A lightweight browser built for MacOS that uses webkit and includes no arbitrary features or user tracking. Illuminate is still in development, although since its only me, bug fixes will be slow.
- WebKit-based browsing
- Isolated profiles and Guest mode
- Download manager
- Ad and tracker blocking with Ublock
- Tab groups, caching, and previews
- Bookmarks and shortcuts
- Cookie management
- History system
Illuminate is designed with privacy in mind:
- No tracking
- No telemetry or user analytics
- No account required
- Cookie management
- Canvas fingerprinting protection
- macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later
- Xcode 26 or later
- Swift 6
- Nuke — image loading, caching and favicon pipeline for native browser UI
- Add redirect blocking
- Increase test coverage beyond 75%
- Performance optimizations
- Expand extension support
- KeychainAccess for password management
- Write an actual onboarding view instead of AI
- Localise app
- Sync passwords with apple passwords
- Keep track of dirty states for changes may not be saved
- Cannot drag and drop tabs into groups that exist (UI)
- Not a bug but a nicer font could be more readable and pretty
- Closing a tab causes the webview to go black when it auto swiches to the next tab
- Search suggestions dont show at all
- Extracted background color needs a cap on how bright it can be
- Issues with staying signed in (Could be for memory dumping)
If you'd like to report a bug, please do under issues
Illuminate is open-source for a reason, and any contributions from anyone is welcome!
AI tools were used during development to assist with implementation and code generation. Generated code was reviewed, tested, and integrated responsibly.
- Nuke by Alexander Grebenyuk — image pipeline
- KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus - Keyboard Shortcuts
- Sparkle by Kornel - App updates
MIT. See LICENSE.