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Chrome vs. Safari: what are you using?

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badlydrawnboy

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 20, 2003
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I don't want to start a war here, just interested in your perspectives. I've been using Chrome for the past couple of years, but am revisiting Safari now. Two of the features that drew me back were picture-in-picture video, and Apple Pay. I also really like Safari's reader feature and the ability to easily save articles and read them on other devices (though I've been using Instapaper on Chrome / iOS for this, which also works well).

Seems like Safari is pretty fast, but Chrome maybe still a bit faster? There are a lot more extensions available in Chrome as well.

One issue is that I can't get Safari to automatically open PDFs that I've downloaded, despite the fact that I have "Open safe files after downloading" checked in Safari's preferences. Does that work for you?

Would love to hear others' experiences with latest versions of each of these browsers. Thanks.
 
Safari for everything. Chrome only when I need to view Flash content (aka almost never).

The CPU usage and GPU usage of Safari is super low. It's blazingly fast and buttery smooth. It supports native touchpad gestures. It's a joy to pinch with two fingers to see previews of all open tabs grouped by site.

Recommended extensions for Safari 10:
- 1Password: The best password manager.
- DirectLinks: Stops Google from tracking what links you click on its search engine.
- Adguard AdBlocker: A free "content blocker" extension which does accelerated adblocking natively in Safari. Pages load much faster than with other adblockers and other browsers.
- Tampermonkey: To install userscripts from greasyfork.org, such as this one to lower the CPU usage of YouTube's videos by 2-4x on old Macs: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/23329-disable-youtube-60fps-force-30fps
- Stylish: The official extension from userstyles.org. Lets you re-style webpages to change their look. My personal favorite style addon is YouTube Umbra, which is a beautiful "dark cinema" theme for YouTube which sets the mood: https://userstyles.org/styles/130610/youtube-umbra
 
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badlydrawnboy said:
[...]One issue is that I can't get Safari to automatically open PDFs that I've downloaded, despite the fact that I have "Open safe files after downloading" checked in Safari's preferences. Does that work for you?[...]
Click to expand...
That setting, from a security standpoint, is better left unchecked. See the reference here, as a start, under the heading What security steps should I take? -- http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Virus/Malware_FAQ
 
I use Safari. When I got my iPhone I used Safari and when I got my MBA, I used Safari out of the box. It felt inline with the designs and aesthetics of the OS and I prefer stock apps whenever possible to ensure speed and less problems with looking for more stuff to install. I am pretty barebones though, I am not a heavy user either. I use my laptop for very basic things. I like how it syncs between my Apple devices though. On my Windows PC I use Firefox and Chrome, but Chrome only for certain extensions that Firefox does not have. But aside from that, it's Safari on Apple devices and Firefox on my Windows PC. When my Samsung Galaxy S3 was functional, I used the stock Samsung browser or the Firefox for Android. For some reason, I am just not a big fan of Google Chrome. Aside from Gmail, which I don't even use the app itself and YouTube, I don't use much Google services unless I have to (like Drive/Docs/etc with others who do use it).
 
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Mostly Chrome. It has far more extensions and options available to really personalize the experience. Couldn't live with what safari has to offer. I still use safari on iOS
 
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In the past on my PC I used to prefer chome, but these days on my mac, I always use Safari. It have everything I needed : Adblock extension, integrated keychain password (prefer this then third party ones) and its fast for me.

On my iOS device, I use both safari and iCab Mobile.
 
I use Safari 95% of the time. There are two exceptions...

1. Airplay Mirror + Netflix. That doesn't work with Safari due to whatever nonsense Netflix and Apple have going on. Works fine with Chrome.

2. A certain webpage I order car parts from doesn't play nice with Safari. It would add things to my cart. This is obviously the website devs issue but regardless for me it requires me using Chrome.

Also if a webpage isn't functioning properly I'll test it with Chrome...its generally an issue with the website though not Safari.
 
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On a 2010 MBP using Safari (although I haven't tried Chrome yet on Sierra).

Chrome never agrees with my system, Safari is reliable and much lighter/quicker for me. Seems like Safari 10 has some new useful features- already enjoying P-I-P, and it's nice to see that when you highlight some and search in google it opens in a new tab like Chrome, plus it seems to be responding fairly well for me as well so far....anxious to keep playing with it this weekend to see how it acts.

SteveJobzniak said:
Safari for everything. Chrome only when I need to view Flash content (aka almost never).

The CPU usage and GPU usage of Safari is super low. It's blazingly fast and buttery smooth. It supports native touchpad gestures. It's a joy to pinch with two fingers to see previews of all open tabs grouped by site.

Recommended extensions for Safari 10:
- 1Password: The best password manager.
- DirectLinks: Stops Google from tracking what links you click on its search engine.
- Adguard AdBlocker: A free "content blocker" extension which does accelerated adblocking natively in Safari. Pages load much faster than with other adblockers and other browsers.
- Tampermonkey: To install userscripts from greasyfork.org, such as this one to lower the CPU usage of YouTube's videos by 2-4x: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/23329-disable-youtube-60fps-force-30fps
Click to expand...
Appreciate the recommendations, will check them out.
 
I use Firefox mostly. I'd like to use Safari, but I can't deal with the way it autoplays videos. It's nice that Safari 10 on IOS has a feature to stop this (from what I've read, but I haven't tried it yet) but why Apple doesn't put that in Safari on OSX is not at all clear.
 
Safari: 94% of the time
Chrome: 5% - school website and few sites that don't play well with Safari + Ghostery
Firefox: 1% - access youtube when I want to be signed in.

Safari has been my main browser for years because of it's tight integration with macOS and iOS, but mainly because of Reading List. I have used Reading List everyday for 4 years. I've stored anywhere from 5 to 150 articles in there. I know I can use third party services for that, but why when Reading List is built right into the browser and syncs perfectly. It has good speed, the best scrolling and zooming performance, and iCloud Tabs/RL/bookmark sync. It lacks the ability to turn itself into an entire ecosystem like Chrome, but I prefer to keep my browser lean and simple. Love that they finally let you close iCloud Tabs from other devices.


Google Chrome: usually fast and almost unanimously accepted. I use this for my "crap/work" browser. What I mean is that some site for school and what not require that I allow cookies and other stuff that I don't want for my primary browser. Chrome has all of the less secure tweaked settings and is used only for school sites and the occasional site that doesn't render correctly in Safari. Chrome has decent integration for a 3rd party, but lacks Safari's fluidity. I don't like to stay signed into Google (so they aren't constantly associating web traffic with my account, which they probably still are) so I don't get any of the syncing benefits.


Firefox: I genially dislike this browser. Horrible UI, only decent performance, and lacks or is late to adopt macOS specific features. It just feels outdated. I only use Firefox on macOS and iOS to access YouTube whilst signed into my Gmail to keep up with my subscriptions. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't like to browse the web whilst signed into my Gmail.
 
I use Chrome almost all the time since I got my rMBP in 2012. before Chrome I used Firefox before it turned to garbage.

Chrome used HTTP2 early (& SPDY before that) to Google services (I use gmail).

I'd like to use Safari, it feels more lightweight & sounds like it would extend my battery a bit...but I'm a bit too bought into Chrome. maybe it's time to give Safari another chance, altho Chrome is getting more energy efficient.
 
I've alway used Chrome on both my Mac and my Windows computer but I've recently downloaded Safari Technical Preview and it is really good.
 
My MacBook Air started to really have issues with Safari earlier this year, so I downloaded Chrome on it and switched to it after using Safari for years. Chrome ran smoother. A month or two ago, I sold the MBA and now have a Retina MBP. I immediately downloaded Chrome and have used it nearly exclusively. I like Safari, and had never had any problems with it until a few months ago. But at least in my usage, I'm liking Chrome better simply for the fact that it's working better than my last experience with Safari.
 
Safari 90% of the time. Chrome only when Safari is not supported or when Flash is required. I have uninstalled Flash from my system but Chrome comes with sandbox version of Flash. So works in cases when the site is really adamant on using Flash. This will go away in Chrome soon though.

As far as why safari, well, I use Safari on my iPhone too and the ability to switch easily between Mac Safari and iPhone safari using Hands off is pretty convenient. Also, Chrome is a resource hogger! I HATE that. Then there are some minor things too but they matter to me a lot. e..g things like swiping left or right to go back and forth is very smooth in safari compared to Chrome. Sometimes, I don't even have to swipe entirely and can just take a "peek". Saves a refresh.

Lastly, there's also the thing that Google and privacy that don't mix well. So that's also partly responsible.
 
for me on mac its safari unless I'm watching anime on a free anime site choose usually use flash and i boot chrome up. but i love safari and all the encompassing features but on any other platform be it windows or linux I'm a chrome all the way.
 
Traverse said:
Safari: 94% of the time
Chrome: 5% - school website and few sites that don't play well with Safari + Ghostery
Firefox: 1% - access youtube when I want to be signed in.

Safari has been my main browser for years because of it's tight integration with macOS and iOS, but mainly because of Reading List. I have used Reading List everyday for 4 years. I've stored anywhere from 5 to 150 articles in there. I know I can use third party services for that, but why when Reading List is built right into the browser and syncs perfectly. It has good speed, the best scrolling and zooming performance, and iCloud Tabs/RL/bookmark sync. It lacks the ability to turn itself into an entire ecosystem like Chrome, but I prefer to keep my browser lean and simple. Love that they finally let you close iCloud Tabs from other devices.


Google Chrome: usually fast and almost unanimously accepted. I use this for my "crap/work" browser. What I mean is that some site for school and what not require that I allow cookies and other stuff that I don't want for my primary browser. Chrome has all of the less secure tweaked settings and is used only for school sites and the occasional site that doesn't render correctly in Safari. Chrome has decent integration for a 3rd party, but lacks Safari's fluidity. I don't like to stay signed into Google (so they aren't constantly associating web traffic with my account, which they probably still are) so I don't get any of the syncing benefits.


Firefox: I genially dislike this browser. Horrible UI, only decent performance, and lacks or is late to adopt macOS specific features. It just feels outdated. I only use Firefox on macOS and iOS to access YouTube whilst signed into my Gmail to keep up with my subscriptions. Like I mentioned earlier, I don't like to browse the web whilst signed into my Gmail.
Click to expand...
[doublepost=1474767295][/doublepost]I use Chrome because Safari will start loading a page and then stop in the middle for a few seconds and then finally load. It was annoying, so I switched to Chrome.
 
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