Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Table of Contents

What is Orion?

Orion is a native, lightning-fast, and privacy-protecting browser for Apple users, open to the web and all its standards and protocols. It's based on the WebKit open-source browser engine that also powers Apple's Safari web browser. One day, we hope everyone will say Orion is the best browser for all Apple devices.

Orion was built for professionals by professionals, but anyone can benefit from it. Installing Orion with its default settings on any Apple device will cut down on annoying ads and speed up page loads. We want everyone to enjoy the web.

How do I replay the intro video?

Watch is here in even higher quality!

Orion intro animation

Why is it important for an app to be native?

We take pride in Orion being 100% native on macOS/iOS/iPadOS.

Lets define what native means first: Native macOS app is an app that is specifically designed for the Apple macOS operating system and utilizes its APIs, frameworks, UI components and guidelines.

The main benefits of native apps include:

  • Ensuring that the app feels familiar to users. HIG provides guidance on how to design an intuitive UI that follows platform conventions and therefore provides a consistent experience across apps for new and veteran users.

  • It is generally accepted that Apple knows what it is doing when design is question. It is probably a good idea to follow its lead and probably one of the reasons you own a Mac or an iPhone. Following the extensive Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) makes any designer's job easier, not harder.

  • Any long time Mac user can easily see how Chrome or Firefox look and feel out of place on a Mac. These browsers were originally designed for Windows, but they work and look the same even on macOS or Linux, when those are clearly different operating systems with different conventions, design rules and aesthetics.

  • Native integrations allow apps to use powerful components provided by the OS. For example Orion utilizes Keychain to store passwords or gets the benefit of Live Text recognition of text in images. This make apps more powerful while being leaner and easier to build and maintain at the same time.

  • Finally, and maybe most importantly, using native components and frameworks generally makes apps faster, better for battery life and overall snappier.

Why use Orion instead of Safari?

Safari is truly one of the best browsers you can use on macOS, and we're grateful to Apple for creating such a solid foundation. By basing Orion on Safari's tech stack, then adding productivity enhancements such as built-in ad-blocking, Orion can provide users with exactly what they need.

Why use Orion instead of Chrome, Firefox, or other browsers based on Chromium/Firefox?

Google and Mozilla have made great technological strides over the past decades. We're grateful for those efforts because they help us take the next step in browser evolution.

How fast is Orion?

We are... ahem.. fast.

How much memory does Orion use?

Orion is lightweight, with advanced memory-use technology that includes the best closed-tab management of all contemporary browsers.

How does Orion respect my online privacy?

Orion has no built-in telemetry, so it can never "phone home" and risk exposing your data. Orion is truly and verifiably a privacy-respecting browser — unlike those that only offer the illusion of privacy.

How does Orion protect my online privacy?

Web ads have steadily eroded the online experience with their layout crowding, page slowing, annoying popups, and insidious malware. Yet, most browsers do not block ads by default. Orion is different.

How do I clear cookies?

Go to Settings->Orion->Manage to search and clear individual site cookies OR Orion->Reset to reset ALL cookies, history, bookmarks, etc.

How does Orion support extensions?

Orion supports browser extensions based on open-standard WebExtensions APIs. These are the same APIs that power browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. So, we support many of those extensions on macOS, iOS, and iPadOS.

Does Orion have an iPhone or iPad app?

Yep, Orion is available for both iOS and iPadOS.

Is there any way to get a previous build of Orion?

Yes, things don't always go as planned and mistakes can happen. If you ever need a previous version, you need to type a specific URL to get the version you want: https://browser.kagi.com/updates/{Current_OS}/{Orion_Beta_Version}.zip

Examples: Version 0.99.119-beta

How to use Debug menu?

Orion's debug menu contains a number of commands that can be of interest to "advanced" users. To enabled Debug menu, type the following in terminal:

defaults write com.kagi.kagimacOS DebugMenu 1

If you use Orion RC (release candidate) replace with com.kagi.kagimacOS.RC.

When you relaunch Orion, you’ll find a new Debug menu, located to the right of the Help menu.

Test Web Page - Web Page for testing with default configuration and without any web-extension scripts

Reset Welcome Animation State - To reset welcome animation flag to see again on next launch

Reset Preferences - Reset all global settings

Clear Website Data - Remove all website data (cache, cookies etc)

Clear Content Blocking Lists - Remove Content Blocking List so that can be initialized again on next relaunch

Clear Policy Cache - Removes WebRequest APIs request/response blocking (from web-extensions like uBlock) cache

Disable Resource Interceptor - Bypass any requests/response interception (used by WebRequests API) to reduce request/response delay

Disable Reloading Tab on WebKit Crash - Disables auto reload feature of webpage when WebContent process crashes

Show Debug Log - Shows web-extension API console logs for testing/debug

Factory Reset - Wipe all data and reset Orion to factory settings

You can read more about Orion's advanced features in the technical documentation.

How do I access my Favorites via shortcuts (CMD + #)?

Open Preferences -> Browsing, uncheck "Use cmd1 - cmd9 to switch tabs".

Note that Orion uses Bookmarks bar that is separate from Favorites for more control, so you would need to copy bookmarks you want to the Bookmarks bar folder.

Orion is displaying wrong icons for Favorites and Frequently Visited pages — how can I fix that?

The easiest way to fix incorrect icons is to purge the websites cache. You can accomplish this with the following steps:

On iOS
Settings -> Data Management -> Clear History and Websites Data -> Toggle on Websites Cache -> Tap Clear.

On macOS
Develop -> Empty Cache.