Internet Safari 8 browser on Yosemite shows major speed boost. On the latest Mac OS, Apple's browser vaults past Firefox and Chrome on some tests. Apr 23, 2018 - Before that, for a while, it was Internet Explorer — but the less said. Set the default browser in macOS El Capitan or later, and OS X Yosemite.
Browsing is highly important nowadays. People often rely on the internet for news, entertainment, and social tools. Even work is now moving on the web. These modern browsers must therefore be robust, fast and dependable. There are actually hundreds of browsers out there for your PC and many people believe that the best browser is not the browser that comes with a Windows OS. But if you are using a Mac, which is becoming more and more popular and mostly used these days, there aren’t a lot of browsers to choose from and you think that you will just be stuck with Safari forever. Certainly there are lots of great Mac browsers out there. Surely, you can find that browser that you can use other than Safari and still get the speed and reliability that you need. Out of the hundreds of browsers that could work great in a Mac, here is the top 10 best Mac web browser rounded up for you to give you an idea of what could be the best browser for you.
10. Fake
This is a web browser from the developers behind Fluid. Fake is a new web browser that makes web automation simple. All you need is a simple dragging and dropping action onto a provided graphical workflow. For those who don’t know what web automation is, it is basically what you can call an automator to kickstart your Web surfing or browsing experience. This is actually an invaluable tool for web designers and developers because it makes their work quicker and easier.
9. Flock
Flock is a social word browser. It has undergone major changes, it now uses Chromium rather than Mozilla unlike before. But it still has integrations with popular websites including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Digg, and many more using its signature ‘Flock sidebar’ as well as an instant one click sharing. They still have basically the same features and only the look has changed. With the recent improvements, it now it looks a lot more beautiful.
8. Opera
This is one of the well-known web browsers that is most of the time overlooked. This browser offers a wealth of features that sets it apart from the other browsers, namely mouse gestures and ‘speed dial’, allowing you to access your favorite web pages instantly with one click from your main window. Opera also supports visual enhancements like visual tabs and content blocking. The Opera browser also boasts its ‘Opera Turbo’ feature which makes its operations really fast.
7. Stainless
This browser actually just started out as a technology demo to showcase its multi-processing architecture in response to Google Chrome. Since then, it has grown to a fully-fledged web browser. Stainless works fast, which is something many users love about it. It features a dual purpose address and search bar which makes search and navigation a breeze. It also has virtual bookmarks shelf where you can easily drag and drop your favorite website for easy access. It also has a killer feature. Using Google Chrome, you will be able to browse a site even with different credentials at the same time, done in separate tabs.
6. Camino
Camino is a browser that was built on Mozilla’s Gecko rendering engine, and with its recent update to version 2.0, it has gained loads of new features, including Annoyance Blocking, phishing and malware protection, blocking pop-ups and others on demand. Even the interface gained new cool features called ‘Tab Overview’ allowing you to see all your open tabs visually at a glance.
5. Firefox
You can visit your favorite sites quickly and do so without a fuss, even if you don’t remember the URL and just remember a keyword. When you type your term in the location bar and the autocomplete function will do the rest. It will refer to possible matches from your browsing history, opened tabs, or bookmarked websites. Tabs are just above the location bar to make it easier to focus on the contents of the sites you visit and all the menu items are now found in a single button.
4. Chrome
You might think, what could be the best browser for Mac than Chrome. Find out when you reach number1 of our top 10 best Mac web browsers. This browser is not only available for windows, but also to Mac. Chrome boasts top-notch browsing speed all done securely. It also features sync capabilities that allow you to access browsers from different computers.
3. Cruz
This browser is also from the developers of the popular app Fluid. Cruz is a beautiful browser that integrates well with the web. It allows you to browse your timeline while you browse other sites in a split panel. You can also browse sites like Digg and WordPress like that of a Cover Flow. It features a full-screen mode as well as a complete session restore that users have found very useful for their browsing experience.
2. OmniWeb
This browser has an intuitive interface that makes it a smart and beautifully designed browser at the same time. OmniWeb incorporates visual tabs which basically allow you to view all your tabs in a single glance. This site also allows you to make ‘workspaces’ which is a convenient feature to use for all your different browsing tasks, it also saves information like which web pages you have in your open tabs, your history, and even the location of the web windows in your screen that makes it easier for you to pick up where you last left off. This browser also supports advanced preferences for ad-blocking and handles all your RSS news feeds.
1. Safari
You have finally reached the number1 spot in the top 10 best Mac web browsers. You don’t have to be surprised; it is of course the best browser for a Mac. The advanced features in Safari make it better to surf the web using your Mac. Safari boasts that it searches even smarter so you’ll find web pages quicker. With improved performance in this popular Mac browser, web pages are now able to load faster. It has a Nitro JavaScript engine which takes advantage of the multiple processors present on your Mac to help speed up browsing and create fewer lags. It also has improved features such as hardware acceleration, 2D capabilities and smoother scrolling, even if your Mac PC or laptop is processing new content on another webpage or doing another completely different function.
Whether you develop for the web and need to see how your site or web app displays itself in multiple browsers, or you just want to visit a site that requires a particular browser that you don't want to use, you may eventually need to use a browser other than Safari. While most of the web is free to access through any browser you'd like, there are occasionally websites (particularly older ones) that need you to use browsers like Internet Explorer, or worse yet, would like you to be on a Windows PC. Or maybe you'd like to see how your site or web app presents itself in Safari on iPhone or iPad, or Chrome on Windows.
Luckily, Safari on Mac has the answer for you. Safari allows you to masquerade as the user of other browsers and Windows through a tool in its Develop menu: changing the user agent. Changing the user agent tells websites that you're using a browser other than the version of Safari that you're using on your Mac. It can event tell a website that you're running Windows.
Safari for Mac supports the following user agents:
Safari for iPhone
Safari for iPad
Safari for iPod touch
Microsoft Edge
Internet Explorer 11
Internet Explorer 10
Internet Explorer 9
Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 7
Google Chrome for Mac
Google Chrome for Windows
Firefox for Mac
Firefox for Windows
Keep in mind that, though Safari will appear to be another browser, it won't actually be that browser. Any web app or site that requires, say, Chrome's Blink rendering engine (which Safari doesn't have) won't work properly, even if Safari's user agent is changed to Google Chrome.
Here's how you go about changing the user agent in Safari.
How to access websites in Safari that require a PC or another browser
Open Safari from your Dock or Applications folder.
Click Safari in the Menu bar.
Click Preferences.
Click Advanced.
Check the box next to Show Develop menu in the menu bar.
Close the Preferences window. The user agent choices will be grayed out and unselectable if you don't.
Click Develop.
Hover over User Agent.
Click on the user agent of the browser you need. If you need to pretend that you're using a PC, choose Microsoft Edge, a version of Internet Explorer, Google Chrome — Windows, or Firefox — Windows.
Doing this should get you through a website detection-checker.
Great Mac Accessories
Samsung T5 Portable SSD($88 at Amazon)
This tiny, speedy solid state drive is the perfect way to expand your Mac's storage.
Das Keyboard 4 Professional($169 at Amazon)
Get your Mac a better keyboard by picking up this mechanical option from Das Keyboard.
Questions?
If you have any questions about masquerading Safari as a Windows web browser, let us know in the comments.
Updated May 2019: Updated through macOS Mojave.
Serenity Caldwell contributed to a previous version of this article.
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