Helium vs Safari for Mac Privacy, Speed and Battery (2026)

By Kshetez Vinayak, founder of SupaSidebar. Last updated November 14, 2026.

TL;DR

In Helium vs Safari, Safari is the better browser for most Mac users, because it is built into macOS, syncs with the iPhone, and streamed video for up to 5 hours longer than Chrome in Apple's August 2026 battery test. Helium is the better pick for privacy out of the box. Helium is a free, open-source Chromium browser that blocks ads, trackers and cookie banners by default, strips Google's services out of Chromium and runs Chrome extensions, while Safari is Apple's WebKit browser that limits tracking but leaves ad blocking to an extension. Neither browser has Spaces for keeping work and personal tabs apart. The table below covers privacy, speed, battery, extensions and sync, followed by a verdict by user type and a way to add a tab sidebar with Spaces to either browser using SupaSidebar.

Quick navigation

• Weighing Helium against Arc instead? → Helium vs Arc Browser
• Choosing between Helium and Zen? → Helium vs Zen Browser for Arc Users
• Comparing Safari with another privacy browser? → Orion vs Safari on Mac
• Want vertical tabs and Spaces inside Helium? → Helium Browser Vertical Tabs, Spaces and Sidebar
• Only care about raw speed? → Fastest Browser for Mac
• Deciding between Helium and Safari? You are in the right place. Keep reading.

Helium vs Safari at a glance

Two browsers built on opposite bets

Helium and Safari both sell themselves on privacy, but they start from different places. Helium takes Google's open-source Chromium, removes Google's services and telemetry, and adds an ad blocker. Safari is Apple's own browser on Apple's WebKit engine, tuned for Apple hardware and tied into iCloud.

Helium moves fast. Helium 0.20.3.1 for macOS shipped on October 30, 2026 on Chromium 156.0.8078.79, with separate builds for Apple silicon and Intel Macs. The project's GitHub repository has more than 22,000 stars and still labels Helium a beta.

Safari gets one major release a year. Safari 27 was released on September 14, 2026 for macOS Sequoia and macOS Tahoe, and it ships inside macOS 27. That gap in release pace explains most of the trade-offs below.

Helium is more private before you change a setting

Helium is the more private browser out of the box, because it blocks ads, trackers, cookie banners and third-party cookies by default, per helium.computer. The blocking runs on a Helium-specific fork of uBlock Origin, according to Helium's repository. Helium also says it collects no data, makes no background requests without consent, enforces HTTPS, and adds noise to some web APIs to resist fingerprinting.

Helium removes Google's integrated services from Chromium, which is the "Google-free" part of its pitch. Chrome Web Store traffic, when installing an extension, is routed through Helium's own services so the store does not see the request directly.

Safari's privacy model is about tracking, not ads. Apple's Safari page lists Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which uses on-device intelligence to stop cross-site tracking and keeps known trackers from seeing the Mac's IP address. Safari blocks third-party cookies by default, keeps web extensions from seeing browsing unless allowed, and shows a Privacy Report of the trackers it stopped on a page.

What Safari does not do is block ads on its own. Ads load until a content blocker is installed, such as uBlock Origin Lite, which arrived for Safari in August 2025 as a free, open-source App Store download. With a blocker added, the gap between the two narrows to defaults and trust. Helium is open source end to end, while Safari depends on trusting Apple.

Safari wins Apple's speed tests, and nobody has tested Helium against it

Safari is the faster browser on the only controlled numbers available. Apple's August 2026 tests on a 15-inch MacBook Air with M5 put Safari 1.2x ahead of other Mac browsers on Speedometer 3.1 and 1.8x ahead on JetStream 3.0, against Chrome 151, Edge 151 and Firefox 153, per Apple's Safari page. Apple also says Safari loads frequently visited sites 35% faster than Chrome on average.

Helium was not in Apple's test, and no independent Helium vs Safari benchmark was found. Helium runs on the same Chromium engine as Chrome, so Chrome's result is the closest public stand-in. Helium can still feel quicker on ad-heavy pages, because blocked ads and trackers never load.

Memory is where reports conflict. A MacRumors forum thread from December 2025 measured Safari at over 5GB with four tabs on an M4 Mac mini, far more than Helium. The same poster saw roughly 1GB for Safari in Activity Monitor, and a reply pointed out that the tool used does not show the memory figure that matters. Treat Helium's "lighter" reputation as user reports, not measurements.

Battery life is Safari's clearest win

Safari is the better browser for battery life on a MacBook. In Apple's August 2026 test, Safari 27 streamed 1080p video for up to 18 hours on a 15-inch MacBook Air with M5, up to 5 hours more than Chrome 151 on the same machine, per the footnotes on Apple's Safari page. Apple tests its own browser, so treat the exact gap as a best case.

No battery test of Helium was found. Because Helium shares Chromium with Chrome, Chrome's result is the nearest proxy, though Helium's blocking removes some of the work Chrome does on ad-heavy pages. The battery life comparison of Mac browsers has the wider rankings.

Helium runs Chrome extensions, Safari runs App Store ones

Helium supports all Chromium extensions and installs them from the Chrome Web Store, per helium.computer. It can also import extensions from an older Chromium browser, which makes moving from Chrome, Brave or Arc quick.

Safari extensions come only from the Safari category of the App Store. The catalog is smaller, and some Chrome favorites have no Safari version, though ad blockers such as uBlock Origin Lite are there. Safari's rule that extensions cannot see browsing by default is a privacy plus.

The extension gap matters less for tab organization than it looks. SupaSidebar is a Mac app rather than an extension, so it works the same way beside Helium and beside Safari, as covered further down.

Sync, iPhone, passwords and older Macs

Safari is the only one of the two that follows the user to an iPhone. Safari Tab Groups switch across devices through iCloud, per Apple, and saved logins live in the Passwords app, which fills them in Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Helium has none of that yet. Its site answers "Not yet" on sync and on a mobile app, and says Helium has no built-in password manager, so logins need an extension. Helium also does not support Widevine DRM, so some streaming services and protected media may not play in it.

Older Macs flip the picture. Safari 27 needs macOS Sequoia or later. Helium follows Chromium, and Google's Chrome 151 and later need macOS 13 Ventura, per MacRumors. Helium does not publish its own minimum, but a Mac stuck on Ventura or Sonoma should still run the current Helium, and it cannot get Safari 27.

The tab problem neither browser fixes

Neither Helium nor Safari keeps separate contexts the way Spaces do. Helium has a vertical tabs layout and Chromium's tab groups, covered in detail in the Helium vertical tabs guide. Safari 27 keeps a horizontal tab bar, and its sidebar can only list the tabs inside a Tab Group, a workaround explained in the Safari vertical tabs guide. Real vertical tabs are on the way. Apple added them to the Safari 27.3 beta on November 3, 2026, turned on from the View menu, and the final release is expected in December, per 9to5Mac. Like Helium's, they organize one browser's tabs and add no Spaces.

Safari 27 adds automatic tab topics, which use Apple Intelligence on the Mac to group open tabs by subject. The setting, Automatically Create Topics in Safari's Tabs settings, is off by default, per Engadget's walkthrough. It tidies one browser's tabs and stays inside Safari.

The bigger gap shows up when a Mac user keeps both browsers. A common split is Safari for battery and the iPhone, and Helium for private browsing or a Chrome-only extension. One Arc user who wrote to SupaSidebar in October had installed Helium to try, but found Safari good enough once it had vertical tabs, which was the reason they went looking for SupaSidebar. Either way, tabs end up in two windows with two different layouts. Arc users weighing the two also have a deadline, since Arc stops working on December 22, 2026.

SupaSidebar adds a tab sidebar and Spaces to Helium or Safari

SupaSidebar adds a vertical list of open tabs and Arc-style Spaces to Helium and Safari as a native Mac sidebar, so the Helium vs Safari choice no longer decides how tabs are organized. SupaSidebar is not a browser and not an extension. It is a macOS app that sits beside any of 32+ supported browsers and injects no code into them.

Helium and Safari get the deepest support SupaSidebar offers. Both show their open tabs in Live Tabs, where clicking a tab switches to it instead of opening a duplicate. Both can be linked to a Space per profile, so a Space can belong to Safari's Work profile or to one Helium profile, per the SupaSidebar browser support table.

Privacy settings stay with the browser. Helium keeps blocking ads and Safari keeps its tracking protection, and Preferences → Browsers → Your browsers in SupaSidebar turns Live Tabs, Recents and history import on or off for each browser separately.

Here is a typical setup for someone who uses Safari for daily work and Helium for private browsing.

Switching Spaces swaps the whole sidebar with one shortcut, and each Space opens its links in its own browser. The Command Panel (⌘⌃K) searches saved links and the open tabs of both browsers from one box. In a review on r/macapps, one user wrote that SupaSidebar "recreates much of that [Arc] experience, but does it across multiple browsers."

SupaSidebar does not change how Helium or Safari render pages, block ads or use battery. Live Tabs show tabs from the current Mac only, while saved links sync through iCloud. It runs on macOS 14 and later, on Intel and Apple silicon. The guide to adding a sidebar to Safari walks through the Safari setup step by step.

Which should you pick, Helium or Safari?

• If you live in the Apple ecosystem, pick Safari. iCloud sync, the Passwords app and the iPhone make it the easier daily browser.
• If battery life matters most, pick Safari. It beat Chrome by up to 5 hours of video in Apple's test, and Helium shares Chrome's engine.
• If you want ads gone with no setup, pick Helium. Safari needs a content blocker such as uBlock Origin Lite to match it.
• If a Chrome extension is non-negotiable, pick Helium. It installs anything from the Chrome Web Store.
• If you want a browser with no Google services and open code, pick Helium.
• If your Mac is stuck on Ventura or Sonoma, pick Helium. It should keep updating there, while Safari 27 will not install.
• If you use both, keep both and put their tabs and Spaces in one sidebar with SupaSidebar.

The bottom line

Safari is the better browser for most Mac users in late 2026, because it leads Apple's published speed and battery tests and syncs with the iPhone through iCloud. Helium is the better browser for privacy by default, with ads, trackers and cookie banners blocked, Google's services removed from Chromium, and every Chrome extension available.

MacBook users who work away from a charger should choose Safari and add uBlock Origin Lite. Privacy-first users who do not need an iPhone browser should choose Helium. Owners of older Macs on Ventura or Sonoma should lean toward Helium, since it should keep updating where Safari 27 will not install. Users who split their day across both should keep both and organize the tabs in one place.

Neither browser has Spaces, and both get the same sidebar with Spaces from SupaSidebar. To try it with Helium, Safari or both, download SupaSidebar (free version available).

Why we recommend SupaSidebar

SupaSidebar is a macOS app that brings Arc's sidebar to every browser - one sidebar for tabs, bookmarks, files, and apps across 32+ browsers including Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Helium, Dia and Orion. It shows the open tabs of both Helium and Safari in Live Tabs and links each Space to one browser or profile. For Mac users choosing between Helium and Safari, it keeps one set of Spaces whichever browser wins.

FAQ

Is Helium better than Safari?

For most Mac users, no. Safari leads Apple's published speed and battery tests and syncs with the iPhone through iCloud. Helium is better for users who want ads, trackers and cookie banners blocked by default, no Google services, and access to Chrome extensions.

Is Helium more private than Safari?

Out of the box, yes. Helium blocks ads, trackers, cookie banners and third-party cookies by default and is fully open source. Safari blocks third-party cookies and limits cross-site tracking with Intelligent Tracking Prevention, but it does not block ads until a content blocker such as uBlock Origin Lite is installed.

Is Helium faster than Safari on Mac?

On published benchmarks, Safari is faster. Apple's August 2026 tests on an M5 MacBook Air put Safari 1.2x ahead of Chrome, Edge and Firefox on Speedometer 3.1, and Helium uses the same Chromium engine as Chrome. No independent Helium vs Safari benchmark was found, and Helium can feel faster on ad-heavy sites because it blocks ads.

Does Safari or Helium have better battery life?

Safari does. In Apple's test, Safari streamed video for up to 18 hours on a 15-inch MacBook Air with M5, up to 5 hours more than Chrome. Helium has no published battery test, and Chrome is the closest comparison because both run on Chromium.

Can Helium use Chrome extensions?

Yes. Helium supports all Chromium extensions and installs them from the Chrome Web Store, with those requests routed through Helium's own services. Safari only runs Safari extensions from the App Store, and some Chrome extensions have no Safari version.

Does Helium sync with iPhone like Safari?

No. As of November 2026, Helium has no sync, no mobile app and no built-in password manager, and its site answers "Not yet" on sync and mobile. Safari syncs Tab Groups and passwords across Mac, iPhone and iPad through iCloud.

Do Helium and Safari have Spaces like Arc?

No. Helium has vertical tabs and tab groups, and Safari has Tab Groups, automatic tab topics in Safari 27 and vertical tabs in the Safari 27.3 beta, but neither has Spaces. SupaSidebar adds Spaces to both as a Mac sidebar, with each Space linked to a Helium or Safari profile.

By Kshetez Vinayak, founder of SupaSidebar. Last updated November 14, 2026.