Both Arc browser and Vivaldi aim to offer users a more customizable and feature-rich browsing experience compared to mainstream options like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. With sleek designs and unique features not found in other browsers, Arc and Vivaldi cater to advanced users who want more control over their web experience.
In this comparison guide, we’ll analyze the key differences between Arc and Vivaldi across several categories to help you determine which browser better fits your needs and preferences.
Company History and Development
Arc is developed by The Browser Company, a startup founded in 2019 by Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal. Arc debuted in April 2022 after a closed beta test period. The Browser Company has gathered employees with experience from companies like Instagram, Tesla, Medium, and Google. Arc is built using the open-source Chromium engine.
Vivaldi was created by Vivaldi Technologies, a company founded by former Opera Software employees including Jon von Tetzchner. The browser first launched in 2015 and is aimed at former Opera users after Opera moved to the Chromium codebase. Like Arc, Vivaldi is built on Chromium but adds its own proprietary features and UI customizations.
As newer companies, both The Browser Company and Vivaldi Technologies are more agile in adding new features to their browsers based on user feedback. By comparison, older companies like Google and Mozilla tend to innovate at a slower pace.
User Interface and Customization Options
Arc uses vertical tabs located in a permanent sidebar on the left side of the browser window. The sidebar contains all browser controls and features. Arc’s user interface aims to separate tools from content. Dragging tabs out of the sidebar creates a new browser window.
Users can customize Arc’s appearance using different color themes for individual tab groups. Arc also allows adding custom images and background colors to tab groups. An integrated “Easel” feature lets users add drawings, text, and screenshots into a scrapbook-style collection.
Vivaldi has a more traditional tab strip at the top of the window, but tabs can be positioned on the left, right, or bottom edges. Vivaldi offers a huge number of UI customization options accessed through the settings menu, including tab coloring, themes, and configurable mouse gestures.
Both browsers allow adjusting UI elements like font size, favicon size, and default zoom level. Vivaldi provides more overall customizations, while Arc focuses on a cleaner layout with visual tab group themes.
Unique Features and Functionality
Arc includes several unique features not found in other major browsers:
- Split View – Display two web pages side-by-side or stacked vertically in the same window.
- Workspaces – Group collections of tabs into color-coded workspaces that sync between devices.
- Peek – Mouse over links in pinned tabs to view the linked page in a popup overlay window.
- Easel – Arc’s creative canvas for capturing screenshots and snippets.
- Profile support – Isolate cookies, history, and logins into profiles assigned to specific workspaces.
Vivaldi offers a robust set of unique functionality:
- Tab stacking – Stack and tile tabs on top of each other in the tab strip.
- Tab sessions – Save and load groups of open tabs as sessions.
- Quick commands – Type a phrase to trigger an action like searching or bookmarking the current page.
- Page actions – Assign shortcuts to common page actions like reloading or toggling reader view.
- Mouse gestures – Navigate and control the browser using customizable mouse gestures.
Both Arc and Vivaldi aim to enhance browser productivity. Arc focuses more on simplifying tab organization while Vivaldi packs in advanced configuration options.
Compatibility and Mobile Versions
Arc is currently only available for desktop platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux. Mobile app releases for iOS and Android are planned for the future.
On the desktop, Arc uses Chromium so it has wide compatibility with Chrome extensions. Arc also supports essential web technologies like JavaScript, HTML5, CSS, WebGL, WebRTC, DRM, and more.
Vivaldi offers desktop clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, and a mobile browser for Android. An iOS version is in development.
Like Arc, Vivaldi has excellent Chromium extension support. It also includes robust compatibility with modern and emerging web standards.
For now, Vivaldi provides better cross-platform flexibility. But Arc plans to expand to mobile and add improved synchronization between desktop and mobile in the future.
Security and Privacy
As based on Chromium, Arc and Vivaldi both benefit from Google’s regular browser security updates that patch vulnerabilities.
Both browsers provide robust built-in ad and tracker blocking. Arc blocks ads by default while Vivaldi offers ad blocking as an optional installed component.
Arc routes searches through Google but doesn’t store user search history. Arc also doesn’t capture browsing data. By default, Arc runs in “private mode” with no browsing history retained locally or synced across devices.
However, Arc requires creating an account to log into the browser. This allows syncing of tab groups, themes, favorites, and settings across devices.
Vivaldi gives users more control over privacy settings like browsing history, cookies, caching, and location access. But functionality like sync requires an account.
Overall, both browsers provide above average privacy compared to rivals. But Vivaldi offers more configurable options while Arc focuses on privacy by default.
Speed and Performance
Arc aims to deliver a swift, responsive browsing experience thanks to Chrome’s speedy Blink rendering engine. Features like tab suspend help limit resource drain from background tabs.
Arc also implements performance optimizations like delaying JavaScript execution in background tabs. The browser provides a built-in task manager to monitor tab resource usage.
Vivaldi is also built on Blink, providing a fast baseline browsing experience. But Vivaldi adds many additional configuration options to customize performance:
- Tab throttling limits resource usage of inactive tabs
- Hibernation frees memory by sleeping unused tabs
- Caching settings adjust page load speed
In benchmarks, Arc and Vivaldi both offer excellent page load speeds on par with Chrome. In real-world use, Vivaldi gives more control over tuning performance while Arc focuses on optimizing defaults.
Ecosystem Integration
Arc provides seamless integration with Google services like search, Gmail, Drive, and Calendar through previews that surface when hovering over pinned tabs.
For documents, Arc also supports preview integration with services like Notion, Figma, Slack, and more. Arc’s Easel feature allows capturing images, links, and text snippets from web pages.
Vivaldi doesn’t provide deep integration with any particular ecosystem. But a notes feature allows jotting down quick notes that sync between devices. Vivaldi also supports web panels, a way to display smaller websites in side panels.
Both browsers aim to enhance productivity by surfacing supplemental information from web services. Arc currently provides richer previews from major platforms.
Support and Community
As a newer and still relatively small browser, Arc provides customer support primarily through in-product chat features and help documentation.
Users can access live chat support from within Arc to get assistance from Arc’s support team. The built-in “Explore” workspace contains tips, tutorials, and updates from the company.
Vivaldi offers multiple community support channels, including forums, blog updates, Twitter and Facebook pages, and an online knowledgebase.
In-browser support includes a “Get Help” menu linking to Vivaldi’s community forums where employees actively respond to questions and feedback.
Overall, Vivaldi provides more community platforms and direct engagement with the browser company. But Arc’s in-product support is convenient for quick troubleshooting.
Business and Team Features
Arc currently focuses on individual users and doesn’t provide expanded capabilities for organizations and teams.
Arc does allow sharing tab groups and browser themes to collaborate with others. But monitoring team usage or administering browsers across an organization isn’t available.
Vivaldi offers a paid Premium edition designed for business use. Premium provides features like:
- User account management
- Browser policies and settings
- Remote deployment
- Share encrypted notes between team members
Premium also includes web panels for internal sites and additional security controls.
For now, Vivaldi is the best choice for companies that want to standardize team web browsers and add oversight.
Bottom Line
Both Arc and Vivaldi deliver customization and unique features beyond mainstream browser options.
Arc offers simpler workspaces for organizing tabs, creative tools through Easel, slick themes, and ecosystem integration with top services like Google.
Vivaldi provides extreme UI flexibility, built-in note syncing, robust extension support, and team management capabilities.
For most personal users, Arc provides a solid set of enhancements over default browsers in an intuitive package. But Vivaldi excels at unparalleled configuration possibilities for power users.
Companies and teams are better served by Vivaldi Premium’s administrative controls. However, Arc covers the core requirements for individual use at work or home.
Both browsers are excellent choices for those seeking something different than mainstream options. Evaluate whether Arc’s simplicity or Vivaldi’s customizability better matches your needs and preferences.
