I switched to Firefox

March 27, 2026

I switched to Firefox a few weeks ago and here's why:

Firefox's "Clear cookies and site data every time you close Firefox" setting (under Privacy & Security) gives me fine-grained control over what gets wiped on quit. Cookies, cache, browsing history, form data, downloads, and active logins can each be toggled independently.

The "Manage Exceptions" list is what makes this feature truly useful. I can whitelist specific sites so their data persists across sessions, even when everything else is cleared. I stay logged in to the sites I want while maintaining a clean slate everywhere else. Safari's approach is manual and all-or-nothing: clearing history and website data is a deliberate action, not automatic, and there's no built-in per-site exception system.

Then there's uBlock Origin. Widely considered the gold standard for ad and script blocking, the Firefox version runs fully, unlike the limited "lite" port available on Safari.

Finally, there's performance. Firefox feels faster in day-to-day use and doesn't hiccup on certain sites the way Safari occasionally does. At this point, I'm not sure what would pull me back to Safari.