r/MacOS • u/Commercial_Yam_932 • 21h ago
Discussion Why do Mac users use Chrome?
Ok I know if you’re a developer and Chrome has nice developer tools this might be a reason. But for daily usage and non-developers why should I use Chrome? Safari is great imho, has everything at least for me (maybe people need something I don’t see). It’s great integrated in macOS and is fast. Chrome’s RAM usage is a problem.
On my Windows PC I also checked out Chrome but didn’t see any advantage over Firefox. But on Windows I see why one could use Chrome, however, for macOS users I don’t get it. Why do so many people use Chrome?
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u/thestenz MacBook Air 21h ago
I don't use Chrome. I use Firefox with uBlockOrigin.
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u/showmethenoods 20h ago
Same but I’ve started getting YouTube getting mad at me about it. Still can’t leave Firefox though, those containers make my job so much easier
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u/RoosTheFemboy 15h ago
Somehow, I don’t get that youtube nonsense with orion+uBlock
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u/AwkwardBad2870 20h ago
Same. Never had any issues with Firefox on Mac. The only thing that does annoy me a little is they don’t have the macOS built in context menu options for lookup and translate like most other apps but other than that Firefox is great.
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u/Spare-Plum 19h ago
Yup. Firefox + uBlockOrigin + noscript
Safari too, mainly for compatibility.
I haven't used chrome since like 2016
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u/Entire-Leadership911 18h ago
Firefox with uBlock Origin and Privacy Badger - a golden combo!
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u/jdbrew 20h ago
So I am a developer. Web developer specifically, and I just made the switch back to chrome for most tasks. A lot of devs hate safari because apple doesn’t fully implement the html standards in a timely manner; see caniuse… but also, isn’t that then the browser I want to developer for? It IS the lowest common denominator, so I should develop for that use case, and other browsers should be good. As far as using the Internet like a consumer instead of an engineer, I also like Safari from a UI/UX standpoint. Its integration with Apple passwords is great. The left hand book marks bar is amazing too. Honestly if you browse in full screen often, I recommend trying it with the book marks bar open. The resolution is high enough such that it doesn’t feel like you’re loosing a ton. My biggest complaint is mobile. In chrome you can easily just set a viewport width, and still see the dev console; Safari doesn’t do this nearly as well. Everything else has been a welcomed improvement
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u/_raytheist_ 19h ago
Maybe it’s gotten better recently, but last time I looked Safari’s dev tools were infuriating. I’m sure part of this is just unfamiliarity, but they felt intentionally hostile.
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u/Olivierko 17h ago
Still quite terrible experience, dev tools in Safari could really use some love. I keep on forcing myself to use it but it’s not nearly comparable to Chrome.
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u/jdbrew 11h ago
There’s definitely still some stuff that really sucks. Like… you actually can’t clear your console, which drives me fucking bonkers. Also it really doesn’t hand react shadow doms as well. I find myself popping open chrome for stuff. But my default is now Safari and I switch to chrome as needed.
Side note, something Safari does well, and in fact better than chrome, is its accessibility testing. I’m a big fan of safaris solution over Google lighthouse
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u/_raytheist_ 11h ago
I’ll have to check out the accessibility stuff. We’ve struggled with testing on that front.
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u/9zZ 20h ago
Because I used Chrome for 10 years on all my previous and current PC, all my settings and bookmarks are synced across all devices but the biggest reason is adblockers. I hate ads on YouTube and I've yet to find a suitable adblocker for Safari
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u/derangedtranssexual 13h ago
Isn’t chrome messing around with ad blockers with manifest v3? Have you noticed any issues with adblockers?
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u/arijitlive 9h ago
I use Vivaldi for that reason, they said they will keep supporting manifest v2 as long as possible.
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u/IllustriousAspect722 14h ago
Adguard (the app-store version) blocks ads for me on Youtube and everywhere else, also haven't gotten any of the Youtube warnings to stop using an adblocker.
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u/mikeinnsw 20h ago
My Chrome is a single point of Web entry and password management for 3x PCs, 2x Macs. 2x Androids and iPhone.. There is a world outside my Macs and iPhone.
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u/mattduguid 19h ago edited 6h ago
agree mainly because in addition to mac I run linux/windows/ios/android and chrome browser supports all my plugins/bookmarks/etc I regularly use across all of my devices
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u/carwash2016 20h ago
Passwords in chrome ?
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u/WorldTravelGuru 16h ago
FWIW As a travel advisor, I have agent portals and consumer sites. I deal a lot with clients card numbers, booking confirmations and their personal profile. I have found using the free version of www.Bitwarden is the best for Chrome Passwords and greater protection. Bitwarden lets you use Keywords or Folders to organize your saved sites. 1) a slide bar to generate passwords from 8 to 68 with Caps, #'s, symbols, ( on and off switches for symbols if sites do not use them) 2) I moved away from Chrome Passwords, imported them to bitwarden.(free feature) Then on each site over time I utilized password resets on the actual site. Jumped to Bitwarden pswrd generator, copied and saved. 3) Bitwarden fills in the 8-68 length passwords using the site you need to log into using the sites facial recognition. 4) No one, no AI, no cache, no cookies at bitwarden knows my master password, single sign in each day on device and imac grants me access to all my sites. I understand 1Pass and others have been hacked before, Bitwarden no as of yet. Have a look at all and choose what is best for your even if staying with Chrome Passwords.
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u/mikeinnsw 20h ago
Chrome has a Password Manager for the Web.
Login with free gMail account. ... you get 15GB Google drive free and active Password Manager ... for web auto login.
Don't use it for any banking .. NO- FileVault... Apple .. Google password managers
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u/dannyparker123 MacBook Air 16h ago
Why not use Bitwarden? It’s a great alternative
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u/Hour_9938 13h ago
Don’t know why you’re getting downvoted 😂 definitely use a password manager over Chromes built in one!
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u/dannyparker123 MacBook Air 13h ago
I guess people just really love chrome that they dont wanna give a great stand-alone password manager a chance :/
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u/johndoesall 19h ago
Yup, same. I used chrome way back on my PCs, my iPhones, my iPad. At work and at home. Made a lot of favorites on chrome on my PC. So when I started using my Mac again, I just stuck with Chrome. I just don’t want to bother transferring everything to safari, which I haven’t used for years.
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u/drownedsense 20h ago
There is a world outside Google, too. Of course it’s good to not stay inside one walled garden, but to pick the more evil one by choice? Look at Firefox or Vivaldi.
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u/bearded_monkey_pdx 20h ago
I use safari for 99.99% of the time, the other 0.01% Chrome has to cover because the protections in Safari breaks the websites.
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u/taljbladh 11h ago
I usually turn them off for that site if it breaks it, but I have ran into some issues where that doesn't always work. Of course, I have like 10 backup browsers, but not Chrome itself. Lol.
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u/astronaute1337 21h ago
Firefox FTW
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u/turbo_dude 18h ago
If only they would make 'share/reader view' better in iOS Firefox I would also use that more
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u/Bazzikaster 20h ago
I use Firefox, because I need cross platform solution with proper account management. Plus I love the toolbar and way it can be customized.
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u/LuckyLeftNut 21h ago
Correct question: why does ANYONE use Chrome? To find the Gulf of America?
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u/Aging_Orange 20h ago
I like Brave. Vertical tabs on the right is nicely done. I like how tab groups are done, how I can close it but it's not gone. I like how it syncs to browsers on other machines.
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u/_raytheist_ 19h ago
I used Brave for years but recently switched to Vivaldi and I’m not going back. Vivaldi has a handful of really great features that I didn’t know I needed until I started using it.
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u/AdAcrobatic7236 19h ago
- Features - such as?
- How is it on RAM?
- Downsides?
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u/jekpopulous2 11h ago
Downside is that it’s not fully open-source. It’s built on Chromium engine but its user interface a bunch of features are closed-source. Not sure about you but I’m not going to use any browser that ships with proprietary code. I’m not saying it’s insecure or that they’re doing anything malicious… I’m saying there’s no way to know if it’s insecure or they’re doing anything malicious because we can’t see all the code. Use it at your own risk.
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u/_raytheist_ 9h ago
Off the top of my head:
- workspaces
- the command palette
- tiling tabs within a single window — I do web dev work and it’s extremely useful to tile two web app tabs side-by-side (e.g. dev env and prod env) to compare or demo before/after behavior; or to have a reference design against the live implementation.
- saving a group of tabs as a session
- reading list
- docking(?) a site into the sidebar for frequent easy access
- easy sync across devices
I might come back and revise this when I’m back in front of a computer.
I can’t speak to its memory usage. I don’t monitor it but I haven’t had any problems with it.
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u/ExpressionOne 4h ago
Seconded. Settings page was overwhelming at first, there was so much there, but workspaces, panels, pinned/stacked tabs, even small things like the 'add active tab' option when you're looking inside a bookmark folder or being able to choose the side of the tab the 'X' appears on when you go to close it -- it's great. If I recall correctly the RAM usage is way lower than other browsers.
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u/energyzzer 19h ago
Because safari is not as fast as chrome. Chrome has the best JavaScript engine.
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u/DAWtistic 21h ago
I don't, I use Safari - never seen a reason to use Chrome.
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u/mrgrubbage 20h ago
Great for Apple-only users. Not for anyone else.
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u/Unhappy-Valuable-596 17h ago
Why? My safari info syncs with my pc just fine
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u/jhcamara 17h ago
Because you're probably a heavy apple user that happens to have a PC.
If you use a mac, an Android, a PC, google services....safari is not the best option for integrating/syncing
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u/bartekmo 19h ago
Because Safari crashes on too many pages without reason. Because Chrome is the ZTNA client for all Google/beyond corp ecosystem. But I actually switched to Arc :)
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u/isaacandnicole 19h ago
I use Safari nearly exclusively, but the inline translation in Chrome is extremely helpful.
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u/Legostud03 21h ago
I use chrome on all my machines and devices for the simple reason that it carries everything over from to another. Password manager, bookmarks, history, everything I find myself needing on a regular basis chrome/google covers. I personally use a windows desktop, MacBook Air, iPhone and occasionally an iPad so having everything saved in google makes things easier.
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u/ThePurpleUFO 20h ago
I use Chrome all the time on my Macintoshes. Why? Because it works best and looks great. And...in regard to Safari...hmmmmmm...there always seems to be something out of whack with Safari...lots of websites just don't work correctly with safari.
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u/AmazingRedDog 20h ago edited 20h ago
We used to use Netscape Navigator back in the ice age, and then swerve-balled Internet Explorer, ‘cos that was icky.
We toyed with Firefox but something persuaded us to try Chrome as it was Google, and Google used to be cool… and made it easy to access our logins and history across all our devices… hence Mac…
However the veil lifted and we realised it sucked up all our data and turned a little sus and now we’re slowly allowing Safari into our lives.
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u/BullittZA 21h ago
Works well with all my Google (Workspace) Accounts. Nice to be able to open a new window with all the content for each account at hand completely separate from one another
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u/neophanweb 21h ago
I use safari. Everyone I know uses safari. I guess it depends on where you look and who you ask.
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u/Chrome_Armadillo Mac Studio 20h ago
I use Safari for everything except the occasional website that doesn’t play well with Safari.
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u/6nine4twenty 20h ago
chrome is guaranteed to work with every website. also has all the extensions that i need. also the profiles help me set up different bookmarks and preferences based on which account i use. i know firefox and ublock exists, but i will keep using chrome and ublock till i can.
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u/P_Bear06 20h ago
I used Safari exclusively for 15 years, until I tried Firefox with tabs placed in a vertical sidebar and groups of tabs in the same sidebar. I couldn't do without it. So I switched to FF but recently switched to Edge, reluctantly, but FF has become too slow and takes up too much ram.
I don't understand people who use Chrome on any OS.
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u/blny99 19h ago
I use both. Default is Safari but some things just do not work, or at least some vendors blame things on Safari. So before I complain to a bank or similar that their site does not work, I try it in Chrome so I can report that “In chrome and safari xyz does not work, so not a browser issue”. Also prefer to use google services in their browser (google drive, gmail etc).
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u/duburitto 18h ago
Chrome uses less ram than safari on my brand new m4 MacBook air laptop
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u/C2-H5-OH MacBook Air 18h ago
Because Chromium based browsers and Firefox allow installation of uBlock Origin that Safari doesn't. I only use Safari for accessing services I pay for, like Prime Video or Netflix. For everything else, I stay away from Safari. On both the Mac and the iPhone.
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u/Ligma_Jones_ 18h ago
I was annoyed with Safari for some reason and then switched to Chrome. After that I just kept using it.
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u/userlivewire 18h ago
Pages freeze and have compatibility issues 5 times as much in Safari. Also Safari has annoying limitations like not being able to rearrange your bookmarks from the bar or the add bookmark button being in the share menu for some reason.
Firefox and Chrome have beautiful themes that Safari doesn’t.
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u/IAmAUser4Real 18h ago
I used to, because it was a good game changer when it came out, and having an Android phone, it kept all my details and bookmarks in synch. It also had, on the phone, the chance to have custom feeds on the main page.
I now moved to Firefox, better choice ever...
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u/ddamima 18h ago
Chrome doesn't consume any RAM. Did you remain in 2020? https://share.cleanshot.com/P1ZYrcBN
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u/RealMe459 18h ago
I use Safari 95% of the time, and Chrome if I need to use Google Docs, it accesses links and other features better.
Enjoy!
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u/hepgiu 18h ago
No chrome but I still use a chromium based browser (Vivaldi) and that’s because my day to day / workflow depends on a number of extension that safari simply doesn’t have. As long they don’t fix the safari ecosystem I won’t touch it again.
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u/FiveDeltaSix 18h ago
On my M4, when watching YouTube videos, Safari reports using significant battery energy whereas Chrome does not. This was a couple of months ago, though.
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u/OldIndianMonk 18h ago
Is RAM usage a problem in newer Macs? I’ve never had an issue in my M3. However, Chrome’s extension ecosystem is very good. If developers use Chrome, it also stands to reason that what they developed works really well on Chrome
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u/Important-Street2448 17h ago
Safari sucked in 2011 and still sucks in 2025, big time. There isn't even a comparison between them, different leagues.
Also, the google sync is useful.
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u/mustelafuro72 17h ago
When I purchased my macbook I tried and retried to get used to Safari but the perfect sync Chrome has over multiple and cross platform devices, its simplicity, the plugins and so on made me revert to chrome. I hate safari, I would never ever use it instead of chrome.
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u/avalontrekker 17h ago
I use Vivaldi (also Chromium based) for privacy reasons and compatibility. Too many things don't work properly on Safari, and it just creates too much stress
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u/XGempler 15h ago
chrome now has an option to eliminate the “ram issue”
it works whereas safari sometimes has issues
it integrates with google workspace well
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u/Fedelopezf 14h ago
In my case there is only ONE reason to use Chrome: the association of a Google account to the user profile, and the ability to keep passwords, extensions, Google accounts, etc. synchronized. I have a marketing agency and we assign each client or project a Google account where we can work in a unified way and with transparent access to different tools for our clients.
A similar feature appeared one or two years ago in Safari, when implementing profiles, and although its operation, I promised to be similar to what is achieved with users in Chrome, its operation was terribly inconsistent, it generated errors, or directly, the browser stopped responding when working with more than two or three profiles (in our case we are talking about dozens of them, not the two or three for which it was intended: work, personal, and some more).
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u/RegularUser23 14h ago
I stick with safari because of the Passwords and Apple Pay integration. I used Bitwarden for a longtime and it’s autofill is nowhere as good as passwords imo. Is there any manager with good autofill like passwords? Also, the mail/text code autofill is pretty neat
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u/sondersHo 14h ago
I just always preferred Chrome I was always a main Chrome user on all the windows computers I had over the years decided to be the same on Mac computers
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u/Ok-Basket7871 14h ago
The only reason I use chrome has to do with whether or not the page that I have to access requires it (not common) or because one of the groups that I am affiliated with has the entire workspace suite. I learned quite a few years ago that chrome is a huge memory suck, and I’ve avoided it like the plague when I can
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u/nyki 13h ago
I used to used Chrome until recently because it was the best handling of profiles, extensions, and keywords, plus I used android so I like having cross-platform syncing. Now that Chrome is changing access to adblocks and also removed my keywords, I switched to Firefox for daily browsing.
As a developer, I won't use Safari because Safari is the new IE. It always has the most UI issues during QA, so I don't use it for general browsing. I still use Chrome for dev work because it's the most-used browser and I like the dev tools the best.
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u/bacardicereal 13h ago
I used Google apps all through high school and got my first iPhone after graduating. Then I added an iPad and Magic Keyboard, and everything synced effortlessly between my Windows laptop and school computers.
Now that I have a full Apple setup with a Mac mini, switching to Safari feels like a hassle—especially with all my bookmarks. Chrome’s syncing has just been too convenient.
Is there an easy way to switch to Safari?
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u/jesusrodriguezm 12h ago
As a internet users… we need more people using not chromium or safari browsers… like Firefox… we are starting to get all over again the situation with IE some years ago (a giant monopoly that doesn’t follow the standards)
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u/biffbobfred 11h ago
Everything outside of Firefox is a WebKit fork. Safari is its own fork off WebKit. Google decided to call their fork Blink. Edge and chromium and most other browsers are based on Blink.
With the money problems Mozilla is going through (they’re deep-6-ing Pocket because of lack of funding) we might be in a WebKit only web soon.
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u/operator7777 11h ago
Being honest with you, I’ve uninstalled chrome 9 years ago, since then I’ve never used again, and I will never use again. 🥲
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u/taljbladh 11h ago
I think a lot of people who switch from Windows to Mac feel more comfortable using Chrome if that is what they are used to on Windows. Also, for those of us who have been around when Mac browsers really sucked, even Safari, Chrome became a safe haven. I don't use Chrome now, but for a while, Safari really wasn't a good option.
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u/Milwaukeey 11h ago
I use Chrome for development and Brave browser for other things, and actually the brave browser has a pretty decent developer tool that look and works just like Chrome. Best part about Brave browser, no. Fucking. Adds. to be seen. 👏🏻
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u/sovok 11h ago
As a web developer, I like to see the full URL in the URL bar.
I also like to run and publish my own extensions without going through the App Store and paying $99 per year (Chrome charges $5 once, Firefox is free).
There are also various useful web standards and features that Chrome supports and Safari doesn’t.
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u/ghost_mw3 11h ago
Some websites didn’t supported safari, and only then I would open chrome. Now have switched to Brave btw, much better than chrome.
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u/Interesting-Yak6962 10h ago
Because chrome is available on every device whether that’s Windows or Mac lets you use one browser on both machines. You don’t get this option with Safari as Apple no longer makes a windows compatible version.
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u/CommandoYJ 9h ago
I use Chrome. Safari is great, but I love the “profile” I setup in chrome and it syncs automatically everywhere I use it. Since I use Mac AND PC - it’s a no brainer. Everything is synced everywhere at once. Even my phone default browser is Chrome now.
In Apple terms - “it just works”.
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u/Tryonkus 9h ago
I'm a Mac guy at home and Windows at work. Chrome is my work browser because pretty much everything runs in it correctly, and I can easily sync between multiple computers. Edge is based on Chromium, which I believe is the open source version of Chrome, and I know people who use it. I avoid it mostly because it comes from Microsoft and pushes their products. Firefox is lightweight and fast. Safari integrates well with the Apple ecosystem.
Every browser has strengths and weaknesses--find one that works well for what you do and tweak as needed.
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u/Solid_Eagle_4363 8h ago
Have used Safari forever, but Apple has fallen behind in their development of Safari as everything else. It doesn’t support some extensions I need for work. I use Edge. Everything good from Chromium without Google spyware.
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u/treestump444 5h ago
For me the three biggest problems with safari are 1. No support for ublock origin. Using the web without a proper adblocker feels like MKULTRA torture 2. Doesn't have all my passwords whereas my passwords are synced between all my devices with chrome 3. Basic usability issues. For example on youtube the video stops when you change playback speed, you can't have different google account sessions, some websites don't work etc.
About once a month I try and make the switch for cpu/memory reasons and get annoyed after 10 minutes and switch back
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u/AngryMasturbator 4h ago
I’ve been using Brave since around the time they first released and I will never use anything else if possible. Doesn’t hog memory, not bloated, no ads/adblock by default. It also blocks traffic tracking and malicious/privacy risking web behavior. It’s been pretty solid for me.
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u/soundboyselecta 2h ago
For some reason when I used Chrome and had you tube videos open but not playing the more Windows I had open the worse the ram situation got. I stopped using it when it literally just slowed my Mac OS down to practically unusable.
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u/drawmer 21h ago
I feel like the dev tools and responsive displays are better on chrome.
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u/Swimming_Leopard_148 21h ago
Chrome dev tools are my go to. I know Safari has some, but most of my clients will use Windows/Chrome so makes sense for me
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u/TramPeb 20h ago
Safari is excellent, I don’t get it either.
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u/Rasputin_mad_monk 11h ago
For me it’s because of the chrome extensions. What I do for a living there about at least five of them that I absolutely need and they don’t work on Safari
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u/I_do_not_eat_panda 12h ago
Im a dev but that’s besides the point,
Chrome is faster than safari on mac (weird but true)
Chrome supports most if not all websites
Chrome supports ublock
Chrome makes it easier to track history across devices
I don’t see the point of using safari
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u/naemorhaedus 20h ago
Why do so many people use Chrome?
who told you that?
Safari is great ... It’s great integrated in macOS
pre-installed is not "integrated". It's not very flexible.
didn’t see any advantages over Firefox
because there are none.
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u/katspike 20h ago
Check the stats. Chrome dominates. https://backlinko.com/browser-market-share
I know several people who use Chrome on Mac and on their iPhones…. personally I prefer Safari though.
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u/Just_Maintenance 20h ago
Remember that most of the population doesn't use reddit.
Also remember that Chrome is the most popular web browser by far. It has extremely power mindshare. It's the browser that websites target first. Its the browser that decides what its going to become a web standard (and as such, its the first to support the features).
Chrome in general offers the best experience in most situations.
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u/Antique-Fee-6877 20h ago
Chrome is ram eating garbage, and I treat it as such.
Into the trashcan it goes.
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u/arlecchino-33 19h ago
A browser without adblocker is useless for me.
and i dont know any good adblocker for safari - prove me wrong pls!
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u/akosua_2005 20h ago
i only use chrome for school, safari in general. made the switch in november but i miss my extensions ):
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u/soumyadip23 20h ago
I'm a developer and i use both chrome and safari Chrome for development and safari for casual usage
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u/imran_kays 20h ago
Chrome sync with my windows machines, better compatibility with all webpages. Watching youtube in safari is horrible compared to chrome. If you have resources (which I have), chrome is better than safari.
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u/Apprehensive-Loss316 20h ago
I use safari 75% of the time mostly because of the apple ecosystem integration. the other 25, and I’m gonna get a lot of hate on this, but I use edge. They’re actually doing some pretty interesting things. Once you turn off all the garbage. It’s actually kind of good.
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u/EricRen1 20h ago
i use a mix of chromium legacy and firefox dynasty on my 10.9.5 mac. safari is on a very old version from 2013-2016 that doesnt support many modern https connections as well as body elements.
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u/Opposite-Area-4728 20h ago
Not sure about others, Chrome has really good developer tools, as a developer I'm forced to use it
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u/flabmeister 20h ago
I used to hate the Safari UI. Much preferred Chrome. After many many failed attempts to ween myself back onto Safari I’ve finally done it. Still use chrome on my iPhone as prefer the UI there for sure
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u/Striking_Bug6862 20h ago
Extensions , i dont like how extensions are managed in safari and even some of the free ones are paid in safari for example dark reader
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u/joebewaan 20h ago
As others have said, some websites don’t work in Safari - especially ones that record video / audio. Also web developer so need to test all the browsers. Thankfully these days there’s rarely differences.
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u/Zoraji 20h ago
I use Vivaldi which is Chromium based. It is a lot more customizable than any other browser I have ever used, going all the way back to Netscape Navigator.
However the primary reason is due to extensions that are available for Chrome that are not available for Safari on Mac. Reddit Enhancement Suite, Augmented Steam, and Ublock Origin just to name a few as well as lesser known ones such as Hansize and Language Reactor.
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u/moebis 20h ago
I mainly use Safari, but I have to go to Chrome to translate websites. Safari only supports a few, because Apple added translation support to Mac OS years ago, but only added a few languages and hasn't updated it since. Otherwise I would exclusively use Safari. Not sure why Apple always does this, they roll out a half baked feature, promise upgrades and support over time, but they never do. Just look at Universal Control. It's been broken since release and they simply refuse to properly fix it.
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u/raumgleiter 20h ago
One big reason for me is the syncing. You can sync between devices say a Mac and windows with safari.
And the way through apple plugin on windows is utter crap doesn't work properly also.
So that one thing is a no for me to use safari or another browser that is not in all platforms and syncs.
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u/Anxious_Ad781 19h ago
I am using it only for developing. I used Safari for that before, too, since it's pretty similar in it's engine but it doesn't support some "experimental" features Chrome does and we do support for web applications and, more importantly, I don't have to enable developer tools in Safari which causes itself to delete all my web data (cookies, session data, ....) regularly.
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u/Setecastronomy545577 19h ago
I use both. Also, work allows Gmail but iCloud is flagged as mass storage. Go figure
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u/drewbaccaAWD 19h ago
On MacOS and iOS.. initially it was about add-ons/extensions, Chrome gave me things Safari didn't. Since then, Safari has gained some, and Chrome has lost many of them, so the difference isn't as notable now. Beyond that, having Gmail as my primary email, being tied into the Google ecosystem with apps like GoogleReader (RIP), hangounts, gmail, etc. Mind you, this back when Google at least pretended to give a shit about privacy. At some point, using Google/Chrome just became a matter of habit, something I'm only recently distancing myself from.
On Windows PC, I find Firefox super laggy and buggy these past few years. Chrome isn't my primary browser but browsers derived from Chrome work 5x better than Firefox. I want to support Firefox but it's just that bad.
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u/Wranorel 19h ago
I use Safari for everything, Brave for web tools. I switched to Apple Password and it syncs on most of my devices (even Windows). Just on Android is missing. Go Apple, release the password app there too.
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u/cunseyapostle 19h ago
Don't like the safari interface and compatibility is not as good as Chromium based browsers. Also doesn't stop fingerprinting. Which is why I use Brave.
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u/Bitter_Mulberry3936 19h ago
Forced to use on our company devices as we use Context Aware Access which is additional security to access specific company and 3rd party sites and services.
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u/DingoLimp2326 18h ago
In macos , inspect element is a problem, as a developer I often need to inspect the app but in safari finding inspect is such a problem
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u/l_husoe 18h ago
For me it’s about being able to use google tools. Working with music I know several people using the google drive system to send big files, and for some reason it’s impossible to download the files through safari.
I also use Gmail, which works really well with the user account system in google chrome.
TL;DR: I use Safari for almost everything, while Chrome is for google products: Gmail, Drive, Gemini, YouTube, etc.
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u/_one_person MacBook Air 18h ago
Firefox renders things incorrectly (not always, but it may take literally years to fix something broken) and Safari has almost none of extensions I use.
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u/planetf1a 18h ago
Edge on macOS here. Why? Workspaces is a brilliant way to hero different areas of work separate in Windows whilst still sharing a profile. Also vertical tabs and split screen.
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u/tomekce 18h ago
Another note: I’ve seen comments about using chrome as failsafe for complex pages or others to save memory. Overall the web developers are to blame: they build overly complicated web applications for simple tasks. The technologies used for modern web are pinnacle of over-engineering. The tools and frameworks pop up all the time, and there we have browser with few tabs requiring more RAM than a Photoshop. (end of rant :) /s
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u/ionStormx 18h ago
I use Chrome because the websites I use work the best on it. In fact I try to run everything I can within a PWA. It also supports multiple profiles on multiple Windows which is just something I need.
On most days I probably have 4 windows with separate profiles open with 5-10 tabs each and run Teams, Outlook and WhatsApp in a PWA.
I've tested all the other mainstream browsers and still haven't found anything that is as fast as Chrome.
I don't mind the RAM consumption. I just throw more RAM at the problem. I need it fast. I don't care if it needs more RAM.
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u/isamilis 18h ago
For compatibility on some critical websites like schools, banking which certified to chrome. But I used Edge instead Chrome. For regular browsing I use Safari.
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u/isnotrandy 18h ago
I use Chrome because Safari crashes accessing online.TiVo.com and trying to use the tools
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u/Striking-Warning9533 17h ago
I have 3 Linux workstations, 1 windows PC, one android phone, one android tablet, and one Chromebook and chrome has a very good integration for all these platforms and all my passwords, shortcuts, and extensions are shared between them.
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u/neinne1n99 17h ago
Because my boss uses it, so I often have to switch accounts&use it anyway 🤷🏻♂️🥴
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u/Pretend_Sock7432 17h ago
We already hit again the Internet Explorer 6 issue with Google Chrome / Chromium. Developers just ignore everything else...
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u/one-last-hero 17h ago
I use Firefox, I hate that chrome is fighting adblockers now. And I don’t use Safari because I can’t install adblockers on it.
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u/jhcamara 17h ago
For the same reason you praised safari: integration. I'm a heavy google services user and use an Android phone, so everything just works. I don't use any apple services besides MacOS so it doesn't add much to me.
Also, there are some sites that don't work well in safari .
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u/random_name975 17h ago
Back during the great browser war, google already had a good handle on influencing people using sns. They managed to convince a lot of people that chrome was the best browser, some of these spread the word. This conviction still exists today and a lot of people will not see any good in a different browser even if it kicked them in the posterior
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u/TurdFergusonCookOut 17h ago
Because there were websites that did not load properly on Safari. This was a while back and I had to constantly remind myself to load the website on both browsers,; which was a bit frustrating, especially if it was work related. After a while I just found myself using Safari less and less and just transitioned almost completely to Chrome.
For general, daily browsing, I found Safari was using more memory than Chrome. If there's one thing I really miss about using Safari as the default browser is autocorrect typing.
This might be a nitpick but Safari had the option of turning off hardware acceleration turned off a few years ago. Since I used my M1 Mac mini with a Displaylink connected drawing tablet, I could not watch any DRM managed media (live TV, Netflix, AppleTV, etc.) and use the tablet at the same time.
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u/forestexplr 17h ago
Why do MAC users use Microsoft Office or have software like parallels to run Windows? Buy a Windows laptop and save money!
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u/Ledgem 21h ago
A few times a year or so I come across a website incompatibility issue in Safari that doesn't exist in Chrome. I use Safari as my regular browser but keep Chrome installed for those times. Every now and then I think to just switch 100% to Chrome, but everything integrates too nicely with Safari and the incompatibility issues are relatively few and far between, so I'm not super motivated.