YalqenIn May 2025 The Browser Company stopped adding features to Arc and moved on to its AI browser, Dia. The company is now part of Atlassian. Arc still receives security and Chromium updates, but nothing new is planned.
Yalqen is an open-source, Chromium-based browser for developers on the Mac. If you liked Arc for how it felt day to day, more than for Spaces or Boosts, it should feel familiar.
What feels familiar
- Vertical tabs in a side panel, with pinned tabs. Fold the panel down to icons with ⌘S, or hide the sidebar and top bar when the page needs the room.
- A command bar on ⌘L to search, open addresses, jump to tabs and history, and run commands by name.
- Chromium underneath, so sites and DevTools behave the way they do in Chrome.
- Ad and tracker blocking from the first launch, with no extension to install.
What Yalqen adds
- Tools for web developers: phone view with device presets, network throttling, request mocking, user-agent switching and full-page screenshots. See developer tools.
- Private defaults: HTTPS-only browsing, third-party cookie blocking and secure DNS. No telemetry and no account.
- Open source under the MIT license, with every issue and pull request public on GitHub.
What is missing today
Yalqen is young. Before you switch, know what it does not do yet:
- No Spaces or workspaces, and no split view.
- Extensions from the Chrome Web Store do not install yet. You can load unpacked Chrome extensions, and full support is planned for version 1.0.
- No sync between devices.
- No import from Arc or other browsers yet. Importing from Safari is tracked on GitHub.
- Apple silicon Macs with macOS 13 or later only. There is no Windows version.
- Builds are not notarized by Apple yet, so the first launch needs one extra click.
Yalqen and Arc side by side
| Topic | Yalqen | Arc |
|---|---|---|
| Development | Active, with new releases on GitHub | Maintenance only since May 2025: security and Chromium updates, no new features |
| Source code | Open source (MIT) | Closed source |
| Engine | Chromium, through Electron | Chromium |
| Platforms | macOS 13+ on Apple silicon | macOS and Windows |
| Vertical and pinned tabs | Yes | Yes |
| Command bar | Yes, with developer commands | Yes |
| Spaces or workspaces | Not yet | Yes |
| Split view | Not yet | Yes |
| Extensions | Unpacked Chrome extensions; full support planned for 1.0 | Chrome Web Store |
| Ad blocking | Built-in filter engine | uBlock Origin, preinstalled |
| Price | Free | Free |
Switching from Arc
- Install Yalqen with Homebrew or the disk image.
- Learn the few keyboard shortcuts that do most of the work.
- Missing something you relied on in Arc? Open an issue. Requests from people who use Yalqen every day shape what comes next.
Sources: Arc (web browser), Wikipedia · Dia (web browser), Wikipedia · Ad blocking in Arc, Arc Help Center