DuckDuckGo Browser v1.14 (2025) [/]
Jun 02 2025
I've been using DuckDuckGo as my primary web search engine so it was natural to try out DuckDuckGo Browser. I believe the browser on macOS uses WebKit engine so it'll have the same rendering behavior as Safari.
It includes a lot of privacy stuff built-in and blocks lots of cookies and popups and such. I guess because of that focus they don't have an extensions support — perhaps someday but extensions can get so much data from you if they really want to it'd be hard to prevent.
It also doesn't integrate with macOS Passwords and since no extension support there is no Apple-provided extension like for other browsers. It does have its own passwords vault and you can import from macOS Passwords but it won't be kept synced.
I use DuckDuckGo for Twitch modding. That way it's a separate environment and if Safari crashes it won't cause problems while I'm modding (not so much a problem these days). I do keep logged into Instagram to check collab streamers and I'd rather not have Meta track me so I don't login on Safari.
One thing I miss is that with Firefox I can make the Twitch window smaller while still having chat showing. With Safari/DDG at the same size Twitch hides the chat.
Anyway DDG browser works well and I like that it uses WebKit engine (tbf it uses the native OS html rendering engine so on Windows it'll be different).
Another privacy-focused browser is Brave which is based on Chromium if you like that engine. There's also Orion Browser by Kagi which is also WebKit but when I tried it last December still rudimentary on the other hand it does support extensions and macOS Passwords integration.
20250713: I forgot one reason I chose DuckDuckGo Browser is that it is available on the Mac App Store whereas like no other mainstream browser is there.
It includes a lot of privacy stuff built-in and blocks lots of cookies and popups and such. I guess because of that focus they don't have an extensions support — perhaps someday but extensions can get so much data from you if they really want to it'd be hard to prevent.
It also doesn't integrate with macOS Passwords and since no extension support there is no Apple-provided extension like for other browsers. It does have its own passwords vault and you can import from macOS Passwords but it won't be kept synced.
I use DuckDuckGo for Twitch modding. That way it's a separate environment and if Safari crashes it won't cause problems while I'm modding (not so much a problem these days). I do keep logged into Instagram to check collab streamers and I'd rather not have Meta track me so I don't login on Safari.
One thing I miss is that with Firefox I can make the Twitch window smaller while still having chat showing. With Safari/DDG at the same size Twitch hides the chat.
Anyway DDG browser works well and I like that it uses WebKit engine (tbf it uses the native OS html rendering engine so on Windows it'll be different).
Another privacy-focused browser is Brave which is based on Chromium if you like that engine. There's also Orion Browser by Kagi which is also WebKit but when I tried it last December still rudimentary on the other hand it does support extensions and macOS Passwords integration.
20250713: I forgot one reason I chose DuckDuckGo Browser is that it is available on the Mac App Store whereas like no other mainstream browser is there.