Safari is surprisingly good

As a heavy Chrome user for nearly a decade, I’ve found Safari surprisingly delightful to use! I recently decided to make Safari my primary browser, mainly because of Apple’s native password manager app—Passwords.

Previous habits

When I used Chrome, I relied heavily on its built-in password manager. Features like automatic password generation, saving, and auto-fill were incredibly convenient. If you’re signed in with a Google account, many sites even support one-click sign-in, and your credentials sync across devices—the experience is genuinely solid. But the downside is obvious: most of that convenience is confined to the browser. If you want those features outside the browser, you have to use a third-party password manager. Splitting things like that feels clunky.

Safari and Passwords

Last year, Apple introduced Passwords, which not only works in Safari but also integrates seamlessly across the Apple ecosystem, delivering a top-tier experience. After using it for a while, I can say it’s genuinely great. While Passwords can be used in Chrome via an extension, the experience is middling at best—nowhere near Chrome’s native manager or Apple’s first-party smoothness. I gave it a few tries and quickly gave up.

Sidebar

Beyond password management, I especially love Safari’s sidebar. I tend to keep tons of tabs open, and in Chrome they often get squished into tiny icons—impossible to tell apart. Safari’s sidebar is much more intuitive: all tabs are clearly listed, and switching between them feels effortless. Another excellent feature of the sidebar is grouping. Chrome has tab groups too, but I prefer Safari’s tree-like structure. Groups are isolated, and pages only load when you switch to a group, which saves a lot of resources. Plus, when you close and reopen the browser, regular tabs are cleared, but groups and their pages persist. I used to rely on the OneTab extension in Chrome to save open pages; now Safari’s grouping replaces it entirely. I’ve even stopped using bookmarks as much—my frequently used sites live in groups, making them easier to find.

Remaining issues

Of course, despite these conveniences, Safari still has some rough edges compared to Chrome. Compatibility with several mainstream websites can be hit-or-miss, which significantly affects the user experience. And Safari’s extension ecosystem still lags far behind Chrome’s.

Conclusion

Overall, I think Safari is a strong daily driver within Apple’s ecosystem. If you know of any standout features I should try, I’d love to hear about them in the comments.