When The Browser Company announced Arc would shut down on December 22, 2026, developer Zigao Wang built Zigzag: a from-scratch Swift + WebKit browser with no account, no telemetry, and an 18 MB footprint. We tested what it does well, where its beta limits show, and when Tabbit is the smarter pick.
Editorial Verdict
Excellent lightweight Arc successor — with platform and AI caveats
Zigzag nails the post-Arc brief: one-step migration, a calmer sidebar, genuine privacy, and an engine Apple patches through macOS updates. The trade-offs are just as clear — macOS 15.4 or later only, no built-in AI, and a one-developer beta. For Mac minimalists it is the smoothest Arc escape route; for AI workflows or Windows, see the Tabbit section below.
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Origin & Context
Zigzag launched on Product Hunt on November 9, 2026 — less than three weeks after The Browser Company froze new Arc signups and named December 22 as the kill date. It is a single-developer, open-source (Apache 2.0) project written from scratch in Swift 6 and AppKit on the WebKit engine macOS already ships.
After Arc’s shutdown announcement, Zigao Wang — who did not want to lose his sidebar — wrote his own browser instead of waiting for a corporate successor. It is openly inspired by Arc but built on Safari’s engine instead of Chromium.
There is no account and no required server: the only thing the author hosts is an EdDSA-signed update feed. If it disappeared, Zigzag would keep working, and the Apache 2.0 source lets anyone carry it on.
Zigzag is explicit about being unfinished: everyday browsing works well, some edges are still polished in the open, and roughly 190 tests cover import, passwords and security fixes. Updates install automatically.
Key Capabilities & Comparisons
We used Zigzag as a daily driver alongside Tabbit. Its strengths are craft, weight and privacy; its "No AI slop" stance is a real philosophy, not a missing feature — but it redraws who this browser is for.
Tabs live in a sidebar grouped into color-coded Spaces you swipe through; Favorites sit above every space. The Command bar (⌘T/⌘L) finds open tabs, history and the web in one search, and Peek previews a link with Shift-click without leaving the page.
Because it uses the WebKit macOS already ships, Zigzag installs in 18 MB — against 871 MB for Arc and 1,463 MB for Chrome on the same Mac. Idle tabs are suspended to snapshots, and about 130,000 ad-blocking rules are compiled in, on by default.
Zigzag ships no summarizer and no agent, by design. If your browsing includes "summarize this report", "fill this form", or "research this topic", Tabbit’s sidebar AI, multi-model answers and Agent Mode cover the gap on both macOS and Windows.
Evaluation Matrix
Each dimension below was exercised hands-on on a production Mac — not scraped from a spec sheet. Zigzag’s read is what we observed; the Tabbit column shows where our own browser plays in the same decision.
| Feature / Dimension | Testing Methodology | Zigzag Browser Performance | Tabbit Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine & memory footprint | Install size, idle RAM, and engine provenance on the same machine | 18 MB installed on system WebKit; nothing Chromium to ship or patch | Full Chromium compatibility with AI layered in; heavier, but no site breaks |
| Speed & tab suspension | Launch time, 40-tab session behavior, reload cost of suspended tabs | Instant launch; stale tabs release their web view and keep a snapshot | Session holds dozens of AI-assisted tabs; memory tuned for agent workloads |
| Privacy & ownership | Account requirements, telemetry, update mechanism, kill-switch risk | No account, no analytics; only an EdDSA-signed update feed; open source | Free public beta with clear data policy and no credit card wall |
| Extensions | Installing 1Password, Dark Reader and Tampermonkey from the Chrome Web Store | All three work; WebKit-missing APIs are bridged; unsupported ones flagged upfront | Native Chrome extension compatibility across the whole store |
| Passwords & autofill | Saving, generating, auditing and syncing credentials; passkey login | Keychain-native with Touch ID, generator and weak-password checks; iCloud sync | Built-in manager plus agent-assisted form filling across sessions |
| Migration from Arc | Importing Spaces, pinned tabs, Favorites, history and passwords | One-step import; Spaces and pinned structure survive; open tabs stay behind | Imports bookmarks and passwords from any major browser on Mac or Windows |
The Honest Ledger
Decision Guide
You browse on one Mac, hated Arc’s pending shutdown, want Spaces and Favorites back without an account, and don’t need AI in the loop. Zigzag is purpose-built for exactly you.
Choose Zigzag
You ask pages questions, compare sources, fill forms and automate repeat work. Zigzag deliberately ships none of that; Tabbit’s sidebar AI, multi-model answers and Agent Mode do.
Choose Tabbit
Zigzag will never ship for Windows — that is an architectural choice, not a roadmap delay. Tabbit runs natively on Windows 10/11 and macOS with the same AI feature set.
Choose Tabbit
The AI-Native Alternative
Zigzag proves a browser can be light, private and permanent. Tabbit takes the opposite bet: that the browser should also be the smartest thing on your machine.
Tabbit is an AI-native browser for macOS and Windows that routes your questions across Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Kimi — then lets an agent act on the answers, with your approval at every sensitive step.
Quick Answers
Tabbit pairs Chromium compatibility with Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Kimi — summaries, deep research and agent automation in one free browser.
Free during public beta · Windows & macOS