As users sufferers of Google’s Chrome know very well, it’s a battery hog that causes your computer’s processor to work so hard it’s sometimes difficult to hear about the fan noise Google’s Chrome browser generates.
Joanna Stern for The Wall Street Journal:
While Chrome has gobbled up 69% of the desktop-laptop browser market share, according to NetMarketShare, its competitors, all with single-digit percentages, have been laser-focused on kicking Chrome square in the blue dot.
Microsoft’s new Edge browser, rolling out to Windows 10 machines this summer and available now for download on a Mac, is based on Chromium, the same underlying technology as Chrome — yet it uses less of your Windows computer’s RAM and battery.
Meanwhile, Apple’s built-in Safari browser has the best blend of privacy, performance and battery to offer on Macs, and it’s only getting better this fall with MacOS Big Sur…
Safari used about 5% to 10% less RAM than Chrome, Firefox and Edge in my tests. Compared with Chrome, Safari kept the 13-inch MacBook Pro running an extra 1 to 2 hours on a charge. Plus, the laptop was a lot cooler and quieter… None of this is new. Safari has long been as gentle as a feather duster on a Mac. The problems have always been with features and compatibility…
Good news: In the next release of Safari coming this fall in MacOS Big Sur, Apple made it easier for developers to port Chrome extensions over. Plus, the updated browser, which I’ve been testing in beta on a MacBook Pro, is faster — and has those little tab icons, aka favicons, turned on by default… Cross-gadget support is another big factor in picking a browser these days. If you are all in on Apple devices, Safari should be your pick — with another browser as a backup for web compatibility issues.
MacDailyNews Take: Never Chrome. We use Safari as primary browser with Brave as our secondary browser and do not run into compatibility issues.
Safari doesn’t support webm. You can’t even add it on with a plugin. So, no good for me.
Happy Brave user for about a year. Good solution if you need certain Chrome extensions, as it is built on Chromium. Privacy features a must. Brave.com
Yup Brave is great. Compatibility of Chrome without being spied on.
But Keychain ignores it.
Has anyone else tried Brave web browser?
I checked the App store and its not listed.
Is it safe to download from their website?
I use it extensively on my Mac and exclusively on my iPads. It’s great.
I downloaded Brave and it’s much faster than Safari with no hangs when shutting it down. However, and it’s a big however insofar as your Keychain passwords will not transfer automatically so you have to do all manually. You cannot get Keychain to recognise a transfer so it’s “drag ‘n drop”.
Frankly I really do like the browser and I think it’s far superior to Safari but it’s the password issue that’s a real drawback. As for downloading safety I haven’t had any issues and I’m running Little Snitch as well as A/V software AND Apple’s internal malware software as well. No problems at all except for the aforementioned password issue.
Brave is on the App Store…recently downloaded_”Brave Browser”
I just searched in the App store on my Mac for “Brave Browser” and it didn’t show any results.
Is it not available in the Mac App store???
Ahh, you initially noted, “App Store,” which has it.
Apple’s naming conventions and app overlays = dumb.
Android, Maps, browser_check. Apple has a better choice (Some may quibble with maps, but it’s worth the battle).
Search_nope. Even for Apple’s fricken spell “suggestion,” I have to visit google and often the words are far from arcane. Apple’s is wooden in search. Years behind.
Google Assistant…I have no experience, but I’ll guess it trounces Siri…so there’s another “nope.”
I wish Safari were not so buggy. I find it hangs often on my MacBook Pro. It doesn’t seem to do well with the deluge of crap websites send down the line these days. It also has problems working with major sites like commercial banking sites, B2B, sites like Westlaw, government sites, and if you complain the answer is invariably we don’t support Safari.
Combine that with the world building on the chrome standard for plugins and stuff and it’s just not an attractive solution.
A friend of mine told me that each chrome web pages uses about 1GB of ram. Anybody confirm this?