Zen Browser

Long-term owners

it's a great browser. I've been using it for 1.5 years now and I'm loving the UI/UX.

Sep 2026 · comment

What hackers pick instead

• Google ChromeRecommended for its speed, sandboxed per-tab stability, web APIs like Web Serial and handy split view; critics cite weakened ad blockers, heavy RAM use and silent AI model downloads.503recommend
• VivaldiA highly customizable Chromium browser with vertical tabs, tab tiling and a built-in ad blocker; critics cite bugs, affiliate bookmarks and search deals, and a closed-source UI.134recommend
• Microsoft EdgeA Chromium browser that keeps Chrome compatibility while adding strong vertical tabs, good speed and uBlock-friendly extensions, though Microsoft pushes Bing, Copilot and telemetry hard.102recommend
• qutebrowserKeyboard-driven, vim-style web browser that people use daily for fast, mouse-free navigation.11recommend
• Perplexity CometFree AI browser from Perplexity that people use daily for research and highlighting text. Critics warn that prompt injection can expose logins, email and banking accounts.9recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 233 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Love Zen's approach to tabs. I just wish that folders didnt have to live in the pinned area and could be down with all my junk tabs.

   Mixed · Jan 2026 · in “A tab hoarder's journey to sanity”

2. I do like Zen, but I wouldn't mind having all the features in Firefox (and imho some of the UI lately in Zen is... weird)

   Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “A farewell to Arc browser”

3. Switched to zen recently, and although I only expected a slightly different experience to firefox, it's hugely better.

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Nook Browser”

4. Zen is also filled with bugs, but at least I don't want to throw my computer out the window because of it being slow

   Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Orion 1.0”

5. It's based on Firefox but has a modern UI/UX, it's optimised for speed, has better privacy defaults, and no AI crap.

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Tell HN: I know Firefox has update when it starts to glitch”

6. Zen as it appears more clearly user-aligned and works better for me as a result of their improvements and UI tweaks.

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Mozilla's latest quagmire”

7. Big fan of the clean UI and vertical tabs. Super stable, no issues. Not in love with their tab group implementation

   Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Google Chrome update will close the door on ad blockers”

8. It's picked up all the most important parts of Arc's design while leaving behind the bits that were questionable

   Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “A farewell to Arc browser”

9. Zen gave new attraction to FF. I am all for any opportunity to disrupt the Chrome monopoly we currently have.

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Actively exploited sandbox RCE in all Chromium versions”

10. It's slow and heavy but it blocks ads and trackers a bit better than Chromium based browsers, or Safari.

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Ask HN: New clean macOS install. Must-have apps? Best browser?”

11. why not put that effort into a browser that actually has a chance to tilt the scales a bit, like Zen?

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows”

12. it's pretty sleek and borrows a lot of concepts from Arc, so it would be the most obvious replacement

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Ask HN: What browser should I use? (RIP Arc)”

13. It's basically Arc, but based on Firefox, open source and, more importantly, actively maintained.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “I switched to Brave”

14. It is really customizable and with Ublock origin installed, It becomes one of the best browsers.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Vivaldi 8.0: our biggest design overhaul”

15. Its UI is very similar to that of Arc, to the point that I'd call it Arc's spiritual successor.

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Apple introduces M6 and M5 Ultra”

16. every time I start using it, it just feels... I don't know... foreign? Too new for comfort?

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Google Chrome update will close the door on ad blockers”

17. Zen has been working as a full replacement for Arc for me since the Atlassian acquisition.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “macOS Needs Its Grid Back”

18. I'm pretty happy with it! Great QOL features, and being Firefox, I have perfect ad block

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “Google Chrome's Next Update Will Mark the End of Popular Ad Blockers”

19. Zen browser is open source. You can fork it to add the feature you're missing from Arc.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What's the Future of Arc Browser”

20. Zen Browser fixed a lot of the Firefox UI painpoints while keeping what I like about it

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Mozilla appoints new CEO Anthony Enzor-Demeo”

21. Can highly recommend it as a near drop-in replacement for Arc, albeit built on Firefox.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “A farewell to Arc browser”

22. It's open source, and it's not part of the Chromium monopoly threatening the open web.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “Crest – an Arc-inspired open-source browser for Mac”

23. it's a great browser. I've been using it for 1.5 years now and I'm loving the UI/UX.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “Hang on to Your Firefox”

24. I wish Zen was better developed and less "aesthetic", it might be worth a shot.

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Firefox will have an option to disable all AI features”

25. Zen is still a memory hog. See numerous threads on Reddit and issues on Github about excessive RAM usage.

    Criticizes · Aug 2026 · in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin”

26. felt too much like it wanted to be Arc but ended up a bit frankenstein-y in the process

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Mozilla's New CEO Confirms Firefox Will Become an "AI Browser"”

27. It constantly breaks and often stays broken in small but fundamentally important ways

    Criticizes · Mar 2026 · in “Tell HN: Chrome says "Suspicious Download" when trying to download yt-dlp”

28. Zen turned to shit for me in the last month. So many stupid bugs started happening.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “A farewell to Arc browser”

29. I can see the appeal of the sidebar and the split view is genuinely cool, but it's features, like glance, feels really cursor heavy

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “A farewell to Arc browser”

30. I daily Zen (Firefox under the hood) and the only thing that I consistently need to open other browsers for is direct USB support

    Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin”

31. It's no Camino, but it's the closest thing I've seen since to a Gecko browser that feels like it actually belongs on macOS.

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “An Update on Orion for Linux and Windows”

32. If you're looking for a no-AI vibe from your browser, you probably won't get it from Brave. Zen might be a better fit.

    Recommends · Jun 2026 · in “DuckDuckGo makes its 'no-AI' search engine easier to access as its traffic booms”

33. its nice to see a firefox based browser that tries to introduce new features and create an identity of its own

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Which web browser are you using and why?”

34. Zen can bridge that gap. I have it set up so that each workspace in practice maps to a specific container.

    Recommends · Nov 2025

35. the core team and sponsor are European, and it's actively positioning itself as the European alternative

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Orion Browser by Kagi”

36. Lack of compat with Google workspace (eg sharing audio for a single tab on meet) meant it did not stick.

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Crest – an Arc-inspired open-source browser for Mac”

37. Zen's update integrates RSS feeds and GitHub Issues/PRs directly into the sidebar tab hierarchy.

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Zen Browser makes RSS and GitHub PRs first-class citizens via Live Folders”

38. none get this tab concept right, except for Zen which regrettably uses Firefox/Gecko as its base

    Recommends · Oct 2026 · in “A farewell to Arc browser”

39. I don't trust Firefox either, so I use Zen, which is based on Firefox and also changes the UI.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “Chrome removes claim of On-device Al not sending data to Google Servers”

40. Zen really becomes particularly awesome if you run Linux with a alternative Wayland compositor

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “So Long, Firefox, Part One”