much smaller team, so you really have to just be somebody that absolutely loves Firefox, and wants to use a modern spin on that. That said, if youwant an Arc-like experience without the bugs? Just use Arc instead.

Edge is Microsoft's attempt to stay relevant after all the years of pain and heartache that came from Internet Explorer.

Their large investment into OpenAI has enabled them to pull in some AI into the browser (branded as Copilot), though it's more just a wrapper for ChatGPT with various pre-built functions.

While Microsoft has tried so hard to get back the marketshare they once had and have since lost, Edge still feels a bit dated in their UI/UX, and their unique functionality isn't all that great unless you're an avid Microsoft 365 user.

That said, if you're on this site and doing software research, you're more likely using Google Workspace and Gmail, and there are much better browser options on the market, even if you're a Windows user, as even Arc is now on Windows.

Shift is a tool that I've tried incredibly hard to like over the past 7+ years. The day I first found it, I was so stoked with it, until learning that it didn't have all of the Chromium extension support.

They've since made major strides on that front and have most extensions now supported, but it's beginning to feel a bit like a relic from the past, and pales in comparison to that of the more recent entrants into the space like Arc Browser and SigmaOS. In-fact, comparing Shift alongside Sidekick Browser and you'll be sure to confuse them with one another.

I just have a tough time recommending them at this point, they really just allow for your favorite apps to be pinned on the sidebar and easy account switching with some quick action features.

They'd like to focus on the productivity users, but we feel like you can get most of the positives of Shift in your existing browser by utilizing a tool like Workona or Toby.

Chromium is something you're likely using right now without even realizing it. Are you using Arc Browser, Chrome, Brave, or even Microsoft Edge right now? Okay, then you're using Chromium.

You know those extensions you have in the top-right corner? Yep, those are Chromium extensions (often referred to as "Chrome Extensions"). Little do people know, Google built an open-source foundation to the browser, for which most of the top browsers on the market use as their foundation.

I mean you're not exactly looking at traditional competition here, but Apple does use a competing standard called Webkit. So if you're using Safari on your computer, that's running on Webkit instead of Chromium.

The super interesting part here though is if you're using iOS, any browser you're using is actually built atop Webkit—even Google Chrome. Apple requires Webkit be used on iOS regardless.

Why exactly? Well, Google pays Apple some $20bn per year to be the default search engine in Safari, so holding onto Webkit on iOS and iPad is probably one of their leverage points:

“At-least we still own the foundation of the browser for our products!”
-Apple (probably) 🤷

This genuinely probably doesn't mean much to you, but you're probably using Chromium and you probably don't care.

Just know that it makes for switching between Chromium-based browsers far easier—from transferring bookmarks, to extensions, and everything inbetween.