Apple

I like the minimalistic UI. I like the integration. I love the tab groups and as far as I know, the privacy is also good.

For 99% percent of my stuff for personal and work (I'm an IT guy), it just works. For the other 1%, I use Firefox.

I love it. Clean, minimal, gets out of the way, does what I want. With the iCloud keychain password management, 2FA management, auto-fill-then-delete codes from message/email (iOS 17/macOS Sonoma), it's a real time-saver.

If you're on a laptop for any amount of time during the day the battery life is unbeatable.

I like that Safari is not Chrome, since Apple’s core business isn’t search ads/tracking. I don’t like that WebKit is kind of the IE 6 of iPhones (only option and hard to develop against) I don’t use Firefox much, it’s always kind of been a mess (did they ever move on from XUIL or whatever it was called?). But Firefox is open source for real and I hope it can continue to be a very viable option.

Love how fast it is. Don’t love the UI or plug-in ecosystem. So Firefox is my daily driver on desktop and will be on mobile if Apple ever unchains 3rd party browsers properly on iOS.

I’m really bad at closing tabs because I’m either lazy or think I might need them later, which leads to my safari window having like 1000–1500 tabs open by the time I decide to sort through them and save/close some stuff. I also never close the app itself, it stays open for months.

It never lags. I find that impressive.

Up until about a month ago, Safari was the browser I used 95% of the time. I like the interface, swiping back to close a tab that was just opened from a link, etc. I don't use a lot of extensions, so I don't really miss them.

For the last month, I've been using Arc, but I may not stay with it.

I use it on all my Apple devices, and honestly, would use it even on my Windows work laptop if I could.

I love that it's minimal, is very energy efficient and protects my privacy with Private Relay. Also fills up passwords from Keychain in an instant and isn't Chrome like 90% of web browsers today.

I hate that it's buggy. For example I have to use my iPad to create or edit bookmarks - updating bookmarks just doesn't work, at all, on my Mac, and it's been like that for about a year.

As for what I love... mostly that it syncs everything, even tabs, between my desktop/laptop/tablet/phone. No other browser does a good job of that, and it's a must have feature for me.

Arc was even better at syncing, and also less buggy... but they changed how syncing works. It's rubbish now.

I use Safari as my primary and almost exclusive browser (falling back to Firefox once in a blue moon). I wouldn't say I love or hate it - it's JUST a browser after all - but there are a couple of things that come to mind:

1. I "hate" that some web developers just develop for Chrome and call it a day, though I usually have the ability to say "Well, fuck you, too." and not patronize those sites. Apart from that, Safari works and works well (for me) on all the sites I care about.
2. I "love" that Safari integrates effortlessly across all my Apple devices - and this is a powerful motivator to stay in Safari's garden. I like bookmark and secure password sharing. I like handoff. I like using "advanced" integrated features like Hide My Email (if I wasn't using HME, I'd be using Firefox or DDG's counterpart, but HME is "right there" and "works well") and VPN (ditto).

(On my Windows 11 box, which I touch with ever-decreasing frequency, I use Firefox exclusively, and if Safari didn't exist, that's what I would use on my Mac.)

I do not like Safari's tab groups. I need all tab groups always visible. That is something Chrome got right. Edge's UI is even better there.

I don't want to use the sidebar. I don't want to have tab groups hidden behind a button.

I have tried. It just does not work for me.

I like it, but I’m mad they backed out of the redesign a few years ago, and I hate that it doesn’t support true ad blockers. The modern web is near unusable with the current ad count.

Safari is one of the browser platforms we develop for, and honestly it doesn't deserve the hate. Jen Simmons is on fire with guiding Webkit and I can usually debug easier on Safari and Chrome than Firefox.

Chromium, IMHO as a web dev since 1996, is more the New Explorer than Safari, especially where typography is concerned.

I want Startpage to be my default search engine.

I just use it to airplay YouTube videos from my iPad which has it skip ads and sponsor segments with the sponsorblock segment without having to bother with the YouTube app. Don't even have it installed. So it's awesome in that area.

I hate that extensions like sponsorblock are paid on safari probably because Apple chatges an annual $100 fee while other browsers don't. I just use Firefox with addons I prefer like containers on desktop.

Love it and hate it for most of the things already mentioned ITT. Other than than no tags for bookmarks is what I really miss.

While I don’t use safari as my main browser I don’t understand the hate. I love using safari when I’m trying to use a site that isn’t playing nice with Firefox or I’m trying to extend the battery of my laptop.

• Love
  • UI -- It's minimalistic, and my favorite is the compact toolbar that merges url bars into one row, saving a lot of screen on a laptop. It also has the cleanest reader mode I have ever used. Just display the article nicely without any other buttons. I also like the consistency in visual design. Since Safari is a native app, it compliments the macOS design well.
  • Sync with iOS -- It feels really good when I leave my MacBook, and it immediately picks up my browsing tab on my phone. It's effortless.
  • System Service Integration -- This is a rather exclusive feature. It natively supports Keychains and Hide My Email and provides actions in Shortcuts, which I use heavily.
• Hate
  • Slow Update -- It usually updates alongside macOS, so it's less frequent than other browsers. Profiles/ Web App/ etc., these are becoming basic for most web browsers, so I'm just glad it finally meets the modern standard. Due to the update frequency, it couldn't have implemented something like Bing chats in Edge or redesigning browser UI in Arc and adding that to Safari.

Apple forces me to like it on iOS… happy when I (supposedly) can use Firefox later this year.

I like Safari from an ease of use and convenience perspective. Also love the iCloud private relay use as I found it largely unnecessary to use a VPN now. My only downsides are no native support for custom search engines and the way they handle extensions. It sucks developers are forced to pay yearly to host their apps and such and I think that’s why there aren’t as many great options as there are on Firefox.

I love the UI however there are several dealbreakers:

• cannot add other search engines besides the default ones (I use none of them)

• extensions framework is terrible, almost non existent ecosystem; they frequently stop working a after new safari changes

• only bearable with a good system wide ad blocker like AdGuard, which costs money

If these issues would be addressed, it would be perfect browser for me