# Acira: full description Acira is a clean, private desktop browser for Windows, Mac and Linux, with no ads and no account. Acira was built from research into what people love and hate about their browsers, including 61 Reddit threads, Hacker News, reviews and YouTube comments. It is in beta (0.1), for Windows, Mac and Linux. It runs on Chromium. There is no Acira account, hosted service or cloud sync: bookmarks, history and settings stay on your computer. Signing in to websites works as usual. ## Private and Tor There are four ways to browse privately, and two of them are tabs that sit next to your normal tabs in the same window. - Private tab (Ctrl+Shift+P). Its own session: two private tabs never share cookies with each other or with normal tabs. Closing it keeps no history, closed-tab entry, bookmark, zoom or icon record. - Private window (Ctrl+Shift+N). Its tabs share one in-memory session until the window closes. - Tor tab (from the menu). Hides your IP address from sites in one tab. Tor is built in, with nothing to install. - Tor window (Alt+Shift+N). Every page in the window goes through Tor, and nothing loads without it. - Keep Tor bookmarks and tabs. Optional and off by default. Keeps pages saved from the Tor panel and last open Tor tabs, encrypted on this computer, opened with Windows Hello. The bookmark star in a Tor tab saves a normal, unencrypted bookmark instead. Limits: Tor hides your IP address from sites and gives each site its own circuit, and cookies and site data are not written to disk. It does not hide the browser's fingerprint, and extensions are off. Acira is not Tor Browser. If your safety depends on staying anonymous, use Tor Browser. The first connection can take a minute or two. ## Workspaces Up to eight per profile, switched with Alt+1 to Alt+8. Tabs, pinned tabs, groups and splits belong to a workspace; sign-ins, history and bookmarks belong to the profile. Command search and the all-tabs sheet find tabs across workspaces. Locked workspaces (beta, Windows). When locked, a workspace's tabs, groups and splits leave the window and are sealed in an encrypted file. Unlocking needs Windows Hello (face, fingerprint or PIN), or the Windows password if Hello is not set up. There is no separate Acira password. It locks when you leave it, after 1, 5, 15 or 30 minutes away, on minimize, and when Windows locks or sleeps. It has its own sign-ins, kept only in memory, and extensions do not run in it. It does not protect against malware running as you. The first workspace can't be locked. The name and icon stay visible while locked. ## Your look - 12 finishes: Porcelain, Burgundy, Navy, Ocean, Sky, Emerald Green, Alpine Green, Deep Purple, Sand, Stone, Silver and Graphite, plus your own colors for pages, sidebar, toolbar and tabs. Websites are unchanged. - Window opacity from 40% to 100%, in light, dark or system appearance. - Tabs along the top, in a sidebar, or in a sidebar that also holds the address bar. The sidebar can stand on the left or the right, in three sizes (Narrow, Standard, Wide), with tab groups as folders and Favorites at the top or the bottom. - Site color (Off, Soft or Rich): the sidebar and the bands around the page glow in the color of the site you are on. It is worked out on your computer. - Window views: Full, Compact, Focus and Seamless (just the page; point at an edge for the toolbar or sidebar). - New tab: built-in paintings, or landscapes, nature, architecture, space, your own image, or no image. - Customizable toolbar and menu, editable keyboard shortcuts, and an animation speed setting (Premium, Fast or Off). ## Getting work done Split view with up to four panes; Peek link previews (Alt-click, press and hold, or a Preview button on search results); per-tab volume; command search (Ctrl+Shift+K); all-tabs sheet (Alt+T); tab groups, pins and Favorites; tab sleep; Reader mode; web apps; custom search engines and !keywords. ## Never lose work Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the last closed tab. Rewind (Ctrl+Shift+H) keeps closed tabs and windows for up to 7 days, searchable, with restore for a whole window. Private and Tor windows are never saved. Sessions restore after a crash or restart, or Settings > Tabs > When Acira starts can open a New Tab instead. ## Protection Built-in ad and tracker blocking with a per-tab count and a per-site off switch. On by default: blocking hidden trackers, skipping tracking redirects, removing tracking parameters, opening original pages instead of AMP, standard fingerprint protection and blocking third-party cookies. Warnings for dangerous pages, using about 545,000 list entries matched on your computer. A local password vault and generator with Windows Hello. Secure DNS, a proxy per profile, and control of your own VPN app (Acira does not provide a VPN). AI-free mode (Ctrl+Shift+X, off by default) hides recognized AI answers and AI buttons on supported sites: Google, Bing, Brave Search and DuckDuckGo. It cannot detect all AI-written content. This beta of Acira contains no AI features of its own. New setups start with anonymous usage counts on, with an immediate off switch on that screen and in Settings. While on, at most once a day Acira sends a random ID, the app version, the system, the language and coarse counts, never web addresses, history or accounts. ## Performance On one Windows 11 PC, with the same ten real sites, Acira used 1,272 MB against Chrome's 1,596 MB (20% less) and 18 processes against 53. With 30 tabs it used 2,693 MB awake and 859 MB with tab sleep. These were measured before this release, with a fresh Chrome profile and no extensions. Chrome loads the ads Acira blocks, which is most of the gap. ## Moving in Import bookmarks and history from Chrome, Edge, Brave, Helium, Arc, Firefox and Zen. Arc Spaces become workspaces. Sign-ins are not copied. Extensions install from the Chrome Web Store with an Add to Acira button. Of 26 popular extensions tested, 20 work, 4 work with limits and 2 don't yet. Extensions are off in Tor and locked workspaces, and in private tabs unless you allow them. ## Not there yet No cloud sync and no mobile app. The Windows app is not code-signed yet. ## Who is building it The team comes from agent security. Right now Acira is purely a browser, with no agents and no AI features. Optional agents are planned for later, and people will be able to turn them off completely. Acira's own code is open source under the AGPL-3.0 license; the source of every release is at https://github.com/Acira-dev/AciraBrowser. ## Pages by topic - Arc alternative: https://acirabrowser.com/arc-alternative/ - Private and Tor tabs: https://acirabrowser.com/private-tabs/ - Lock your tabs: https://acirabrowser.com/lock-browser-tabs/ - Chrome alternative: https://acirabrowser.com/chrome-alternative/ - Clean, minimal browser: https://acirabrowser.com/minimal-browser/ - Built-in ad blocker: https://acirabrowser.com/ad-blocker-browser/ - Browser with no AI: https://acirabrowser.com/no-ai-browser/ - Vertical tabs: https://acirabrowser.com/vertical-tabs-browser/ ## Other 13 interface languages. Local profiles, each with its own sign-ins and history. Contact: support@acirai.com.