The best Arc browser alternatives, and how to keep your tabs

Short answer

The closest thing to Arc is Zen: free, open source, with sidebar tabs and workspaces, and it imports your Arc spaces. Dia is the official successor from the team behind Arc, with AI built in. Pick the browser for how it feels, and keep your links in a place that outlives any browser.

Arc stops working on Mac and Windows on 22 December 2026. If you haven't saved your pinned tabs yet, do that first: how to export Arc bookmarks and pinned tabs. Then pick where to go next.

Arc alternatives side by side

"Not documented" means we found no official word on importing from Arc. Every browser here imports a standard HTML bookmarks file, so your Arc tabs can still reach any of them. See how to keep your tabs.

1. Zen: the closest thing to Arc

Zen is a free, open source browser built on Firefox, and it is the one most Arc users mention first. It has a sidebar of tabs, Workspaces to keep projects apart, Split View for two tabs side by side, and a compact mode that hides the tab bar until you need it.

Since version 1.24b (29 October 2026), Zen can import spaces and profiles from Arc and Dia, so moving over is mostly one step. Back up your Arc sidebar file first anyway (it takes 30 seconds). Zen still calls itself a beta, so expect the odd rough edge.

Best for people who loved Arc's sidebar and want it free, on any computer, without AI.

2. Dia: the official successor

Dia comes from The Browser Company, the team behind Arc, and is where they now point Arc users. It runs on Mac and Windows and is free to download. Arc's ideas carry over under new names: spaces become Profiles, folders become Pinned Tab Groups, and vertical tabs are an optional sidebar. It also has Splits for two pages side by side.

The big difference is AI. Dia is built around an assistant that can read and work with your open tabs. The company says Arc's features stay free in Dia and the AI is optional, with paid plans for heavier AI use. Dia imports from Arc's built in export. Reviews report that the Mac version needs an Apple silicon Mac.

Best for people who want the most Arc-like move and are curious about AI in the browser.

Torn between the top two? Read Zen vs Arc vs Dia, feature by feature.

3. Vivaldi: everything is a setting

Vivaldi is a free Chromium browser for people who like to tune everything. You can put the tab bar on the side, group tabs into tab stacks, sort them into Workspaces, and view several pages at once with Tab Tiling. It also has web panels, notes and a mail client built in. It runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, plus Android and iPhone.

The trade off is density: Vivaldi does more than Arc did, and looks it.

Best for power users who want Arc's organisation with even more control.

4. Orion: Safari's engine, with vertical tabs

Orion is made by Kagi and runs on WebKit, the same engine as Safari, so it feels light on a Mac. It has native vertical tabs shown as a tree (⌃⌘V toggles the sidebar), and it supports many Chrome and Firefox extensions. Orion is free; Orion+ is an optional way to support it at $5 a month, $50 a year or $150 once.

Best for Mac users who want Safari's speed and battery life with Arc-style tabs.

5. Brave: Chrome, with vertical tabs and blocking

Brave is a free Chromium browser with an ad and tracker blocker built in. It has vertical tabs on Mac, Windows and Linux (right click a tab and choose to use vertical tabs), plus tab groups and a sidebar. Chrome extensions work too.

Best for people who want something close to Chrome, with vertical tabs.

6. Safari: no new browser at all

If you mostly used Arc for its looks, Safari may be enough. It is already on your Mac, is tuned by Apple for battery life, and has Tab Groups and Profiles to keep work and home apart. It has no sidebar of tabs, so the Arc feel is gone, but nothing to install.

Best for people who want simple and fast, and are done with switching browsers.

Going back to Safari or Chrome? Start clean: how to delete, find and organise bookmarks on Mac.

Which Arc alternative should you pick?

• You want Arc back, for free: Zen.
• You want what The Browser Company made next, with AI: Dia.
• You want every setting: Vivaldi.
• You care most about battery life on a Mac: Orion or Safari.
• You want Chrome with vertical tabs: Brave.
• You can't decide: install two, use each for a week, and keep your links outside both (below).

How to keep your tabs, whichever browser you pick

Arc taught many people a hard lesson: when a browser goes away, the links you organised inside it are stuck. The fix is to keep your saved links in one place that is not a browser (here are the options for Mac).

S

Snaggy: one library for every browser

Snaggy is a Mac menu bar app for your bookmarks. It brings your Arc pinned tabs across with their folders, then saves new pages from whatever browser you use next.

1. Download Snaggy and import from Arc. It reads Arc's file on your Mac, so it works without an Arc account.
2. Press ⌘D in Safari, Chrome, Dia, Brave or Orion to save the tab you are on. On-device AI files it into a folder.
3. Trying Zen or Vivaldi? ⌘D doesn't work there yet, but you can export your whole library as an HTML bookmarks file and import it.

No account, and no Snaggy server: your links stay on your Mac, with optional iCloud sync between Macs. Needs macOS 26 Tahoe. One time purchase.

Download Snaggy for Mac

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Zen 1.24b release notes: import Spaces and Profiles from Arc and DiaGitHub · 29 Oct 2026
• Zen Browserzen-browser.app
• Arc browser sunsets December 22 as The Browser Company doubles down on DiaTechCrunch · 22 Oct 2026
• Diadiabrowser.com
• Vivaldi featuresvivaldi.com
• Orion vertical tabsKagi docs
• Orion+orionbrowser.com
• Vertical tabs in BraveBrave blog