Arc Browser Shutdown: 4 Best Alternatives and Migration Tips

Arc Browser Shutdown: 4 Best Alternatives and Migration Tips

Arc is officially approaching its end. The Browser Company has announced that Arc for macOS and Windows will stop working on December 22, 2026, as the company shifts its engineering and security resources to Dia, its AI-focused browser. New Arc account registrations have already been disabled, and Arc Search’s mobile sign-in, tab synchronization, and AI features are scheduled to be discontinued on November 23, 2026.

For existing Arc users, the challenge is not simply choosing another browser. It is preserving a carefully developed workflow built around vertical tabs, persistent pinned pages, project-specific Spaces, temporary tabs, and an integrated system for bookmarks and browsing history.

Arc once demonstrated that a browser could function as more than a window for displaying websites. It combined tab management, bookmarks, workspaces, and navigation into a coherent interface that encouraged users to organize their online activities around projects rather than isolated pages.

Pinned Tabs could remain active browsing contexts while retaining an original destination that users could return to. Spaces separated work and personal activities, Favorites remained accessible across Spaces, and temporary tabs disappeared from the sidebar without becoming permanently inaccessible because of the Archive.

Although The Browser Company subsequently redirected its development efforts toward Dia, Arc’s distinctive interaction model continues to influence how developers and other power users evaluate browsers.

Fortunately, its most valuable ideas have not disappeared. Several alternatives now offer parts of the Arc experience, although no single replacement necessarily reproduces every interaction or workflow.

This guide compares four options: Dia for the most direct migration, Zen Browser for a familiar sidebar-centered workflow, Chrome with Workona for mainstream compatibility, and Vivaldi for extensive native customization.

🧭 1. Dia: The Shortest Migration Path

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For users who want to preserve as much of their existing Arc setup as possible, Dia is the most straightforward starting point.

Built by the same company behind Arc, Dia provides a dedicated Arc import workflow. It can transfer passwords, bookmarks, browsing history, extensions, tabs, and workspace-related data, reducing the need to reconstruct everything manually.

Preparing Arc for migration

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Before switching browsers, update Arc to its latest available version and verify that your important data is accessible.

The official Arc sunset announcement documents the shutdown schedule and migration options.

For users moving to another browser rather than Dia, Arc also provides an export mechanism that saves Spaces and tabs as a Markdown file.

On macOS, open Arc → Settings → Advanced → Export Data.

On Windows, open Settings and locate Export Spaces and tabs in the Advanced section.

The resulting Arc Data Export.md file contains URLs organized by Space and Folder. It is useful as a human-readable inventory, but it is not a standard HTML bookmark file that Chrome, Safari, or Firefox can import directly.

Consequently, users moving to alternative browsers may need to reconstruct folders, bookmarks, and workspaces or convert the exported links into a supported bookmark format.

Before leaving Arc, review the following data categories separately:

• Passwords: Confirm that credentials are available in a password manager or can be imported into the destination browser. Do not assume that exporting tabs also exports credentials.
• Arc Notes: Where supported by your installed version, use the Command Bar command Export Arc Notes to export notes in bulk.
• Arc Easels: Preserve important boards individually, such as by using the available image-export or sharing options.
• Boosts: Do not assume Arc’s site-specific customizations will transfer to another browser.
• Bookmarks and open tabs: Check both carefully, particularly if you maintain multiple Spaces or nested folders.

For Chromium-based browsers on Linux, credential storage can also depend on how the browser integrates with the desktop’s keyring. The PUDN guide to managing GNOME Keyring prompts in Microsoft Edge on Ubuntu provides additional context for users troubleshooting browser credential storage. Its suggested alternatives involve security trade-offs, so preserving the operating system’s secure credential integration is generally preferable when practical.

How Dia maps Arc’s features

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Dia retains several recognizable elements of Arc’s organizational model, although some concepts have been renamed.

This mapping matters because Arc users generally organize browsing activity around persistent contexts, not simply a large collection of open tabs.

Profiles allow different browsing environments to remain separate, while Tab Groups retain a way to organize related pages. The sidebar and Split View support a navigation model closer to Arc than the traditional horizontal-tab interface.

What changes when you move to Dia?

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The biggest difference is the product philosophy.

Arc treated the browser sidebar as its central organizational interface. Users manually arranged their online activities around Spaces, Folders, Favorites, and persistent tabs.

Dia instead builds on a more familiar browser foundation, adding AI-oriented features such as Chat, Morning Brief, and Skills.

Importantly, the AI functionality is optional. Users can continue to use Dia for ordinary browsing and its Arc-inspired organizational features without making AI the center of their workflow.

The remaining consideration is long-term trust in the product’s direction. Dia minimizes migration effort, but some users may not want to remain within the same company’s ecosystem after Arc’s retirement.

Best for: Existing Arc users who prioritize migration completeness, familiar navigation, and minimal workflow disruption.

🧘 2. Zen Browser: The Closest Match for Arc’s Workflow

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If Arc’s sidebar and spatial organization are the features you value most, Zen Browser is a compelling alternative.

Built on Firefox’s browser engine, Zen emphasizes a vertical-tab interface, workspace separation, and a more focused browsing environment.

Workspaces, pinned tabs, and persistent references

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Zen organizes tabs along the side of the window rather than forcing users to manage a crowded horizontal strip.

Its workspace model helps separate work, personal browsing, and individual projects. Standard pinned tabs belong to their respective workspaces, while Essentials provide frequently used destinations that can remain accessible across workspaces.

Folders and saved links offer another layer of organization for pages that need to remain available but should not occupy the active tab list.

This distinction recreates an important part of the Arc experience: separating essential entry points from temporary browsing activity.

For example, email, issue trackers, documentation, and calendars can remain readily accessible while a workspace contains the research pages required for a particular engineering task.

Switching workspaces changes the active context without requiring users to close and reopen collections of unrelated tabs.

Split View for research and development

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Zen’s Split View lets users arrange multiple pages within a single browser window, with support for layouts involving up to four tabs.

This is particularly useful for workflows that involve constant cross-referencing.

A developer might keep documentation on one side and source code hosted in a web interface on the other. A technical writer could combine a draft with its source material, while a researcher could compare multiple implementations without repeatedly switching tabs.

Keeping those resources in one window also makes it easier to maintain context when moving between project workspaces.

Glance and temporary navigation

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Zen’s Glance feature provides a lightweight way to inspect external links without immediately replacing the current page.

Clicking a supported external link opens it in an overlay above the current tab. Users can read the page, dismiss it, expand it into a regular tab, or incorporate it into Split View.

This resembles Arc’s Peek and Little Arc interactions, where opening a link does not necessarily mean committing to another permanent tab.

The benefit is subtle but important: users can inspect secondary references without allowing every link to become another item in an already crowded browsing session.

Migration limitations

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Zen is not a one-click replacement for Arc’s complete configuration.

Arc’s exported Markdown file does not automatically recreate Zen’s entire workspace structure, sidebar arrangement, or application-specific settings. Users may need to reorganize saved URLs into bookmarks, folders, and workspaces.

A conversion tool capable of producing Firefox-compatible HTML bookmarks can simplify the transfer of saved links, but it will not necessarily preserve every detail of Arc’s original interface.

Extension compatibility is another consideration. Although Firefox has a substantial extension ecosystem, extensions that depend specifically on Chromium APIs or distribution channels may not be available in the same form.

Zen is therefore best understood as a close operational substitute rather than a complete replica of Arc’s data model.

Best for: Developers and power users who prefer vertical tabs, separate workspaces, lightweight link previews, and integrated split-screen browsing.

🌐 3. Chrome + Workona: A Mainstream Replacement

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Chrome becomes a more attractive Arc alternative when browser compatibility, predictable updates, and a large extension ecosystem matter more than reproducing every detail of Arc’s interface.

Recent Chrome updates have also reduced some of the feature gap.

Native vertical tabs and Split View

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Chrome introduced desktop vertical tabs in April 2026. Users can switch between horizontal and vertical layouts through the browser’s tab-strip controls.

Vertical tabs make full page titles easier to read, particularly when working with dozens of open pages. Tab Groups remain available in this layout, providing a basic way to organize related browsing sessions.

Chrome also includes a native Split View feature that displays two pages side by side within the same window.

These additions improve the browser’s suitability for development and research workflows. Users can compare documentation, inspect web applications, cross-reference spreadsheets, or read source material while writing without manually arranging separate windows.

However, native tabs and Split View do not fully reproduce Arc’s Spaces model. Chrome still needs another organizational layer to manage persistent resources across distinct projects.

Reconstructing Spaces with Workona

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Workona fills part of that gap by introducing project-oriented Spaces through a browser extension.

Each Space can represent a project, client, research topic, or other working context. Workona retains the tabs associated with each Space and allows important URLs to be saved as Resources.

When users switch between Spaces, the active tab collection changes accordingly. Depending on the configuration, tabs associated with an inactive Space can be moved out of the visible browsing context and restored when that Space is reopened.

This allows users to treat each project as a distinct working environment instead of mixing all open pages into one long tab list.

Resources serve a different purpose from active tabs. A reference document, frequently used dashboard, or shared specification can remain saved for future access without occupying the active tab strip continuously.

A practical setup might separate browsing activity into three categories:

• Active tabs: Pages currently being read, edited, or tested.
• Resources: Important links that should remain available between sessions.
• Spaces: Collections of tabs and resources associated with a particular project or context.

This approach approximates much of Arc’s organizational model while relying on Chrome’s native browsing interface.

Understanding Chrome’s pinned-tab limitation

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Chrome’s standard pinned tabs are primarily compact, persistent tab entries. They do not reproduce Arc’s more nuanced relationship between a pinned browsing context and its original saved URL.

An Arc Pin could continue navigating like a regular webpage while retaining a convenient way to return to its original location. Chrome’s pinned tabs do not provide that same combination by themselves.

To reproduce the behavior, users need to distribute the responsibilities across different features.

Use pinned tabs for frequently accessed sites, bookmarks or Workona Resources for stable entry points, and ordinary tabs for active tasks.

This arrangement is less unified than Arc, but it is predictable and relatively easy to maintain.

The trade-off: more components to manage

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Chrome plus Workona is not a complete Arc replacement. It distributes responsibilities across the browser, an extension, and Chrome’s bookmark system.

The advantage is that each component has a relatively clear purpose. The browser handles navigation and rendering, Workona manages project contexts, and bookmarks or Resources retain important destinations.

The disadvantage is that the result may feel less cohesive than Arc’s integrated sidebar.

Extension availability and behavior can also change independently of Chrome, creating a different maintenance model from one in which most features are provided directly by the browser.

Best for: Developers who prioritize website compatibility, mainstream browser support, and project-level organization without abandoning Chrome’s ecosystem.

🛠️ 4. Vivaldi: Maximum Control Without Extra Extensions

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Vivaldi suits Arc users who value customization and integrated functionality more than minimalist design.

Instead of trying to reproduce Arc’s specific interface, Vivaldi provides a broad set of native tab-management tools that users can configure around their own workflows.

Workspaces and Tab Stacks

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Vivaldi’s Workspaces separate browsing sessions by project or purpose. Tab Stacks group related pages together, making it easier to manage large collections of documentation, issue trackers, dashboards, and research materials.

These features work together to reduce the cognitive overhead of managing many open pages.

A Workspace can represent a complete working context, while a Tab Stack groups the specific pages needed within that context.

For example, a software project might use one Workspace for implementation and debugging, another for documentation and research, and a third for monitoring production services.

The advantage over an extension-dependent arrangement is that the organizational features are built directly into the browser.

Tab Tiling for multi-page workflows

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Vivaldi’s Tab Tiling feature can display multiple pages in a single window, including side-by-side layouts and multi-page grids.

This is useful when a task requires persistent visibility of several pages at once.

Developers can compare multiple API references, inspect dashboards while monitoring logs, or keep a web application beside its documentation.

Unlike a workflow that depends on external window-management utilities or additional browser extensions, Vivaldi integrates this capability directly into its tab-management interface.

The resulting workflow is flexible, although its configuration model differs from Arc’s more opinionated approach.

Quick Commands as a navigation interface

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Vivaldi’s Quick Commands provide a keyboard-driven interface for searching tabs, accessing browsing destinations, and controlling browser functionality.

This covers part of the role played by Arc’s Command Bar.

Users can search for open or recently closed tabs, switch workspaces, locate pages, and access relevant browser commands without relying exclusively on the mouse.

For power users, keyboard-driven navigation can substantially reduce the cost of switching between browsing contexts.

Customization versus simplicity

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Vivaldi offers more configurable behavior than Arc in many areas, but that flexibility comes with a learning curve.

Arc imposed a consistent organizational model, guiding users toward a specific approach to managing tabs and spaces. Vivaldi provides a larger set of independent settings and interaction patterns, giving users more control over how the browser behaves.

The result is powerful but not necessarily as immediately intuitive.

Users migrating from Arc may need to spend time configuring Workspaces, Tab Stacks, keyboard shortcuts, and tiled layouts before the environment feels natural.

As with Zen, Arc’s exported list of links is not sufficient to reconstruct the complete original workflow automatically.

Best for: Power users who want native workspaces, multi-page layouts, keyboard-driven navigation, and extensive browser customization.

🔍 Features That Still Have No Complete Arc Replacement

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Replacing Arc is not only a matter of finding another browser with vertical tabs. Some of its most distinctive interactions combined several behaviors that other browsers still treat separately.

Auto Archive and temporary tabs

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Arc’s Auto Archive reduced sidebar clutter by removing inactive temporary tabs from the immediate workspace while preserving access to previously visited pages through the Archive.

This behavior differs from ordinary tab discarding.

Tab discarding generally reduces a background tab’s resource consumption while keeping the tab itself visible. Automatic tab-closing extensions can reduce clutter, but their recovery mechanisms vary and do not necessarily recreate Arc’s searchable history of archived temporary tabs.

The difference is both technical and behavioral. Arc attempted to minimize the number of visible decisions users had to manage without requiring them to permanently discard browsing context.

A replacement workflow usually needs a combination of session restoration, browser history, bookmarks, and optional tab-management extensions.

Pinned Tabs as persistent browsing contexts

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In Chrome and many other browsers, pinning a tab primarily makes it smaller and helps protect it from accidental closure.

Arc’s Pinned Tabs combined a different set of responsibilities. They could hold ongoing browsing sessions, reside within folders, remain easy to access, and retain an original destination that could be revisited.

That makes an Arc Pin fundamentally different from a conventional bookmark.

A bookmark saves a destination. An open tab represents an active browsing context. A workspace organizes a collection of related pages. Arc combined aspects of these concepts in one interaction.

After migrating, users may need to assign each responsibility to a separate feature rather than looking for a single equivalent.

Unified organization across tabs, bookmarks, and projects

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Arc’s greatest innovation was arguably its interaction model, not any individual feature.

Vertical tabs, Spaces, Favorites, Folders, Split View, keyboard-driven navigation, and temporary tabs reinforced one another within a single interface.

Other browsers can replicate many of these capabilities individually. The challenge is making them work together without introducing more organizational overhead.

For users whose workflows depend heavily on Arc’s specific conventions, this difference may matter more than raw browser performance or extension availability.

🧩 Choosing the Right Arc Alternative

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The best replacement depends on which parts of Arc contribute most to your daily work.

If preserving your existing setup is the highest priority, Dia is the logical first choice. Its dedicated migration workflow minimizes manual reconstruction.

If the sidebar is central to your workflow, Zen is worth evaluating first. Its approach to vertical tabs, workspaces, and lightweight link previews aligns closely with Arc’s operational feel.

If you prefer mainstream compatibility, Chrome and Workona provide a practical way to combine native browser capabilities with project-level organization.

If you want to customize the browser around your own habits, Vivaldi offers a particularly broad set of built-in tools.

Regardless of which option you choose, export important data and verify that your passwords, bookmarks, and other essential information are available before relying on the replacement as your primary browser.

🌠 The End of Arc Does Not Mean the End of Its Ideas

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Arc’s retirement marks the end of a browser that challenged conventional assumptions about how people should interact with the web.

Its sidebar-centered design showed that tab management could be treated as a form of workspace management. Persistent browsing contexts, temporary navigation, project-specific spaces, and integrated split-screen layouts offered an alternative to the traditional browser model.

Those ideas continue to appear in competing products, even though no single alternative reproduces every aspect of Arc’s experience.

The most useful way to approach migration is therefore not to search for a browser that looks identical to Arc, but to identify the behaviors that made Arc indispensable.

For some users, that means preserving Spaces and pinned tabs. For others, it means reducing tab clutter, keeping research visible beside a working document, or separating personal browsing from engineering projects.

Once those requirements are clear, choosing a replacement becomes easier.

Arc may be disappearing, but the design ideas it introduced have already influenced the broader browser ecosystem. Its lasting contribution is the reminder that a browser can be more than a place to open websites: it can be an environment for organizing work, maintaining context, and navigating an increasingly complex digital life.