I tested Arc Browser
Thomas Bnt

Thomas Bnt @thomasbnt

About: French web developer mainly but touches everything. Volunteer admin mod here at DEV. I learn Nuxt at this moment and databases. — Addict to Cappuccino and Music

Location:
France
Joined:
May 5, 2017

I tested Arc Browser

Publish Date: Feb 6
64 25

Introduction

Yes, it's worth a full post on its use and what I think of it. Because for years now, between Chrome and its privacy, Firefox which has become a bit awkward and which doesn't interest me all that much in terms of web tools, I find it hard to find what I'm looking for, always switching between different browsers.

Let's just say I'm a bit picky when it comes to web browsers. I've tested Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, Edge and so on. But none of them really convinced me. So I decided to give Arc Browser a try. I like the fact that everything's synchronized, that the style isn't overly complicated, that navigation is fluid and that my privacy is preserved. In short, let's see what it's worth.

Approximate testing time: 6 months.
Distro: Windows 11.

Installation

Arc Browser is available on Windows, macOS and Linux (no, negative point). It's based on Chromium, so if you've already used Chrome, you won't feel out of place.
Installing it couldn't be easier: go to the official website and download the version corresponding to your operating system.

Arc from The Browser Company

Experience a calmer, more personal internet in this browser designed for you. Let go of the clicks, the clutter, the distractions.

favicon arc.net

My impressions

👍 Positive points

  • Design: I really like the minimalist, modern design. It's simple but effective.
  • Practical: Quick to get to grips with, you quickly find your feet. I had a bit of trouble at first with the bookmarks and sorting out the ones I wanted to highlight.

👎 Negative points

  • No Linux version: This is a big negative for me.
  • At times, it crashes: I don't know what it's due to, it's totally random, at times I can't interact with the content of a page, obliged to restart Arc, or even kill the process.
  • Catastrophic synchronization: I get synchronization errors between devices. I'm told it's because I'm on Windows. I don't mind, but if your product is distributed on Windows, you make sure it works properly. When you go to synchronize your Arc account on a new device, you won't have all your bookmarks and extensions. A waste of time.
  • Abandoned project: I saw that the project hadn't been updated for a few months. It's a shame, because it had potential. And yes, you read that right, it was announced by the company behind it all called The Browser Company, the project is abandoned for their brand new toy called Dia (AI won't exist as an app. Or a button. We believe it'll be an entirely new environment - built on top of a web browser.)

Conclusion

I'm migrating to another browser, which one? I don't know at the moment, or else I've already found it, it all depends on when you read this article! 😀
I've tested it enough to give myself an opinion, I like it a lot, but the synchronization side and the abandoned project are holding me back. It's a shame, because it had potential.

What about you? Have you tested Arc Browser? What did you think of it? What browser are you using? Tell me on Discord, in comments or on social networks!

Go further

Comments 25 total

  • Ava Nichols
    Ava NicholsFeb 6, 2025

    No Linux version: This is a big negative for me.

    Ah that's annoying

  • Anmol Baranwal
    Anmol BaranwalFeb 6, 2025

    I still use Chrome (yeah old me) and really like Brave (as an alternative). Abandoning Arc for Dia is insane, lots of people shared positive things about Arc.

  • Andrew Bone
    Andrew BoneFeb 6, 2025

    I find the ladybird browser fascinating, obviously it's not ready to be used in the real world yet but a new engine is exciting.

    • Thomas Bnt
      Thomas BntFeb 6, 2025

      Okay thank you for sharing that!
      Edit: On the website, miss screenshots and more information about the browser, too bad

      • Andrew Bone
        Andrew BoneFeb 6, 2025

        It's such early days at the minute that you still have to compile it yourself, so really not ready for anything other than contributing and enthusiasts.

        Each month they upload a video, on youtube, showcasing what's changed that month.

  • Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard
    Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ FayardFeb 6, 2025

    Have you tried telnet on port 80 ?

  • Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard
    Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ FayardFeb 6, 2025

    My tip is to split your web usage between browsing websites vs using web apps
    To browse websites, you use your browser of choice like usual
    To use web apps (email, calendar, whatsapp, telegram, chatgpt, discord, github, ...), you use Ferdium

    ferdium.org/

    • Thomas Bnt
      Thomas BntFeb 6, 2025

      I don't like to use multiple navigators, I think we already have a lot of software to do all this, which is not a very practical idea. I really like the fact that web apps are much more accepted and integrated on our browsers, we should continue like that, and Ferdium is good for that aspect!

  • Ben Halpern
    Ben HalpernFeb 7, 2025

    My wife loves Arc.

    I have too many ingrained habits for new things to stick like this :/

  • Shrijal Acharya
    Shrijal AcharyaFeb 7, 2025

    If you want to check out something similar, go for Zen Browser. I have used it for quite some time, and it's pretty awesome. The best part is that it's built on top of Firefox.

    • l.J
      l.JFeb 8, 2025

      What's so good about Firefox?

      • Karan Gandhi
        Karan GandhiFeb 8, 2025

        FF still supports Manifest V2 which allows plugins like uBlock Origin (for now).

      • Shrijal Acharya
        Shrijal AcharyaFeb 8, 2025

        Not built on top of Chromium and is open source. Works the best on LInux.

        • l.J
          l.JFeb 8, 2025

          True, that's why I use zen-browser as well, however I really miss chrome/google syncing 😔👍

    • Karan Gandhi
      Karan GandhiFeb 8, 2025

      +1 for zen browser

    • rosie cube
      rosie cubeMay 27, 2025

      I'm also using the Zen browser. The biggest drawback is that chrome-based browsers are supported by Linux to accelerate nvidia graphics card hardware directly, but Firefox-based browsers are very difficult.

      • A Jay
        A JayJul 14, 2025

        Definetely not that hard, Firefox has full support for hardware acceleration. NVIDIA is probably one of the easiest on Windows and AMD for Linux but AMD, NVIDIA, Arc GFX very easy to enable hardware acceleration under Firefox.

  • Parth Shinde
    Parth ShindeFeb 8, 2025

    I switched to arc few months back but ended up falling back to opera gx , then I recently tried zen browser and I made a complete move to it , so far it's going good so I'd suggest u that , and they even have Linux version and very active discord who actually help u plus it's open source

  • Jeannie
    JeannieFeb 8, 2025

    L­a­s­t n­i­g­h­t, I w­o­r­k­e­d o­n m­y l­a­p­t­o­p f­o­r a­r­o­u­n­d t­w­o h­o­u­r­s e­v­e­r­y d­a­y a­n­d e­n­d­e­d u­p e­a­r­n­i­n­g $18,500. T­h­i­s m­e­t­h­o­d o­f m­a­k­i­n­g m­o­n­e­y i­s b­o­t­h d­e­e­p a­n­d

    s­t­r­a­i­g­h­t­f­o­r­w­a­r­d.…➤ payriche.com

  • Usama Meer
    Usama MeerFeb 10, 2025

    I Tried Many Time to run this endless runner game on arc but this shows an 503 error.

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