Arc-Like Chromium Browsers Ranked: Vivaldi Wins (2026)

Key takeaways

• Vivaldi is the only Chromium-based browser that hits three of four Arc pillars out of the box: vertical tabs, named workspaces, and a keyboard command palette (F2).
• Thorium and Brave are Chromium-based and actively maintained, but neither adds workspaces or a command bar. Thorium is a performance fork, not a UI fork.
• Floorp, Zen, and Min are disqualified — Firefox-based or Electron-based, meaning Chrome extensions stop working the moment you switch.
• No current Chromium fork ships all four Arc pillars in a fully open-source package.

After Arc entered maintenance mode in May 2025, two search patterns appeared in parallel. One was “how do I get Arc features in Chrome” (the stay-on-Chrome crowd). The other was this one: people who wanted a full browser replacement, Chromium-based, that felt like Arc.

This article is for the second group. Every candidate has been checked for current release dates, architecture, and actual feature lists. Browsers that do not run Chrome extensions were cut immediately.

What “Arc-Like UI” Actually Means

Arc is not one feature. It is four structural changes stacked on top of a browser engine:

1. Vertical tabs: tabs move to the left sidebar, full titles visible, collapsible panel
2. Workspaces (Spaces): named tab groups that persist across restarts, switch context with one click
3. Command bar: keyboard-first launcher that searches open tabs, history, bookmarks, and browser commands from a single prompt
4. Peek / preview: inspect a link or tab without navigating away, typically via hover or modifier+click

A browser that has only vertical tabs is not Arc-like. It is a browser with a vertical tab bar. The combination of all four is what made Arc feel different. Use this framework to evaluate what each candidate actually delivers.

Why People Are Asking Now

Arc Browser entered maintenance mode in May 2025 (roughly a year before this article’s publication). The Browser Company pivoted to Dia, an AI-first product. Atlassian acquired TBC for $610M (announced September 2025, closed October 2025). Arc still launches and runs and receives security patches, but it gets no new features and its development community has dispersed.

The timing matters for this comparison. Any browser that was actively trying to capture Arc’s displaced user base in late 2025 and early 2026 would show it in their release notes. As of June 2026, no Chromium fork has shipped a product explicitly positioning itself as “Arc for Chromium.”

Verdict First

Vivaldi is the answer if you need a Chromium browser with near-Arc workflow coverage. It is not open-source at the UI layer, which some users will find disqualifying. If that matters to you, there is currently no fully open-source Chromium browser that ships workspaces and a command bar.

Brave covers vertical tabs only. Thorium is a performance fork with no UI changes at all. Ungoogled-Chromium strips Google telemetry and adds no UI features.

Floorp and Zen are Firefox-based. Min is Electron-based. None of these run Chrome extensions, which disqualifies them for the majority of Chrome users considering a switch.

Vivaldi 8.0: The Closest Match

Chromium-based. Latest version: 8.0 (May 28, 2026), on Chromium 148. Actively developed.

Vivaldi is the most feature-complete Chromium browser for users coming from Arc. It is a closed-source UI layer built on an open-source Chromium core. Free to use, but the proprietary features are not auditable.

Vertical tabs. Vivaldi supports vertical tabs on the left or right side with full title display. It also ships tree-style tabs (a hierarchical view where child tabs nest visually under parent tabs), which goes further than Arc’s flat sidebar. Tab stacking groups tabs into collapsible accordion stacks.

Workspaces. Named workspaces that persist across restarts. Switching workspaces shows only the tabs assigned to that workspace, which is the visual isolation Arc users are used to. Tabs can be moved between workspaces via context menu or drag-and-drop. Workspaces from regular windows save on close; private window workspaces do not.

Quick Commands (F2). The closest thing to Arc’s Command Bar in any current Chromium browser. Press F2 (or Cmd+E on Mac) to open a keyboard-first search across open tabs, closed tabs, synced tabs, bookmarks, notes, history, browser commands, and workspaces. Prefix filtering works: tab:, bookmark:, history:, command:, workspace:. You can also execute Command Chains (sequences of actions) from Quick Commands.

Tab tiling. Vivaldi calls it Tab Tiling: view multiple tabs simultaneously in a split-screen or grid layout. Up to four tabs tiled. This is Vivaldi’s equivalent of Arc’s split view.

Tab hibernation. Inactive tabs can be put to sleep to reduce RAM. Not as configurable as a dedicated extension but functional.

What Vivaldi does not have: a hover-based peek preview (no equivalent to Arc’s peek or SuperchargeNavigation’s Alt+Click overlay). Session time-travel or snapshot recovery is not built in. The UI is not open-source.

Performance note. Vivaldi has historically carried a higher RAM footprint than stock Chrome due to its feature-rich UI layer. In a 2026 context with Chrome’s own memory footprint well-managed by Memory Saver, this gap is smaller but still present. If RAM is your primary concern, Vivaldi is not the right choice.

Brave: Vertical Tabs, Nothing Else

Chromium-based. Open-source. Latest stable: 1.93 (May 31, 2026).

Brave shipped vertical tabs in version 1.52 (May 2023). The feature moves tabs to a collapsible left panel, supports pinned tabs and tab groups, and works with standard keyboard navigation. It is solid.

That is where the Arc similarity ends. Brave has no named workspaces, no keyboard command bar, and no peek/preview feature. Its privacy-first positioning (built-in ad blocking, fingerprinting protection, Tor integration) is meaningfully different from Arc’s workflow-first positioning. Brave is a good browser for a different reason than Arc was a good browser.

If you used Arc primarily for its sidebar layout and nothing else, Brave’s vertical tabs will feel familiar. If you used Arc for Spaces and the Command Bar, Brave does not help.

Thorium: Performance Fork, Not UI Fork

Chromium-based. Open-source. Latest: M138.0.7204.303 (February 18, 2026).

Thorium is a Chromium fork optimized for compilation performance. The developer applies SSE4.2, AVX, AES, and LLVM compiler optimizations, LTO, and PGO. Thorium’s site claims an 8-38% performance improvement over vanilla Chromium depending on the benchmark and OS. It supports Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and Raspberry Pi.

Thorium adds no UI features. No vertical tabs, no workspaces, no command bar. It ships the stock Chromium interface with performance tuning underneath. Its appeal is to users who want a faster Chromium binary, not a different browser experience.

Worth noting: as of February 2026, the maintainer shifted Thorium to a Long Term Support Chromium base (updated twice yearly) rather than tracking the latest Chromium release on a fast cadence. This reflects the reality that the project is maintained by one person alongside a full-time job. Thorium is active and well-maintained, but its scope is narrowly defined.

Ungoogled-Chromium: Privacy Focus, No UI Changes

Chromium-based. Open-source. Latest: 148.0.7778.167-1.1 (May 18, 2026).

Ungoogled-Chromium removes Google’s background service calls, telemetry, and service integrations from Chromium. Its explicit goal is to be “Google Chromium, sans dependency on Google web services.” It deliberately avoids UI changes to remain a drop-in replacement.

No vertical tabs. No workspaces. No command bar. The Chrome extension ecosystem works as normal. The trade-off is zero Arc-like UI in exchange for a cleaner privacy profile.

For users whose primary concern was Arc’s data practices rather than Arc’s interface, ungoogled-Chromium solves that problem. For users who want Arc’s workflow features, it does not.

What Gets Disqualified and Why

Several browsers come up in Arc migration discussions but do not belong in a Chromium comparison:

Floorp is a Firefox fork. Chrome extensions do not work in it. Its vertical tab panel and workspace features are Firefox-native and well-implemented, but irrelevant if you have Chrome extension dependencies.

Zen Browser is also a Firefox fork, built on Firefox 151 as of June 2026. It ships vertical tabs by default, named workspaces, a Glance preview, and a 4-pane split view. Zen is arguably closer to Arc’s design philosophy than any Chromium browser. But it is not Chromium. Chrome extensions stop working. The full breakdown of Zen’s features and where Chrome can close the gap is covered in the Zen vs Chrome extensions article.

Min Browser (v1.35.5, April 2026) is Electron-based, not a Chromium fork. It uses a different extension system and lacks vertical tabs or workspaces. Electron shares V8 with Chrome but is not the same engine, and Min does not support Chrome extensions.

Orion (Kagi) is WebKit-based and macOS/iOS only. It supports Firefox and Chrome extensions through a compatibility layer, but its engine is not Chromium. Out of scope here.

SigmaOS is also macOS-only and not open-source. Excluded.

Feature Parity Table

Floorp and Zen are included for reference only. Both are Firefox-based and excluded from the Chromium comparison.

Setting Up Vivaldi to Feel Like Arc

If Vivaldi is your path, a one-time configuration gets it substantially closer to Arc’s layout.

Enable vertical tabs. Go to Settings → Tabs → Tab Bar Position → Left (or Right). Turn on “Show Tab Bar” if hidden. Enable “Show Tab Titles” for full-width title display. Tree-style tab view is available under the same settings pane if you prefer hierarchical nesting over a flat list.

Create workspaces. Click the grid icon in the tab bar or use the Workspaces button in the sidebar. Name your workspaces. Assign tabs by right-clicking a tab and selecting “Move to Workspace.” Workspace switching is instant: click or use Quick Commands.

Learn Quick Commands. Press F2. Start typing. This is the feature that most directly replaces Arc’s Command Bar. The workspace: prefix filters to workspace switching only. tab: narrows to open tabs. command: exposes browser controls. Unlike Arc’s Command Bar, Quick Commands does not search web content inline, but for tab and workspace management the coverage is equivalent.

Set up Tab Tiling for split view. Select multiple tabs, right-click, choose “Tile Tabs.” Vivaldi supports two-tab and four-tab grid layouts. Not as fluid as Arc’s drag-to-split interaction, but functionally equivalent.

If You Want to Stay on Chrome

The browser-replacement path has a real cost: extension compatibility. If your workflow depends on Chrome-specific extensions, no Chromium fork eliminates that friction. You are still switching engines, with a different extension behavior, permissions model, and update cadence from Chrome stable.

For users who want Arc’s workspace and command bar features without leaving Chrome, SuperchargeNavigation adds named workspaces with full session recovery, an Alt+K command bar, 50 auto-snapshots at 5-minute intervals, and Alt+Click peek previews. Zero telemetry, no account required. The full breakdown of which Arc features map to Chrome is in the Arc-dead article.

The Chrome 146 vertical tabs vs extensions article covers where Chrome’s native vertical tab implementation lands versus dedicated extensions.

Which Path Fits Your Situation

If you want to leave Chrome entirely and want the most Arc-like Chromium browser: Vivaldi. The UI layer is proprietary, but the feature coverage is real. Workspaces, command bar, vertical tabs, and tab tiling all in one package. Accept that it is not open-source and set up the four features above.

If open-source is a hard requirement and you can live with only vertical tabs: Brave. Solid vertical tab implementation, good privacy defaults, active development.

If your primary concern is performance on a slow machine rather than Arc’s UI: Thorium. It will not look like Arc but it will run faster on constrained hardware.

If Chrome extension compatibility is non-negotiable: stay on Chrome. Use native vertical tabs (available since Chrome 146 via chrome://flags) plus extensions to close the gap. The best vertical tab managers for Chrome article covers the extension options.