Arc browser alternatives: where to move before Arc shuts down on December 22

The best Arc browser alternatives depend on which Arc habit you can't give up. If you want your Spaces, pinned tabs and passwords moved for you, Dia is the official path. If you want the vertical sidebar without AI or Chromium, look at Zen Browser, Vivaldi, Brave or Helium. Export your Arc data before December 22, 2026, whichever you pick.

That date is not a soft deadline. The Browser Company's farewell notice says Arc stops working on macOS and Windows on December 22, 2026, accounts are deactivated that day, and personal data tied to an Arc account is deleted within 30 days. Below is the timeline, the export steps, and a shortlist matched to the Arc feature you actually used, with prices checked on each vendor's own site as of October 2026.

Is Arc browser shutting down? Yes, in three stages

Arc is shutting down in stages, and the first one has already happened. According to the farewell notice on arc.net, the dates are:

• October 22, 2026: no new Arc accounts can be created. Existing users see no change yet, and the latest Arc version adds an option to export all your data.
• November 23, 2026: on iOS and Android, Arc Search loses sign-in, tab sync, Browse for Me and its other AI features. It keeps working as a plain browser.
• December 22, 2026: Arc stops working on macOS and Windows, sign-in ends, accounts are deactivated, and Arc Search for Android is removed from the Google Play Store.

The data point that matters most is the last one on the notice. After December 22, The Browser Company says it can no longer identify or retrieve user data for data requests, so there is no recovery path once the date passes. If you have a Dia account too, only the data tied to your Arc account is affected.

The company's stated reason is security: it says its engineering and security teams are now focused on Dia, which it built to current security standards, and that Arc's browser features are free in Dia with AI optional.

How to export Arc browser data before December 22

Export first, choose a browser second. The export is the only step with a hard deadline, and it keeps your options open if the first browser you try doesn't stick. The Browser Company lists these paths on its farewell page:

1. Arc on macOS: Arc menu, then Settings, Advanced, Export Data.
2. Arc on Windows: press Ctrl+, (or open the Arc menu and choose Settings), then Advanced, Export Spaces and tabs, Export Data.
3. Arc Search on iOS: tap the Tab Switcher in the bottom-left corner, then Settings, then Export Data. Settings also has an Export Open Tabs option.
4. Arc Search on Android: tap the Tab Switcher, then Settings, Storage, Export data.

If you haven't opened Arc in months, the notice says to download the current version from the official links and export from that, since the export option arrived in the latest release. The notice does not spell out the file format of the export, so keep the file somewhere safe even after you have imported it into a new browser.

Arc browser alternatives, matched to the Arc feature you'll miss

Most Arc users chose it for one or two things: the vertical sidebar, Spaces that keep work and personal tabs apart, pinned tabs that behave like apps, or simply a quieter Chromium browser. Each option below is strongest on a different one of those.

Dia: the official Arc replacement, and the simplest move

Dia is the browser Arc's own team built next, and the one Arc's makers point you to, with an importer built for Arc. When you sign up for Dia and pick Arc as the browser to import from, Arc's notice says passwords, history, tabs, Profiles, Folders, bookmarks and extensions come across, and that Spaces, Folders and Tab Groups import with their data intact. Existing Dia users can import at any time before December 22 from the Dia menu (Import from Another Browser on Mac, Import from another browser on Windows).

Dia has spent the past month closing the gap with Arc. Dia's changelog shows Arc-style pinned tabs in version 1.52.0 for Mac on October 8, 2026, GitHub Live Folders imported as Dia Live Groups in 1.53.0 on October 15, and a Windows change that switches Dia to sidebar tabs when you import from Arc, so your tabs stay vertical. Dia for Windows reached version 1.0 on October 6, 2026, and version 1.3.0 on October 22 added sync between Windows and Mac.

The catch is the business model. Dia's pricing page lists a free Better Browser plan with profiles, tab groups, split view, picture-in-picture, a built-in ad and tracking blocker and cross-device sync, but no AI features. Better Answers adds AI chat, and Better Days costs $100 a month for six times the usage plus a daily Morning Brief. The same page lists Better Answers at $10 a month in its plan table and $20 a month in its FAQ, so check the price at checkout. Dia's homepage and pricing page describe Profiles and tab groups; neither uses the word Spaces, so expect your Arc Spaces to land in a different structure.

Arc vs Dia browser, in one line: Dia keeps the sidebar and your data, and adds an AI product you don't have to pay for. Skip it if you left Arc's AI features switched off on purpose and don't want a browser whose roadmap is built around them.

Zen Browser: browsers like Arc, without Chromium

Zen is the closest thing to Arc's layout outside the Chromium world. Its GitHub repository describes it as a Firefox-based browser under the MPL-2.0 license, and its site lists Workspaces, Compact Mode, Glance and Split View, with downloads for macOS, Windows and Linux.

Zen's answer to Arc Spaces is Workspaces, which show as icons at the bottom of its sidebar. Zen's workspace docs explain that you can give each workspace a default Firefox container, so the logins in your work workspace stay separate from your personal ones. That is close to how Arc tied a Space to a profile, with one documented limit: containers don't separate browsing history or extensions.

Skip Zen if your extensions are Chrome-only, or if you can't live with rough edges: its homepage still carries a beta label, and Zen's site doesn't advertise an importer for Arc's Spaces. If you only want vertical tabs on Firefox's engine, Firefox itself has offered them since version 136, released March 4, 2025.

Vivaldi: an Arc alternative with vertical tabs and no generative AI

Vivaldi is the pick if Dia's AI direction is the reason you are hesitating. On its own comparison page, Vivaldi says it is "free from generative AI features" and that it is built on Chromium, so Chrome Web Store extensions work.

For Arc users, the relevant pieces are custom tab bar placement (put the tab bar on the left and your tabs run vertically), Workspaces for separating tab sets, Tab Tiling for side-by-side pages, and two-level Tab Stacks. It also builds in mail, a calendar and a feed reader. Vivaldi has downloads for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, which matters if you are about to lose Arc Search on your phone.

Skip Vivaldi if you liked Arc because it was minimal. Vivaldi's strength is the number of settings, and getting it to feel like Arc takes configuration.

Brave: ad blocking first, with vertical tabs on desktop

Brave suits Arc users who mainly valued built-in ad blocking. Brave's homepage says the browser is free, is built on Chromium, blocks third-party ads on every website, and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. Brave added vertical tabs in desktop version 1.52 for Windows, macOS and Linux: right-click any tab and choose to use vertical tabs.

Brave also sells Brave Origin, a one-time $59.99 purchase that lets you remove features such as the Leo AI assistant, News, Rewards, VPN and Wallet. Skip Brave if you wanted Arc's Spaces specifically, since vertical tabs alone don't separate work from personal browsing the way Arc did.

Helium: a quieter Chromium browser, still in beta

Helium is the option for people who liked that Arc stayed out of the way. Its site describes a Chromium-based browser with Google service dependencies removed, free and open source, funded by sponsorship, with ads, trackers and cookie banners blocked by default. It supports vertical tabs as one of four layouts, plus split view, and says it collects no personal data and has no analytics.

Skip Helium if you need a phone browser or a finished product: it is desktop-only, and its site says it is still in beta for macOS, Windows and Linux.

A free Arc browser alternative for Windows

Every browser in the shortlist above is free to download on Windows. Arc on Windows stops working on the same day as the Mac version, so Windows users are on the same deadline. Dia on Windows has the shortest history, at version 1.0 on October 6, 2026, but it gets the same Arc importer and, according to Dia's pricing FAQ, paid plans are starting with new Mac users while Dia on Windows stays as it is for now.

If you don't want to depend on Dia's pricing plans, Zen and Vivaldi both pair a tab sidebar with a Spaces-like feature on Windows.

The strongest case for just using Dia

The fair argument for Dia is hard to beat: it is made by the team that built Arc, it imports your Spaces, Folders and passwords in one step, and its free plan has no AI features at all. Every other option on this list asks you to rebuild your sidebar by hand.

The case against is about where the product is going. Dia's pricing tiers, Morning Brief and Atlassian connections show a browser being built for AI-assisted work, and Arc's own notice says AI in Dia is optional, not absent. If you chose Arc because it was a calm browser with a good sidebar, Vivaldi, Zen or Helium are closer to that brief, and the hour you spend rebuilding pinned tabs buys you a browser that isn't pricing its AI. Some of these browsers keep moving fast, so treat feature lists as accurate as of October 2026.

What to do this week

Run the Arc export today, while the app still opens, and keep the file. Then install your first choice next to Arc and use it for a full workday before December 22, so you find the missing pinned tab or extension while Arc is still there to copy it from.

If none of these fit, our Privacy category lists 93 products as of October 23, 2026, including Arc's own Upfynd listing, and the Open Source category lists 211. You can compare pricing, screenshots and similar products for each browser on its page.