I Tried ZEN BROWSER, And I am never going back

#browse #brave #zen

BRAVE user tries ZEN BROWSER

Eight months ago, I made a firm decision — it was finally time to move on from Google Chrome. I had been stuck with it for way too long. The default ads, the constant feeling that Google was watching everything I did, the bloat… it all started weighing on me. At that point, switching browsers didn’t even feel like a real option. Chrome gave me everything I thought I needed. It was comfortable. Familiar. Safe.

But then that quote hit me differently:

“A ship is always safe at the port, but that’s not what it’s made for.”

I decided it was time to sail.

The Great Browser Hunt

I went deep — really deep. I tried every browser I could find. Opera, Edge, Midori, Floorp, MIN, Vieb, Arc, Deta Surf, Comet, and dozens of others that most people have probably never heard of. I explored the dark corners of the internet just to test obscure browsers. It was part curiosity, part obsession.

After all that chaos, I landed on Brave Browser.

It felt too good to be true. Coming straight from Chrome, the experience was night and day. No ads on YouTube. None. The browser felt noticeably lighter, snappier, and the built-in ad blocker worked incredibly well. For someone who had suffered through Chrome’s ecosystem for years, it was liberating. I got so hooked that I made a full video about my switch, which ended up becoming one of the most viewed videos on my channel: From Chrome to Brave – My Honest Experience.

For the next eight straight months, I was fully glazing Brave. I recommended it to everyone, wrote multiple articles about it, and even featured it prominently in my 2026 Tech Stack piece. Brave had earned my loyalty.

The Itch Returns

But recently, something shifted.

It wasn’t that Brave became bad. It still delivered on almost everything I needed. The real reason was simpler: I don’t like staying on the same shore for too long. I’m a huge lover of minimalism — clean interfaces, intentional design, no unnecessary bloat. And Brave, being a Chromium-based browser, started feeling like the opposite of that philosophy.

I revisited my old minimalism-friendly options:

MIN Browser: It aligned with the minimal vibe but was too limited. Being Electron-based, it broke on too many modern websites and lacked proper support.
Arc Browser: It had that beautiful design I loved, but it’s discontinued now. The team has moved on to DIA, and I’m not in the mood to experiment with another new project yet.

So I started searching again — this time specifically for minimal and lightweight browsers that could match my ideology.

The Trials and Errors

I tried Helium Browser hoping for something light and clean. But on my laptop, it somehow consumed more RAM than Brave while feeling slower when typing URLs and switching tabs. I know this goes against most online reviews, but that was my lived experience. I even recorded it with OBS, but the footage was too blurry to be useful as proof. After a few days, I dropped it.

Then I went nostalgic and tried some old legends:

Pale Moon — Never again. It felt ancient and clunky.
Lynx — Yes, the text-only browser. I tried it for the meme and lasted about ten minutes.

Nothing was clicking.

Discovering Zen Browser

And then, almost by accident, I stumbled upon Zen Browser.

I had heard it was a fan favorite in certain circles, but I had never properly tried it. On a random evening, I downloaded it, installed it, and started exploring.

Three hours later, I was writing this.

I’ve already uninstalled Brave.

Why Zen Feels Made for Me

Zen is the first browser that genuinely feels built for my brain. The sidebar is perfect — not intrusive, but extremely functional. The “Essentials” space gives me exactly the breathing room I want. The overall aesthetic is clean, modern, and deeply minimal without sacrificing power. Everything from tab management to workspace organization just flows naturally.

It supports my minimalism ideology in a way no Chromium browser ever did. The design feels intentional. Every element has a purpose. There’s no bloat, no unnecessary distractions. It’s calm, fast (in terms of feel), and beautiful.

The Small Issues (and How I Fixed Them)

Of course, no browser is perfect on day one. Here were the initial hurdles:

No built-in ad blocker

This was the easiest fix. I installed uBlock Origin and it was solved within 30 seconds. Performance is excellent.
Hard to differentiate between loaded and unloaded tabs in Essentials

Zen has its own Zen Mods marketplace, which is surprisingly smooth and easier to use than traditional Chrome extensions. I found a mod that fixed the tab visibility issue perfectly.
Higher RAM usage

This is the biggest trade-off. Compared to Brave, Zen does consume more memory on my machine. After researching and testing, I accepted this as the cost of using something that aligns so well with my values.

Love demands sacrifice.

The Emotional Switch

Uninstalling Brave felt surprisingly dramatic. Eight months of daily use, a popular video, countless recommendations, and articles — it genuinely felt like ending a relationship. There was a small wave of nostalgia and even hesitation. But I reminded myself why I started this journey in the first place: growth, exploration, and refusing to stay comfortable just because it’s familiar.

Final Thoughts

I’ve officially moved from Brave to Zen Browser.

Zen is everything I was unconsciously looking for. It matches my minimalism values while still delivering a powerful, modern browsing experience. I don’t see myself switching again in the near future — it feels that right.

The only real downsides for me are the higher RAM usage and lack of native support for streaming platforms like Netflix. But as a student who mostly watches anime and reads manga on my phone, those aren’t dealbreakers at all.

If you’re someone who values clean design, minimal interfaces, and a browser that feels personal rather than corporate, I highly recommend giving Zen a try.

Here’s to new shores.