Chrome vs Safari : Will Safari dethrone Chrome ?

Chrome and Safari are probably the two most known browsers among Apple users. But the comparison between those two is unfortunately dedicated to these only one users since Safari is only available on MacOS and iOS.

You’re a usual Chrome utilizer and you want to try something new ? You’re an Apple addict and you hesitate to go with Chrome ? To determine which browser is the best and to help you to make a choice, we will compare them according to 5 points :

• Interface and User Experience (UX)
• Features
• Speed, Performance, and compatibility
• Security
• Privacy

Coming from this test you will then be able to make your choice and continue your experience with Safari or switch to Google Chrome.

Interface and UX

For a long time, Chrome’s interface had nothing to envy to Safari’s one. But the last version of Safari came up with a funnier and more customizable interface that relaunched the game. Anyhow, both browsers are quite easy to manage (on desktop and mobile versions).

Until recently, Safari settled for a simple and refined interface that made good work and was easy to use but wasn’t really attractive. Since the release of Safari 13 the game is on again and the Apple browser now offers a very interesting UX. Indeed, it’s possible to customize the home page by changing the background and pinning your favorite pages or other Siri suggestions on it. Furthermore, some features facilitate Safari using. For example, horizontal scrolling on tabs is very useful if you are the kind of person who opens numerous tabs at once (don’t lie, we all do that).

For its part, Chrome remains very fashionable and offers to its users a very intuitive interface that allows them to browse easily. Like its Apple counterpart, Chrome has customization functionalities that offer an optimal user experience. You can download and install themes, customize the browser background and settle access to your favorite pages directly on the homepage for faster browsing. However, there’s only a downside concerning the tabs closure since when you have many opened tabs you may inadvertently close all of them at once because Chrome doesn’t ask you for a confirmation. Happily, it’s quite simple to reopen all the closed tabs by clicking on “recently closed tabs”.

In a nutshell, Safari made considerable efforts to make its interface sexiest and offer a greater user experience. However, if you are a Chrome usual utilizer, Safari won’t succeed to make you forget the Google browser.

Features

When we talk about a browser, features are one of the main points to study in order to make a good choice. On that point both browsers offer some similar functionalities :

• Synchronization
• Password manager
• Vocal search

However, to be honest, Safari is less well equipped than its competitor on that side, despite some interesting included functionalities :

• iCloud Keychain
• Built-in dark theme
• Built-in Reading mode. This feature is very convenient because it allows you to read a page from a website without any disturbing element (ads, social media, comments, etc…).
• Picture in picture

Despite those options, Safari is still far below its contender concerning the built-in features that are not as good as Chrome’s ones. Furthermore, the lack of available extensions comes to kill the game at last.

For its part Chrome has a large panel of options and services that allow access to the google sphere (Gmail, Drive, google play, etc…) in a few clicks. In addition, Google has obviously some useful included functionalities :

• Chromecast
• Google reverse image search

If Google has some interesting built-in features, the browser takes a larger advantage on Safari thanks to its large extensions library that gives countless improvement and customization possibilities. Actually, Chrome is probably the most complete browser on that point among other browsers (Firefox, Opera, Edge, etc…).

In a nutshell, Safari has some original functionalities that Chrome doesn’t offer by default but this slight advantage is quickly eclipsed by Chrome. The latter is better on many points, included on the common features (Vocal search and synchronization), especially when it comes the time to speak about the unbeatable extensions library of Chrome. If you’re a usual Chrome utilizer there’s quasi no chance that you’ll be satisfied with Safari.

Speed, performance, and compatibility

Concerning the speed criteria, the two browsers are head to head and there’s quasi-no chance that you feel the difference without making a detailed study.

However, concerning the performance, there’s no match since Chrome really uses a lot of RAM and heavily consumes battery power. Safari is optimized to work on MacOS (Macbook, Macbook pro, etc…) and iOS (Iphone, Ipad, etc…) and can save up your battery to one hour more than Chrome.

If Safari optimization for iOS and MacOS systems is a big advantage it’s also its biggest lack because it’s only compatible with those systems whereas Chrome is available on all devices (mobile, PC, etc…). Furthermore, it can happen that some websites don’t open well on safari (even if it’s pretty rare) because most of the websites are created to be run on Chrome.

In a nutshell, both browsers are fast but each of them has their Achilles heel. Chrome is a very big RAM consumer and weakens your battery whereas Safari is not compatible with many systems and is only available for Apple users. On the “speed, performance, and compatibility” point, Safari could convince even Chrome’s users, especially the ones who need to save their battery up when they’re browsing.

Security

Browsing safely on the internet is important for you ? Safari and Chrome offer some attractive security settings :

• Shield against malicious websites
• Password protection
• Shield against dangerous downloads

However, Chrome’s efficiency concerning security is well known and isn’t to prove anymore. The browser owes its reputation on that point due to some built-in features (HTTPS warning, Anti Phishing, etc…) but also due to its numerous available security plugins and to its frequent updates that guarantee a maximal security level against new threats.

Safari tries to put on a brave face with some built-in functionalities but is quickly defeated by its lack of extensions and its too few updates.

In a nutshell, Chrome has many security functionalities that are possible to complete with some plugins when Safari struggles to convince despite some appreciable efforts.

5. Privacy

When you’re browsing on the web you expect your privacy to be respected and you’re right. On that point it’s an open secret, Google really sucks (and Apple is not much greater) !

Google collects and sells your data to the highest bidder and doesn’t really block the trackers. Except for the incognito mode and some plugins that could increase your privacy, you should really avoid Chrome if your first aim is to protect your privacy. Especially when you know that even the incognito mode tracks your data… You can always try to settle that problem (just a little bit) by downloading some extensions and settle all privacy settings but even with that, it couldn’t be enough to protect your privacy.

For its part, Safari is quite better thanks to its partial built-in cookies and tracking blocker. Furthermore Safari provides you with Privacy reports to advert you of the blocked trackers, cookies and ads. Regarding privacy, Safari is better than its contender but is not beyond reproach and can’t be fully trusted since Apple collaborates with the NSA Prism program and communicates some data of its users to the American authorities.

In a nutshell, these two browsers aren’t privacy paragon but Safari does quite a better job than Chrome on that point.

To conclude this test, it seems like the newest version of Safari is not enough to seduce Chrome’s usual users except if privacy and RAM saving are important criteria for you.