Best macOS for MacBook Air 2013?

[brunosh]

So, I have a 2013 MacBook Air with some modest specs (1,3GHz i5, 4GB ram) and I'm still in Sierra, which is very stable and is as fast as if it was new.
But as time passes by I would like to upgrade for compatibility reasons and also to get some new features. My fear is that I will lose the stability and get a slower machine.
Anyone with the same machine would advice on which is the best OS for this kinda old machine to keep it fast and stable? Thanks in advance!

 

[bsamcash]

I had that same model up until earlier this year. Big Sur ran great.

 

[brunosh]

I had that same model up until earlier this year. Big Sur ran great.

Really? Big Sur still looks very buggy on new machines, I can't imagine it being good on old models.

 

[bsamcash]

Really? Big Sur still looks very buggy on new machines, I can't imagine it being good on old models.

I don’t recall having any issues, but I wasn’t really a power user on that one since it was a secondary computer.

 

[velocityg4]

I've got a 2010 Macbook Pro and 2009 iMac. Both of which are much slower computers. They did fine on a patched version of Catalina. Really I didn't notice a difference on those going from High Sierra to Catalina. So, yours should do fine.

The biggest killer for general usage is using cloud sync services. Start firing up iCloud, Google Drive and such. It'll certainly eat into it. Mainly the issue is RAM usage. You'll be fine CPU and SSD wise. But you will use more RAM. So, if you're close to redlining you'll definitely notice the new OS.

Clone your boot drive to an external and try Big Sur. If you don't like it restore your clone. Then try Catalina.

 

[Boyd01]

I still have Sierra on my 2013 MacBook Air also, it has always been rock-solid. However, I stopped using that machine on a regular basis about a year ago. Catalina seems to run fine on my 2012 Mini, but it has 16gb RAM and a quad-core processor.

If you are using your MBA for things like online transactions, I would certainly update from Sierra since it doesn't get security updates anymore. Mojave will likely stop getting security updates by the end of this year, so IMO Catalina is probably the best bet, it will get another year of security updates. You could try installing it on an external SSD to see how well it will run.

 

[thingstoponder]

If you want to run an older OS just run the oldest that is supported.