Download Orion Browser 0.99.115 Beta (Mac) Free

Typically, users looking to replace Safari on macOS turn to Firefox or Chromium-based browsers. There aren’t many popular options based on Apple’s WebKit, which is a shame considering how well the engine is optimized for macOS.

where is that Orion Browser Come in, one of the most promising browsers released in recent years. It uses WebKit and takes Apple’s commitment to privacy to a whole new level, while also offering a truly impressive list of features. It’s designed to provide an alternative to Safari, it’s improved in every way, and it’s a good start.

Privacy is the name of the game

Orion is committed to providing a truly private browsing experience. It logs no telemetry, serves no ads (such as default bookmarks with affiliate links), and comes with a built-in ad and tracker blocker.

Plus, you can choose to use the company’s own Kagi search engine, a tracker-free alternative to Google or Bing, and it’s also not ad-supported. However, the free plan is limited to 50 searches per month, so a subscription is required to use it as your default search engine.

Fast, lightweight and familiar alternative to Safari

Orion looks a lot like Safari at first glance, and that’s because it’s built on WebKit. Right now, this will make the browser more efficient on macOS than its competitors running on other engines. It’s also leaner than Safari, so it should be just as fast, if not faster.

Since it’s based on the same technology, Safari users won’t have any issues switching. The UI is very similar, with direct support for native macOS features like Keychain and Live Text. All your data is synced via iCloud.

Tons of quality of life features

Tabs can be displayed at the top or on the side, the latter making it easier to manage multiple websites. Tabs can also be organized into groups or windows.

Convenient buttons to the left of the address bar give you quick access to useful information, features, and settings for each website, and you can view a quick privacy report just like in Safari.

Safari’s Reader Mode and the new Focus Mode are available, which hides every UI element from the browser window, leaving only the web page itself.

You can float a window on top of all other applications, and the browser also has a built-in picture-in-picture mode for watching videos on YouTube or other websites.

There’s a lot more to mention, such as low power modes, the option to open pages in the Internet Archive, force copy and paste on pages that aren’t allowed, and automatically prevent videos from autoplaying.

Install Chrome and Firefox extensions

Given the limited catalog of Safari extensions and Apple’s struggles with them, even requiring you to install an entire app just to add a feature to the browser, being able to use Chrome and Firefox extensions is a very attractive prospect.

These add-ons can be installed directly from their respective repositories, and the ones I’ve tried seem to work fine. For example, you can bring your dislikes back to YouTube using Return YouTube Dislike, an extension that doesn’t work with Safari.

However, keep in mind that the project is in its early stages and many extensions, especially the less popular ones, are bound to have issues.

A true contender for Safari on macOS

Although still in public beta, Orion is already a very impressive browser. It provides the best privacy practices you can expect from a WebKit-based browser, it matches or even exceeds Safari in terms of speed, and it includes many useful features, including support for Chrome and Firefox extensions.

Both browsers and search engines can subscribe, but Orion+ doesn’t offer any benefits that regular users would be interested in, so it’s definitely not necessary. Kagi is practically unusable without a subscription, but you can use many other privacy-friendly search engines.