A Zen Essentials alternative for Safari
Prefer Safari's native performance and battery life over a Firefox-based browser? Essentials gives you Zen's Essentials workflow in Safari — a toolbar grid of your key sites, color-coded spaces, and iCloud sync. One-time $4.99.
What Zen's Essentials gave you
Zen (a Firefox-based browser) keeps an "Essentials" row of pinned sites shared across its Workspaces. It's a great workflow — but it means running a Firefox fork instead of the browser that's native to your Mac.
How Essentials brings it to Safari
Essentials recreates that workflow as a native Safari extension: a toolbar popup grid you open with ⌘⇧E, color-coded spaces you switch with ⌃1 – ⌃9, full vibrancy in light and dark, and excellent battery life on macOS.
| Zen | Essentials for Safari |
|---|---|
| Essentials row across workspaces | Toolbar grid, shared or per-space |
| Workspaces | Color-coded spaces (⌃1 – ⌃9) |
| Firefox-based engine | Native Safari — excellent battery life and deep system integration on Mac |
| Synced via your Mozilla account | Synced via your private iCloud |
FAQ
How is this different from Zen's Essentials?
Same one-tap site-grid idea, but delivered as a native Safari extension instead of a separate browser. No Mozilla account; it syncs via your iCloud.
Can I keep using Zen too?
Yes. Essentials is Safari-only and doesn't touch your other browsers. There's also a Firefox edition that installs directly in Zen.
Why choose Safari over a Firefox fork?
Native Safari gets excellent battery life and deep system integration on macOS. Essentials brings the workflow without the fork.
How much does it cost?
A one-time $4.99 on the Mac App Store. No subscription.
Came from Arc instead? See the Arc alternative.
Arc and Zen are trademarks of their respective owners. Essentials is an independent product and is not affiliated with The Browser Company or the Zen Browser project.