I used Zen Browser for every week. This is the way it went.

There are numerous net browsers on the market, however numerous them have one factor in frequent. Many widespread browsers equivalent to Google Chrome, Courageous, Microsoft Edge, and Arc Browser are all tied collectively by their base: Chromium. At their coronary heart, these browsers are all constructed off of Google’s Chromium base. So in the event you’re desirous to decouple your self from Google, your two major choices are Safari and Firefox. Or at the very least, they had been.

Just lately, the alpha of Zen Browser launched. Zen is predicated off of Firefox, and is totally open supply. For customers that need the privateness supplied through the use of Firefox, but additionally need a top-notch browser expertise, Zen seems to be to fulfill simply that area of interest. To actually put it by the ringer, I parted methods with Arc, and utterly relied on Zen Browser for one week.

Set up, migration, and set-up

Get able to study Firefox buddy.

I’ll admit, proper off the bat, I’ve lengthy loved browser hopping. There’s simply one thing satisfying about switching browsers each once in a while. Some browsers make switching over a completely painless expertise. Others make it really feel like an absolute chore. Zen Browser lies someplace within the center.

The migration to Zen Browser isn’t unhealthy per se, but it surely has all of the cons that include migrating to Firefox in the event you’re used to a Chromium expertise. Lots of your favourite browser extensions merely aren’t going to return with you. The necessities, like an advert blocker or your password supervisor, shall be obtainable. However, extra area of interest extensions are merely going to need to get left behind in your Chromium browser of alternative.

That being stated, Firefox customers shouldn’t have any issues switching over to Zen Browser. The whole lot you already love about Firefox is already current, and Zen Browser serves to make the Firefox expertise higher.

After first putting in Zen Browser, which might be achieved on Home windows, Mac, and Linux, you’ll be handled to a fast set-up that entails selecting a shade scheme and scrolling by a welcome web page. From there, the Zen Browser is your oyster.

The Zen Browser expertise

An ideal, customizable consumer interface.

Zen Browser, like most stylish browsers, opts for a vertical tab format. It took me a very long time to offer vertical tabs an opportunity, however Vivaldi and Arc Browser have totally confirmed the idea for me. Simply the identical, Zen Browser’s vertical tabs format is excellent and feels a lot better than something obtainable in customary Firefox.

And with regards to comparability to Firefox, Zen Browser does quite a bit to enhance on the bottom Firefox expertise. Except for simply vertical tabs, Zen Browser feels rather more intuitive on the entire. Past pulling tabs off of it, Zen Browser provides an unbelievable facelift to Firefox’s menu bar, which retains the power to be personalized.

The tab bar might be set to robotically cover and present up everytime you hover close to it, and it additionally incorporates fast entry buttons to bookmarks, settings, and shopping historical past. The tab bar additionally incorporates a profile switcher.

One of many best elements of the Zen Browser is the group that has popped up round it. At its coronary heart, Zen Browser is a community-driven challenge. For these with any privateness issues, Zen being closely community-oriented and open supply ought to assist to assuage any privateness fears. This group can present a ton of unbelievable assist by way of determining attention-grabbing configurations to bend the browser to your will. The group additionally makes unbelievable themes.

Zen Browser themes aren’t fairly just like the themes you would possibly affiliate with Firefox. Zen Browser themes are aesthetic and useful tweaks to the UI. Whereas there aren’t a ton obtainable proper now, those which are present numerous promise for the browser’s future. The potential to tweak Zen’s UI till it’s precisely proper appears unbelievable, and the small style we’ve of it now’s unbelievable. I’ve personally gotten nice use out of the Tremendous URL Bar theme, which makes your URL bar develop and develop into the main target of your display whereas typing in it.

Except for the myriad of nice options of the UI, Zen Browser continues to be only a nice browser. You’ll don’t have any bother getting any of your primary shopping wants achieved with Zen Browser, and in the event you’re a present Firefox consumer, it’s completely price trying out.

Would I swap to Zen Browser completely?

Heaps and many execs, a number of minor cons.

The Zen Browser, in my eyes, is sort of excellent. I’m typically very supportive of getting away from the grips of Chromium, however I additionally understand that there isn’t precisely an exhaustive record of viable options to a number of the hottest browsers in use right now.

Zen affords a good way to make use of Firefox in a way more smooth atmosphere. And as a lot as I really like that, I simply don’t suppose I can keep it up. And it’s not Zen Browser, it’s me. I’m too used to my present set-up with Arc Browser. And going again to a extra conventional browser expertise simply doesn’t really feel proper anymore.

However, that is additionally one in all Zen Browser’s best strengths. Although I couldn’t make Zen behave within the actual methods I needed it to, there’s quite a bit you are able to do to make Zen Browser really feel almost precisely like what you need it to really feel like. I’ve no doubts that the way forward for Zen Browser seems to be very vibrant, in no small half because of this customization. A browser that may be tweaked to your coronary heart’s content material to really feel nonetheless you might have considered trying it to really feel is a perfect that appears to be taking form with Zen.

For present customers of Chrome, Safari, or Firefox, I’ve zero reservations in full-heartedly recommending Zen Browser. In the event you can at the very least give it a strive, I’m certain you’ll don’t have any points getting your best shopping expertise out of the Zen Browser.