Arc Is in Maintenance Mode. Here's Where Its Users Went

Arc changed what people expect from a browser — then The Browser Company halted feature development in May 2025 to chase Dia, and Atlassian bought the company in October. Arc still works and still gets security patches, but nobody is building its future. The migration threads picked four consistent winners, all tracked on our Arc alternatives page.

The spiritual successor: Zen Browser

Zen Browser is what r/macapps recommends to Arc leavers first: vertical tabs, workspaces, split view and a compact mode that feel like home within an hour. It is built on Firefox and fully open source — which matters here, because an open-source community project cannot be acquired out from under you. That is not a hypothetical concern anymore.

The catch: Firefox engine means Chrome-only extensions need substitutes.

The zero-friction switch: Vivaldi

Vivaldi is Chromium underneath, so every extension, web app and login flow keeps working on day one. On top sits the most configurable power-user feature set in any mature browser: tab stacking, workspaces, split screen, a command palette. Arc's daily workflow maps across almost one-to-one.

The catch: the interface is dense where Arc was minimal. Budget an evening for settings.

The Mac-native option: Orion

Orion is Kagi's WebKit browser — Safari's engine, so you get Safari-class battery life and speed, with support for both Chrome and Firefox extensions bolted on. Zero telemetry, and that claim is literal: no analytics at all. The choice for people whose complaint about every browser on this list is "it's another Chromium fork."

The catch: extension compatibility is good but not perfect; test your critical ones.

The pragmatic default: Brave

Brave is the safe landing: open-source Chromium with the best built-in ad and tracker blocking in any major browser, vertical tabs since 2023, and a business model that does not involve your browsing history. Ignore the optional crypto features and it is simply a fast, private Chrome.

The catch: it is the least Arc-like experience here — you are trading the sidebar lifestyle for normality.

The honest summary

Zen if you want Arc back, Vivaldi if you want your extensions, Orion if you want native, Brave if you want boring reliability. Side-by-side details on the Arc alternatives page.