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Verso

Pre-alpha Developed in Germany

The quiet browser for the Mac.

WebKit, a sidebar of tabs, Spaces that keep their logins apart, and a command bar you never leave the keyboard for. No AI, no accounts, no telemetry. Just the page.

Why Verso exists. Arc is being discontinued on 22 December 2026, and I did not want to move to a browser built around AI. This one is for everyone who feels the same.

Nothing to install yet. The download comes with the first release.
Verso's window on a colourful desktop: the Work Space with its tabs in the sidebar and a page on the white sheet. A screenshot of the pre-alpha.
Benennung · Name
Verso
Werkstoff · Engine
WebKit
Plattform · Platform
macOS 26, Apple silicon
Lizenz · Licence
Free to use, closed source
Stand · Status
Pre-alpha, October 2026
Herkunft · Origin
Developed in Germany

A short film

What only Verso does, in one take.

The command bar, split view, find in the address field, Spaces, the site panel and the material, recorded from the app. It plays when it comes into view; pick a part to jump to it.

Recorded from the pre-alpha on 23 October 2026, cut but not retouched. The pages are demo pages; everything around them is Verso.

  1. ⌘T searches open tabs, history and the web. Return on a tab in another Space takes you there.

  2. The toolbar's button or ⌥⌘\ puts the tab beside the one you used before it, each page under its own address. Drag the gutter to share the width.

  3. ⌘F turns the address into the find field, in the Space's colour; nothing is laid over the page. ⌘G for the next match.

  4. ⌃1, ⌃2, ⌃3: each Space keeps its own tabs, colour, cookies and split, and comes back as you left it.

  5. Trackers and ads are blocked with lists inside the app. The lock turns it off for one site, and a slashed shield in the field says so.

  6. Every change in Settings applies at once: the appearance goes dark, then the chrome turns from Glass, which lets the desktop through, to Frosted, which veils it in grey.

Werkstatt · Blatt 1

Drawn to the point.

Five layers, and every width, radius and curve written down before it was built. Scroll, and the window comes apart.

  1. Your desktop, in its own colours
  2. Window material: Glass or Frosted
  3. Toolbar row, Space rail, sidebar
  4. The page: an opaque sheet, inset
  5. Command bar, the one shadow
Rail
80 pt
Sidebar
206 pt · 200–420
Gutter
10 pt
Sheet
radius 12 · 1 pt line
Tab row
30 pt · radius 8
Motion
cubic-bezier(0.2, 0.8, 0.2, 1) · 0.35 s

Farbe

Nine colours. Any desktop.

Each Space takes one colour, for its button, its selected tab and its address field. Nothing else in the window is coloured. All nine share one lightness and one strength, so each reads as itself on Glass and on Frosted, in light and in dark.

Glass · light

  • Blue #d0e5ff
  • Mint #c0f2db
  • Ochre #fae1b8
  • Rose #ffd5df
  • Violet #eadcff
  • Coral #ffd8c7
  • Moss #dbecc1
  • Teal #b7f0fc
  • White #ffffff

Frosted · light

  • Blue #d0e5ff
  • Mint #c0f2db
  • Ochre #fae1b8
  • Rose #ffd5df
  • Violet #eadcff
  • Coral #ffd8c7
  • Moss #dbecc1
  • Teal #b7f0fc
  • White #ffffff

Glass · dark

  • Blue #39455e
  • Mint #2d4d3f
  • Ochre #524228
  • Rose #5a3b42
  • Violet #49405a
  • Coral #5a3d33
  • Moss #3f492e
  • Teal #264c53
  • White #3c3c41

Frosted · dark

  • Blue #39455e
  • Mint #2d4d3f
  • Ochre #524228
  • Rose #5a3b42
  • Violet #49405a
  • Coral #5a3d33
  • Moss #3f492e
  • Teal #264c53
  • White #3c3c41

Fills: OKLCH 0.92 · 0.06 on light, 0.39 · 0.045 on dark, on each accent's hue.

Schreibtisch

Something to put behind the glass.

Six wallpapers drawn for the window material: wide, soft fields of colour that Glass carries through and Frosted veils in grey. Each file holds a light and a dark version and changes with your Mac. Free to download.

  • Klar

    Clear. The desktop of the film: the Space colours round the edges.

    HEIC · 6K · light and dark · 0.4 MB

  • Spektrum

    Spectrum. The mark's colours in a ring, ochre round to coral.

    HEIC · 6K · light and dark · 0.4 MB

  • Elbe

    The river. A pale sky over the Elbe at low tide.

    HEIC · 6K · light and dark · 0.3 MB

  • Abendrot

    Evening glow. Coral, rose and ochre, with violet rising.

    HEIC · 6K · light and dark · 0.4 MB

  • Nordlicht

    Northern lights. Ribbons of teal, mint and violet.

    HEIC · 6K · light and dark · 0.5 MB

  • Ruhe

    Quiet. Paper and graphite, for Frosted and a calm desk.

    HEIC · 6K · light and dark · 0.4 MB

To use one, Control-click the file in the Finder and choose Set Desktop Picture.

Ruhe

What Verso will not do.

Germans have a word for the quiet a good tool leaves you: Ruhe. These are the things that would break it.

  • AI features Not in the sidebar, not in the address field, not later.
  • Sync accounts Your tabs, history and bookmarks live in one file on your Mac.
  • Telemetry No analytics, no crash reports, no remote code.
  • Windows, Linux A Mac app, and only a Mac app.
  • Chromium WebKit, the engine your Mac already runs.

Datensparsamkeit

The whole list of what leaves your Mac.

German has a word for collecting as little data as possible. Verso's privacy file lists every connection the app makes on its own. Here it is, complete.

Every connection the app makes on its own
WhatWhere toStatus
Page loads With that Space's cookies only.Where to: The siteIn the app
Favicons Without cookies, kept nowhere.Where to: The site's hostIn the app
Searches Only when you press Enter.Where to: Your search engineIn the app
Update check When you ask, or once a day if you said yes. Builds before the first release never check.Where to: GitHub, the release feedNot yet
Filter lists EasyList and EasyPrivacy ship inside the app and are updated with it.Where to: NowhereIn the app

Where it stands

Milestone by milestone.

Verso is pre-alpha. Milestone four, the first release, is built; signing it waits for Apple's Developer Program. The download will be on the releases page on GitHub, which also takes bug reports.

  1. M0

    Skeleton

    Window, rail, sidebar, one page loading.

    Built
  2. M1

    Tabs, command bar

    Persistence, restore on launch, history search.

    Built, being measured
  3. M2

    Spaces

    Own cookie jars, private Spaces, pinned tabs.

    Built
  4. M3

    Lifecycle

    Suspended tabs, find, print, the performance pass.

    Built, being measured
  5. M4

    First release

    Content blocking, split view, signed updates.

    Built, release pending
  6. M5

    Extensions

    Web extensions through WebKit.

    Next

A browser that gets out of the way.

Nothing to install yet. The download comes with the first release.