STEP VS ZEN
Step vs Zen Browser
Zen is the most beautiful Firefox fork ever shipped. Step is a Chromium fork built around persistence. Different engines, different bets.
Zen is open source, community-driven, and beautifully designed. Its calm aesthetic and rapid release cadence are genuinely impressive. We love it on principle. But Zen inherits Firefox's session manager, which has always been best-effort. Step's central thesis is that persistence has to be the foundation, not a layer on top. That meant choosing Chromium for the engine and writing our own state model from scratch.
Side by side
| Dimension | Step | Zen |
|---|---|---|
| Engine | Chromium | Firefox (Gecko) |
| Open source | No (free during beta) | Yes, MPL 2.0 |
| Design quality | Premium calm aesthetic | Premium calm aesthetic |
| Workspaces | Persistent Spaces with full state restore | Workspaces with Firefox session restore (best-effort) |
| Persistence | Tabs, groups, splits, scroll, annotations all restored | Tabs restored, occasional session loss reported |
| Annotations | Native Marginalia layer | Not built-in |
| Navigation graph | Step Trail records exploration shape | Linear history |
| Cross-page search | Graph Find across the entire Space | Cmd+F on current page |
| Extensions | Chrome Web Store (full Chromium catalog) | Firefox Add-ons |
| Platform | macOS | macOS, Windows, Linux |
| Pricing | Free during beta | Free, donations welcome |
Engine
Open source
Design quality
Workspaces
Persistence
Annotations
Navigation graph
Cross-page search
Extensions
Platform
Pricing
Where Zen wins
- Zen is open source. You can read every line.
- Zen runs on Linux. Step doesn't.
- Zen has been shipping rapidly with a passionate community.
- Firefox engine means Manifest V2 extension support and stronger ad-blocking compatibility.
Where Step wins
- Step's persistence model is the core feature, not a session-restore inheritance from upstream.
- Annotations and Trail are first-class data, not extensions.
- Graph Find searches across pages in a Space, not just the current one.
- Built on Chromium so the broader extension catalog and web compatibility are stronger.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Step if
- You want persistence that holds up every time, including scroll positions and annotations.
- You need broad Chromium extension compatibility.
- You're on macOS and want a polished native shell.
Pick Zen if
- You need open source for principled or auditing reasons.
- You're on Linux.
- You prefer the Firefox engine for ad-blocking or tracking protection reasons.
- You're comfortable with Firefox's session manager and don't feel the persistence pain.
Frequently asked
Why didn't Step pick Firefox like Zen?
Will Step open source the code?
More comparisons
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