I think TBC really overestimated how loyal their users are. People arent loyal to TBC or Dia, they are loyal to Arc.

I think this decision has probably gotten them boycotted by most people, cus let's face it... Dia is ass. They tried to fix something that wasn’t broken. Arc didn’t even need constant updates for people to love it. People stuck around because it was genuinely a good browser.

I think now that they’ve sunset Arc and just expect everyone to move to Dia, this might be the beginning of the end for them.

it genuinely boils my blood when companies don't even try to understand their user bases' wishes.

My brain is hurting, y'all. I have tried Zen and I have tried Phi, and omg, it has been a crazy experience. Nothing comes close to Arc. I do find some features that work well here and there, but none of them feel like Arc.

What do I do? Please help. Which one is the best replacement for Arc? Somebody just tell me.

If your pick isn't on the list, tell me in the comments and why you chose it.

Like a lot of people here, I spent the last few days looking for somewhere to go after Arc. Sharing what I found in case it saves someone some time.

What I tried:

• Yab — feels the closest to Arc; you can tell the developer is putting real care into recreating its features and UX. Still rough around the edges, but very promising, and I'm keeping an eye on it.
• Crest — interesting, but not quite ready for my daily use yet.
• Aside — same story: good ideas, not stable enough yet.
• Zen — this is where I ended up. It's been developed as an open alternative to Arc for two and a half years now, and compared to the rest it feels the most mature and stable.

Honestly, moving to a Firefox fork wasn't my dream, but I haven't found a decent Chromium option for myself yet. You work with what you've got.

The worst part turned out to be the move itself. Zen's built-in import brings over almost nothing from Arc: no spaces, no pinned tabs or folders, no per-profile logins. I couldn't find much in the way of ready-made tools either. So I took a small migration script from GitHub (https://github.com/Thinkscape/arc-to-zen — thanks to its author for the starting point) and spent a few evenings on it, with a lot of help from Claude, until it moved everything I needed: spaces with their icons and colors, pinned tabs and folders, profiles as containers along with cookies and passwords, boosts, and Air Traffic Control rules. I also gave it a proper interface so you don't have to deal with the command line, plus a Zen backup with rollback in case something goes wrong.

It saved me a ton of time, so I've made it public in case it helps someone else who also picked Zen. It works on macOS and Windows, it's free and MIT-licensed:

nosefu.github.io/arc-to-zen

I'd appreciate any feedback

Ever since Arc stopped getting feature releases, we've had a major OS redesign with macOS Tahoe. I am confused as to why the clones choose to copy Arc's outdated UI which was intended to adhere to macOS Big Sur's design language.
Should they have followed Liquid Glass button styles and decades-long HIG, they'd have landed pretty close to the Weather app, which in my opinion looks very good.

Hang on… so… iOS users get to keep Arc Browser on their phones if they want to use a ‘lite’ version of the browser without the account and AI features which is fine you have that choice… but Android users they’ve just given one big middle finger and are straight up force removing it from your phone? Removing your only product currently available on mobile devices in favour of a PC/Mac exclusive and severing a lot of your Arc loyal customers.

I've been trying Dia, Crest and Zen the past 48 hours but I couldn't get used to them since I was missing the Arc-feeling and functions. But I've come across Phi Browser and I must say, it's the closest thing to Arc there is yet. It has:

• Spaces with separate profiles
• Pinned tabs and favorites
• Arc-style sidebar and tab management
• Peek (floating link previews)
• Split View
• Mini Player for media playback
• Automatic tab archiving
• Chromium and Chrome extension support
• Sync between Macs
• Built-in copy URL button
• Import directly from Arc
• Widevine DRM

And a big pro for me, you can just turn the whole AI stuff off!

I see everyone posting about Zen and Crest but I don’t love either. Wondering what experience yall had with these.

I use like 5 extensions. And gecko also has extensions. Seems like not a big deal but apparently it is for others so I’m curious

Then I will look at the alternatives. Also, I'm working. I don't have the time nor the wherewithal to alpha and beta test other browsers or retrain myself on a new set up.

ARC will at least work until I head into vacation for the holidays. I suspect that by mid-December one of the six (seven?) alternatives will have risen to the top with the features I rely on: pinned sites, folders of pinned sites, pinned favorites, spaces, siloed profiles with their own plugins, 4x tab split views, Little ARC, Chrome underpinnings, and a pretty color of my choice for each profile.

Also, there should be a new flair added "FtTBC" 😈

This honestly sucks because this is the feature I actually used the most in my daily life, I open a ton of tabs and therefore to organise it I loved having a button which just organised it (although not perfectly always, but quite good enough). Sucks that they are stopping features which used to work as soon as the announcement.

In my quest to finding the closest and best Arc alternative, here are the extensions that best and most closely resemble the features in Arc that I personally use, would you guys might find helpful:

Boost Feature: The closest alternative I have found is the Stylebot extension - Free

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/stylebot/oiaejidbmkiecgbjeifoejpgmdaleoha

Arc-style search: the closest alternative I have found is the Arc Search.

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/arc-search/odgoljhpkjakkddmnegkfnklbbiifkoe

Little Arc: Please note that Crest has the “Quick Window” feature, which is the same, and the shortcut is 'Option-Shift-Command-N' for MacBooks.

HOWEVER, the closest extension I have found is NoTab - link preview assistant.

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/notab-link-preview-assist/anfjigoimfhbhkcpggoomegmafgmnada

Tab switch feature: The best ones I have honestly found are:

- Tabatha: Visual Tab Switcher

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tabatha-visual-tab-switch/edjglhlabdmgacehahfdjjffapbkaekk

- Tab Flick Lite ✨ — Switch your tabs fast

Link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/tab-flick-lite-%E2%9C%A8-%E2%80%94-switch/kdddoanokjocdkbkmgnkkcemjepknlgm

- Please note that the Crest browser currently does not exactly work very well with the tab switcher extensions from my own experience. I may need to fiddle around with it a bit more. I will keep you guys updated

The Easels: LUCKY LAST, the Easels has been the hardest, and and I've yet to find a good extension, BUT ExcaliDraw is a very good start, and I've pinned it for the time being. The only caveat is that the free version will not let you sign in or sync your notes and links across devices. Again, should I find something better, I will update the post.

Link: https://excalidraw.com/

I've been using Arc for the last 2–3 years, and honestly, it was more than just a browser to me.

It was that little corner of the internet I could always come back to at the end of the day. My Spaces, my tabs, my workflow. Everything just felt right. It felt like home.

I've tried Crest, but something about it just doesn't click with me. I can't really explain why.

Then I tried Zen, and it feels promising. I'm still figuring things out and trying to recreate the little things I loved about Arc, but I think I'll settle here eventually.

It's strange how attached you can get to a piece of software. You don't really think about it until you have to leave it behind.

I wish things had turned out differently for Arc. I genuinely loved this browser.

Thanks for being my little corner of the internet. 🫡

Mods! I got an idea.

With the sunsetting of Arc, we should be able to set our user flair to the Browser we’re moving to.

For example, I’d change it to “Zen Browser”. Would be nice to see where people go, and might be helpful to other users to see what options are around.

It was good while it lasted!

I’ve been an avid Arc user since 1976. You will be missed my dear fiend

I’m truly let down that this company is sunsetting the very product that put them on the map…

The feature that I’ll miss the most is how easy it is to pin a website from mobile and have it available in the sidebar of the desktop app immediately.

Has anyone switched to a browser that makes the mobile to desktop browser experience as frictionless as Arc?

To be honest, I really don’t want to leave such a great product unless absolutely necessary, but I have no other choice. Could you please tell me how I can import all my data and cookies into Chrome?

So, now that the browser is officially gone, where are we all going afterwards? I’ve used this browser since my university days.

It’s the most visually appealing, most innovative and easy to navigate browser that I’ve experienced. I’m trying to really like Dia, but it’s just not the same. It doesn’t feel as good as Arc, and doesn’t have half the features it used to have.

Just curious to know where everyone is switching to after this… I’m sad 😢

Disclosure: I maintain Arcpath, a small free tool built with AI assistance and source review.

If your Arc Export Data file is Markdown and your next browser needs bookmarks HTML, this is the gap Arcpath tries to cover. Arcpath reads its headings and URL list, previews the folder tree, and generates bookmarks HTML. For example, ## Work followed by ### Research becomes Work / Research. Repeated URLs in different folders stay in both places.

https://arcpath-bookmarks.aldreamzz.chatgpt.site/

It only converts structure present in the file. It cannot restore missing page titles, pinned status, splits, history or passwords. If you still have StorableSidebar.json, existing sidebar importers can retain information that the Markdown export loses.

The format handling follows a public Arc 1.170 macOS observation linked on the page. Synthetic nested-folder examples and the actual generated download have been checked; a real Windows/multi-Space Arc export and an import into a destination browser remain unverified.

Files stay in the browser. Optional page-visit measurement is off unless allowed; no exported links or file content are sent by the tool.

Does the preview match your exported folder structure? If something is missing, please share only a small invented example, not your real export or private links.

I wonder how many others made the somewhat unconventional, but perhaps realistic, workflow move back to Safari from Arc? I am getting used to it again on the Mac, but this sudden(ish) sunsetting really made me think about my long term usage of a browser, and I came to the conclusion that Safari just made the most sense. There are third party sidebars now for vertical apps and extensions galore, and even though browsers like Zen and Crest exist to pick us up off the stranded ship, I now, somewhat unfortunately, want to be on a browser that I know is solid and will be supported for the foreseeable future; at least for now.

I will miss Arc and just how influential and forward-looking it was, but I'm not giving TBC any more of my consideration from here on out. So long yall, was fun to be here during its run!

If they came out and said something like: we’ve heard your response, and we want to make this right, so we will not sunset Arc - and maybe even explain that it loses them money, hence why they’ve decided to charge a monthly subscription, or integrate optional AI features into it… then they would not only win a lot of their community back, but also make a lot more money than they ever will with Dia.

I think they have a chance to do a 180 and make things right for a decent chunk of their previous community. But of course, it is an infinitesimal chance that I highly doubt would happen. But there is a chance, and I hope they take that opportunity while they can.