There's nothing to stop you using several browsers: perhaps you like to use one for work and one for leisure.

So if you're looking for stuff that Safari doesn't do, there's a good chance that Chrome, Firefox, Opera or an alternative iOS browser may well hold the answer.Įxtensions are particularly useful but there's other stuff that each one does differently, plus some people just like the way a particular browser looks or feels. Indeed, Apple doesn't really change Safari very frequently at all when it comes to adding features, preferring to fix security issues and tinker under the hood, like we will see in OS X Mavericks with the new power-saving technology that should reduce the CPU impact of browsing with multiple tabs. Third-party developers such as Mozilla and Google (which makes Chrome), don't have to stick to Apple's release schedules or strategy, so they are free to add features and change things that Apple might be more reluctant to do with Safari. Many non-Apple browsers now also let you sync data between your various devices using their own systems rather than iCloud. They can be heavily customised, give you advanced bookmark management, download management and RSS feeds.

There are a huge number of extensions available for these browsers so you can install add-ons to do things like use proxies to view content that is otherwise unavailable in your country, or blog or tweet straight from whatever window you happen to have open.

The good news is that in recent years most competing browsers have upped their game considerably, and relative newcomers such as Chrome and the more venerable Firefox offer real alternatives to Safari.

Alternative mac web browsers