[jen729w]

I guess the snark is funny, so I'll bite.

I've used Safari daily for … must be 20 years now? Every day, for everything, minus the odd exceptionally rare circumstance. And I couldn't tell you what the last one of those was, it was so long ago.

I'm a web developer. I use its devtools constantly.

People ask why do you use Safari and not Chrome and I think the question is backwards. Why, given how lovely Safari is, would you go and download Chrome? It's really ugly and doesn't look like any of the other apps on my Mac.

When I do want other devtools, I vastly prefer Firefox's to Chrome's.

[manuelmoreale]

I'll join in saying I also daily Safari for generale usage (with only two extensions installed 1Blocker and Are.na) and I have basically zero issues.

I also do dev work in Firefox + Safari. I use Firefox mainly because I prefer their dev tools to do frontend work. Chrome I almost never use. This insistence that Safari is the new IE is honestly baffling. Yes Safari is not perfect and yes Apple is Apple. Still, Safari is far from being a train wreck.

[jiehong]

> why do you use Safari and not Chrome

To me, it's annoying people ask that question. It's like they ask why I use brand A of shoes and not B, but it's my choice and nobody would expect a monopoly from an Ad company to be a good thing.

Social pressure is real, though.

[jeroenhd]

I find Safari's devtools to be quite annoying, but to each their own. Firefox' dev tools still hold the crown for me.

The lack of cross-platform support is also annoying to the point where I generally don't bother testing on Safari unless I'm absolutely forced to. Until Apple releases a Safari build for Windows and/or Linux, Safari users will just have to rely on Safari's compatibility with cross-platform browsers.

The open source version of WebKit works fine as a user, but behaves differently from any official Safari releases, so as a web developer it's not really usable as a testing tool.

[Zardoz84]

Orion , a web browser using the same engine that Safari, are to going to release a version for Linux. I'm expeting to get it so I could test stuff on something Safari like.

[jeroenhd]

Orion doesn't have access to Apple's additions to Safari. WebKit exists but isn't similar enough to actually verify that everything works.

[saagarjha]

I assume Orion will have the same issues as the open source build.

[SunshineTheCat]

I agree with you on this one, I've never understood the fascination with Chrome. Safari has done a pretty good job of maintaining a clean and simple UI along with being reliable.

If there was a downside I guess it would be in the realm of extensions/plugins where Chrome probably has a leg up. That's where I decided to make the jump to Brave. All the same Chrome extensions without the Google nonsense (and built in ad blocker).

I still really like Safari though and would likely use it daily if it had a built-in ad blocker.

[alemanek]

It isn’t free but 1Blocker works well across iOS and macOS devices for ad blocking. I am not affiliated with them; just have had it for the last 3 years.

[seec]

The reason to use Chrome is better extension support, better/more useful functionalities (translation, favicon bookmarks, Google Lens), better autofill/autologin, and better performance for web apps generally. Another very useful property is being able to sync your Chrome profile on any computer, which comes in very handy when you need to do stuff on computers you do not own. Doing the same with Safari is possible but a hassle.

I have used Safari since it replace Internet Explorer back in the days, then switched to Chrome a few years ago after a beta broke password syncing and AdBlocker Extensions for Safari were paid/not as good.

Like much of Apple's software, it has strengths and looks good but is really lacking in many ways. It also locks you into the walled garden pretty tight, which can be annoying at times.

Apple should go back to releasing a cross-platform version if they want to be taken seriously, in my opinion. In general, their incentive to build software solely for their platform is a double-edged sword because they can't manage to create hardware that can cover every need (especially for 3D/engineering), and it becomes very annoying to rely on it the moment you need to use another OS (either Windows or Linux).

Another example is Apple Notes being decent, but using it in the web browser is basically a joke (might as well not exist).

[omer_balyali]

Safari has translation, bookmarks (favorites bar) can be either icon only, text only, or both text and icon at the same time, tabs can be pinned (Chrome also has it), "better" autofill/autologin is subjective. Chrome doesn't have better performance than Safari, both on macOS and iOS Safari is optimized better, both for battery and memory.

If you use Google products extensively and don't use Apple ecosystem integration features, then Chrome may look like it has better features; the same is true if you are on the Apple ecosystem (Notes, Reminders, Calendar, Passwords, multiple devices, etc). Seamless integration of Apple devices is one of the biggest advantages of using Apple software like Safari, where you can use iCloud Tabs to switch between devices. Also, Tab Groups is a neat feature; you can move Safari windows to an iPad with Sidecar and so on.

Google's ecosystem also has similar features, but you can argue that you're "locked into a walled garden pretty tight" with Google as well.

Browsers have their different advantages, but they are not so different from each other, especially when we compare Safari and Chrome. Maybe the only real difference is that Chrome has way more extensions.

[seec]

Translation came out much later and isn't as convenient (no auto-loading).

Form filling and login just work better on Chrome; that's not subjective at all.

Tabs syncing works better and faster with Chrome, one of the reasons I switched is that Safari implementation was laggy and buggy (happened with the password sync problem as well).

Bookmarks favicons came back, but they were removed for many versions, which was very annoying.

I don't use Google apps much, and I don't find the Apple ecosystem integration to be that useful. At best they are a convenience, but often just gimmicks.

I still mostly use Apple devices but have a PC as well. Apple iCloud for Windows is buggy and annoying as hell and requires using Chrome anyway; might as well skip the step of using Safari.

Google definitely has some walling as well, but it works with more hardware and is generally easier to integrate. Apple really plays nice with their own stuff.

I was once a defender of Apple's approach, especially for native apps and stuff like that. They have shown they can't be trusted. We are very far from the era when Apple was making Safari for Windows because they wanted to offer a better browser to everyone. Now only the bottom line matters, even though they have never been as rich as now.

The reason they fight so hard to prevent 3rd-party browser engines on iOS is because they know they would lose market share extremely fast.

Make no mistake, I would prefer to use Apple stuff but it just isn't very competitive anymore, and they really need to put a lot of effort into it.

[nerdjon]

As someone who daily drives Safari as primary browser on Mac, iPhone, and iPad figured I would comment on each of those:

> translation

Safari has Translation built in

> favicon bookmarks

Yeah to my knowledge this is not possible (someone correct me if I am wrong), but I also fail to see the value given how large screens are today and favicons are kinda terrible.

> Google Lens

That alone is a reason for me not to use chrome.

> better autofill/autologin

I have never had any major issue with autofill or login on Safari. It pulls in my contact information when filling out a form, it pulls in my credit card information, and it pulls in one time codes from mail and messages when those happen. The only real issue I have here is that I use both Apple Passwords and 1Password and the popups for both interfere, but I doubt that is really a safari unique issue.

> better performance for web apps generally

Do we have data to back that up? Websites perform just fine for me.

> Another very useful property is being able to sync your Chrome profile on any computer, which comes in very handy when you need to do stuff on computers you do not own. Doing the same with Safari is possible but a hassle.

Not sure if syncing with a computer you don't own is really a feature that we should be encouraging? That seems really bad advice.

Regardless, outside of Windows (which I just don't care or have any desire to have my main computing sync too) Safari syncs just fine between my devices I care for it to sync too.

> Apple should go back to releasing a cross-platform version

I disagree with the "Seriously" part but I agree in spirit. I would love to have Safari on Windows again so I can never use Chrome or Firefox again. As far as other apps being on Windows, I care less but I would love to see icloud.com improved when needed in a pinch.

[seec]

You just dismiss all my critics as irrelevant and not something I should care about. Translation came later and isn't as convenient as on Chrome. I don't know why you think "never use any other hardware than Apple's" is a viable argument. I need to have both a PC and a Mac; having a browser that syncs without the hassle that is iCloud on Windows is important.

If they can't make what people want, they go somewhere else, exactly what I did.

[KolmogorovComp]

> and better performance for web apps generally

At which cost? Huge RAM footprint, deadly battery killer, slow start time. How often do you need heavy performance for web apps versus just browsing?

[concinds]

Safari has used way more RAM than Chrome for a decade. It uses more battery in some tests.

It starts way slower, Chrome is one bounce and usable immediately, Safari is 2-3 bounces and 3-4 seconds before it starts accepting input.

[asvitkine]

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1fguko2/everyone_say...

[hu3]

> In my 3-hour tests, Safari consumed 18.67% of my battery each time on average, and Chrome averaged 17.33% battery drain. That works out to about 9% less battery drain from Chrome than Safari. Yes, you read that right, I found Chrome was easier on my battery than Safari.

With how much engineering was poured over V8, I don't doubt.

[seec]

Yep, it's just the reality distortion field. Apple fanboys can never admit they don't have the best stuff.

In similar veins, they'll say that Windows uses more RAM than macOS. Yet on both an iMac that was bootcamped and a custom-built hackintosh, macOS almost always used more RAM after booting.

Apple makes great hardware but the software is often very mid, its only visually pleasing.

[argsnd]

Since MV3 Chrome has not had better extension API support, although Apple’s insistence on publishing them on the App Store means availability is still restricted. I’ve found that using `xcrun safari-web-extension-converter` on almost any Chrome extension works fine and I’ve self-signed a few (eg. Bypass Paywalls Clean) with Xcode to run on my Mac and iPhone.

[lapcat]

> Apple’s insistence on publishing them on the App Store means availability is still restricted.

This is not true. You can distribute Safari extensions outside the Mac App Store.

While it's true that you can't distribute Safari extensions outside the iOS App Store, mobile Chrome doesn't even have extension support, so in this case, Safari has vastly better extension support.

[argsnd]

You do still need to notarise it with an Apple Developer membership, right? Else you have to enable unsigned extensions every time you open Safari. The cost barrier is still there even if the approval barrier isn’t.

[lapcat]

Yes, but your initial comment was kind of a strange way to phrase a cost complaint. After all, Google insists that extensions be published in the Chrome Web Store, and that requires Google's approval, a process that can often take much longer than App Store approval.

I suspect that the difference in extension availability is mostly due to desktop market share, since Safari is nonexistent on Windows and Linux.

[argsnd]

There’s quite a difference between a one time $5 fee and an annual $99 fee for the economics of publishing a free browser extension.

Given almost 100% compatibility with the same Web Extension APIs that Chrome uses, I think you’d expect near-parity in extension availability between Chrome and Safari if that barrier didn’t exist.

[seec]

You can load unpublished extensions with developer mode. It's not as convenient but works just fine. Try that with Safari.

[seec]

API level maybe, but what I care about is being able to install an extension with one click and no hassle. Apple makes this too hard to extort money via the App Store, so they can shove it where the sun doesn't shine.

[gabeidx]

There was no snark in my comment, I genuinely think it's a good thing that Safari is becoming better every day. I am using Safari right now and have been using it as my main browser for a long time. Mind you I've been building for the web for 19 years at this point and I have seen it all.

It's a sad state of affairs when one can't make a positive comment without triggering someone to look for the spice take hidden between the lines.

[ksec]

>And I couldn't tell you what the last one of those was, it was so long ago.

I encounter it on a weekly or monthly basis before Safari 18.0, but then subsequent release 18.2 along with latest 26.2 I finally have yet to encounter one.

I am hoping they will shift a little more focus on multi Tab usage, less paging, address bar, and some other desktop browser features.

[troupo]

Safari's dev tools are infuriatingly cumbersome in comparison to Chrome. They go out of their way to make even the simplest actions hidden in multiple selects and popup menus. I even made a screencast of it: https://x.com/dmitriid/status/1711701552082079764

As a browser? I agree with you.

[pprotas]

I don’t think the common question is “Why not use Chrome instead of Safari?” but “Why use Safari?”

[Y-bar]

I have colleagues who are annoyed that I use Firefox because in their world everything Chrome does is standard and browsers like Safari and Firefox are annoying outliers. No matter if something they have implemented in Chrome is _actually_ standard and no matter how proper to the spec non-Chrome browsers implement a feature they see it as a chore to support the spec rather than the Chrome browser.

So, the "Why not use Chrome instead of Safari?” certainly happens.

[raw_anon_1111]

Battery life.

[latexr]

I also use Safari as my main browser, but do have some gripes.

The one that bites me every day is how I cannot pick an arbitrary search engine. The ones they have are very few and awful.

One that bites me on occasion is the inability to selectively disable JavaScript per website.

Another is the atrocious permissions management for extensions. On iOS you can’t even deny access to a specific website until you allow it once first.

One that bites me rarely is AppleScript support being slightly worse than in Chromium, specifically there being no way (other than GUI automation) to make a new Private Window.

One that hasn’t bitten me yet is the ugly pill-shaped tabs in Tahoe, together with the removal of the unified tab layout.

The most frustrating part is these are very easy to fix. Note also that this isn’t an endorsement of Chromium, there’s a reason those browsers aren’t my main. Right now there isn’t a single web browser I like and that does everything I want acceptably. But Safari is the least bad.

[sweetp]

I actually built a content blocker which gives the ability to selectively block javascript (or any data type for that matter) https://minim.sweetpproductions.com

:)

[latexr]

I meant natively. I don’t want an extension for this, though I have bought StopTheScript. Reason being that to selectively block JavaScript with an extension, I have to allow it on every website (meaning placing an inordinate amount of trust on the developer) then block the ones I don’t want. That’s completely backwards from what I want, which is to disable JavaScript by default and enable it on just a few websites.

[Boltgolt]

This is like being in the 2000s and saying "Why would I use anything but IE5, everything works with it"

The market share is what makes those circumstances exceptionally rare. Meanwhile we're having to use safari specific fixes and refrain from using he newest standards just because of safari

[troupo]

Where "newest standars" are inevitably "Chrome-only non-standards".

Safari is not just fine. It's more than fine: https://wpt.fyi/interop-2025?stable

[realusername]

Safari's problem has never been the lack of supported standards, more that the support is buggy. You'll find that yes the feature is there but it throws a nonsense exception in a weird case and same in CSS.

It's also the last non-evergreen browser so bugs take longer to fix than Firefox or Chrome, compounding the problem.

[dep_b]

It’s much easier to make stuff work with Safari first then last.