System Requirements and Compatibility
Apple's Safari is the default browser on all the company's devices and doesn't work on anything else. The current release of Safari (version 26) runs on macOS Sonoma and later, along with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and visionOS 26. With version 26, Safari gets support for HDR images and SVG icons. And instead of adopting the standard progressive web app (PWA) format, it uses Apple's web apps feature, which employs some of the same tech, with limitations. Chrome has supported standard PWAs for about a decade.
The latest Chrome release (version 140) requires macOS 12 Monterey or later and iOS 17 or later. Of course, you can also download Chrome on Android, Linux, and Windows, too.
In terms of compatibility with web apps and sites, both should serve you well. That said, most sites tend to target Chrome for compatibility. I occasionally run into minor snafus in Safari, such as text that erroneously appears on top of other text. Safari uses a custom web rendering engine called WebKit, which, like Chrome's Blink engine, is an open-source project. Most other browsers rely on Google tech, including its open-source Chromium codebase.
Winner: Chrome
Interface and Customization
Chrome's interface should be more familiar to most web users. Some actions in Safari, by contrast, might require a little detective work. The button for opening a new browser tab, for instance, isn't where it is in other browsers and sits far away from the tabs themselves on the right-hand side. Safari does let you make standard changes like switching the address bar between the top and bottom of the interface on mobile, but interface elements tend to be in unusual places. For example, tabs aren't across the top of the window, and the startup view shows a non-traditional layout of favorites and suggestions.
Both let you apply custom start page backgrounds and customize toolbar buttons, but Chrome offers more tools for customizing the browser's entire appearance. It even offers AI-generated themes.
Winner: Chrome
Helpful Extra Features
Modern web browsers are far more than frames for viewing websites. We expect tools for managing bookmarks, browsing history, tabs, and much more. Here are features across Chrome and Safari that differentiate them, in order of importance.
Extensions. Both browsers support extensions, but Chrome offers a far broader selection, with everything from Privacy Badger to Similarweb. Apple makes it more difficult to build extensions for Safari, so even those extensions that are available for its browser aren't as feature-rich as their Chrome counterparts.
Password Managers. Both browsers offer deep password management features for creating, saving, and encrypting hard-to-guess passwords, though we still recommend against browser-based password management since these implementations aren't zero-knowledge like the best standalone password managers.
Reading Modes. Safari's Reader mode is far superior to Chrome's weak attempt. The latter doesn't appear in the interface by default or at all on mobile. Safari's Reader mode lets you choose a background shade and font and, like Microsoft's Edge's equivalent, can read pages aloud to you.
Shopping Features. Chrome includes price history and tracking features. It can also display badges in the address bar to indicate product discounts. Safari doesn't offer anything similar.
Tab Groups. Both browsers let you group tabs, which is helpful for organization. However, only Chrome can suggest groupings using AI.
Translation. Chrome and Safari can translate the pages you visit, but the former handles more languages. Safari relies on your Apple device's native translation feature, which supports around 17 languages as of this writing, whereas Google can translate between over 100 languages, including less common ones, such as Bambara, Kinyarwanda, and Xhosa.
Winner: Tie
AI Features
Safari now includes a few Apple Intelligence features. It can summarize web pages in its Reader mode, as mentioned, as well as highlight and offer links for certain information, such as addresses and definitions. Safari also offers Writing Tools, which let you proofread text or rephrase it in Concise, Friendly, or Professional styles. The company is exploring AI search solutions, too. But Safari still trails Chrome in this category.
For its part, Chrome offers Google Lens, which lets you use Gemini AI to get information about an object on a web page. That's in addition to the aforementioned AI-based theme creation and tab organization tools. For paid Gemini users, Google is also rolling out an always-present Gemini button that opens a context-aware AI chat interface. However, neither browser currently includes a full generative AI mode like that in Edge. Of course, that might change if Google releases Project Mariner for the masses.
Winner: Chrome
Mobile Apps and Integrations
Both browsers can sync bookmarks, history, passwords, payment methods, tabs, and settings between their desktop and mobile versions. Safari enables a somewhat tighter connect between iOS and macOS, with Continuity and Handoff (which lets you seamlessly continue browsing between devices). It can also sync extensions. (Chrome can sync extensions with Android phones, but not iPhones.) If you have a Mac and an Android phone, you can't take advantage of any Safari integrations because you can't install the browser on that mobile platform in the first place.
Winner: Tie
Privacy and Security
Private Relay in Safari is similar to a VPN in that it hides your device's IP address and encrypts your browsing traffic before it passes through Apple's servers. Note that Private Relay is available only to iCloud+ subscribers. Safari also uses Intelligent Tracking Prevention to confound tracking cookies and fingerprints, neither of which you get protection against in Chrome. Safari can generate a Privacy Report of what it blocked, too. Google maintains a Privacy Guide for Chrome, but it mostly points you to enabling various Google services.
The privacytests.org site collects granular data on browsers' privacy features, and Safari significantly bests Chrome based on its findings. Both browsers include a private browsing mode, but these remove your browsing history only for a given session. If protecting your data is a major concern, you should consider privacy-focused alternatives.
Winner: Safari
Performance
Apple hardware products all have speedy processors, so browsing performance is unlikely to be a major factor in your decision. I nevertheless performed sanity checks with browserbench.org's Speedometer test and Principled Technology's WebXPRT.
The makers of Speedometer (including developers from Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla) describe the benchmark's purpose as measuring "the responsiveness of Web applications." The site says it "uses demo web applications to simulate user actions such as adding to-do items." On my test MacBook Air with a silicon M1 processor, Chrome slightly bested Safari, with a score of 35 compared with 34.
Principled Technologies' WebXPRT compares the performance using HTML5, JavaScript, and WebAssembly-based scenarios designed to mimic ordinary web application use, including things like photo editing, stock pricing, and homework. On this test, both Chrome and Safari turned in identical scores of 242.
Your performance results will depend on your hardware configuration, but the closeness of these results demonstrates that speed isn't a major differentiator.
Winner: Tie