As an avid tech enthusiast and web developer, I love experimenting with all sorts of different software, including web browsers. I loved using Netscape Navigator before it was discontinued. It had tabbed navigation four years before Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). Firefox was a revolutionary upgrade over IE. Opera browser promised to be the fastest when it came out. Apple even made a version of Safari for Windows, for several years.
Google Chrome came onto the scene in 2008, rapidly gained market share, and has held the dominant position ever since. Firefox, Opera, and Safari are still around, and several interesting new Chromium based browsers have entered the picture. Microsoft’s Edge has a slew of interesting features. Vivaldi has a highly configurable sidebar and an enormous amount of customization options. Arc, by The Browser Company, is making headlines in the industry. In many ways, I enjoy and actually prefer the features of these new browsers to Chrome. But for one reason or another, I almost always have to return to Chrome.
In this post, I’ll explore some of my thoughts on modern browsers, my favorite features, and why I always go back to Chrome.
One Browser to Rule Them All
Chrome is Google’s closed-source version of the open-source Chromium browser, which is also a Google project. Chromium has a powerful JavaScript engine, and a fast rendering engine. With the market dominance of Chromium-based browsers, the project has significant control over how the web works, from how HTML is written and rendered, to how resources are loaded and what protocols are used. This has led to other browsers giving up on their own engines, as they’re essentially stuck wasting resources trying to reproduce what the open-source Chromium is already doing.
Internet Explorer used to be king, but now it’s resting in hell. Edge, its replacement, is fully based on Chromium now. Opera, which also used to have its own engines, is also based on Chromium now.
The only major browsers left that are not Chromium based are Firefox and Safari.
Monopolistic tendencies aside, Chrome and all Chromium-based browsers are often quite good. I also like Firefox, and Safari is sort of ok. I really like some of the cool features of newer browsers like Vivaldi and Arc. So why am I always switching back to Chrome?
Firefox
Firefox is an excellent browser. In many scenarios, current versions of Firefox are faster than Chrome and use less RAM, while still rendering sites almost the same as Chrome. Firefox has excellent developer tools and a large repository of third-party extensions available to suit many use cases.
On its surface, Firefox looks and behaves similarly to Chrome. So why isn’t Firefox my primary browser? Simple. Some of the proprietary applications I need for school to submit assignments and take exams do not work with Firefox. Outside school, some web applications simply refuse to behave nicely with Firefox, and extensions that work great on Chrome don’t always have equivalent versions in Firefox.
Firefox also renders certain CSS (style) elements of pages differently than Chrome. This means I can make a layout for a website in Chrome, and it could look and behave slightly differently in Firefox. Sometimes new web standards and core CSS/JS/HTML features are implemented in one browser before or after the other. As a designer and developer, this can be annoying. Especially as an independent developer with limited time. While I test my sites across a large slew of browsers, I always target Chrome first, since it has the largest market share. It’s incredibly annoying when you spend hours working on cool, sleek features for a website that looks great in Chrome, only for it to break or look weird in Firefox or Safari.
Usually, due to time constraints, my solution is to make a slightly dumbed-down version of the feature for Firefox. So it still looks and works OK, but not as nice as on Chrome.
While I’m OK making certain compromises, the current version of Firefox doesn’t have enough distinguishing features to separate itself from Chrome. Despite using different engines on its surface, Firefox looks and behaves almost identically to Chrome. The Bookmarks toolbar, the tabs, and even the positions of the menu button and extensions are almost identical to Chrome. In my opinion, it’s not worth my time dealing with a few occasional issues using Firefox when it ultimately does most of the same things the same way that Chrome does. Why should I waste time using Firefox when I can get almost the same thing out of Chrome with fewer compatibility issues?
If RAM usage and performance were more of a concern, I might consider Firefox. But I use a modern PC with a lot of memory and an excellent CPU/GUP. The difference in performance is insignificant to me. It won’t make any meaningful impact on my productivity if a page takes 5ms longer to load. However, if you’re running on less powerful hardware, performance concerns may be much more meaningful to you.
Vivaldi
Vivaldi is a Chromium based browser that does a lot of things right. It has a lovely interface, tons of meaningful feature additions, and likely more customization options than any other browser.
By default, Vivaldi gives you a useful side panel and vertical tabbed browsing. If you don’t like that, you can put the tabs back on top. Or on the bottom. Or on the right.
The side panel includes an excellent bookmark manager, downloads manager, reading list, and more. In fact, Vivaldi has so many extra features it may be overwhelming at first. It even has a built-in calendar and mail client. If you use third-party extensions in Chrome or other browsers, you might not even need them with Vivaldi, since it has so much to offer.
With so many features, Vivaldi is easily the most complex looking browser I’ve used recently. I like most of these features though, and I found them useful. If you’re someone that likes to keep things simple, Vivaldi might not be for you.
Since it’s Chromium based, most third-party extensions that work in Chrome will work seamlessly with Vivaldi. Most times, if a developer makes an extension for Chrome, the developer does not need to do anything extra to make it work with Vivaldi. So even if the developer has never even heard of or used Vivaldi, it often just works.
Unfortunately, this does not mean every extension that works with Chrome will work with Vivaldi. Developers may intentionally restrict their extensions to Chrome-only. This is the case with a lot of school and organizational software. For security reasons and ease of support, it’s just better to force everyone to use the same browser – rather than having to deal with random compatibility problems in other Chromium browsers. Finally, I’ve had some specific issues with third party extensions in Vivaldi.
The tool I used to check my grammar on this website (and anywhere else I post) is called ProWritingAid. I paid several hundred dollars for the lifetime version of this service and for whatever reason, the extension breaks forms and doesn’t work on many pages in Vivaldi. I do not know if this is really Vivaldi’s fault or ProWritingAid’s fault, but I can only assume that one of the hundreds of random features Vivaldi has piled onto Chromium has caused this (the extension works fine on most other Chromium based browsers).
The issues with certain specific extensions I use mean that if Vivaldi was my daily driver, I would still have to switch to Chrome regularly just to proofread my writing and access school systems. Even if I like how Vivaldi handles most things better than Chrome, it’s not worth having to switch back and forth between two different browsers, remember what bookmarks are in each browser, and remember when to use what where.
Arc
The Browser Company’s Arc browser has gained a decent amount of attention in tech circles over the last year or so. They promise to reinvent the way we work and interact with the web. I’ve come across many positive articles on this browser.
While I do like Arc and think it implements some unique and useful features, I also think it’s slightly overblown (for now at least).
Foremost, the Mac version of Arc has been prioritized by the developers. The Windows version has been out for a much shorter period, and is missing half the features of its Mac-based counterpart.
In my opinion, Arc’s main differentiating point is how it manages tabs, bookmarks, and workspaces. At first, I didn’t totally get it, but the concept has grown on me.
Unlike other browsers, Arc encourages you to open as many sites or web apps as you see fit in its vertical sidebar. You can add your favorites to the top of the list, pin important tabs below them, and whatever tabs remain open appears at the bottom. This simple hierarchy allows you to quickly see what’s important and navigate between sites easily. Any sites that are not pinned are automatically closed after some time.
The way favorites or bookmarks are handled in other browsers is different too. In Arc, bookmarks and tabs are sort of the same thing. If you have an important site open, you “pin” it to the sidebar with the rest of your tabs. Then you leave it there. The bookmark is the tab and the tab is the bookmark. So instead of opening a bookmarked page in a new tab, you’re opening a pinned tab in its tab. While this was a little confusing at first, and may not seem like an enormous deal, I actually found it quite clever after getting used to it.
The functionality extends to folders. You can categories the sites like you would with a bookmark manager, open the folder, and the “bookmarks” in the folder work like tabs.
Finally, Arc lets you organize your sites into different “spaces.” The idea is you create a space for work, another space for school, entertainment, personal information, finance, etc. Each space has its own unique color scheme and set of sites available in the sidebar. This is not entirely dissimilar from how Vivaldi allows you to have workspaces, and Chrome has tab groups. But combined with the powerful sidebar features I just described, I think it’s easier to manage everything in Arc than any other browser. From one central location on the side of your screen, you can quickly move between many sites using varying levels of navigational complexity.
Arc also has a lot of other cool features they’re trying out. Like a media player that appears in the sidebar when you’re listening to music. Or a “Tiny Arc” streamlined interface that shows up when you click certain links or open pages externally. The split view feature in Arc works much better than Vivaldi’s tiled view. And since it’s Chromium based, most extensions work too.
Do I think Arc is a revolutionary new browser, as the company says? Ehh, not really. It’s a beautiful browser, with strong Apple vibes and perhaps a slight air of pretentiousness. They have a cool way of managing tabs and a few nifty features, but I don’t think this browser is meaningfully different to most people, for now at least. Other than the people seeking the latest shiny toy and those who really care about their productivity on the web, I do not think its feature set is enough to encourage most casual users to switch over. Chrome, Safari, and Edge are good enough for most people. So that’s what they’ll continue to use.
I would try Arc out more, but unfortunately, the Windows version is not up to snuff. It’s certainly still under development, but is not yet stable enough to be a primary browser for me. I use my Windows machine much more than my Mac, and I can’t stand for the browser randomly crashing on me, which it does on a regular basis. It also doesn’t sync as well with my other devices as Chrome does, and there’s the occasional odd extension compatibility issue.
On Arc for Windows, the most annoying thing, by far, is the required account login. I certainly don’t think it should be required, but I would probably use it anyway since I enjoy syncing my data across multiple devices. However, on Arc for Windows, IT REQUIRES YOU TO LOG IN WITH YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD EVERY TIME YOU OPEN THE ####ing APPLICATION. IT DOES NOT EVEN REMEMBER YOUR USERNAME AND PASSWORD!? My password manager is BitWarden. And the primary way I use it is as a Chrome extension. Maybe you see where this is going. In order for me to log into Arc, I have to open another browser to copy and paste my password from my password manager. I’m sure they’ll fix this. But for now, that is absolutely, insanely stupid.
Extensions definitely seem like an afterthought with Arc. There wasn’t even an easy way to show them on the toolbar until recently. The settings manager is half-baked and largely uses the same interface as Chromium does. Not that the interface is bad, but it breaks the experience going from Arc’s (small but pretty) profile setting screen and into Chrome settings. Finally, the download manager is simple and streamlined, but terrible. So while I enjoyed the two weeks I spent with Arc, I cannot keep it as my daily driver. I’ll definitely keep checking in on it, and I’ll give it another shot in a few months. But alas, I’m back to Chrome for now. Again. For what seems like the thousandth time.
Back to Chrome
In summary, I love trying out new browsers. But there’s always some experience-breaking issue or error that comes up frequently enough to make me have to switch back to Chrome for certain tasks. And if I have to go back and forth between two different browsers, I might as well just stick with Chrome, the boring old browser that works well enough for everything.