How to Change Your Default Browser on macOS (and a Smarter Alternative)

Changing your default browser on a Mac takes about ten seconds, but the setting controls more than people realize, and for a lot of workflows a single default is the wrong tool entirely. Here is how to change it, what it actually does, and when you want something better.

Changing the default browser

Open System Settings, then Desktop and Dock. Scroll to the Default web browser dropdown and pick the browser you want. That is it. Every http and https link clicked outside a browser, in Mail, Messages, Slack, a PDF, will now open in that app.

On older macOS versions the same setting lived inside the General pane, and some browsers also offer to make themselves default the first time you launch them. They all change the same underlying Launch Services registration.

What the default actually controls

The default browser setting picks one application. It does not pick a profile, and it does not vary by where the link came from. Whatever you choose receives every link, and that link lands in whichever profile is currently active in that browser.

For a single-profile, single-purpose machine that is fine. The moment you keep separate profiles for work and personal, or juggle two Chrome installs, one default stops being enough. You can change the default all day and still have links open in the wrong place, because the wrong place is a profile, not an app.

When a router beats a default

Instead of choosing one browser to receive everything, you can set the default to a small router that decides per link. Burly registers as the default handler, then on each click lets you choose the exact browser profile to open in. The setting in System Settings still points at one app, Burly, but Burly hands the link onward to Work, Personal, a Firefox profile, or a separate Chrome install as you direct.

This keeps the simplicity of having a default while removing its biggest limitation. You get one place that catches every link and an instant choice of where it should really go, all without copying URLs between windows.

Bottom line

Set your default browser in System Settings under Desktop and Dock. If you only need one browser and one profile, you are done. If you live across multiple profiles, point the default at a link router like Burly so every click can land in the right profile instead of just the right app.