With macOS on your MacBook, you get a very, very capable browser out of the box, the mighty Safari, and for most users, that will be all they will ever need. However, on a Mac, there are a number of other browser choices available that you can use should you wish for a different experience, or have a need that is not catered to by Safari. So, here are our picks for the best browsers for macOS.

1. Safari

The Safari browser comes pre-installed with macOS and it’s a browser many people love. In fact, Safari has been the best native browser on macOS for more than a decade. It is highly optimized for Apple’s desktop operating system and is jam-packed with all of the necessary features that would make it your browser of choice out of the box.

While all may sound rosy, there’s one major department that sees Safari lag behind. It surely is extensions support as the collection here is not at par with Chrome and Firefox, for that matter. You’ll find that Safari covers the basics, but doesn’t go too far. Overall, Safari is the best browser for macOS users as it can be opened out-of-the-box without any regrets.

Cons:

Engine: Webkit

Comes pre-installed on macOS

I know a lot of you would already be familiar with Google Chrome because it’s the most popular web browser and there’s no denying it. Chrome has always been a prominent alternative to Safari and it still is because of the familiar experience across devices, data syncing via a Google account, and obviously the abundance of extensions on the Chrome Web Store.

Though the beautiful material design and extensive set of features make the picture look rosy, Google Chrome has a major pitfall and that is its power usage. I’ve tried out Chrome on my MacBook Air in the past and while the power consumption may sure have gotten better than we last checked it but it still drains your battery quicker than Safari. I can vouch for that.

Engine: Chromium (Blink)

License: Freeware (GNU LGPL v2.1)

Microsoft recently turned its Edge browser to the open-source Chromium engine to win back some market share from the likes of Chrome and Firefox and well, this new browser from Microsoft has been fairly successful. The new Microsoft Edge browser brings plenty of interesting features and combines them with great performance. Talking about the features first, there are a lot of them but the ones that stand out have to be the “Read Aloud” feature, which reads articles for you, the “Reading Mode”, “Collections” to save any webpages that you want, and the “Apps” feature to turn any webpage into a web app you can run separately. Also, since it’s Chromium based, you get Chromecast support and support for Chrome extensions.

Look, Microsoft Edge on macOS is great, in fact, a lot of people including Akshay from our team have made the switch to Edge but it’s not perfect. Not all extensions are guaranteed to work, and there are some rough edges here and there but if you ask me, I think Microsoft Edge Chromium is definitely one of the best macOS browsers out there.

Engine: Chromium (Blink)

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Well, here’s yet another familiar name from the world of browsers, Mozilla Firefox. Well, Firefox has gone through a number of upgrades over the years. Mozilla released Firefox Quantum with a number of new technologies on board, a couple of years back, but now, the browser has matured to just being called Firefox Browser, and well, it’s definitely a great browser for macOS. First of all, Firefox adopts a multi-process approach similar to Chrome (i.e a new and more powerful engine) to reduce the burden on your system, making Firefox faster than before and I like the fact that even though Firefox is a powerful browser, it’s still lighter than Chrome and definitely not a resource hog.

Pros:

Engine: Gecko, Quantum, SpiderMonkey

5. Opera

While Opera may have faded into the background a couple-odd years ago, not offering any new and standout features that would attract users, that has now changed and I too have become a regular user of Opera on my MacBook Air over the past year. This can be attributed to its snappy (but sometimes finicky!) performance, which is expected as it is based on the Blink rendering engine; same as Chrome, and treats you with features you wouldn’t really find in other browsers.

6. Brave Browser

Brave is a fairly new desktop browser and in a short period of time, it has surely grabbed some eyeballs and that’s mainly due to the performance it packs and the privacy features it offers. The highlight here is the “Brave Shield” feature that block all the trackers and ads that aim to identify you but that’s not all, “Brave Rewards” lets you opt into privacy-respecting ads and help publishers with their revenue, while using the rewards for things like premium content. Brave even has Tor built into its browser, so you can use it for even more private browsing.

  • Powerful privacy features
  • Speedy performance
  • Light on resources

Though I wanted to recommend a lightweight browser for you and searched the Internet for the same, I came to the conclusion that Safari is a good-enough for users looking for something similar. Instead, I’m recommending Vivaldi, which is designed for power users who’re looking to get a little extra out of their browser.

There’s a possibility that you’ve never heard of Vivaldi but it’s one of the most feature-rich browsers and was founded by the co-founder of Opera. It uses the same underlying technology as Chrome, which means you’ll get a snappy performance but it all boils down to features at the end of the day. And there certainly are many exclusives here as well.

  • Brings great features for power users
  • Snappy performance
  • Powerful tab management

We’ve listed the best browsers you can choose to run on your macOS-powered machine, with their feature sets, to help you make a decision. If you’re someone who casually wants to check e-mails or watch YouTube videos, then Safari would suffice your needs. However, a user with heavier workloads or desires for a load of different features, you will surely find a suitable pick among our remaining four picks.