Since Chromium is just the open-source framework that other browsers (e.g. Arc/Chrome/Edge) use, it doesn't totally make sense to use Chromium as your browser.
If you use Arc, you're getting one of the most modern and powerful Chromium-based browsers on the market.
We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
The future of the internet masked as a browser, built for productive teams.
Arc is a web browser made by the The Browser Company. And in-line with their name, they're actively maintaining Arc, while focusing their efforts on Dia Browser.
That said, Arc is what we use on the day-to-day (I'm writing this in Arc right now, and yes, I have access to both Dia and Comet). It's a productivity-focused browser built atop Chromium (so all your extensions still work if you're using Chrome).
The Browser Company was acquired by Atlassian for $610M, where they will continue building both browsers (focusing on Dia) but with more financial backing to hire more. There were mentions of a potential new plan for Arc Browser in the coming months, we believe that Atlassian may see a path to monetize it for the B2B world. Although typically acquisitions by the likes of Atlassian have led to stagnation (e.g. Loom). We're cautiously optimistic about this one though since Arc Browser was already in some form of maintenance mode while the team focused on Dia.
If you've been feeling like Chrome and Safari haven't evolved to be more powerful when it comes to tab management, folder structure, and switching between different spaces (Google Profiles), then Arc was built exactly for you.
If you're someone that always opts for keyboard shortcuts, finding the quickest way to do things, separating personal and work, and just want more organization (e.g. you've tried many of those productivity extensions like Toby and Workona, but they just didn't make the cut, then my gosh, you'll love Arc.
If you're already using the best productivity tools like Motion and Superhuman, or love the customization capabilities of Notion, then Arc is the perfect addition to your stack.
If you're someone that couldn't care less about the browser you're using (erm... why are you even reading this?), and you don't like change, and have never been frustrated by Chrome or Safari, then you aren't likely to be blown away by Arc Browser.
Well, there's no more waiting list, so you can just give it a shot yourself to see if it sticks, whether you're on MacOS, Windows, iOS, or Android, so we'd say yes, Arc is worth it. That said, if you're won Windows, Arc doesn't have as much feature parity as MacOS, so while we highly recommend Arc on MacOS, we don't recommend it as much on Windows. Pay closer attention to when Comet or Dia make their way to Windows instead.
Chromium is an open-source web browser project that serves as the foundation for many popular browsers like Arc, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge.
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.