Flecha vs Google Chrome

Flecha is a Chromium fork, so pages render as they do in Chrome and extensions from the Chrome Web Store install as usual. What changes is everything around the page.

At a glance

	Flecha	Chrome
Engine	Chromium	Chromium
Source	Open source, MIT	Closed source on top of Chromium
Platforms	macOS	Everywhere
Vertical tabs	A full sidebar with Spaces, pinned tabs, folders and Today tabs	Vertical tab strip since 2026, no Spaces
Peek and Flechinha	Yes	No
Ad and tracker blocking	Built in	Extension needed
Telemetry	None	Usage statistics when “Help improve Chrome” is on (Google)
Google account and sync	Sign in to Google sites, no browser sync	Yes
AI	None built in	Gemini in Chrome
Developer command bar	gh, npm, mdn, caniuse, JWT and timestamp decoding	No
Coding agents in your real profile	Built-in MCP server, on with one switch	With Chrome DevTools MCP and --autoConnect

Coding agents: Flecha’s MCP server vs Chrome DevTools MCP

Both let an agent such as Claude Code read pages, check the console, take screenshots and click.

• Chrome DevTools MCP by default starts its own Chrome with a separate profile, so the agent doesn’t see your tabs or sign-ins. To use your real browser you enable remote debugging and run it with --autoConnect. It also has deeper DevTools features, like performance traces.
• Flecha has an MCP server built in. Turn it on in Settings and the agent works in your real tabs, across Spaces, and the sidebar shows what it’s doing. See the tools.

Choose Chrome if

• you need Windows, Linux or a phone app, or sync with a Google account,
• you want Gemini built into the browser.

Choose Flecha if

• you want Arc’s sidebar, Spaces and Peek on top of the same engine,
• you’d rather the browser send nothing about you anywhere,
• you build websites and want developer shortcuts and an agent that sees your real tabs.

Install Flecha. Your Chrome extensions install from the Chrome Web Store as usual.