In the last few months, a bunch of new AI browsers have launched, including Comet, Atlas, and Dia. I have no interest in these applications, they seem like a privacy nightmare, and I’m perfectly happy to use Claude and ChatGPT in a browser tab or in their native Mac apps.

Six years ago, the team at Kagi decided to build a new browser called Orion using the WebKit engine that powers Safari. They just released Orion 1.0 for Mac. It’s already available for iOS and iPadOS.

I’ve been an occasional Orion user for several years. It’s faster than Safari every time I measure it. Orion loads and runs Safari, Chrome, and Firefox extensions, including must haves like uBlock Origin and 1Password. Unlike Chrome, Kagi offers full support for extensions using both manifest v2 and v3. Orion has a robust AppleScript dictionary, and the user interface is excellent. You can tell a lot about how much a Mac dev team cares about their app by looking at the settings. Orion’s settings page is beautiful. This is a Mac-assed Mac app.

Orion has no telemetry and no AI built in, and that receives top marks from me. It’s not open source, but the development is done in the open with an active user community. Kagi is working to bring Orion to both Linux and Windows.

I’m going to give Orion a try as my daily driver, and I hope you do too.