
Burly vs. Browserosaurus
Burly vs. Browserosaurus
Two free macOS link pickers, though Browserosaurus was retired in 2025. It chose between browsers. Burly chooses between profiles, Safari profiles included, stays native rather than Electron, and is actively maintained. Here is how they compare.
Browserosaurus was a free, open source browser picker for macOS. Click a link and it popped up a grid of your installed browsers, each on a keyboard shortcut, so you could choose where the link opened. It was simple and friendly, but it chose browsers, not profiles, so it could not tell your Work Chrome from your Personal Chrome, and it was built on Electron rather than native code. Its developer retired the project in 2025, and the repository is now archived and no longer maintained.
Burly vs. Browserosaurus: the quick take
The quick take: both are free, and Browserosaurus was open source with a friendly grid picker, but it was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. The dividing line is profiles. Browserosaurus chose browsers; Burly chooses profiles, Safari profiles included, stays native rather than Electron, and keeps shipping updates. If one browser holds two profiles you need to keep apart, Burly is the one that can tell them apart, and the one still being maintained.
Burly vs. Browserosaurus, feature by feature
| Feature | Burly | Browserosaurus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Open source | ✗ | ✓ |
| Actively maintained | ✓ | Retired in 2025 |
| Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | Grid popup |
| Keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | ✗ |
| Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | ✗ |
| Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | ✗ |
| Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Modifier-key bypass and routing modes | ✓ | ✗ |
| Native macOS app (not Electron) | ✓ | ✗ |
Feature data verified against each vendor's site in June 2026.
Where Browserosaurus is the better pick
- Browserosaurus was free and open source, and its source remains available to read and fork even after the archive.
- If you only juggle browsers and never profiles, it did that one job simply and well.
- As an archived project it is now stable and unchanging, with no telemetry and no surprises, though also no fixes.
The verdict
Browserosaurus was a lovely free pick if you only needed to choose between browsers, but it was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. The moment one browser holds two profiles, Work and Personal Chrome, or two Safari profiles, it could not tell them apart. Burly makes each profile a first class destination, Safari profiles included, stays native rather than Electron, is actively maintained, and adds per-profile keys, a modifier bypass, and global hotkeys.
Try Burly free
Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.
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