Safari and Google Chrome are in fierce competition for the top spot on Macs. Safari comes built-in with macOS, while Chrome has a significant market share across platforms. Apple has raised the bar with the new Safari refresh in terms of looks and performance with the new macOS Big Sur update. To catch up with that, even Google gave Chrome a huge performance upgrade, one of the biggest in recent years. This makes us revisit the classic dilemma of choosing a browser for Mac – Chrome or Safari? That’s why we decided to compare the relevant refreshes in this post.
We will compare both browsers based on their interfaces, features, themes, news integration, extensions, password management and more. Let’s start with cross-platform availability.
Cross-Platform Availability
As with any Apple software, the Safari browser is only available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. While in Chrome’s state, you can access the browser from anywhere. Available on iOS, Android, macOS, iPadOS, Windows and Chrome OS.
user interface
Safari received a much-needed design change with the macOS Big Sur update. For starters, you can easily change the background wallpaper on the Safari homepage. You can choose a custom wallpaper from a well from your Mac.
As for customization, you can choose to keep favorites, privacy reports, Siri suggestions, a reading list, and more on the homepage. Tabs also have a nice visual touch. When you hover the cursor over a tab, it will show a live preview of the web page.
Extensions (more on this later), history, reading list and sharing menu are at the top. You can get the most out of these features by mastering keyboard shortcuts to quickly access and navigate options. If you like the dark theme, it also supports the system-wide dark theme introduced with macOS Mojave.
Google Chrome continues to adhere to the material interface design guidelines. You’ll see rounded corners and lots of white everywhere. However, you can change the default theme by choosing a new one from the Chrome Theme Store and browsing hundreds of ready-to-use themes.
Features
It’s understandable that you want your favorite browser to offer different functions than to load pages faster. Safari offers a clean-looking reading mode that eliminates unnecessary elements on a web page like ads, social integration, and comments.
You can customize the reading mode by changing the font style, size, and background color.
Safari has seamless integration between iOS and macOS. Tap the tab switcher and the browser will show the tab opened on your iPhone. Similarly, while browsing on iOS, the transfer function allows you to move the same webpage forward on macOS.
You can also use the default Spotlight Search (Command + Space shortcut) and start typing the web page name; It will show suggestions from Safari history. I often use it to visit a web page without opening the browser. The functionality is not available in third-party browsers.
Google Chrome also offers a sync feature, but it’s hidden in the Options menu. Go to History > Synced Tabs and you will see Chrome tabs opened on iPhone or Android there. Yes, it also works with Android.
Unfortunately, Google Chrome does not offer any native Reading Mode. My favorite Google Chrome functionality is group tabs. You can create multiple groups and organize tabs based on a particular topic. This is really useful when browsing multiple websites at once with dozens of tabs open.
Extensions
In terms of extension support, Safari lags behind Chrome. The extension list is limited, but it takes the basic extensions to get things moving forward. However, you will have a hard time looking for an extension for every need. Go to Safari > Safari Extensions and install from the list.
You can manage them and integrate them into your browser experience by going to Preferences > Extensions.
Google Chrome offers a rich collection neatly divided into different sections. There is an extension for every use case.
Web Compatibility
Google Chrome uses the Chromium web engine to load web pages. It is a universal standard used by most browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Brave, and Opera. You will not have any problems loading and browsing web pages.
Safari uses the Webkit engine to render and load web pages. The experience was mostly smooth in both browsers. However, I ran into some obstacles with a few websites where the provider asked me to switch to a chrome browser.
Password Management
Seamless password management is an essential feature and a necessity for a reliable browsing experience. By default, Safari stores all credentials in the iCloud keychain. The next time you try to sign in to an account, use the sign-in information from the iCloud keychain or tap Touch ID to automatically fill in the details.
Chrome offers Chrome Password management to save and store every login details. It’s not full-featured password management, but it has enough functionality to get the job done. As a bonus, the service is also available on Chrome Android and iOS.
Privacy
Safari provides a detailed privacy report that recommends which trackers the browser has blocked on the websites you visit. You’d be surprised how many trackers the browser blocked in the end-of-day report.
Google Chrome does not offer any data to analyze. But as I mentioned above, you can always opt for an extension to get the job done for you.
Convenience or Features
These were some of the key differences between the new Safari and Google Chrome on Mac. The macOS Big Sur update puts Apple’s Safari browser right up against market leaders like Google Chrome and Firefox. It even surpasses Google Chrome in some areas like customization and privacy. Google fights with multiplatform availability, rich extension support, and flawless performance. At the end of the day, you have to search between broader platform availability or sheer convenience.
Next: Microsoft Edge is another strong competitor to replace Safari on Mac. Read the comparison post below to find more details.
