Arc alternative

An Arc alternative that keeps going.

The Browser Company shuts Arc down on December 22, 2026, to focus on Dia. Lilo keeps what you liked about Arc, Spaces in a sidebar, split view, Peek and a little window, and brings your Arc spaces with you. It is free, open source, and built on WebKit instead of Chromium.

Compare with Arc
Download for MacmacOS 26+GitHub
What feels familiar

The Arc way of browsing, still here.

The ideas that made Arc different are the ones Lilo is built around.

Spaces. Keep work, personal and private browsing apart, each with its name, color, emoji and, if you like, its own profile with its own sign-ins and extensions.
A sidebar. Tabs on the left like Arc, or on the right, top or bottom. Pinned tabs, favorites and folders you can nest and lock.
Split view. Up to four pages side by side, or a terminal beside your work.
Peek and the Little window. Links from pinned tabs open over the page, and a quick window from any app takes one link or one search, then goes to a Space if it turns into something.
Command bar. Tabs, bookmarks, history and every action from one field, with ⌘T.
Tab archive. Unpinned tabs clear themselves into an archive, with a delay you set per Space, and come back when you need them.
Your shortcuts and link rules. Start from the Arc preset in Settings, then remap anything. Rules send links from other apps to the Space you pick, like Air Traffic Control.
Your extensions. Manifest V3 extensions from the Chrome Web Store install with one click and keep updating.
Side by side

Arc and Lilo, compared.

Two sidebar browsers for the Mac, built in very different ways. See also Lilo beside Safari, Zen, Orion and Dia.

ArcLilo
EngineChromiumWebKit, the engine Safari uses
New featuresShuts down December 22, 2026Public beta, regular releases
PriceFreeFree
Source codeClosedOpen source, MIT
AccountRequiredNone
Spaces and profilesYesYes
Chrome Web Store extensionsYesManifest V3
Terminal tabsNoYes
AI agentsNo MCP serverLocal MCP server, opt-in
SyncYesNo
PlatformsMac, WindowsMac only, macOS 26 or later
Moving from Arc

Your Arc spaces come with you.

Lilo reads Arc on your Mac and changes nothing in it. Everything about moving to Lilo.

1

Spaces, tabs and splits

Each Arc space becomes a Lilo Space with its icon and color, its pinned and open tabs, folders and splits of up to four tabs. Arc favorites become bookmarked tabs.

2

History and sign-ins

Your most recent pages fill the command bar, and your cookies are copied so you stay signed in. macOS asks once to let Lilo use Arc's "Safe Storage" key.

3

Extensions

The ones from the Chrome Web Store are installed again from the store, up to date. You pick which.

Questions

Leaving Arc.

Is Arc being discontinued?

Yes. The Browser Company stopped building new features for Arc in 2025 to focus on Dia, andannouncedthat it shuts Arc down on December 22, 2026. Lilo reads your Arc spaces straight from your Mac, so import them while Arc is still installed.

Is Lilo based on Chromium, like Arc?

No. Lilo is built on WebKit, the engine that ships with macOS, in an app written in Swift. No Chromium is bundled, which keeps it light on memory and battery, and it still runs Chrome extensions.

Can I import my Arc spaces?

Yes. Each space comes in as a Lilo Space with its icon, color, pinned and open tabs, folders and splits. Anything in Arc's sidebar that is not a tab, a folder or a split is skipped.

Will my Arc keyboard shortcuts work?

Pick the Arc preset in Settings, General, Shortcuts, then remap anything you like. Conflicts are flagged as you type.

What does Lilo not have that Arc has?

Sync, a Windows version and a mobile app. Lilo has no account and no server, so there is nothing to sync through. Your password manager keeps syncing your passwords everywhere.

Could Lilo shut down like Arc?

Not the way Arc does. Lilo is MIT licensed, so the app and its code stay yours to run and fork, and there is no server or account that could be switched off. The engine is the WebKit that ships with macOS, so Apple's security fixes keep arriving with macOS updates. Lilo is made by Alexays, who has also maintained the open-source Waybar since 2018.

Is Lilo free?

Yes. Lilo is free and open source under the MIT license. There is no paid tier, no account and no telemetry.

Try it beside Arc.

Import your spaces, keep Arc around as long as you like, and see if Lilo feels like home.

Download for MacmacOS 26+GitHub