Arc users are running out of time. Atlassian bought the company behind the browser last year and moved its focus to Dia, a more AI-focused product. Arc will officially stop existing soon, which leaves its most loyal users hunting for a new home.
The Verge’s Terrence O’Brien says he made that move a while ago. He switched to Zen Browser and has not missed Arc since. His verdict is direct: Zen is the Arc replacement most people want, provided they accept a few minor inconveniences.
The same interface, minus the clutter
Zen copies the parts of Arc that made it feel new. Pinned sites sit in a launcher-style grid, tabs run down the left side, and separate spaces keep work and personal browsing apart. Mods let users restyle the interface to their own taste.
What Zen drops is the extra weight. There is no sidebar agent waiting to take over tasks, and no fear of a model training on browsing activity. Zen says it is “beautifully designed, privacy-focused, and packed with features,” adding that it cares about the experience rather than the data.
That positioning lands differently now. Browsers have spent two years bolting chat panels and assistants onto every toolbar. Chrome extensions can already read open tabs and fill in forms, and users have noticed the trade-off. A browser that does one job well is becoming a selling point again.
What the trade-off costs
O’Brien is honest about the rough edges. Zen is not as polished as a browser backed by a large company, and small annoyances come with the territory. Anyone who needs supported enterprise deployment should look elsewhere for now.
The privacy pitch also deserves some skepticism. No browser can promise real anonymity by itself, and Zen’s promise is about intent rather than guarantees. Still, the difference between a product that monetizes browsing data and one that does not is worth tracking.
Arc’s shutdown is the larger story here. A well-funded startup built a genuinely different browser, then sold it to a company with other priorities. Its users are now learning that loyalty to an interface does not survive an acquisition.
Zen installs next to an existing browser, so testing it costs an afternoon rather than a commitment. For Arc refugees, that may be enough to settle the question. The wider lesson is that browser design keeps getting reinvented, and the best ideas rarely stay inside one product forever.
The Netherlands, for internationals
One email a week: the week's news for internationals in the Netherlands, new practical guides and what changed in the cities. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
