15 Best Web Browsers For MacBook | Lightweight, Fast & Privacy-Oriented (2023)

When choosing a web browser for Mac, people often consider factors like – Security, Speed, Compatibility, Customization & Privacy. If you’re a long-time Mac user, you might find yourself using Safari. As there’s no denying that it offers amazing performance, great integration with iCloud, and a huge library of extensions that allows users to expand its capabilities. But is it still the best Mac browser? 

Well, if you don’t want to stick with your default browser anymore and want to enjoy a more personalized and faster experience. We have curated a list of the most popular browsers for Mac in 2023! 

How We’ve Selected These Best Mac Web Browsers?

We’ve compared these Internet browsers across various aspects, ranging from user experience to security, speed, and customizability. We tried them on the latest macOS Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, and some older popular versions like macOS Catalina, Mojave & High Sierra. This helps us to check the compatibility score, technical support they offer, and overall ease of using the browser. 

It took us more than 48 hours to research these “search engines” & here we’re ready to make several top recommendations! 

15 Best Internet Browsers For Mac To Use In 2023

To provide you fastest browsing experience, here is the list of the top web browsers for macOS Ventura and other popular versions:

1. Google Chrome

Google Chrome

 

One of the most popular browsers, widely used on Windows, Google Chrome is a good option for a Fastest browser. It is fast, secure and free, and it runs on multiple platforms. It’s clutter free interface makes it easy to use.

 Features of Google Chrome:

  • It lets you search and navigate from the same box.
  • It offers a wide range of easily obtained and installed extensions to customize the browser as you like.
  • There’s support for parental controls and has settings to ensure maximum efficiency.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Easy to use. 
  • Fast & secure browsing experience. 
  • Inbuilt Incognito mode for private surfing. 
  • Tons of extensions are supported. 

Cons

Cons:

  • Kills the battery (if you are running a portable Mac) and hogs the RAM.
  • If you accidentally close the browser, Chrome will close all the tabs opened without warning.

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2. Brave Browser:

brave browser for mac

A new and emerging browser for Mac, Brave is secure, private and fast. Brave is open source and focuses on your privacy. Brave is a lightweight Mac browser.

Features of Brave:

  • It is 8 times faster than regular browsers.
  • It blocks ads, trackers, and unwanted content so you don’t have to deal with them.
  • With “Private Tabs with Tor*” feature, it provides true private browsing experience along with enhanced protection

Pros

PROS: 

  • Minimalist user interface. 
  • Promote anonymity by blocking web trackers. 
  • Extremely light on system resources. 
  • Various test shows Brave loads pages roughly twice as fast as Chrome. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Lacks extensions & add-ons. 

3. Microsoft Edge

 Microsoft Edge

Edge browser isn’t a new name anymore, and it has gained popularity over time. With special features such as Immersive Reader, one can enjoy reading articles and ebooks on the web browser on Mac.

Features of Microsoft Edge –

  • Secure access to saved information of the users.
  • Favorites to make search accessible quickly.
  • Reading experience with the Immersive Reader.
  • InPrivate tabs for the private browsing mode.
  • Clears the ads and distractions from the blogs and other articles.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Sizeable library of browser extensions. 
  • Blocks all trackers from all websites. 
  • Immersive Reader for a straightforward reading experience. 
  • In-built PDF reader. 

Cons

Cons: 

  • Uses Microsoft Bing as a default search engine.

Get it here

Must Read: Photoshop Scratch Disk Full – Guide on How To Fix

4. Mozilla Firefox

Mozrilla Firefox mac internet browser

With inbuilt privacy, Mozilla is one of the trusted and best browsers for Mac. It has features that protect you from phishing schemes, viruses and more.

Features of Mozilla Firefox:

  • Mozilla is a secure browser but with extensions like NoScript and FlashBlock available it can become the safest.
  • It provides excellent network security, a user-friendly interface and many add-ons for customized browsing.
  • It has an embedded memory which means that if you turn off your computer by mistake, it will remember the Internet page you had opened and offer to get them back for you.
  • It has intuitive navigation.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Blocks crypto mining scripts. 
  • Prevent social trackers. 
  • Text to speech & reader mode. 
  • In-built screenshot-capturing tool. 

Cons

Cons:

  • Sometimes, you end up getting an error while opening a website, as Mozilla is not compatible with it.
  • Mozilla Firefox uses more memory than other browsers and has slow startup time.

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5. Opera

 

opera

 

An older name, Opera is one of the best browsers for Mac in 2023 as it is fast and smooth. It is famous to access faster speed with low-speed connection based on the server size compression technique.

 Features of Opera:

  • It allows you to easily navigate and provides you with browsing experience
  • It has an inbuilt torrent download browser option.
  • It is streamlined and designed for those who want a responsive browser that meets their needs.
  • It has integrated phishing protection, integrated RSS feeds, and integrated email clients.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Free virtual private network
  • Built-in access to social media apps. 
  • Turbo mode to boost Internet speed.
  • Battery Saver mode.

Cons

Cons:

  • To properly operate the browser, one needs to strictly adhere to coding.
  • The extensions built into Opera are not always easy to find.

6. Yandex

Yandex

With the look and feel of Microsoft’s Edge browser, Yandex is one of the best browsers for Mac in 2019.
Features Of Yandex:
  • It has a simple and clutter free interface.
  • Yandex has Turbo mode, which never lets the browser speed go slow. Whenever internet speeds drop, Turbo mode is enabled, which speeds up how fast pages load and save on your data charges.
  • It protects your passwords and bank card details and keeps your online payments safe from theft.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Wonderful user interface. 
  • In-built translator.
  • Save websites in the Favorites list.  
  • Good customization options available. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Eats up significant system resources. 

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7. Vivaldi

vivaldi

An open source Chromium browser with some similarities to Opera, Vivaldi is one of the best browsers available for Mac.

Features of Vivaldi

  • It has awesome tab management. They are functional, work great, can be tiled, have previews and stack well.
  • It enables you to access all the goodies from the chrome store, which is not that of a surprise as it uses Chromium platform.
  • It provides you with several options to customize the browser according to your preferences.
  • It downloads faster even after slow internet speed.

Pros

PROS: 

  • A customizable calendar for task management. 
  • Highly customizable user interface. 
  • Bookmark apps are very nice and useful.
  • Various shortcuts & settings are available for power users.

Cons

Cons:

  • Just as Chrome, this browser also hogs up the system resources.
  • There is no way to sync passwords, settings, bookmarks online

Get It Here

8. Avast Secure Browser

Avast Secure Browser

Avast Secure Browser claims to protect everything you do online and strengthen your digital privacy. It uses powerful anti-phishing technology to protect malicious websites & downloads. To add credibility to their claims, the browser has undergone the “Anti-Phishing Protection Test” by AV-Comparatives & it has scored top position in the same.

Features of Avast Secure Browser: 

  • Mask your digital identity and prevent websites from identifying you. 
  • It controls your login data & ensures no passwords have been leaked online. 
  • Dedicated ‘Bank Mode’ that lets users securely shop and bank online. 
  • Automatically blocks advertisements & pop-ups to drastically improve website load time. 

Pros

PROS: 

  • Large extension store. 
  • Advanced privacy & security settings. 
  • Provides fast speed as compared to other leading browsers. 
  • Play with new themes & color schemes.

Cons

CONS: 

  • Very few personalization options. 
  • You need to pay for certain security features.

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9. Maxthon

Maxthon

One of the best browsers for Mac, Maxthon has a good interface on the home screen of the browser.

Features of Maxthon:

  • One of the best things about Maxthon is that it keeps the PC’s working condition optimized while working on it and doesn’t hog the system’s performance.
  • It boosts up the internet connection to an extent and it tries to open the web page faster.
  • Maxthon is independent of operating systems as well as the device itself as it is cloud based with all OS interlocked to each other.
  • It has a good feature which doesn’t let you fill in the information on websites you visited in the past when you visit it for the next time as it saves the information for you.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Removes ads & shows multi-page articles in one window. 
  • Supports more than 40 languages. 
  • Pre-fills usernames & passwords on favorite websites. 
  • Cross-platform syncing. 

Cons

Cons:

  • It doesn’t offer a wide range of extensions.
  • Maxthon lacks some of the features such as voice interaction commands and open-source development.

Get It Here

10. Puffin Secure Browser

Puffin Secure Browser

Puffin Secure Browser is a very good web browser for Mac in terms of safety. It used advanced technology to guard your data and device. The regular malware threats can be averted using this on Mac.

Features of Puffin Secure Browser

  • Intuitive interface keeping ease of use for the users in mind.
  • Saves you from infiltrations by hackers.
  • Protects your device from cyber threats.
  • Less CPU usage and light on system resources.

Pros

PROS: 

  • User-friendly & secure experience. 
  • Quickly renders the flash content on the server 
  • Does not utilize a lot of tracking cookies. 
  • Cloud-based browser.

Cons

Cons: 

  • Poor cross-device synchronization.
  • Some countries have blocked the web browser. 

Get It Here

Must Read: How To Analyze Disk Space On Mac

11. DuckDuckGo

Here comes another privacy-oriented Mac web browser to use in 2023 – DuckDuckGo. The application is known for reducing invasive tracking, speeding up your surfing experience, and blocking annoying cookie consent pop-ups. It is consistently scaling up to offer a better browsing experience. 

DuckDuckGo

Features of DuckDuckGo: 

  • Has a built-in password manager that helps you import passwords from other browsers. 
  • Email Protection to safeguard your inbox with email tracker blocking.
  • Has a dedicated YouTube component that allows you to stream videos without sharing any personal information. 
  • Fire button to quickly and easily clear your browsing history and stored cookies. 

Pros

PROS: 

  • Blocks third-party trackers. 
  • Gives Privacy scores from A to F for each site.
  • Supports light & dark themes. 
  • Automatically redirects users to an encrypted version of the page. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Lacks personalization.

Get It Here

12. Torch Browser

Torch Browser is a super-fast and easy-to-use Mac browser that you should try and use in 2023. It offers an excellent surfing experience, all thanks to the in-built media downloading and sharing features. With Torch, you can even download torrents & streaming videos/audio in one click. 

Torch Browser

Features of Torch Browser: 

  • Has a stunning player that lets you play even partially downloaded torrents.
  • Redesign your Facebook with the Torch Facelift feature. 
  • You can easily control your music with play, pause, switch songs & volume control button. 
  • Comes packed with lots of Torch Games to have fun while browsing the Internet. 

Pros

PROS: 

  • Easy to install & safe to use. 
  • Translate and search text or share links and photos. 
  • Share links & sites on your favorite social media apps with one convenient button. 
  • Download Accelerator to speed up your download process. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • Doesn’t receive constant updates.

Get it here

13. SeaMonkey

SeaMonkey

Web-browser, advanced e-mail, newsgroup, and feed client, IRC chat, and HTML editing made simple, with all these features SeaMonkey deserves to be on the list of best browsers for Mac.

Features of SeaMonkey:

  • The browser is faster and more responsive than several others on the list.
  • It is the Mozilla product that contains the web browser (based on Firefox ), the email & newsgroups client ( based on Thunderbird ), the HTML editor, JavaScriptdebugger & the IRC chat client but it is more than an email client because it is a full-featured web browser as well.
  • It contains a cookie manager that lets you view & delete the cookies created when surfing.
  • It has several other features, like a password manager, customizable toolbars & the ability to restore the sessions.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Cookie and popup managers. 
  • Store all your passwords in one place. 
  • Wide range of settings to improve the browsing experience. 
  • Advanced e-mail and newsgroup client.

Cons

Cons:

  • It doesn’t have mouse gestures or voice interaction for multi-modal browsing
  • The browser is not sleek and it can’t be used with ease.

Get It Here

14. Stainless

Stainless

Yet another browser, which is counted in the list of fastest browsers for Mac  due to its super light-weightiness and it looks like Google Chrome.

Features of Stainless

  • It features a dual-purpose search address bar, which makes searching and navigating very smooth.
  • It has an independent tabbed browsing which means one tab won’t crash your whole browser.
  • Parallel browsing mode allows multiple email clients open at once.
  • It is fast and easy to use.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Minimalistic & intuitive UI. 
  • It reduces memory usage. 
  • Drag & drop the favicons from websites to a sidebar. 
  • Offers Incognito, Private Browsing, and Single Session Browsing. 

Cons

CONS: 

  • No ability to import existing bookmarks. 

Get it here

15. Omni Web

OmniWeb

Omni Web is one of the best browsers available for Mac as it is the powerful web browser for Mac.

Features of Omni Web:

  • It has numerous features like Visual Tabs, adding websites to shortcuts, automatic rendering of web pages, etc.
  • You can change the font of any web page if you are not liking it.
  • The browser handles the entire RSS feed which is indeed a great feature.

Pros

PROS: 

  • Fast & reliable. 
  • Flexible and configurable. 
  • Switch between workspaces. 
  • Automatically saves all your open windows & tabs. 

Cons

Cons:

  • The browser is slow.
  • It hogs the system resources as it uses a large amount of RAM.

Get it here

Note: The browser is no longer actively maintained, but for macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and later, try the OmniWeb 6 test builds.

This concludes our list of the best browsers for Mac. these browsers are lightweight and will give you the fastest browsing experience. Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

Frequently Asked Questions –

Q1. What browser can be used on a Mac?

Any web browser which is compatible with your macOS can be used on Mac. It is recommended that you check for a safe and reliable browser to keep your device and data safe.

Q2. What is the best search browser for Mac?

Opera is one of the best web browsers for Mac with its minimum time of loading web pages. The user can easily navigate around the web browser to access all of its features.

Q3. What is the best browser for Mac other than Safari?

Opera and Brave are the top-most popular browsers used by Mac users other than the inbuilt Mac browser Safari.

Q4. Is Firefox bad for Mac?

No, Mozilla Firefox is a good browser with multiple features for customizing your browser as per your needs. It has ample privacy features to ensure the safety and security of the user.

Q5. Is it better to use Chrome or Safari on Mac?

Safari is a much favorable browser for Mac as it comes inbuilt with the Mac and also gives you personal experience. Google Chrome is much better as an independent browser for the devices.

Conclusion-

This concludes our list of the best browsers for Mac. These browsers are lightweight and will give you the fastest browsing experience. Which one is your favorite? Let us know in the comments below.

We love to hear from you!

We are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. For any queries or suggestions, please let us know in the comments section below. We love to get back to you with a solution. We regularly post tips and tricks along with solutions to common issues related to technology.

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2 COMMENTS

  • comment_avtar
    Ricky Bobby
    Camino, Omni, and Stainless have not been updated in years! Bad idea.

    4 years ago
  • comment_avtar
    Akanksha Soni
    I think the native ‘Safari’ must be included in the list. It is probably the best browser I have used on Mac.

    4 years ago

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