LibreWolf is also better than stock Firefox but isn’t recommended for various reasons that also apply to Zen Browser.
Just a note that the main feature implementations (sidebar, vertical tabs, tab groups and workspace) of Floorp and Zen are their own developments
Agreed. I work at Mozilla as an engineer for Firefox, and I’m generally happy to see this.
I currently work on tab groups, and I’m curious to see what their implementation will look like or whether they’ll try to fast-track our work-in-progress once that’s somewhat viable.
For the sidebar and vertical tabs, they seem to have implemented their own thing rather than using what our team has been working on. At a first glance, the results look similar. I wonder if they’ll want to ditch their implementation once we’ve released, as forking this stuff long-term may not be super cost efficient.
Just a little clarification so others won’t misunderstand when reading the comments in the future.
In general, these projects should not be brought to here, just done more harm to those devs.
I probably agree, the forum is about privacy and security. When it comes to privacy and security, Zen Browser doesn’t do anything that Mullvad Browser or even Librewolf doesn’t do.
Not sure about the harm part, nobody in here is trying to harm anyone.
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Are you against offering open source private alternatives to popular “productivity browsers” like Vivaldi, Arc, and Edge ? I don’t like this gatekeeping rationale for recommendations.
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Yeah, sure.
It also puts a barrier in place for random scammer to make an app and get it trusted.
I see no point in using an unsigned web browser as there really is nothing to offer.
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The signing issue seems to be resolved
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Any idea on how much it is to pay for signing certificate on macOS and is it one time or yearly ?
It’s just their yearly developer fee. $100ish?
Well anyways I just signed up for Zen Browser’s Patreon, this is way better UX than whatever Mozilla’s cooking up in their nightly builds.
I don’t know if I’ll switch to using it (yet?), but it’s good to have an open source project that is making something actually usable for people who use their browser a lot, and it’s good to financially support open source projects 
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Hey, anyone who’s been using this… Is zen good at keeping up with FF updates?
I really just wanted to know if zen is recommend from a privacy standpoint obviously I really enjoy the UI UX design, but is it good compared to lets say a harden version of of Firefox running Arcfox for example?
Afaik, Zen adds no privacy features of its own. What they do do is include the Betterfox template ootb (which is a Firefox settings template like Arkenfox with some differences, and not solely privacy/security related).
I’d estimate, it probably falls somewhere between Firefox configured per PG’s recommendations, and Arkenfox, but most likely more fingerprintable due to the UI/UX changes and being a niche browser with a small userbase, and some rather unique UI compared to other Firefox forks.
Then there is the trust factor to consider, you are adding another party to trust (trust to not be malicious, trust to be competent, trust to make sound security/privacy choices and update in a timely manner).
The nice thing about Firefox forks is they are all pretty similar. Most don’t add much of their own under the hood, so if you understand the building blocks they use (e.g.Zen and Betterfox, or Librewolf loosely basing off of Arkenfox), its pretty easy to get a rough idea of the level of privacy they offer.
The TL;DR of my perspective is: Zen Browser isn’t especialyl exciting for its privacy attributes, it doesn’t contribute anything unique, but it isn’t unattractive either, so if you are attracted to Zen for other (non-privacy) features, then it seems like a reasonable option, for a reasonably private browser with a UX that appeals to you more.
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Servo’s been stuck in development hell for what? A decade now. And has made well. Little progress. I would be looking more towards Ladybird, they’ve already surpassed Servo in supported web API’s.
Honestly though I would recommend zen browser to people eyeing on the arc browser but if more like:
a. They want it FOSS and/or Firefox based
b. Assuming they can build from the source code but the binaries should be fine, I hope?
I feel it does contribute to something unique which is basically people looking to Arc browser but is actually more private than Arc and is firefox based or FOSS.
Edit: other than that, I do feel other browsers already achieve what Zen does, Floorp or just using firefox itself, librewolf or Mullvad/Tor Browser
If you enjoy what Arc browser delivers yes, otherwise as per xe3 statement and my reply, there are options like floorp that will do the job or the others I’ve mentioned rather
It’s honestly just a good browser. People like the Arc browser, but that doesn’t really exist on other platforms well. Zen browser fills that gap. I can see why its gotten so popular, I personally fell in love with its design.
Personally a big fan, and would hope its not a honeypot, as that would be a shame, and a deathblow to firefox forks.
The project has also improved, no longer just naming every commit “test”, probably a real browser rather than a honeypot, and now has many other contributors. I would support seeing this as a recommended firefox based browser.
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if it’s foss it likely isn’t a honeypot, Unless the modify the binaries which I would hope not.
Otherwise I agree.