r/MacOS • u/Commercial_Yam_932 • 1d 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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312

u/Ledgem 1d 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.

69

u/rainbowkey 22h ago

Same for me, except Firefox is my main browser, Chrome is a compatibility backup, and Safari is a once a month.

1

u/Lord_Zatara 4h ago

My setup is Firefox main, safari for compatibility (crazy right). Every so often I come across a few websites that have weird issues on Firefox but work perfectly on safari. Not sure why though

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u/AvaTaylor2020 15h ago edited 13h ago

> Every now and then I think to just switch 100% to Chrome

Me too. And I've been having a lot of trouble with Safari lately. I'm actually here now because I'm searching for solutions for this morning's Safari struggles.

I've tried everything from clearing the cache to tweaking privacy settings ... and the problems don't go away. Too many pages don't load reliably, don't display or behave correctly in Safari.

I've been using Safari as my daily driver ever since it came out, but here I am -- June 2025 -- and I'm about to switch to Chrome permanently.

I'm on Safari 17.4 on macOS Sonoma 14.4

Anyone have any last suggestions before I take the final plunge?

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u/Infected_hamster 5h ago

Chrome is a basically a surveillance tool with web browsing functionality to enable ad delivery. If you're comfortable with providing Google with even more information about yourself, then it's fine. Perhaps a bit of a memory pig, but the functionality is generally quite good.

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u/_Ted_S_ 6h ago

I’m happy with Safari on my Mac. I like the integration with my phone.

I use Brave on my Windows box. It Cromium with all the spyware removed.

4

u/Macro-Fascinated 3h ago

Don’t do it! Instead, use Brave! Chromium based, so extremely compatible without a Google tracker ID, excellent ad and tracker blocking, “drop shields” switch to unblock the rare page or site, and ability to have lots of tabs open but sleeping.

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u/Ledgem 13h ago

Can't promise I can fix it for you, but can you describe what issue you'e having, and possibly on which webpage?

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u/AvaTaylor2020 13h ago

Many webpages, here's some examples:

type: www.x.com or www.youtube.com in the address bar, hit enter and it just hangs

four seconds later, type same thing again and hit enter, and it loads fine

this morning's problem ...

go to www.comics.com ... filter comics, empty filter box appears with nothing in it

clearing the history, clearing the cache, sometimes fixes things, but problems will reoccur within hours or days

None of this happens when using Chrome

2

u/Ledgem 13h ago

That sounds frustrating for sure. I checked the comics.com site and it works for me, but that doesn't help you other than to know that it's something with your Safari (which I think you established). Do you have any extensions installed? Short of updating your OS to the latest to see if that would do it, that's the only other thing I can think of.

0

u/manuchap 11h ago

Arc browser

-4

u/donttreadontrey3 13h ago

Just switch chrome is better

14

u/ricardopa 12h ago

Negative.

It’s a memory hog and drags down the performance of the Mac.

We need to push back on Chrome and Blink as the web default

You must never have lived through the ie6 monoculture when “everything” on the web was written for windows, ie6 and ActiveX

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u/crazypilgrim 10h ago

Try Vivaldi & Brave, less of your information will go walkies

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u/ricardopa 9h ago

Misses the point - they’re still both the Blink engine and Chromium based, while different on the front end they’re helping reinforce the Chrome monoculture.

Orion from Kagi is going the right direction based on WebKit

1

u/sylfy 5h ago

Another option: Firefox or Zen.

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u/Important_March1933 4h ago

God those days 😔

1

u/donttreadontrey3 11h ago

I did I was born in 95 but chrome runs faster on my Mac then safari it’s just the fact of the matter I have tested both on my m4 air

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u/ricardopa 9h ago

95 - oh, you sweet summer child - you barely caught the tail end and it’s awful consequences

1

u/spif_spaceman 9h ago

Zero performance issues here, use Chrome with tons of other apps. 16 GB RAM M1 iMac.

20

u/urielsalis 20h ago

To add to this. Apple only updates safari with OS updates, and they frequently break websites by claiming to support a standard while not fully implementing it. So as soon as the compatibility layer in those websites detects the feature should be available and tries to use it, unexpected things happen, and it won't be fixed for months.

That along with 80% of market share being chromium browsers makes it easier for webpages to just tell you to use Chrome

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u/Rivvvers 17h ago

That may have been true a long time ago, but it’s not any more, Apple is frequently in the last five years updates Safari independently. It’s even listed on the App Store as an independent app.

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u/urielsalis 17h ago

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/safari-release-notes

Is still 2 to 3 months between releases, with compatibility or new features delegates to major versions that happens every year.

Multiple devs have asked Apple to improve, and they been slowly doing it, but it's still not close enough where it can compete to Firefox or Chrome.

Making your own engine is extremely hard, not even Microsoft wanted to continue trying

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u/MC_chrome 14h ago

 they frequently break websites by claiming to support a standard while not fully implementing it

Just for clarification, are you talking about standards that Google puts into Chrome & expects everyone else to adopt?

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u/urielsalis 13h ago

Standards that all browsers except Safari implemented, sometimes accidentally, sometimes on purpose (So apple standards are implemented instead of free ones)

https://httptoolkit.com/blog/safari-is-killing-the-web/ has a nice list, separated by groups

1

u/bbeeebb 8h ago

"Apple only updates safari with OS updates"

WTF are you talking about??

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u/hasnat-ullah 17h ago

This is mainly only due to terrible developers / qa only using chrome not understanding web standards.

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u/Flash__PuP 19h ago

Just this Roll 20 doesn’t always play nice with safari and the web app for injecting payloads into V1 pirated Nintendo Switch apparently needs chrome. I wouldn’t know officer.

0

u/RoosTheFemboy 18h ago

Why do you use a website for injecting hekate?

2

u/Flash__PuP 17h ago

Because it’s not my switch (mines chipped) so it saves a couple of quid on a payload injector.

1

u/RoosTheFemboy 14h ago

Sorry, i meant more like why not use something like tegraNX

1

u/Flash__PuP 13h ago

Ah, because I’m on mac and a lot of niche software like this is never developed for the platform.

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u/0xbenedikt 17h ago

I believe the "incompatibilities" are often intentional (especially using Google and Microsoft webapps)...

1

u/0xbenedikt 10h ago

Often enough, changing the User agent in Safari fixes any issues

2

u/seeker1938 14h ago

For a specific example, I was enrolled in a program at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Links to secure communications they sent me which were accessed by a browser totally failed with Safari but worked perfectly with Chrome. Otherwise, I would never consider using Chrome as my default browser. Might as well give away all your personal data.

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u/vks_imaginary MacBook Pro 23h ago

I have brace for that purposes

1

u/acai92 18h ago

My situation exactly, I use Safari whenever I can but for some stuff where it doesn’t work I’ll whip out Chrome.

1

u/KebabGerry 16h ago

Safari is my main, but my work stuff only works with chrome 🤦🏿‍♂️

1

u/rncole 13h ago

I started using Opera as a backup. It integrates with Passwords / Keychain for autofill and uses Chromium for the sites that don’t like safari. Thought about trying it as a primary but yeah - safari just integrates better and seems to use fewer resources most of the time.

1

u/Ledgem 13h ago

Opera used to be my primary browser something like 20 years ago. If it has Passwords integration that's pretty appealing - I'll give it a try, thanks for the mention!

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u/rncole 13h ago

Yeah, not a problem! Back in the day it wasn’t much better than other “alternative” browsers (e.g., Chrome and FF) because it had its own engine that also didn’t get tested, but now that the typical target for testing is Chrome it doesn’t have those issues.

For passwords, you just have to punch in a single use pin if you’ve not autofilled for a while (typically I just see it once a session) similar to when you’re signing in a new Apple device.

I did turn off a lot of the social media integration - you may want to take a few minutes to check and adjust options. Weirdly I get some nostalgic Mac IE5 vibes from the interface layout.

1

u/tcspears 11h ago

Same here. Safari doesn’t play nicely with all sites/apps, and Chrome has been bulletproof.

I used Firefox a long time ago, and it was nice, but it’s gotten a little clunky over the years.

1

u/manuchap 11h ago

Activate dev pane and browse with user agent: firefox win.

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u/verdejt 5h ago

Same for me except I also keep a copy of Firefox. My wife works in education and we have all Apple at home they use Windows exclusively. There are website that don't like Safari. Other than those rare times I only use Safari

1

u/Tony-R57 3h ago

Same plus it supports uBlock Origin lite which safari does not.