YabArdia vs Tabbit
Ardia is a free, open-source Chromium browser for the Mac that pairs Arc’s sidebar with Dia’s look: pinned tabs, profiles you swipe between, Split View, the Chrome Web Store and uBlock Origin built in.
Tabbit is a free Chromium AI browser for Mac and Windows from Lumina Lab in Singapore, with chat, an agent mode and a choice of many vendors’ models.
The short answer
- if you want Arc’s sidebar on Chromium, free and open source
- if you want Chrome extensions and uBlock Origin built in
- if you don’t want AI in your browser
- if you want a free agent browser with a wide choice of models, Chinese ones included
- if you want the same AI browser on Windows and Mac
- if you want Codex or Claude Code to use your signed-in sessions through its command line
- if you miss Arc and want spaces, pins and folders kept, on a Mac
- if you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT and want it to work in your signed-in tabs
- if you want Claude Code, Codex or Cursor to drive a real browser over MCP
At a glance
Ardia and Tabbit, with Yab beside them for a Mac.
| What | Ardia | Tabbit | Yab |
|---|---|---|---|
| Made by | Mantra (open-source project) | Lumina Lab (LUMINALAB PTE. LTD., Singapore) | Serafim Korablev |
| Status | Updated | Updated | Updated |
| Runs on | Mac | Mac and Windows | Mac |
| Phone app | None; Mac only | Only for its Chinese edition, in Chinese; tabbit.ai lists mobile as planned | Yab for iPhone (TestFlight) and Yab for Android, both in beta; they sync spaces, tabs, bookmarks, history and chats |
| Price | Free and open source | Free with a weekly AI allowance; Pro $30/month | Free; its AI runs on your own Claude or ChatGPT plan |
| AI | No AI | An agent that works in pages, on its own AI service | An agent that works in pages, on your Claude or ChatGPT plan |
| Driven by outside agents | No | a command line | MCP and a command line |
| Engine | Chromium | Chromium | WebKit |
| Tabs down the side | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spaces | Yes | Not stated | Yes |
| Split View | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Extensions | Chrome Web Store | Chrome Web Store | Chrome Web Store |
| Ad blocker | Built in | Built in | Built in |
| Open source | Yes | No | No |
Checked October 9, 2026 on each maker’s own pages, linked under Sources. Prices are per month, in US dollars.
Where they differ
What separates them, area by area. Where one plainly has more, it says who; where it comes down to taste, it says so.
AITabbit leads
Only Tabbit has an agent that clicks, types and finishes tasks in your pages. Ardia has no AI of its own. Tabbit chats with your tabs, files and screenshots, and its agent mode runs multi-step tasks in tab groups of its own, on GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen or GLM.
Agents like Claude Code and CodexTabbit leads
Ardia has no MCP server or command line for outside agents. Tabbit can be driven over a command line, through the Tabbit command line, with a skill for Codex, Claude Code and Cursor.
Tabs and windowsArdia leads
Ardia has tabs down the side, spaces, Split View, folders in the sidebar and tabs that sleep. Tabbit has tabs down the side, Split View and folders in the sidebar.
PriceTabbit leads
Ardia: Free and open source. Tabbit: Free with a weekly AI allowance; Pro $30/month.
Where it runsTabbit leads
Ardia runs on Mac. Tabbit runs on Mac and Windows. On a Mac, Ardia needs macOS 14 or later and Tabbit needs macOS 13 or later. Ardia has no phone app: Mac only. On the phone, Tabbit: only for its Chinese edition, in Chinese; tabbit.ai lists mobile as planned.
Engine and extensionsa matter of taste
Both are built on Chromium, as Chrome is, so sites work as they do in Chrome. Both take extensions from the Chrome Web Store.
PrivacyArdia leads
Ardia has an ad blocker built in and open code. Ardia syncs end to end encrypted through a folder in your own iCloud Drive, with no server of its maker in between; crash reports are opt-in. Tabbit has an ad blocker built in. Tabbit sends prompts and pages you share to the model vendor you pick, on servers in Singapore or your region; its maker says it doesn’t train on your data.
What their pages don’t lead with
Real limits, from the makers’ own words and our own use.
Ardia
- Mac only, Apple Silicon, macOS 14 or later
- New: first public in 2026, from a small open-source team
- No phone app
- No AI of its own
Tabbit
- Top models and heavy agent use need Pro at $30 a month
- The free AI is a weekly allowance, larger only if Tabbit is your default browser
- No Linux or phone apps yet
- No MCP server documented, only its command line
Yab, honestly
- Mac only on the desktop: macOS 15.4 or later, no Windows; the iPhone and Android apps are in beta
- New: first released in September 2026
- Its AI needs a Claude or ChatGPT plan; ChatGPT’s free plan may work with low limits
- WebKit by default, as in Safari; Chrome’s engine is a choice in beta (Nightly) for sites made only for Chrome
- Closed source
What changed lately
- October 27, 2026Ardia: 0.2.42 released, with a nightly channel beside it
- September 8, 2026Tabbit: Tabbit CLI lets coding agents drive the browser with your logins
- August 21, 2026Tabbit: Version 1.11 dropped macOS 12; macOS 13 or later required
- June 9, 2026Tabbit: Version 1.0 released after a 100-day public beta
Questions
Is Ardia free?
Yes. Free and open source.
Is Tabbit free?
Yes, with limits on its AI. Free with a weekly AI allowance; Pro $30/month.
Which has an AI agent, Ardia or Tabbit?
Tabbit. Ardia has no AI of its own. Tabbit chats with your tabs, files and screenshots, and its agent mode runs multi-step tasks in tab groups of its own, on GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen or GLM.
Which runs on Windows, Ardia or Tabbit?
Tabbit does. Ardia runs on Mac.
Do Ardia and Tabbit have phone apps?
Ardia has no phone app: Mac only. On the phone, Tabbit: only for its Chinese edition, in Chinese; tabbit.ai lists mobile as planned.
Is there a third option on a Mac?
Yab, Yet Another Browser, is free for the Mac: tabs down the side with spaces, folders and Split View, as in Ardia; an agent in your signed-in tabs like Tabbit’s, on the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already pay for. Claude Code, Codex and any MCP client can drive it too. It runs on WebKit, the engine Safari uses, with Chrome’s engine as a choice in beta, and takes Chrome extensions. It is new, and its iPhone and Android apps are in beta.
More comparisons
- Ardia home page
- Ardia repo (GPL-3.0, Chromium, README features)
- Ardia 0.2.42 release
- Tabbit home page and FAQ
- Tabbit membership plans
- Tabbit release notes (What’s New)
- Tabbit CLI quick start (2026-09-18)
- Tabbit quick start guide
- Tabbit privacy policy
- App Store: Tabbit by Beijing KuXun Interactive Technology, universal iPhone and iPad, Simplified Chinese only, first released Jun 5, 2026
- Xiaomi App Store: Tabbit Android app, com.tabbit.ai, v0.52.9, updated Oct 9, 2026
- Tabbit China site, mobile download page (links the App Store app)
- Tabbit China membership page: bookmarks, passwords and chats sync on macOS, Windows, iOS, Android, HarmonyOS
- Beijing News (Jun 9, 2026): Tabbit 1.0 launch, mobile testing begun
- Yab Manual: Bringing in from another browser
- Yab Manual: Connecting Claude or ChatGPT
- Yab Manual: Extensions
- Yab Manual: Yab’s tools over MCP
- Yab Manual: Privacy
- Yab for iPhone on TestFlight
Yab, Yet Another Browser.
Free for the Mac. Arc’s sidebar, your own Claude or ChatGPT as the agent, Chrome extensions on WebKit.