# Burly: full site text > Every page of www.burly.click as plain Markdown. Burly is a free macOS menu bar app that routes each link to the browser profile you pick: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Chromium profiles. The index of these pages, with summaries, is at /llms.txt. --- URL: https://www.burly.click/ Title: Burly: Browser Profile Picker & Link Router for macOS Browser profiles without the browser-profile mess # Click a link. Pick the right profile. Burly opens the link picker exactly where you click, so work links, personal links, and app links land in the browser profile you meant. Download for MacUpgrade for $1.99 Free · Requires macOS 13 or later · Signed and notarized by Apple · No account required MailSat 10:03 Mail · Launch notes New link from Matt This is exactly the kind of link that opens in the wrong profile. www.weatherling.app Notes Browser profiles Messages Why Burly exists Use Chrome Work for this one. Safari is my personal profile. 1WorkChrome profile 2DevFirefox profile 3PersonalChrome profile 4PersonalSafari profile https://www.weatherling.appWork FeaturesPricingDownload THE GREAT INDOORS Stay in. Let it rain. Rain, snow, and cozy weather effects on your Mac desktop windows.Download for $1.99 RainSnowIntensity - 1. Click any linkIn Mail, Slack, Messages, or any other app. - 2. Burly bloomsThe picker opens right where you clicked. - 3. Pick a profileClick a petal or press its number key. - 4. It lands thereThe link opens in exactly that browser profile. Chrome and Firefox profiles work right away. Safari profiles need Accessibility permission, which Burly asks for on first launch, and Safari running. No link you click ever leaves your Mac. See the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. The real app ## Watch Burly route a real link. Burly is a tiny macOS menu bar app that becomes your link handler. When you click a link, it lets you pick the exact browser and profile that should open it, instantly, with the keyboard. Questions, answered ## What Burly does ## Can Burly open a link in a specific browser profile? Yes. Burly lists every browser profile on your Mac as its own destination, so a click can go to Safari Work, Chrome Personal, or Firefox Dev instead of whichever window happens to be in front. It finds those profiles automatically as you add, rename, or remove them. Most link routers stop at the browser: they can send a URL to Chrome, but not to the work profile inside Chrome. Burly treats the profile as the thing you choose. Open Settings and every profile is a row you can reorder, hide, or dress up with an emoji or account photo, a petal color, and its own shortcut key, so the picker becomes a board of faces you recognize at a glance. A typical weekday looks like this: a calendar invite from work Mail goes to the Work profile, a shopping receipt from personal Messages goes to Personal, and a docs link from a side-project Slack lands in the Dev profile, with no copy-paste between windows. ## Where does the Burly picker appear when you click a link? Right under your cursor. Click a link in Mail, Slack, Messages, or anywhere else and a radial picker springs open at that spot, the URL at its center and every profile one keystroke away. It vanishes the instant you choose. You never hunt for a window or a menu bar extra to finish the click. The picker is already in memory because Burly runs as a resident menu bar agent, so it appears immediately rather than cold-launching. Press the profile key, click a petal, or hold your bypass modifier to skip it. A designer sharing a Figma link during a call can send it to Work without the picker covering the meeting; a late-night shopper can send a store link to Personal without it landing in a work window that will be screen-shared tomorrow. ## Which browsers and Safari profiles does Burly support? Safari (including Safari profiles), Chrome and Chrome Canary, Brave, Microsoft Edge, Arc, Vivaldi, Chromium, Opera, Firefox, Firefox Developer Edition, and Zen. Safari profiles are real, targeted destinations, which most other macOS link routers cannot reach. Chromium and Firefox profiles can be launched from the command line, so several apps manage those. Safari has no public launch API for a named profile; Burly is one of the few tools that still sends a link there, by driving Safari's own "New Profile Window" menu through the Accessibility API rather than AppleScript. If your work life lives in a Safari profile, that is the difference between a router you can actually use and one that silently drops those links in the wrong place. See the full list on the supported browsers page, and the dedicated Safari profile switcher guide if that is the job you came here for. ## Do you have to use the picker on every click? No. A bare click opens the picker; hold your chosen modifier to skip it. Invert that in one toggle so a bare click goes straight through and a held key brings the picker up, and choose what a skipped link opens: your last-used destination, or one browser profile you pin. The default is built for mixed days, when some links are obvious and some are not. Hold Option (or whichever modifier you pick) on the tenth Jira link in a row and it reopens Work without asking; click a personal newsletter without the modifier and the picker still asks, because that one might belong in Personal or in a shopping profile. The gesture and the destination are separate settings, so you can also invert the gesture and pin a profile under What to open: then every link lands in Chrome Work, and the picker is the thing you opt into by holding the key. Either way, the decision lives at click time rather than in a rules file you have to keep current. ## Can Burly always open links in one browser profile? Yes. Set What to open to a specific browser profile and turn on Invert, and every link goes straight there. Hold your modifier when a link belongs somewhere else and the picker blooms so you can choose. Leave What to open on Last Used and the bypass follows whichever profile you used most recently instead. This is the setup for people whose links always belong in one browser profile, or nearly always: a contractor who works out of Chrome Work all day, or anyone tired of external links landing in whichever profile a browser happened to have in front. The pinned profile is a standing default, not a guess. Choosing another profile from the picker or a global hotkey opens that link there and does not quietly move the default, and the profile that is currently active never overrides it. If the pinned profile is ever unavailable, say the browser was uninstalled, Burly shows the picker and says so rather than dropping the link into some other profile. ## Can you open a browser profile with a keyboard shortcut on a Mac? Yes. A global hotkey, your chosen prefix (Hyper by default) plus the profile's own key, drops you straight into a fresh tab from anywhere, no link required. The same shortcuts live in the menu bar under Open New Tab in. This is the other half of routing: sometimes you are not clicking a link, you just want the work browser in front of you. Press the prefix plus 1 and Work opens to a new tab, the whole trick behind opening a browser profile with a keyboard shortcut; prefix plus 0 always reopens whichever profile you used last. Burly auto-assigns keys so this works the moment it is installed, and you can rebind any of them. It is the difference between hunting through Safari's profile menu or Chrome's avatar picker and having the right context appear before you have finished the thought. ## Does Burly stay out of the way when you are not clicking a link? Yes. Burly is a menu bar app, not a browser and not a Dock fixture. Launch it at login and, if you want it fully out of sight, hide the menu bar icon. It only steps in when a link needs a home. There is no account, no window to manage, and no dashboard to check. After you set it as the default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, every http and https click is handed to Burly first. The rest of macOS looks the same. People who already live in a crowded menu bar can hide the icon and keep the picker, the bypass, and the hotkeys. People who like a status check can leave the icon up and confirm at a glance that Burly is still the default handler. ## Can you turn off the picker animation? Yes. Turn on reduce animations and the picker appears fully expanded instead of springing open from the center. It is the same destinations and the same keys, without the motion. This is for vestibular sensitivity, for screen recordings where a bloom is distracting, and for anyone who just prefers things still. The setting is a single switch in the Accessibility pane of Burly’s settings, with nothing else to configure. Keyboard selection, the bypass modifier, and last-used routing all keep working. If macOS Reduce Motion is already on, you will feel at home: Burly is matching that preference for the one piece of UI it adds to a click. New to this kind of app? Read what a Mac link router is and how to set one up, or the Safari profile switcher if that is the specific job you need done. Built in vs. Burly ## Do you need an app to open links in a specific browser profile? Not always. Safari and Chrome each have a partial, built-in way to pick a profile, and if one of them covers how you work, use it. An app earns its place when the right profile depends on the link, not just the website, or when your profiles span more than one browser. ### Safari: Open Links With Profile Fine if every site always belongs to one profile. A per-website rule in Safari settings. It only applies to links from other apps, only when Safari is the default browser, and anything unconfigured falls back to the last-used profile.Why Safari’s setting misses links ### Chrome: the profile directory flag Fine for one or two shortcuts you launch on purpose. Chrome has no setting for where outside links land: they open in the last-used profile. You can launch a named profile from Terminal, but that does nothing for the link you just clicked in Slack.Open links in a specific Chrome profile ### Burly For choosing per click, across every browser. Asks at click time, with a picker at your cursor or a key per profile, and reaches Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Chromium profiles from one place. Safari profiles need an Accessibility grant.Compare Burly with other link routers ## Is Burly really free? Yes. Every feature is free, with no account and no trial. Every so often the picker shows a small promotion for one of my other apps. If you’d rather not see them, become a Supporter with one $1.99 payment and they’re gone, and you can reach me directly through Contact Support. Every feature stays free for everyone. Become a SupporterSee pricing ## Join the Burly community on Discord Ask questions, report bugs, share your profile setups, and hear about new releases first. It's free to join and open to everyone.Join the Discord --- URL: https://www.burly.click/features Title: Burly Features: Browser Profile Routing & Hotkeys for macOS Features # Everything Burly does, for every browser profile on your Mac. Burly sits quietly in your menu bar and steps in only when a link needs a home. Here's everything it does. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. Updated September 28, 2026 If you are still sizing up the category rather than the app, start with what a Mac link router is. If the job is specifically sending links into a named Safari profile, the Safari profile switcher page is the shorter path. 01 ## Profiles are the destination Most link routers stop at the browser: they can send a URL to Chrome, but not to the work profile inside Chrome. Burly treats the profile as the thing you choose. Open Settings and every profile is a row you can reorder, hide, or dress up with an emoji or account photo, a petal color, and its own shortcut key, so the picker becomes a board of faces you recognize at a glance. A typical weekday looks like this: a calendar invite from work Mail goes to the Work profile, a shopping receipt from personal Messages goes to Personal, and a docs link from a side-project Slack lands in the Dev profile, with no copy-paste between windows. 02 ## A picker that blooms under your cursor You never hunt for a window or a menu bar extra to finish the click. The picker is already in memory because Burly runs as a resident menu bar agent, so it appears immediately rather than cold-launching. Press the profile key, click a petal, or hold your bypass modifier to skip it. A designer sharing a Figma link during a call can send it to Work without the picker covering the meeting; a late-night shopper can send a store link to Personal without it landing in a work window that will be screen-shared tomorrow. 03 ## Works with the browsers you use Chromium and Firefox profiles can be launched from the command line, so several apps manage those. Safari has no public launch API for a named profile; Burly is one of the few tools that still sends a link there, by driving Safari's own "New Profile Window" menu through the Accessibility API rather than AppleScript. If your work life lives in a Safari profile, that is the difference between a router you can actually use and one that silently drops those links in the wrong place. See the full list on the supported browsers page, and the dedicated Safari profile switcher guide if that is the job you came here for. 04 ## Click to choose, hold to skip The default is built for mixed days, when some links are obvious and some are not. Hold Option (or whichever modifier you pick) on the tenth Jira link in a row and it reopens Work without asking; click a personal newsletter without the modifier and the picker still asks, because that one might belong in Personal or in a shopping profile. The gesture and the destination are separate settings, so you can also invert the gesture and pin a profile under What to open: then every link lands in Chrome Work, and the picker is the thing you opt into by holding the key. Either way, the decision lives at click time rather than in a rules file you have to keep current. 05 ## Always open here, unless I say otherwise This is the setup for people whose links always belong in one browser profile, or nearly always: a contractor who works out of Chrome Work all day, or anyone tired of external links landing in whichever profile a browser happened to have in front. The pinned profile is a standing default, not a guess. Choosing another profile from the picker or a global hotkey opens that link there and does not quietly move the default, and the profile that is currently active never overrides it. If the pinned profile is ever unavailable, say the browser was uninstalled, Burly shows the picker and says so rather than dropping the link into some other profile. 06 ## A system-wide hotkey for every profile This is the other half of routing: sometimes you are not clicking a link, you just want the work browser in front of you. Press the prefix plus 1 and Work opens to a new tab, the whole trick behind opening a browser profile with a keyboard shortcut; prefix plus 0 always reopens whichever profile you used last. Burly auto-assigns keys so this works the moment it is installed, and you can rebind any of them. It is the difference between hunting through Safari's profile menu or Chrome's avatar picker and having the right context appear before you have finished the thought. 07 ## Lives quietly in your menu bar There is no account, no window to manage, and no dashboard to check. After you set it as the default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, every http and https click is handed to Burly first. The rest of macOS looks the same. People who already live in a crowded menu bar can hide the icon and keep the picker, the bypass, and the hotkeys. People who like a status check can leave the icon up and confirm at a glance that Burly is still the default handler. 08 ## Reduce motion when you want calm This is for vestibular sensitivity, for screen recordings where a bloom is distracting, and for anyone who just prefers things still. The setting is a single switch in the Accessibility pane of Burly’s settings, with nothing else to configure. Keyboard selection, the bypass modifier, and last-used routing all keep working. If macOS Reduce Motion is already on, you will feel at home: Burly is matching that preference for the one piece of UI it adds to a click. ## Ready to route every link? Free, native, and private. Signed and notarized by Apple, and no account required.Download for macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/supported-browsers Title: Supported Browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox | Burly Supported browsers # Every browser. Every profile. Burly discovers the browsers and profiles already on your Mac and puts each one a keystroke away. Here's what it works with today. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. Updated September 28, 2026 How Burly routes links in each browser family, as of Burly 1.5.0. | | Browser family | Profile routing | How the link is delivered | Needs | Chromium browsersGoogle Chrome, Chrome Canary, Chromium, Brave, Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Comet, Opera | Yes, any profile | Launches the browser with its profile directory | Nothing | SafariSafari | Yes, any profile | Opens a new window in the chosen profile through the Accessibility API, then hands it the link | Accessibility permission and Safari already running | Firefox browsersFirefox, Firefox Developer Edition, Zen Browser | Yes, any named profile | Launches the browser with the named profile | Nothing | Detected, opens in the current profileArc, Dia, ChatGPT Atlas | No, uses whichever profile is active | Hands the link to the running app as-is | Arc only: Accessibility permission, to wait for a real window ## Chromium browsers Burly opens links straight into the exact profile you pick, launching the browser by its profile directory. - Google Chrome - Chrome Canary - Chromium - Brave - Microsoft Edge - Vivaldi - Comet - Opera ## Safari Burly routes links into the right Safari profile. - Safari ## Firefox browsers Burly targets the named profile you choose for each link. - Firefox - Firefox Developer Edition - Zen Browser ## Detected, opens in the current profile These browsers lock links to whatever profile is active, so Burly hands the link off as-is instead of switching profiles for you. With Arc, Burly also waits for a real browser window before handing the link over, and opens one if Arc was quit, so the link is not silently swallowed. - Arc - Dia - ChatGPT Atlas ## Does Burly work with Chrome profiles? Yes. Burly reads your Chrome profiles directly and opens links in the exact one you pick, launching Chrome by its profile directory. The same works for every Chromium browser, including Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, and Chrome Canary. New profiles you add in Chrome appear in Burly automatically, with nothing to configure. The manual version of the same trick, and why Chrome wants a folder name rather than the profile name, is in how to open links in a specific Chrome profile. ## How does Burly open links in Safari profiles? macOS gives no public way to launch a specific Safari profile, so Burly uses the macOS Accessibility API to open a new window in the Safari profile you choose, then hands it the link. The result is that Safari profiles become real destinations in the picker, something most other link routers cannot do. Safari needs to be running, and Burly needs Accessibility permission, which it walks you through on first launch. The Safari profile switcher guide covers every built-in way to switch profiles too, and why Safari's own profile link setting misfires. ## Does Burly work with Arc? Yes. Arc appears in the picker as a destination and links open in whichever Arc profile is active, because Arc runs a single instance and cannot be launched into a named profile. Arc also throws a link away when it has no browser window open, which is the state right after you quit it, so Burly waits for a real window before handing the link over and presses New Window itself if none appears. That wait uses the macOS Accessibility permission; without it Burly still hands the link off the old way. ## Which browsers can Burly route to by profile? Burly routes to a specific profile in every Chromium browser, in Safari, and in Firefox and its variants (Firefox Developer Edition and Zen). A few browsers, like Arc, Dia, and ChatGPT Atlas, lock links to whatever profile is active (Arc allows only one running instance, so it cannot be launched into a profile), so Burly detects them and hands the link off as-is rather than switching profiles for you. The browser-by-browser detail lives in Brave, Edge, and Arc profiles on a Mac, opening external links in a Firefox profile, and the complete guide to browser profiles on a Mac. ## Ready to route every link? Free, native, and private. Signed and notarized by Apple, and no account required.Download for macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/browser-picker Title: What Is a Browser Picker? Mac Link Router Guide | Burly Browser picker # A Mac link router that knows your browser profiles macOS gives you one default browser and sends every link to it. A link router puts itself in between and decides where each link actually belongs: which browser, and which profile. Burly is a free, native one that asks you in a keystroke, rather than making you write rules. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. Updated September 28, 2026 Download for macOSFree · macOS 13 or later · no account ## What does a link router actually do? Every link you click, in Mail, Slack, Messages, Notion, or the Terminal, is handed to whichever app macOS has registered as the handler for http and https. Normally that is a browser. A link router registers itself as that handler instead, so the link lands with it first. It then does the one thing a browser cannot: it works out where the link should go, and passes it on. The category goes by several names, which is why it is hard to search for. Browser picker, browser chooser, browser switcher, and link router all describe the same job. The difference between the apps is when they ask. A picker asks at the moment you click. A rules-based router decides for you from the link, the app you clicked it in, or a pattern you wrote down earlier. ## Why does the profile matter more than the browser? Most people who want a picker do not really have a browser problem. They have a profile problem. Work lives in one Chrome profile and personal life in another, or a client sits in its own Safari profile, and the cost of a link landing in the wrong one is not cosmetic: you are signed into the wrong Google account, the wrong calendar, the wrong tenant, and you copy the URL and paste it somewhere else to try again. A picker that only lists browsers cannot help with that. It sends the link to Chrome and Chrome opens it in whatever profile happens to be frontmost. Burly lists profiles rather than browsers, so Safari Work and Safari Personal are two separate destinations, each with its own key. It reads them from the browsers themselves and keeps up as you add, rename, or remove them. Safari is the sharp edge here. Chromium and Firefox profiles can be targeted from the command line, so several apps manage it, but Safari has no public way to open a link in a chosen profile. Burly supports Safari profiles along with every Chromium and Firefox browser it finds. The Safari profile switcher page is the dedicated write-up of that path. ## How do you set up a browser picker on a Mac? Five minutes, most of which is deciding on emoji. Nothing here is irreversible: setting a different default browser in System Settings puts everything back exactly as it was. - Download Burly and drag it to your Applications folder. It runs as a menu bar app, so there is no Dock icon and no window to manage. - Open it once. Burly scans the browsers already installed on your Mac and reads their profiles, so there is no list to build by hand. - Open System Settings, go to Desktop & Dock, and set Burly as your default web browser. This is the step that puts it in the path of every link. - Give each profile an emoji or account photo, a color, and a shortcut key, so the picker becomes something you read at a glance rather than something you scan. - Pick a bypass modifier and decide what it opens. Holding it as you click sends the link straight through without the picker appearing at all, either to your last-used profile or to one profile you pin, and inverting the gesture makes that what a plain click does instead. If you are not sure how to change the default handler, the default browser guide walks through the System Settings steps with screenshots. ## Picker or rules? Pick the right side of the line This is the choice that decides whether you keep whatever you install. If your routing is predictable, every Jira link to work Chrome, every link from Slack to the same place, a rules-based router will do it silently and you will never see a prompt. If your routing depends on what you are doing at the time, rules turn into a list you maintain forever, and a picker that asks is faster than a rule that guesses wrong. Burly is squarely on the picker side, with no rules engine at all. That is a deliberate limit, not an oversight, and it is the reason some people should use something else. If you want a ranked read on the whole category, the best browser picker for Mac roundup says who each one is for, and the comparison hub puts price, profile support, and picker style for every app in one table. ## Browser picker FAQ What is a browser picker?A browser picker is a small app that becomes your default browser without being a browser. When you click a link anywhere on your Mac, it intercepts the link and asks where it should open, then hands the link to the browser, or browser profile, you choose. It is also called a link router, a browser chooser, or a browser switcher. Does macOS have a built-in browser picker?No. macOS lets you nominate exactly one default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, and every link goes there. There is no built-in way to send one link to Safari and the next to Chrome, and no way at all to aim a link at a particular profile inside a browser. That gap is what a picker fills. Is there a free browser picker for macOS?Yes. Burly is free, native, and needs no configuration. Finicky is free and open source but replaces the picker with a JavaScript config file. Browserosaurus was the other well-known free picker, but it was retired in 2025 and no longer gets updates. Can a browser picker open a specific browser profile?Some can. Most pickers stop at the browser, so they can send a link to Chrome but not to your work profile inside Chrome. Burly treats each profile as its own destination, Safari profiles included, and discovers them automatically as you add and rename them. Will a browser picker slow down opening links?It should not. Burly runs as a resident menu bar app, so the picker is already in memory when a link arrives and appears under your cursor immediately. Pressing the profile key, or holding your bypass modifier as you click, skips the picker entirely and goes straight to the browser. Does a browser picker see the links I click?It has to, in order to route them, so where that link goes next is the question worth asking. Burly resolves everything on your Mac: no account, no server, no analytics on your URLs, and nothing about a link ever leaves the device. ## Try the picker Free, native, and private. Every browser profile on your Mac, one keystroke away.Download for macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/safari-profile-switcher Title: Safari Profile Switcher: Every Way to Switch on Mac | Burly Safari profiles # How to switch Safari profiles on a Mac, and a switcher that works per link Safari gives you five ways to open or switch to a profile, and most people know one of them. Here is every built-in method, the shortcuts Apple does not document, and the one thing Safari cannot do on its own: let you pick the profile at the moment you click a link. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. Updated September 28, 2026 Download for macOSFree · macOS 13 or later · For Safari profiles: Accessibility permission and Safari running ## What is the fastest way to switch Safari profiles? Inside Safari, the fastest route is the profile button at the left of the toolbar: click it and choose Switch to Window. From another app, right-click Safari in the Dock and use the New Window submenu. If you switch many times a day, Safari's Command-Option-Shift-number shortcuts are quicker still, as long as Safari is already in front. Apple's own Safari profiles guide covers creating profiles in the first place. ## Every built-in way to switch Safari profiles - The File menu. Choose File > New Window, then New Window. On current versions of Safari the per-profile items sit inside the New Window submenu rather than at the top of the File menu. - The profile button in the toolbar. Click the profile name at the left of the toolbar and choose New Window, or Switch to Window to change the current window in place. Switching in place only works from a window showing the start page or an empty page. - The Dock icon. Right-click Safari in the Dock, open the New Window submenu, and pick a profile. This is the one built-in route that works while another app is in front. - The hidden keyboard shortcuts. Safari assigns Command-Option-Shift plus a number to each profile window, shown beside the items in the New Window submenu. Apple does not document them, and they only work while Safari is the frontmost app. - Open Links With Profile, per website. Visit a site, then choose Safari > Settings > Websites > Open Links With Profile and pick a profile for it. Links to that site from Mail, Messages, or any other app then open in that profile. Everything else still goes to the profile you used most recently. If Open Links With Profile is set up but links still land in the wrong place, the usual culprits are redirecting links, Safari not being your default browser, or a rule that was never saved for that exact site. Why Open Links With Profile is not working walks through each one. ## How do you switch Safari profiles from any app? Safari's shortcuts stop working the moment another app is in front, which is exactly when you usually want them. The common fix is a hotkey tool. MacStories maps a Hyper key in BetterTouchTool to launch Safari and then send the profile shortcut, and Keyboard Maestro users build the same thing as a macro. Both work, and both are one more tool to maintain. Burly takes a different route to the same place: every profile, Safari or not, gets a system-wide keyboard shortcut that opens a fresh tab there from any app, and you can give each profile an emoji, a color, and its own key so Safari Work and Safari Personal are impossible to mix up. ## What does a Safari profile switcher add? Everything above switches the window you are looking at. None of it decides where a link from Slack, Mail, or Messages goes. For that, Safari has Open Links With Profile, and it runs out in four places. The rule is per website, so you decide once in advance rather than at the moment you click, and a link you want in Personal today still goes to Work. You can only configure a site you are currently browsing. Shortened and redirecting links, the youtu.be and tracking wrappers most links arrive as, resolve too late to match a rule. And the whole feature stops at Safari: it has nothing to say about the Chrome or Firefox profiles you also keep. A Safari profile switcher of the kind this page is about fills that gap. It intercepts the link before any browser sees it and lets you choose the destination then and there, per click, with every profile on the Mac on the same menu. If the per-site rule already covers your situation, use it and skip the extra app. ## Why is Safari harder than Chrome? Chrome, Brave, Edge, and Firefox all accept a launch argument that names a profile directory. A link router can start the right profile without touching the UI. Safari has no equivalent public flag. The only reliable mechanism is to press the per-profile "New Profile Window" item in Safari's File menu, then hand that window the URL. AppleScript plus System Events looks like the obvious way to press a menu item, and it is the path most shortcuts take. It fails with error -1743 unless the app also has Automation consent, a separate grant from Accessibility, and that grant is unreliable for apps that are not in the App Store. On macOS 15 and later the profile items are nested under a New Window submenu, so a script that looked at the top-level File menu silently finds nothing. Burly reads the menu through the Accessibility API, descends one level when the items are nested, and presses the matching "New Window" item. That is why Safari profiles show up next to Chrome and Firefox profiles in the same picker, and why the supported browsers list treats Safari profiles as first-class destinations. ## How do you use Burly as a Safari profile switcher? - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. Grant Accessibility when macOS asks: that permission is how Burly reaches Safari's profile menu. - Open Burly once so it can read the Safari profiles already on your Mac. Each one shows up as its own destination, the same way Chrome and Firefox profiles do. - In System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, set Burly as your default web browser. Every http and https click now lands with Burly first. - Click any link and pick the Safari profile it belongs in. Burly opens a window in that profile and hands it the URL. No copy-paste, no AppleScript. If you have never changed the default handler, the default browser guide walks through Desktop & Dock. The broader category, including pickers that cannot reach Safari, is in the Mac link router guide. ## How this compares to other routers If Safari profiles are the reason you are shopping, most of the field is already out. Velja, Choosy, and Finicky can target Chromium and Firefox profiles and cannot target a Safari profile. OpenIn can, and it also routes mail and files, for $11.99. Burly is free and focused on web links. The comparison hub puts that in one table, and the 2026 roundup says who each app is for. ## Safari profile switcher FAQ How do I switch between Safari profiles on a Mac?Click the profile name in the Safari toolbar and choose Switch to Window, which works from a start page or empty page. To open a fresh window in another profile instead, use File > New Window > New Window, the Dock icon's New Window submenu, or the Command-Option-Shift-number shortcut Safari shows beside each profile. Is there a keyboard shortcut to switch Safari profiles?Yes, but only inside Safari. Safari gives each profile window a Command-Option-Shift-number shortcut, listed in the File > New Window submenu, and it only fires while Safari is in front. To reach a profile from any app, tools like BetterTouchTool launch Safari first and then send that shortcut, and Burly gives every profile its own system-wide hotkey. Does Safari have a built-in profile switcher for links?Partly, and it is worth trying first. Safari > Settings > Websites > Open Links With Profile lets you choose which profile a particular website opens in when the link comes from another app. The limits are that it is a per-website rule rather than a choice at click time, you can only set it for a site you are currently browsing, redirecting links like youtu.be resolve too late to match, and it covers Safari only. Why do Keyboard Maestro and AppleScript workarounds fail?Safari has no command-line flag or AppleScript command for a profile. Scripts that press menu items through System Events need a separate Automation consent that is unreliable to obtain, and macros that click "New Profile Window" break when Apple nests it under a submenu, which is what macOS 15 and later do. The most dependable macros send Safari's own profile shortcut instead. How does Burly open a specific Safari profile?It uses the Accessibility API to read Safari's File menu, including the nested New Window submenu on recent macOS, and presses the "New Window" item for the profile you picked. Then it hands the URL to that new window. Safari has to be running, and Burly needs the Accessibility permission. It works whatever language your Mac is set to. Which other macOS link routers can target Safari profiles?Almost none. Velja, Choosy, Finicky, BrowserFairy, Bumpr, and Browserosaurus stop at Chromium and Firefox profiles, or at the browser itself. OpenIn can reach Safari profiles too, for $11.99; Burly is the free option that does. ## Send Safari links to the right profile Free, native, and private. Safari profiles included, no AppleScript required.Download for macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/about Title: About Burly: The Private macOS Link Router About Burly # Every link has a home. Burly gets it there. Most people don't run one browser anymore. They run several, split across profiles. Safari for personal, Chrome for work, a separate Chrome profile for development, maybe Firefox for testing. Each profile is its own world of logins, history, and extensions. macOS never got the memo. Click a link in Mail, Slack, or Terminal and it opens in one fixed default browser, usually the wrong one. So you copy the URL, switch browsers, find the right profile, and paste. All day. Burly exists to delete that little tax. When Burly is your default link handler, every external link pauses for a fraction of a second to ask one question: where does this belong? A compact, keyboard-first picker lists your browser profiles as the destinations, not just browsers, so the link lands in exactly the right context. ## How it works ### Profiles are first-class Burly discovers your installed browsers and every profile inside them, then lists each one as a destination you can pick directly. ### Fast and keyboard-first The picker appears the instant a link arrives. Choose with number keys, arrows, or the mouse. It vanishes the moment you decide. ### A bypass for the common case Hold a modifier while clicking to skip the picker entirely. Skipped links go to your last-used profile, or to one you pin, and the gesture inverts if you would rather pin a profile and hold the key to choose. ### Private by default All routing happens locally on your Mac. No account, no backend, no browsing data ever leaves the device. ## Why this was harder than it looks “Open this link in that profile” sounds like one API call. On a Mac it is three different problems, one per browser family, and none of them is documented as a feature. Safari has no way to launch a profile. There is no command line flag, no URL scheme, and no AppleScript verb for “open this in my Work profile”. The only reliable path is the one a person would take: Burly uses the macOS Accessibility API to press Safari's own New Work Window menu item, waits for that window, then hands it the link. Scripting Safari through System Events looked simpler and failed on a separate Automation permission that proved unreliable to obtain, and on macOS 15 Apple moved those menu items into a submenu, so the lookup has to descend one level. Burly matches those items by identifiers Safari never translates, not by their titles, so it works in any macOS language. That path is also why Safari profile routing needs the Accessibility permission. Chrome wants a folder name, not the profile name you see. Chromium browsers open a profile by its directory, like Profile 1, not by the “Work” label in the profile menu. Burly reads each browser's own profile list from disk to map one to the other, and watches those files so a profile you add in Chrome shows up in the picker without a refresh. A held key has to be read the instant the link arrives. The modifier bypass works by checking which keys are down when macOS delivers the link. An app that cold-launches on every click would often miss a quick Option-click, which is one reason Burly stays resident in the menu bar rather than starting fresh each time. ## Signed, notarized, and kept current An app that sits in front of every link you click should be easy to trust. Every Burly release is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS checks it before it first runs and Gatekeeper opens it without warnings. Updates arrive through Sparkle, and each one is cryptographically signed and verified before it installs, so the app can only ever replace itself with a build I signed. Routing happens entirely on your Mac. Burly has no account, no server that sees your links, and no browsing history to leak. ## How Burly got here - June 2026, version 1.0. The radial picker, automatic profile discovery across Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, and the modifier bypass. The point releases that followed within days added per-profile emoji and colors, global hotkeys that open a profile with no link at all, and more browsers, listed on the supported browsers page. - June 2026, version 1.1. Signed in-app updates, so a new version installs from the menu bar instead of a fresh download. - September 2026, version 1.3. A pinned destination, so every link can always open in one browser profile until you hold a key, and Arc links that arrive reliably. ## Join the Burly community on Discord Ask questions, report bugs, share your profile setups, and hear about new releases first. It's free to join and open to everyone.Join the Discord “Private by default” is a promise, not a slogan, so it is written down: the Privacy Policy spells out exactly what Burly does and does not collect, and the Terms of Use cover how the app is licensed. ## Built by Matt Senter Burly is made by Matt Senter, an independent founder and developer who designs, builds, and ships small, focused products end to end. Burly is one of them, a tool he wanted on his own Mac and decided to make properly. No team, no investors, no roadmap by committee: just software built with care and shipped when it's ready. ### Other projects - WeatherlingA little weather for your Mac. - ComojiSlack-style :emoji: autocomplete, everywhere on your Mac. - PremailYour inbox, defended. - HighwireSee beyond the headlines. - StockCarA podcast of your portfolio, not the market. - OrgabotOrchestrate the work, not just the agents. - BeeReadyLifesaving skills, one game at a time. - SeedMatrixEvery variety, every trial, one clear comparison. See all projects → --- URL: https://www.burly.click/other-projects Title: Other Projects by Matt Senter | Burly From the same workshop # Other projects by Matt Senter Burly is one of several products Matt designs, builds, and ships end to end. Here's the rest of the lineup, from the same workshop: by Matt Senter of Senternet. ## Weatherling A little weather for your Mac. A macOS menu bar app that makes rain fall among your open windows. Drops bead on title bars, gather in the corners, and run down the sides, all at the right depth and without ever stealing a click. ## Comoji Slack-style :emoji: autocomplete, everywhere on your Mac. A tiny macOS menu bar app that brings Slack- and Discord-style colon emoji shortcuts to the rest of your Mac. Type :liz in Messages, Mail, Notes, or almost any other text field, press Tab, and get a lizard. Everything runs locally on your machine, so nothing you type is sent anywhere. ## Premail Your inbox, defended. A private AI email filter that runs quietly in the background next to whatever mail client you already use, on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Premail sorts, summarises, and acts on mail the way you would, using rules you can read and change. There is no plugin to install, no account to create, and no mailbox handed to a third party. ## Highwire See beyond the headlines. A news analysis site that groups every article covering the same event into one story, then takes the coverage apart: which narratives are being advanced, which claims each one rests on, what evidence backs those claims, and where the sources diverge. It is not a bias meter. Every conclusion links back to the reporting it came from. ## StockCar A podcast of your portfolio, not the market. A stock news app that covers only what you actually hold. StockCar watches your stocks, crypto, and forex, then turns the day's news on those tickers into an AI-narrated podcast you can listen to on the way to work. No feed of market noise about companies you do not own, no account required, and free to use. ## Orgabot Orchestrate the work, not just the agents. An operating layer for work that AI agents and people do together. Orgabot coordinates agents, people, tools, approvals, and gates across an organization, so work moves autonomously where it can and stays explicit and accountable where judgment or sign-off is required. Currently in private alpha. ## BeeReady Lifesaving skills, one game at a time. A nonprofit teaching kids CPR and AED skills through youth sports. BeeReady runs sessions at leagues and events so young athletes learn how to recognise an emergency and act, building the confidence to step in rather than freeze. Lifesaving skills, one game at a time. ## SeedMatrix Every variety, every trial, one clear comparison. Independent variety trial intelligence for seed companies. SeedMatrix pulls official trial data together with a company's own plot data across crops, regions, soils, and traits, so a sales team can prove where a variety actually performs under the conditions of the field in front of them. Every data point ties back to a named, dated trial. --- URL: https://www.burly.click/pricing Title: Burly Pricing: Free, With an Optional $1.99 Supporter Unlock # Simple pricing Burly is free, and it stays free. If it saves you time, you can support it once and the picker stops showing promotions. ## Free $0 - Every feature, no limits - Every supported browser, including Safari profiles - No account, no trial - An occasional small promotion in the pickerDownload Burly ## Supporter $1.99once - Everything in Free - No promotions in the picker - One payment, never a subscription - Help from me directly through Contact SupportUpgrade Already a Supporter? Restore your license. ## Frequently asked questions Is Burly really free?Yes. Every feature is free, with no account, no trial, and no time limit. The free download is the whole app. What does becoming a Supporter change?Every so often the picker shows a small promotion for one of my other apps. Supporters never see them, and they can reach me directly through Contact Support. No feature is held back: the app is the same for everyone. Is it a subscription?No. It’s one $1.99 payment, and you’re never charged again. How do I turn it on after paying?After checkout, click Activate and Burly opens with promotions turned off. If the button doesn’t open Burly, copy the license token from that page and paste it in Burly’s Settings, under Supporter. Both need Burly 1.4.0 or later. To update, click the Burly menu bar icon and choose Check for Updates… I reinstalled Burly or set up a new Mac. How do I get my license back?Use Restore a License with the email you paid with. I email you a code, and the license comes right back. Who handles the payment?Stripe. Burly never sees your card details. I have a question about my purchase.Supporters can reach me directly through Contact Support. Everyone can find answers in Help. --- URL: https://www.burly.click/help Title: Burly Help: Setup, Safari Profiles, and Supporter License # Help Quick answers for setting up Burly, fixing the common problems, and managing your Supporter license. ## Getting started How do I make Burly handle the links I click?Set Burly as your default web browser. Open System Settings, go to Desktop & Dock, and choose Burly under Default web browser. From then on every http and https link goes to Burly first, and Burly hands it to the browser profile you pick. Why does Burly ask for Accessibility permission?Only Safari profiles need it. Safari has no public way to open a link in a named profile, so Burly presses Safari’s own New Profile Window menu item through the Accessibility API. Grant it in System Settings, under Privacy & Security, then Accessibility. Chrome, Firefox, and the other browsers work without it. The Safari profile switcher guide explains the details. ## Fixing common problems A link meant for a Safari profile opened in the wrong window.Check two things: Safari is already running, and Burly is switched on under Privacy & Security, then Accessibility. Burly opens each profile through Safari’s own menu, so both have to be true. A browser profile is missing from the picker.Burly finds profiles on its own and picks up changes as you make them. For Safari, switch to Safari once so Burly can look again. If the profile still isn’t there, open Burly’s Settings and check that it isn’t hidden. The supported browsers page lists every browser Burly can route to. How do I skip the picker for one link?Hold your bypass modifier while you click, Option unless you’ve changed it. The link goes straight to your last-used profile, or to the one you pinned under What to open. You can also flip it so a plain click skips the picker and the modifier brings it up. See Features for the full setup. ## Supporter license What does becoming a Supporter do?One $1.99 payment turns off the small promotions in the picker and lets you reach me directly through Contact Support. Every feature is free for everyone. See Pricing for the details. I paid, but Burly still shows promotions.Click Activate on the page you landed on after checkout. If that didn’t open Burly, copy the license token from the same page and paste it in Burly’s Settings, under Supporter. Both need Burly 1.4.0 or later; if you don’t see a Supporter section in Settings, click the Burly menu bar icon and choose Check for Updates… I reinstalled Burly or set up a new Mac.Go to Restore a License and enter the email you paid with. I send a code, and your license comes right back. ## Still stuck? Supporters can contact support and reach me directly. Everyone is welcome to ask in the Discord below. ## Join the Burly community on Discord Ask questions, report bugs, share your profile setups, and hear about new releases first. It's free to join and open to everyone.Join the Discord --- URL: https://www.burly.click/support Title: Burly Support: Contact a Real Person # Contact Support Help from me directly is for Burly Supporters. I confirm it with a code sent to the email you paid with. Most answers are already in Help. Not a Supporter? Everyone is welcome in the Burly Discord. Ask questions, report bugs, and hear about releases first.Join the Burly DiscordNameThe email you used to paySubjectBug reportPurchase or licenseFeature requestOtherMessageEmail me a code to send this Paid with an email you no longer use? Email support@burly.click from any address and include your receipt. --- URL: https://www.burly.click/ai-disclosure Title: AI Disclosure: Where AI Is and Is Not Used | Burly # AI Disclosure Last updated: June 8, 2026 Nobody requires this page. I wrote it because the honest details about where AI does and does not touch a product are usually the parts that get left out, and I would rather just tell you. This is a voluntary, ongoing commitment, not a legal document. For the formal data-handling rules, see the Privacy Policy, and for the licensing rules, the Terms of Use. ## There is no AI inside Burly The Burly app contains no AI. It routes your links locally on your Mac, deciding which browser profile a link should open in based on the rules and destinations you configure. No model runs, no inference happens, and nothing about the links you click is sent anywhere. There is no account and no backend service. The app behaves the same whether or not you are online. ## AI in how I build Burly I use AI to help build Burly, and I want to be specific about how. - Code. I use Anthropic’s Claude (via Claude Code) to help write, review, and refactor the Swift app and this website. Every change is read and approved by me before it ships. - Documentation and site copy. AI helps me draft documentation and some of the words on this site. A human reviews and edits all of it. AI helps me move faster. It does not replace my judgment, and it never gets your data. No user information, browsing history, or private content is ever fed into the AI tools I use to build Burly, because Burly never collects that information in the first place. There is nothing to hand over. ## AI-generated visuals Some of Burly’s visuals (the logo, icons, and illustrations) began as AI-generated concepts. None of them shipped as-is. Each was refined and finalized by hand to fit the product. ## How I optimize this site This marketing site is built and optimized with a set of reusable AI skills and tooling that I maintain across my projects. The same system handles SEO, performance, prerendering, and share images. It shapes how the site is structured, not what is true about the product. ## Data and training Your data is never used to train AI models, because Burly does not collect your data. There is nothing to train on, sell, or share. ## Changes to this disclosure As my use of AI evolves, I will keep this page current so it stays an accurate account rather than a one-time statement. ## Contact Questions about how Burly uses AI? Email ai@burly.click. --- URL: https://www.burly.click/release-notes Title: Release Notes: What’s New in Each Version | Burly # Release Notes What changed in each version of Burly, newest first. Burly updates itself, so you get these as they ship. Need a hand with something? See Help. ## Burly 1.5.0October 7, 2026 Burly now speaks your language. ### New - Burly follows your Mac’s system language: Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, with English as the fallback. - A new Accessibility pane in Settings. The Reduce animations option lives there now. ### Improved - When a Chromium browser is already running, a profile link goes straight to it. No more multi-second stall and second bouncing Dock icon after Chrome updates itself. ### Fixed - Safari profiles and Arc windows did not open when macOS was set to a language other than English. They now work in every language. ## Burly 1.4.0October 3, 2026 You can now become a Supporter. ### New - A one-time Supporter license hides the promotions in the picker. Nothing else is locked: every other feature stays free. - Activate your license with one click after buying, or paste it into Settings > Supporter. It is checked on your Mac, with no account and no network call. - The Other Projects pane in Settings now includes Highwire, Orgabot, SeedMatrix and Weatherling. ## Burly 1.3.0September 18, 2026 Choose where a skipped link goes, and Arc works properly. ### New - Settings > Bypass has a new “What to open” option: the last profile you used, or a specific browser profile. Turn on Invert as well and every link opens there unless you hold your modifier key to choose. - If that profile is no longer available, Burly shows the picker with a note instead of quietly opening a different one. ### Fixed - Picking Arc no longer shows an “Arc is already open” alert. Arc links now open in Arc’s current profile. - Links no longer get lost when Arc has to start first or has no windows open. Burly waits for a real Arc window, and opens one if it has to, before handing over the link. ## Burly 1.2.0September 12, 2026 A roomier Settings window and a smoother default-browser setup. ### New - The picker sometimes shows a small, clearly marked promotion for one of my other apps. It never appears twice in a row, choosing it never counts as your last-used profile, and Burly makes no network request to show it. ### Improved - The Settings window is resizable and opens taller. - The Browsers tab shows either a permission notice or your profile list, not both squeezed together. ### Fixed - Making Burly the default browser asked you to confirm twice. Now it asks once, and Settings updates as soon as you do. - The link to the default browser setting opened the wrong pane of System Settings. - A profile photo that can no longer be read now falls back to the browser icon instead of a blank space. ## Burly 1.1.3July 18, 2026 Faster Chrome launches and a clearer first-run setup. ### Improved - Chrome profile links open faster, especially when Chrome is not running yet. - The Safari setup step tells you exactly how to turn on Accessibility for Burly, then shows the Safari profiles it found with a button to detect them again. - The Files & Folders step explains that you need to expand Burly’s entry to switch on each browser. ### Fixed - Choosing Quit & Reopen after granting Full Disk Access during setup no longer makes Burly vanish before the permission takes effect. - The Safari setup step no longer sends you back to System Settings while you are reading it. ## Burly 1.1.2June 29, 2026 Local HTML files, and help when macOS blocks profile access. ### New - Double-click a local HTML file in Finder and the picker lets you choose a browser profile for it. Before, the file went nowhere. - Newer versions of macOS can block Burly from reading other browsers’ data. Burly now notices, keeps your known Chrome, Edge, Brave and Firefox profiles working, and shows you how to allow access in Files & Folders. ### Improved - The first Chrome profile link after Burly has been idle for a while is now as fast as the rest. ## Burly 1.1.1June 16, 2026 An easier way back to the Accessibility permission. ### New - A permission card in Settings lets you request Accessibility access again after you have dismissed the hint in the Browsers pane. ## Burly 1.1.0June 11, 2026 Burly now keeps itself up to date. ### New - Automatic updates. When a new version is ready, the menu bar icon shows an arrow and the menu offers to install it. Every update is signed and verified before it installs, and you can turn this off with Keep Burly up to date in Settings. ## Burly 1.0.4June 10, 2026 A fix for a crash on launch. ### Fixed - Burly 1.0.3 crashed as soon as it launched on most Macs. ## Burly 1.0.3June 9, 2026 Global hotkeys, profile emoji and photos, and more browsers. ### New - Global hotkeys: hold the prefix (Hyper by default) and press a profile’s key to open it from anywhere, without a link. - An Open New Tab in… submenu in the menu bar lists every profile with its hotkey. - Give each profile an emoji and a color so you can spot it in the picker at a glance. - Signed-in Chrome profiles show their Google account photo in the picker. - Support for Dia, Comet and Opera. - A one-click Safari step during setup. ### Improved - Setup moves on by itself once Burly is your default browser. ### Fixed - The bypass now opens the profile you chose during setup instead of always the last one you used. - The Settings and setup windows no longer flash when the picker opens. ## Burly 1.0.2June 9, 2026 Smooth scrolling in Safari again. ### Improved - Burly finds your Safari profiles even when Safari is closed. ### Fixed - Safari scrolled sluggishly the whole time Burly was running. Burly now only touches Safari’s menus when you open a link in a Safari profile or ask it to refresh. ## Burly 1.0.1June 8, 2026 A fix for Safari links when Safari is closed. ### Fixed - Opening a Safari profile link while Safari was closed showed a false error and left an empty extra window behind. ## Burly 1.0.0June 8, 2026 The first release of Burly. ### New - Burly becomes your default browser and opens a radial picker under your cursor for every link you click. - It finds your profiles in Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Arc, Chromium, Firefox and Safari, and keeps the list current on its own. - Keyboard first: arrow keys, Return, a hotkey for every profile, and 0 for the one you used last. - Hold a modifier key to skip the picker and open your last-used profile, or invert that so a plain click skips it. - Reorder or hide profiles, launch at login, and reduce animations. - Every link is handled on your Mac. Nothing is sent anywhere. --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog Title: Burly Blog: Browser Profiles and Link Routing on macOS - October 7, 2026 · 3 min read ## Burly v1.5.0 Is Multilingual Burly 1.5.0 speaks Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, and Chinese, and Safari profiles now work on a Mac set to any language. - October 4, 2026 · 3 min read ## Introducing Burly Supporters: Hide Promos and Get Real Help for $1.99 Burly 1.4.0 adds an optional $1.99 Supporter license. It hides the occasional picker promo and gets you help from me directly. Every feature stays free. - September 28, 2026 · 7 min read ## Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc How browser profiles work on a Mac in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Arc, which one gets external links, and how to choose it. - September 28, 2026 · 5 min read ## How to Open Links in a Specific Chrome Profile on Mac Open links in a specific Chrome profile on Mac: find the profile folder, launch it from Terminal, and stop links landing in the last-used one. - September 28, 2026 · 5 min read ## How to Use Multiple Chrome Profiles at Once on a Mac Use multiple Chrome profiles at once on a Mac: keep windows apart, switch fast with Cmd+Shift+M, and send each link to the right profile. - September 28, 2026 · 5 min read ## Brave, Edge, and Arc Profiles on a Mac: How Links Route to Each How Brave, Edge, and Arc profiles work on a Mac, which profile gets external links in each, and how to route links to the one you want. - September 28, 2026 · 6 min read ## Safari "Open Links With Profile" Not Working? Why, and How to Fix It Safari Open Links With Profile not working? Seven reasons links land in the wrong Safari profile on a Mac, a setup checklist, and the fix. - September 28, 2026 · 5 min read ## How to Open External Links in a Specific Firefox Profile on Mac Open external links in a specific Firefox profile on Mac: how Firefox picks one, the -P command line route, the lock error, and a simpler fix. - September 28, 2026 · 5 min read ## Make Slack, Teams, and Outlook Links Open in the Right Browser Profile on Mac Make links from Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook for Mac open in the right browser profile: each app's default, its settings, and the fix. - September 18, 2026 · 4 min read ## New in Burly: Always Open Links in One Browser Profile Burly can send every link straight to one pinned browser profile, with the picker one modifier away. Plus reliable Arc routing, even from cold. - June 13, 2026 · 6 min read ## The Best Browser Picker for Mac in 2026 The best browser pickers for Mac in 2026, compared honestly: Burly, Velja, Choosy, Finicky, OpenIn, BrowserFairy, Open Link Pro, Bumpr, and more. - June 9, 2026 · 6 min read ## Give Every Browser Profile an Emoji, a Color, and a Hotkey Make browser profiles recognizable on a Mac: give each an emoji, a color tint, and a global hotkey so the right profile is one keystroke away. - June 9, 2026 · 6 min read ## Open Any Browser Profile With a Keyboard Shortcut on macOS Launch any Chrome, Safari, or Firefox profile straight to a fresh tab with one global keyboard shortcut on a Mac. No link and no picker needed. - June 2, 2026 · 6 min read ## How to Change Your Default Browser on macOS (and a Smarter Alternative) Change your default browser on macOS in a few clicks, learn what the setting really controls, and when a link router beats a single default. - May 26, 2026 · 7 min read ## Work vs. Personal: Keeping Browser Profiles Separate on a Mac Keep work and personal browsing separate on a Mac: a practical profile setup for Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, plus how to route every link. - May 12, 2026 · 7 min read ## How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS Open any link in the exact Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge profile you want on a Mac, without copying URLs between windows. Here is the reliable way. --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/open-links-in-specific-browser-profile-mac Title: Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS | Burly Browser profiles are how most of us keep our digital lives from bleeding into each other. One profile for work email and calendars, one for personal shopping and banking, maybe a third for a side project with its own logins. The trouble starts the moment you click a link. macOS hands it to whichever browser is set as default, which usually means whichever profile happens to be in front, which is rarely the one you wanted. The result is a familiar little dance: the link opens in the wrong profile, you copy the URL, switch windows, and paste it where it belonged. A dozen times a day that adds up, and worse, sometimes you forget to switch and end up logged into the wrong account on the wrong page. ## Why can't macOS open a link in a specific profile? macOS only lets you choose a single default browser application. It has no concept of a default profile, and no built-in way to say "open work links in my Work profile and everything else in Personal." Chrome and Edge can target a profile from the command line, Safari can only be steered through the Accessibility API, and Firefox uses named profiles with its own flag. None of that is exposed to a normal click. So the link goes to your default browser, lands in the active profile, and you are left to sort it out by hand. ## How do you route a link to a profile at click time? The clean solution is to put a small router between the click and the browser. Instead of macOS sending links straight to Chrome or Safari, it sends them to a lightweight app that asks, or already knows, which profile each link belongs in, then launches that exact profile with the URL. That class of app is a browser picker, also called a link router: it becomes the default handler, then hands the URL onward. This is exactly what Burly does. Setting it up takes about a minute: - Download Burly and move it to your Applications folder. - Open System Settings, then Desktop & Dock, and set Burly as your Default web browser. - Let Burly discover the browsers and profiles already on your Mac; there is nothing to configure by hand. - Click any link and pick the profile it belongs in from the radial picker. Burly opens that exact profile with the URL. Because Burly reads your real profiles directly from each browser, the picker always reflects what you actually have installed. Add a profile in Chrome and it appears automatically. ## How do you keep the picker out of the way? A picker on every click would get old, so the routing is keyboard-first and gesture-aware. Hold a modifier key as you click to bypass the picker and reuse your last destination, or invert that behavior so a bare click goes straight through and a held key brings up the picker. The point is to spend a fraction of a second deciding only when the destination is ambiguous, and zero seconds when it is obvious. Everything happens locally on your Mac. The links you open never leave your device, which matters when those links carry tokens, account ids, or anything you would rather not send to a server. ## Can you open a link in a specific profile without an app? Yes, one browser at a time, and it is worth knowing how, because for a single browser the built-in route may be all you need. Each browser family exposes a different mechanism, and none of them reach across to another browser. Chrome, Brave, and other Chromium browsers accept a profile directory on the command line, so a Terminal command or a Shortcuts action can open a URL in Profile 1 rather than Default. The folder name is not the profile name you see, which trips most people up; opening links in a specific Chrome profile shows how to look it up. Firefox takes a profile name with its -P flag, with a couple of quirks around profiles that are already running, covered in opening external links in a Firefox profile. Safari has no launch flag at all. What it offers instead is a per-website rule, Open Links With Profile, that sends links for one site to one profile. It is useful and also easy to misread, so why Open Links With Profile misfires is worth a look before you rely on it. Microsoft Edge is the one browser with a genuine setting for this: a default profile for external links, described in Brave, Edge, and Arc profiles on a Mac. Every one of these answers stops at the edge of its own browser. If your work profile is in Safari and your personal one is in Chrome, no built-in setting can choose between them, which is the gap a router fills. The guide to browser profiles on a Mac lays out how each browser decides where external links go. ## Why does a link still open in the wrong profile? When a router is set up and a link still lands somewhere unexpected, the cause is almost always one of a handful of things. Work down this list before assuming anything is broken: - Check that the router is still the default. Open System Settings, then Desktop & Dock, and confirm the Default web browser is Burly. Some browsers offer to make themselves default again after an update, and one accepted prompt undoes the setup. - Check for a held or inverted gesture. If Invert is on with a profile pinned under What to open, a plain click goes straight to that profile by design, and holding the modifier is what brings the picker up. - For Safari profiles, check the Accessibility permission. Burly reaches Safari profiles through the Accessibility API, so it needs that grant in System Settings under Privacy & Security, and Safari has to be running. - Check whether the browser can be steered at all. Arc, Dia, and ChatGPT Atlas run a single instance and open links in whichever profile is active, so a router can hand them the link but cannot choose the profile. - Check that the profile still exists. Burly watches each browser's profile list and updates the picker when you add, rename, or remove a profile, so a destination that vanished usually means the profile itself was deleted or renamed in the browser. ## What is the short version? macOS will not route links to a specific browser profile on its own. Put a profile-aware router in front of the click, let it open the right profile every time, and the copy-paste-switch dance disappears. That is the entire idea behind Burly. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Work vs. Personal: Keeping Browser Profiles Separate on a Mac - How to Change Your Default Browser on macOS (and a Smarter Alternative) - The Best Browser Picker for Mac in 2026 --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/work-personal-browser-profiles-mac Title: Work vs. Personal Browser Profiles on a Mac | Burly If you use one Mac for both work and life, the line between the two lives in your browser. Work has its single sign-on, its shared drives, its calendar. Personal has your bank, your shopping, your group chats. Mixing them is how you end up posting to the company Slack from your personal account, or seeing personal tabs in a screen share. Profiles are the fix, and the good news is every major browser supports them. ## Should you use one browser for work and another for personal? Resist the urge to use Chrome for work and Safari for personal. That seems tidy but it falls apart fast: links still route to whichever browser is default, and you lose the per-profile isolation that actually protects you. Instead, create named profiles inside the browser you prefer. In Chrome or Edge, open the profile menu in the top right and add a profile for each context. Give each one a distinct color and avatar so you can tell at a glance which window is which. In Safari on recent macOS, profiles live under Settings, and each gets its own history, cookies, extensions, and favorites. Firefox added a proper profile manager to its main menu in October 2025, so creating a second profile no longer means launching with a command line flag or visiting about:profiles. The key is isolation. Each profile keeps its own logins and cookies, so your work Google account and personal Google account never collide, and a tracker you pick up shopping cannot follow you into work. ## Why do links end up in the wrong profile? Separate profiles solve storage, but they do not solve clicking. macOS sends every link to one default browser and one active profile. Click a calendar invite from your personal Mail and it may open in your personal profile, where you are not signed into the work calendar. Click a personal link from a work app and it opens in the work profile, leaking it into your work history. You can manage this by hand, copying URLs between windows, but that is exactly the friction that makes people give up on profiles and go back to one messy default. ## How do you route every link to the right profile? This is where a profile-aware link router earns its keep. Burly becomes the macOS handler for links and, on each click, lets you send the link to the precise profile it belongs in. Work invite goes to Work, personal receipt goes to Personal, and neither one pollutes the other. Because the decision happens at click time, you do not have to remember which browser window is in front or which profile is active. You just pick the destination, and over time the common cases become a single keystroke. Burly discovers your profiles directly from Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and other Chromium browsers, so the choices always match your real setup. ## Which browser should hold your work profile? Usually the one your employer's tools are built and tested for, which in practice means Chrome or Edge for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 shops. Put your personal profile in the same browser if you can. One browser with two profiles is easier to route and easier to keep visually distinct than two browsers with one profile each. Each browser has a trait worth weighing. Edge is the only one with a built-in default profile for external links, which is enough on its own if every link you care about belongs in one profile. Chrome makes profiles the most visible, with a color per window and a Profiles menu in the Mac menu bar, and running several Chrome profiles at once is well supported. Safari keeps each profile's extensions and Tab Groups separate, which is a real privacy gain, but gives outside apps no way to choose a profile, so only a few routers can reach it. The guide to browser profiles on a Mac compares all of them side by side. ## What about links from Slack, Teams, and Outlook? Chat and mail apps are where most wrong-profile links come from, because they hand every link to the macOS default browser and let the browser decide. That means the profile you happened to use last, not the one the link belongs in. Microsoft Teams has its own link preference, but Slack and Outlook for Mac follow the system default. If nearly all of those links belong in Work, the simplest fix is to always open links in one browser profile and hold a key for the exceptions. If they are mixed, a picker on each click is faster than any rule. Making Slack, Teams, and Outlook links open in the right profile walks through both setups. ## What does a setup that holds up look like? Create one profile per context inside a single browser, color-code them, and let a router send each link where it belongs. That combination gives you genuine separation between work and personal without the constant copy-paste tax. It is the difference between profiles that look organized and profiles that actually stay organized. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - How to Change Your Default Browser on macOS (and a Smarter Alternative) - The Best Browser Picker for Mac in 2026 --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/change-default-browser-macos Title: How to Change Your Default Browser on macOS | Burly 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. ## How do you change the default browser on macOS? Changing the default takes about ten seconds. Every http and https link clicked outside a browser, in Mail, Messages, Slack, or a PDF, will then open in the app you choose. - Open System Settings from the Apple menu. - Click Desktop & Dock in the sidebar. - Scroll to the Default web browser dropdown. - Choose the browser you want to handle every link. 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. ## Want links to open in different browsers, not just one? Setting the default sends every link to the same place, which is exactly right if you use one browser. If your work links belong in a work profile and everything else belongs somewhere else, a single default cannot express that, no matter which browser you pick. Burly takes the same handler slot you just set, then asks where each link belongs and opens that exact profile. It is free.See how Burly routes links → ## What does the default browser setting actually control? 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 does a link router beat a default browser? Instead of choosing one browser to receive everything, you can set the default to a small link 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. If you are comparing that approach to rule-based routers, the macOS link router comparisons lay out price, profile support, and picker style for each option. 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. ## Why does my default browser keep changing back? Something asked to become the default, and the request was accepted. Most browsers check whether they are the default when they launch or update, and offer to take over if they are not. macOS then shows a confirmation asking whether to switch or keep the current browser, and it is easy to click through that dialog without reading it. If the setting keeps flipping, open each browser's own settings and turn off its prompt or check for being the default. If your Mac is managed by your employer, a device management profile can also set the default browser, and in that case the change has to come from your IT team rather than from System Settings. ## Can you set a different default browser for each app? Not in macOS itself. The default web browser is one system-wide setting, so Mail, Slack, Messages, and every other app hand their links to the same place. A few apps add their own override: Microsoft Teams, for example, has a preference for which browser opens its links. Most, including Slack and Outlook for Mac, simply follow the system default, as covered in making Slack, Teams, and Outlook links open in the right profile. The practical workaround is to make the system default something that can decide per link. A router receives every link from every app and then opens the browser, and the profile, you choose. It also solves the problem one level down, which a per-app browser setting never could: two profiles inside the same browser. The guide to browser profiles on a Mac explains which profile each browser picks when a link arrives on its own. ## Which should you choose? 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. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - Work vs. Personal: Keeping Browser Profiles Separate on a Mac - The Best Browser Picker for Mac in 2026 --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/customize-browser-profiles-emoji-color-hotkey Title: Customize Browser Profiles: Emoji, Color, Hotkey | Burly Once you keep more than two or three browser profiles, a new problem shows up: they all look the same. Work, Personal, a client project, a side hustle, each one is just another row that says "Chrome" with a slightly different name you have to stop and read. The whole point of profiles is to keep contexts apart, but if you cannot tell them apart at a glance, you are still doing the work in your head. A link router that can show those cues at click time is what makes the separation usable. Burly leans on three small customizations to fix that. Every profile can carry an emoji, a color, and a hotkey. None of them change what a profile is, they just make it instant to spot and instant to reach. ## Why give each browser profile an emoji? When you click a link, Burly shows a quick picker of your profiles. Names alone make you read; a symbol makes you recognize. So each profile can take an emoji, and that emoji rides along everywhere the profile appears. Setting one is fast. Open Settings, find the profile, and click the emoji button on its row. You get a popover of curated suggestions for the usual contexts, a briefcase for work, a house for home, a laptop for development, a game controller for the fun profile, plus a search box if you want something specific and a paste field for any emoji at all. Chromium profiles that are signed into an account can also borrow their existing account photo, so you can match what you already see inside Chrome. The result is that the picker stops being a list of words and becomes a row of faces. You aim for the briefcase, not for the third item down. ## What does a profile color add? Color does the same job from across the screen. Each profile can take a background tint from a small curated palette, soft ice, glacier mint, warm sand, arctic rose, and a few more, all chosen to sit nicely against Burly's frosted look without screaming for attention. Click the color swatch on a profile row and pick a tint, or leave it on the default frost surface. The idea is not a rainbow, it is a quiet code: Work is always the cool blue one, Personal is always the warm one. After a day or two your hand knows where to go before your eyes have finished reading. Emoji and color stack, so a profile can be both the briefcase and the blue. Two signals are easier to catch in a fraction of a second than one. ## How does a per-profile hotkey skip the picker? Recognizing a profile faster is good. Not having to look at all is better. That is what the per-profile hotkey is for. Each profile can be assigned a key, and Burly auto-fills them in order, 1 through 9 and then the letters, so you always have a default to start from. Press the global prefix plus that key from anywhere on your Mac and the profile opens straight to a fresh tab, no picker, no link required. The default prefix is the Hyper combo, Control-Option-Shift-Command, which nothing else on macOS claims, so your shortcuts never collide with the system or another app. If you prefer a shorter chord, you can switch the prefix in Settings. There is one reserved shortcut worth memorizing: the prefix plus 0 always opens your most recently used destination. When you are bouncing between two profiles all day, that single keystroke becomes the one you reach for without thinking. ## Don't browsers already let you color a profile? They do, and those settings are worth using too. Chrome, Edge, and Brave let each profile pick a theme color and an avatar, and Safari profiles on recent versions of macOS carry their own symbol and color. Firefox's newer profile manager adds an avatar and a theme per profile as well. The catch is where those cues show up. A browser's profile color tints that browser's own windows, so it only helps once you are already inside the right profile. It does nothing at the moment that matters most, when you click a link in Slack or Mail and have to decide where it goes. Each browser also uses its own palette and icon set, so your Chrome Work profile and your Safari Work profile end up looking nothing alike. Burly's emoji, color, and hotkey are a separate layer that sits in front of every browser. They live in Burly's settings on your Mac, not in the browser, so setting them never changes your Chrome theme or your Safari profile, and they stay consistent across browsers: Work can be the briefcase and the blue whether it lives in Chrome, Safari, or both. ## A starter scheme for common profile setups If you are not sure where to begin, a scheme that maps each cue to one idea is easier to learn than a random one. Pick the emoji for what the profile is for, the color for how it feels to be in it, and the key for how often you use it. - Work: a briefcase, a cool blue tint, and key 1, since it is the profile you open most. - Personal: a house, a warm sand tint, and key 2. - Development or testing: a laptop, a mint tint, and a letter key such as D, so it is memorable without taking a low number. - A client or side project: a distinctive emoji you associate with that client, a rose tint, and the next free number. - Anything you open rarely: leave it on the auto-assigned key and the default frost surface, so the quiet profiles stay quiet and the ones you use daily stand out. ## Is it worth customizing every profile? None of this is decoration for its own sake. An emoji and a color cut the time it takes to find the right profile in the picker, and a hotkey removes the picker from the loop altogether for the profiles you live in. Set them once in Settings, where all three controls sit on a single row per profile, and the choosing-a-profile step fades into muscle memory. That is the whole aim of Burly: get every link to the profile where it belongs, with as little thinking as possible. Making your profiles easy to see and easy to reach is a big part of how it gets out of your way. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - Work vs. Personal: Keeping Browser Profiles Separate on a Mac - New in Burly: Always Open Links in One Browser Profile --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/open-browser-profile-with-keyboard-shortcut-mac Title: Open a Browser Profile by Keyboard Shortcut | Burly There are two ways to open a browser profile, and both involve more steps than they should. You can hunt through the browser's profile menu, click the one you want, and wait for a window to appear. Or you can click a link and route it to the right profile after the fact. Either way, your hand leaves the keyboard and you spend a few seconds on something you do dozens of times a day. Burly adds a third way: a single global keyboard shortcut that opens any profile directly, from anywhere on your Mac, straight to a fresh tab. No link required, no picker, no menu. You think "work browser" and it is in front of you before you have finished the thought. That shortcut lives in the same link router that already handles clicked links, so you are not installing a second launcher just for profiles. ## How are the profile shortcuts built? Every Burly hotkey is a shared prefix plus a single key. The prefix is one modifier combo you press for all of them; the key is what picks the profile. So if your Work profile is on 1 and Personal is on 2, the prefix plus 1 opens Work and the prefix plus 2 opens Personal. One muscle-memory chord, a different finger for each profile. You do not have to set any of this up. Burly auto-assigns a key to each profile in order, 1 through 9 and then the letters A through Z, so the shortcuts work the moment you install it. If you want a specific profile on a specific key, click its key in Settings and press the one you want. A solid keycap means you chose it; a dashed one is the auto-assigned default. ## Why is the default prefix Hyper? The default prefix is the Hyper combo, Control-Option-Shift-Command, all four modifiers at once. It looks like a lot, but that is the point: no part of macOS and almost no app claims it, so your profile shortcuts never collide with something else. Plain Control plus a digit is already Mission Control's "switch to Desktop N," Command plus a digit switches tabs, and the other single modifiers just type characters. Hyper sidesteps all of it. If a four-finger chord is more than you want, Settings offers shorter presets, Control-Option-Command, Control-Option-Shift, or Option-Command. They are all curated to avoid the system shortcuts that single modifiers would stomp on, so whichever you pick stays conflict-free. ## Which shortcut should you memorize first? There is a reserved key worth learning before any other: the prefix plus 0 always opens your most recently used destination. It is not tied to a particular profile, it follows wherever you were last. When you spend a day ping-ponging between two profiles, that single keystroke becomes the one your hand reaches for automatically. The same 0 works inside the picker too. When a link does bring up the profile picker, pressing 0 there sends it to the most recent destination, so the reserved key behaves the same whether you are launching a profile cold or routing a link. ## Why isn't my profile hotkey working? Burly registers its shortcuts with the same system hotkey service macOS has offered for decades. That service needs no Accessibility permission, works while Burly sits quietly in the menu bar, and swallows the keystroke so the app in front never sees it. When a shortcut does nothing, it is almost always one of these: - Global hotkeys are turned off. They are on by default, but check the Global Hotkeys section of Burly's Settings if someone switched them off. - Another app already owns that exact combination. macOS gives a global shortcut to whichever app registers it first, and Burly skips a combo that is taken rather than fighting for it. The other profiles keep working. Pick a different key for that profile, or switch to another prefix in Settings. - Two profiles ended up on the same key. Only the first one registers. Look for the duplicate in Settings and give one of them a new key. - The profile is a Safari profile and the shortcut opens Safari but not the right profile. Safari offers no public way to open a specific profile, so Burly presses Safari's own New Window menu item for that profile. That needs Accessibility permission for Burly, and Safari has to be running. The Help page walks through granting it. - Burly is not running. The shortcuts belong to Burly, so they stop when it quits. Turning on Launch Burly at login, under System in Settings, keeps them available after a restart. ## How does this compare with macOS keyboard shortcuts? You can get partway there without Burly. System Settings, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts, App Shortcuts lets you bind a key to any menu item by its exact title, so a shortcut for Safari's "New Work Window" works, but only while Safari is the frontmost app. Shortcuts and automation tools can launch Chrome with a profile directory from a shell command, which works across apps but means writing and maintaining one script per profile. Burly's hotkeys cover the gap between those two: one consistent chord that works from any app, for every browser at once, and that updates on its own when you add or rename a profile. If you only ever use one Safari profile from inside Safari, the built-in App Shortcuts setting is enough. If you jump between profiles across browsers all day, a single global scheme is simpler to live with. ## Is a hotkey faster than switching profiles by hand? The link picker is what most people meet first, and it is the right tool when a link could plausibly belong to more than one profile. But the profiles you actually live in, the work browser, the personal browser, are not ambiguous. You always know where they go. For those, the fastest interface is no interface: a keystroke that opens the exact profile you meant, no question asked. Global hotkeys are on by default, so this is already working the moment Burly is installed. Learn the prefix, learn the two or three keys for the profiles you use most, and opening the right browser context stops being a task you do and becomes something your hands do for you. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Give Every Browser Profile an Emoji, a Color, and a Hotkey - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - New in Burly: Always Open Links in One Browser Profile --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/best-browser-picker-mac Title: The Best Browser Picker for Mac in 2026 | Burly A browser picker, sometimes called a link router or browser chooser, sits between a clicked link and your browser. Instead of every link landing in whatever browser macOS has set as default, a picker lets you send each one where it belongs: a specific browser, or better, a specific profile inside that browser. If you keep separate work and personal profiles, a picker is the difference between links that land in the right place and a constant copy-paste-switch dance. There are several good options on macOS, and the right one depends on whether you want to write rules, click a choice, or never see a prompt at all. Here are the leading picks for 2026, with an honest read on who each one is for. The table below compares the nine best known at a glance, and each app is covered in detail underneath it, along with two newer pickers worth knowing about. macOS link routers compared on the four features that usually decide it. Features checked against each vendor's site as of September 2026; prices for App Store apps are the App Store listing price. | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) | BrowserosaurusBrowserosaurus site ↗ | Free | ✗ | ✗ | Grid popup | BumprBumpr site ↗ | $2.99 one-time | ✗ | ✗ | Popup under the cursor | OpenInOpenIn site ↗ | $11.99 one-time | ✓ | ✓ | Selection dialog | BrowserFairyBrowserFairy site ↗ | Free; Pro $8.99/yr | Chromium and Firefox, Pro only | ✗ | Keyboard launcher panel | Open Link ProOpen Link Pro site ↗ | Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime | Browsers only (no profiles listed) | No profiles listed | Number-key picker ## New to browser pickers? If you are still working out what these apps do, how they hook into macOS, and how to set one up, start with the guide instead. It covers the category itself, then come back here to choose between the options below.Read the macOS browser picker guide → ## Browserosaurus: the free picker, now retired Browserosaurus was a free, open source picker that popped up a grid of your installed browsers when you clicked a link, each on a keyboard shortcut. It was friendly and did its one job well. The catch is that 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. As of 2025 its developer retired the project and archived the repository, so it is no longer maintained. The source is still readable and forkable, but if you are choosing a picker today you want one that is still getting updates. The Browserosaurus alternative page covers what replaced it. ## Finicky: scriptable routing for developers Finicky is free, open source, and the most programmable option here. You describe your routing in a JavaScript config file and Finicky sends each link to the right browser or profile silently, with no picker in the way. It can target Chrome and Firefox profiles and version-control your rules. The trade-off is the config file itself: there is no picker and no automatic discovery, so it rewards people who are comfortable writing and maintaining code. ## Velja and Choosy: polished rule-based routers Velja ($8 one-time, by Sindre Sorhus) and Choosy ($10 one-time) are the mature, paid rule engines. Velja routes links by host or source app, can open links in native apps, and strips tracking parameters. Choosy has the deepest rule engine on macOS, matching on URL, source app, and even time of day, and hooks into Share, Handoff, and AirDrop. Both can target Chromium profiles. Neither can target Safari profiles. If you want automatic, conditional routing and do not mind paying, these are excellent. ## OpenIn: route everything, not just web links OpenIn ($11.99 one-time, or on Setapp) is the most full-featured router on this list. It routes web links, mailto links, phone numbers, and files, with regex URL rewriting and scriptable targets. Like Burly, it can open links in a specific browser profile, including Safari profiles. If you want a single utility to route every kind of link with deep automation, OpenIn is worth the price. ## BrowserFairy: rules plus a keyboard launcher BrowserFairy is a long-running, actively maintained router on the Mac App Store. It routes links by exact domain, wildcard pattern, or source app, and opens a keyboard launcher on Command-Option-B for everything else. It reaches profiles in Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, Helium, and Opera, but profile routing and unlimited rules are on its Pro tier ($0.99 a month or $8.99 a year; the free tier includes three rules), and its own documentation says Safari profiles are not supported. It is a good fit for rule lovers whose profiles live outside Safari. ## Open Link Pro: a browser picker that cleans links Open Link Pro, listed on the App Store as Open Link for Chrome & Firefox, is the feature-dense option among browser-level pickers. It strips more than 70 tracking parameters, skips AMP pages, routes by website, keyword, source app, or regex, keeps a searchable link history, and ships a Safari extension. It is a free download with Pro at $14.99 a year or $19.99 for life. Its listing names browsers, not profiles, so it is the right pick when tidy links matter more than which profile they land in. ## AltBrowse and Openly: newer, simpler pickers AltBrowse is a new native picker with six picker layouts, one of them radial, plus source-app and domain rules, for free with a $4.99 one-time Pro upgrade. Openly comes as two App Store apps that switch browsers from the menu bar or a Safari extension, and one of them also switches mail apps and webmail. Neither advertises browser profile routing, so both belong with Bumpr in the pick-a-browser group rather than the pick-a-profile one. ## Bumpr: a tidy picker for web and email links Bumpr ($2.99 one-time, on the Mac App Store) shows a small popup of your browsers under the cursor when you click a web link, and offers your email apps instead when you click a mailto link, so it routes email as well as web links. It supports per-domain rules, number-key shortcuts, and browser extensions for right-click routing. Like Browserosaurus, though, it picks browsers and apps, not profiles, so it cannot target a specific browser profile or a Safari profile. If routing email links matters to you and you only switch between whole browsers, it is an inexpensive, polished choice. ## Burly: the free, profile-first picker Burly is a free, native macOS app built around one idea: the profile is the destination. Click a link and a radial picker blooms under your cursor, showing every browser profile on your Mac, each on a keyboard shortcut. It discovers your profiles automatically, with nothing to configure, and it can target Safari profiles, which Velja, Choosy, Finicky, BrowserFairy, Bumpr, and Browserosaurus cannot. It also adds per-profile emoji, colors, and global hotkeys to open any profile without a link, and can send every link to one profile when you would rather skip the picker entirely. Burly does not have a rules engine, does not route mail or files, and is not open source, so if you want silent rule-based automation, Finicky, Choosy, or OpenIn will serve you better. But if you want a free, fast, picker-first tool that treats every profile as a first-class destination, Burly is the one to try. ## Which browser picker should you choose? If you want the picker out of the way entirely, Burly can always open links in one profile and bring the picker back only when you hold a modifier. Pick Finicky if you are a developer who wants scriptable, version-controlled routing with no picker. Pick Velja or Choosy if you want polished, paid rule engines for Chromium profiles. Pick BrowserFairy if you want rules and a keyboard launcher for Chromium and Firefox profiles, and Open Link Pro if clean, tracker-free links matter more than profiles. Pick Bumpr if you want a cheap, tidy picker that handles email links as well as web links. Pick OpenIn if you want to route every kind of link, not just web links. Browserosaurus was the simple free pick, but it is retired now, so reach for a maintained app instead. And pick Burly if you want a free, picker-first app that routes to any browser profile, Safari profiles included, with zero configuration. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - Work vs. Personal: Keeping Browser Profiles Separate on a Mac - Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/always-open-links-in-one-browser-profile Title: Always Open Links in One Browser Profile | Burly Two changes shipped in Burly this week, and both came from people telling us what was annoying them. One is a new setting for anyone who wants every link to land in the same browser profile without being asked. The other is a fix for Arc, which had been eating links in a way that was easy to miss and maddening once you noticed. ## A new setting: What to open The request that started this was specific: "what I would personally like to accomplish is to click a link and have it always go to a particular browser and profile, but also have the option to pick my browser and profile via the modifier key." Burly could already skip the picker; what it could not do was say where a skipped link should go. It always reopened whichever profile you used last. Settings, under Bypass, now has a third control called What to open. Leave it on Last Used and nothing changes. Set it to a specific profile, Chrome Work or Safari Personal or whatever you live in, and that profile becomes the standing destination for every link the picker does not handle. It sits next to the two controls that were already there, and the three of them are deliberately independent. The modifier key and the Invert toggle decide when Burly skips the picker. What to open decides where a skipped link lands. The two cards at the bottom of the pane always spell out the combination you have chosen, in your own modifier, so you never have to reason it out. ## How to make every link open in one profile This is the combination the request described, and it takes about fifteen seconds to set up: - Open Burly Settings from the menu bar and choose Bypass. - Set What to open to the browser profile you want every link to land in. - Turn on Invert, so a plain click is the gesture that skips the picker. - Click a link anywhere. It opens in that profile immediately, with no picker in the way. - Hold your modifier, Option unless you changed it, while clicking a link that belongs somewhere else. The picker blooms and you choose. Leave Invert off and you get the mirror image, which is just as useful: a plain click still opens the picker, and holding the modifier fires the link at your pinned profile. Either way the picker is never more than one key away, which is the part that makes a fixed destination comfortable to live with. ## A default that stays put A standing default is only worth having if it actually stands still, so the rules around it are strict. Choosing a different profile from the picker opens that link there and nothing more: it does not quietly become your new default. Neither does opening a profile with a global hotkey. Whichever browser profile happens to be active on your screen has no say in it either, which is the exact behavior that makes external links land in the wrong place to begin with. If the profile you pinned ever goes missing, say you uninstall that browser, Burly does not fall back to something else and hope you do not notice. It shows the picker with a short note explaining that your chosen destination is unavailable, keeps the link, and leaves your selection in Settings so you can repair it rather than discovering months later that links have been quietly going somewhere new. ## Arc links now open reliably The second change is a fix. Two Arc problems, both reported by the same user, both now sorted. The first was an "Arc is already open" alert instead of a link. Burly had been treating Arc as an ordinary Chromium browser and asking macOS for a second instance carrying a profile flag. Chrome forwards that to the copy already running; Arc refuses it. Since Arc is almost always running, that path failed far more often than it worked. Arc is now handled like Dia and ChatGPT Atlas: one destination, links handed to the running app, no second instance requested. The second was subtler. Arc silently discards a link handed to it while it has no browser window open, which is the state right after you quit it, and on a fresh install. The link simply vanished and Arc came up showing only its command bar. Burly now waits for a real Arc window before handing the URL over, and presses New Window itself if none appears within a few seconds. That wait uses the macOS Accessibility permission you may already have granted for Safari profiles; without it, Burly falls back to the old plain handoff. Arc still opens links in whichever profile is active, because Arc runs a single instance and gives no way to launch into a named profile. What changed is that the link arrives at all. The full picture of what routes by profile and what does not lives on the supported browsers page. ## Update to get both Both changes are in the current build. Burly checks for updates in the background and shows an Update button in the menu bar when one is ready, so you may already have them; if you would rather not wait, Check for Updates in the menu bar is the fast path. Existing settings carry over untouched. Your modifier, your Invert toggle, and a bypass destination you chose during onboarding all appear in the new control exactly as you left them, with What to open reading Last Used unless you picked something specific. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - Open Any Browser Profile With a Keyboard Shortcut on macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/browser-profiles-mac Title: Browser Profiles on a Mac: The Complete Guide | Burly A browser profile is a separate copy of your browser's state: its own logins and cookies, its own history, its own bookmarks and extensions, and usually its own color or icon so you can tell the windows apart. Two profiles in the same browser behave like two different people using it. You can be signed in to a work Google account in one and a personal account in the other, with neither one aware of the other. Profiles are the cleanest way to keep work and personal life apart on one Mac, and every major browser now has them. The catch is that each browser implemented them its own way, and none of them agree on the question that matters most day to day: when you click a link in Mail, Slack, or a calendar invite, which profile does it open in? This guide walks through each browser, then through the fixes, from the built-in settings to a picker that asks you. ## How do Safari profiles work on a Mac? Safari has had profiles since Safari 17, which arrived with macOS Sonoma. You create one from Safari > Settings > Profiles, and every Safari install keeps a Personal profile as its default. Each profile has its own history, cookies, website data, extensions, and Tab Groups, and it opens in its own windows, as Apple's Safari profiles guide describes. To open a window in a given profile, choose File > New Window and pick the profile from the submenu, use the profile button in the toolbar, or right-click Safari in the Dock. Safari also lists keyboard shortcuts for each profile window in that submenu, though they only work while Safari is the frontmost app. The Safari profile switcher guide covers every one of those routes in more detail. For links that arrive from other apps, Apple says Safari opens them in the profile used most recently. There is one override, a per-website setting called Open Links With Profile, and it has limits worth knowing before you rely on it. They are covered in why Safari's Open Links With Profile setting misfires. ## How do Chrome profiles work on a Mac? Chrome profiles are the most familiar kind. You add one from the profile button in the toolbar, give it a name, a photo, and a color, and it opens in its own windows alongside the others. Google's help page on Chrome profiles covers creating, switching, and editing them. Behind the scenes, each profile is a folder inside Chrome's data directory, named Default for the first one and Profile 1, Profile 2, and so on for the rest. That folder name, not the name you typed, is what Chrome needs if anything outside the browser wants to open a specific profile. The practical details, including how to look the folder up, are in how to open links in a specific Chrome profile. When a link arrives from another app, Chrome opens it in whichever profile window was most recently in front. Google documents no setting to change that. If you run two or three Chrome profiles side by side all day, using multiple Chrome profiles at once on a Mac covers how to keep them straight. ## How do Firefox profiles work on a Mac? Firefox has had profiles for a very long time, but for most of that history they lived behind a hidden profile manager that few people ever opened. That changed in 2025. Mozilla rolled out a new profile manager to every desktop user starting on October 14, 2025, with Firefox 144, so profiles now sit in the Firefox menu with their own names, themes, bookmarks, logins, and extensions, as Mozilla announced. For external links, Firefox has traditionally used whichever profile is marked as the default. Choosing a separate profile just for links opened from other apps has been a request on Mozilla's feedback site rather than a shipped setting. The details, including the command line flags Firefox accepts, are in how to open external links in a Firefox profile. ## How do Microsoft Edge and Brave profiles work? Edge and Brave are both built on Chromium, so their profiles work much like Chrome's: each profile is a folder, and each opens in its own windows. Brave keeps its folders under its own BraveSoftware directory, and you can see a profile's path on its brave://version page. Edge is the one browser here that answers the external link question with a real setting. Its profile preferences include a Default profile for external links option, and Microsoft documents a policy for managed Macs that sends links from outside the browser to your work profile, as described in Microsoft's Edge policy reference. If Edge is the only browser you use, that setting may be all you need. Brave, Edge, and Arc profiles on a Mac covers both browsers in detail. ## What about Arc? Arc organizes browsing into Spaces, and a profile in Arc is attached to one or more Spaces rather than living in its own set of windows. Arc's own routing feature, Air Traffic Control, sends external links to a Space based on rules about the URL. That is a genuinely useful idea, but it only works inside Arc. Two things are worth knowing before you build a routine around Arc. The Browser Company stopped adding features to Arc in May 2025 to focus on its newer browser, Dia, and Atlassian announced in September 2025 that it was acquiring the company. And Arc runs as a single instance that cannot be launched straight into a named profile, which limits what any outside tool can do with it. ## Which profile opens a link you click in another app? It depends entirely on the browser, and in most cases the answer is whichever profile you happened to use last. That is the root of the familiar problem: you click a work link in Slack, it opens in your personal profile because that is where you were a minute ago, and you are suddenly looking at the wrong inbox. Here is how each browser decides, according to its own documentation: - Safari opens external links in the profile used most recently, unless a per-website Open Links With Profile rule matches the destination. - Chrome opens them in the most recently used profile, and Google documents no setting to pick a different one. - Firefox sends them to the profile marked as default. - Edge uses its Default profile for external links setting, or the work profile on Macs managed by policy. - Arc sends them to a Space according to its Air Traffic Control rules. Notice what every one of those answers has in common. The browser decides in advance, from a fixed rule or from recent history, and the decision covers only that browser. None of them can send one link to Safari Work and the next to Chrome Personal, because macOS itself has no idea profiles exist. It hands every http and https link to a single default browser app, and the browser takes it from there. ## How do you choose which profile each link opens in? Start with the built-in options, because they cost nothing and sometimes they are enough. If you live entirely in Edge, set its default profile for external links. If you live entirely in Safari and a handful of sites always belong in one profile, add Open Links With Profile rules for them. If you use one Chrome profile for almost everything, the last-used behavior may never bother you. The built-in options run out when your profiles span more than one browser, or when the same site belongs in different places on different days. That is where a profile-aware link router earns its place. It becomes the default browser app, receives every link first, and then opens the exact profile you pick, in whichever browser it lives. Opening links in a specific browser profile walks through that setup step by step, and keeping work and personal profiles separate covers the habits that make it stick. Burly is one such router, free and native, and it is built around profiles rather than browsers. It discovers the profiles already on your Mac, shows them in a picker under your cursor when you click a link, and opens the one you choose. It reaches Safari profiles as well as Chromium and Firefox ones, which most routers cannot do. The supported browsers page lists exactly what it can route by profile and what it hands to the active profile instead, including Arc. - Download Burly and move it to your Applications folder. - Set it as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock. - Let it read your browsers and profiles; there is nothing to enter by hand. - Click a link anywhere on your Mac and pick the profile it belongs in. ## Which approach should you use? If one browser holds all your profiles and it has a setting for external links, use the setting and skip the extra app. If your profiles are spread across Safari and Chrome, or Chrome and Firefox, or you want to choose per click rather than per website, a picker is the only thing that covers the whole Mac. And if links from particular apps are the real problem, opening Slack, Teams, and Outlook links in the right profile looks at what each of those apps actually does with a link. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Work vs. Personal: Keeping Browser Profiles Separate on a Mac - How to Open Links in a Specific Chrome Profile on Mac - Safari "Open Links With Profile" Not Working? Why, and How to Fix It --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/open-links-in-specific-chrome-profile-mac Title: Open Links in a Specific Chrome Profile on Mac | Burly If you keep a work Chrome profile and a personal one, you have almost certainly watched a link from Slack or Mail open in the wrong one. It is not a glitch. Chrome sends links that arrive from other apps to whichever profile window was most recently in front, and Google's profile help describes no option for choosing a different destination. This guide is about Chrome specifically: how Chrome identifies a profile under the hood, the command that opens a URL in a named profile, why the obvious version of that command fails, and how to make the whole thing automatic. For the same problem across every browser, see the guide to browser profiles on a Mac. ## Why does Chrome open links in the wrong profile? Chrome treats an incoming link as "open this in the Chrome window I am already using". When macOS hands it a URL, Chrome gives it to the most recently used profile, which is only the right one if you happened to be in it. There is no per-link choice and no per-app rule inside Chrome. macOS cannot help either. System Settings lets you pick one default browser app, and it has no concept of a profile inside that app. So the decision falls to Chrome, and Chrome decides by recency. ## How do you find a Chrome profile's folder name? Chrome identifies each profile by the name of its folder on disk, not by the name you see in the profile menu. The first profile is usually called Default, and later ones are Profile 1, Profile 2, and so on, even if you renamed them Work and Personal long ago. The Chromium documentation on the user data directory explains that each profile is simply a subfolder of Chrome's data directory. To see which folder belongs to which profile: - Open a window in the profile you care about. - Type chrome://version in the address bar and press Return. - Find the line labelled Profile Path. - Note the last part of that path, for example Default or Profile 2. That is the profile directory name. - Repeat in each profile you want to target, and keep a note of which folder is which. ## How do you open a URL in a specific Chrome profile from Terminal? Once you know the folder name, you can ask Chrome to open a URL in that profile with its profile directory flag. On a Mac, the usual form uses the open command so that macOS finds the app for you: open -na "Google Chrome" --args --profile-directory="Profile 1" "https://example.com" Replace Profile 1 with the folder name you looked up, and the address with the page you want. The quotation marks matter: folder names like Profile 1 contain a space, and without quotes the shell splits them into two arguments and Chrome ignores the flag. The same flag works when you call Chrome's binary inside the app bundle directly, which is the form this guide by Brian Hogan documents. If Chrome is already running, it does not start a second copy. The new launch passes the request to the Chrome that is open, and that Chrome opens the page in the profile you named. That is the behavior you want, so there is no need to quit Chrome first. ## Why does the profile's display name not work? Passing the name you see in the menu, such as --profile-directory="Work", is the most common mistake. Chrome looks for a folder called Work, does not find one, and either opens the page in another profile or creates a fresh, empty profile with that name. Either way the link does not land where you meant it to. The flag always wants the folder name from chrome://version. ## Where does Chrome keep its profile folders on a Mac? Chrome stores everything under your user Library, in Application Support, then Google, then Chrome. Inside that folder you will find Default, Profile 1, Profile 2, and so on, plus a file called Local State that records each profile's display name, the order they appear in, and which folder each one maps to. Chrome reads that file to draw the profile menu, which is why renaming a profile never changes its folder. You do not need to edit anything in there, and you should not while Chrome is running. It is useful to know where it lives for one reason: if you are unsure which folder is which, the Profile Path line in chrome://version and the folder names in this directory will always agree. ## Does the same command work in other Chromium browsers? Mostly, yes. Browsers built on Chromium, such as Chrome Canary, Brave, Vivaldi, and Microsoft Edge, use the same folder layout and accept the same profile directory flag. Each keeps its own data directory, though, so you need to look up the folder in that browser's own version page, for example brave://version or edge://version, and use that app's name in the command. There are exceptions worth knowing about. Some Mac users report that Edge ignores the flag when it is launched by hand while already running, and Edge also has its own setting for which profile receives external links. Both are covered in Brave, Edge, and Arc profiles on a Mac. ## What if the command stops working? Most failures come down to three things, and each has a quick check. - The folder changed. If you deleted and recreated a profile, it may have a new folder number. Check chrome://version again and update your command. - The quotes were lost. Scripts, shortcuts, and automation tools sometimes strip quotation marks. If the profile name has a space, make sure it reaches Chrome as a single argument. - The wrong Chrome answered. Chrome Canary and Chromium keep separate data directories, so a folder name from one does not exist in the other. Make sure the app name in the command matches the browser whose chrome://version you checked. ## Can you make every Chrome link open in the right profile automatically? The Terminal command is fine for a bookmark or a script, but it does nothing for links you click in Slack, Mail, or a calendar invite, because those go straight to your default browser. To choose a profile for those, something has to sit between the click and Chrome, receive the link, and run the equivalent of that command with the right folder name. That is what a link router is for, and it is exactly how Burly handles Chrome. It reads Chrome's own list of profiles, so it already knows that Work is Profile 2, and it launches Chrome with the right profile directory when you pick one. Nothing to look up and nothing to keep in sync when you add a profile. - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Open System Settings, then Desktop & Dock, and set Burly as your default web browser. - Burly finds your Chrome profiles, and those in other Chromium browsers, on its own. - Click any link and choose the Chrome profile from the picker, or press that profile's key. If most of your links belong in one profile, you can also pin it: set that profile as the destination in Burly's bypass settings and turn on Invert, and every link goes straight there unless you hold a key to choose. Always open links in one browser profile explains that setup. And if you run several Chrome profiles side by side all day, using multiple Chrome profiles at once covers the other half of the workflow. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc - How to Use Multiple Chrome Profiles at Once on a Mac - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/use-multiple-chrome-profiles-mac Title: Use Multiple Chrome Profiles at Once on a Mac | Burly Running two or three Chrome profiles at once is normal now: a work profile signed in to the company account, a personal one with your own email and shopping, maybe a third for a client or a side project. Chrome handles this well, since every profile can have windows open at the same time. What takes some setup is telling the windows apart at a glance, switching between them quickly, and making sure new links end up in the right place. This guide covers the Chrome side of that on a Mac. For the bigger picture across Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Arc, see the guide to browser profiles on a Mac. ## Can you have more than one Chrome profile open at the same time? Yes. Each Chrome profile opens in its own windows, and you can have windows from several profiles open side by side, each with its own logins, history, bookmarks, and extensions. Closing one profile's windows does not affect the others. To add a profile, click the profile button at the top right of a Chrome window and choose to add a new one. Chrome asks for a name, lets you pick a photo, and offers a color scheme, all described in Google's help page on Chrome profiles. You can change any of those later from Manage Chrome profiles. ## How do you tell Chrome profile windows apart? The color scheme does most of the work. Give each profile a clearly different color, not two shades of blue, and the whole window frame tells you where you are before you read a word. The profile photo in the toolbar is the second cue, and the profile name shows when you click it. Pick colors and names that match how you think about the profiles. Work in a muted gray, Personal in green, a client in orange. The goal is to never have to check. If you want the same cues outside Chrome, Burly lets you give each profile an emoji or account photo and a color in its picker, which is covered in customizing browser profiles with an emoji, a color, and a hotkey. ## What is the fastest way to switch Chrome profiles on a Mac? On a Mac, Chrome adds a Profiles menu to the menu bar at the top of the screen, which lists every profile and opens a window in the one you choose. That menu is the quickest mouse route, because it is always in the same place no matter which window is in front. From the keyboard, Command+Shift+M opens the profile menu for switching people, according to Chrome's list of keyboard shortcuts. From there you can pick a profile with the arrow keys. - Profiles menu in the Mac menu bar: choose a profile to open a window in it. - Profile button in the toolbar: click it and pick another profile. - Command+Shift+M: open the profile menu from the keyboard. - Window menu: jump to an already open window from any profile. ## Can you make a desktop shortcut for a Chrome profile on a Mac? Not from inside Chrome. On Windows, Chrome's profile settings offer a desktop shortcut that opens straight into one profile, but that option does not exist on the Mac, as this BrowserHow guide notes. There are two workarounds. The first is a small script or Shortcuts action that runs Chrome with its profile directory flag, which opening links in a specific Chrome profile explains, including how to find the right folder name. The second is a global hotkey. Burly gives every profile its own system-wide shortcut, so a key combination opens a new tab in Chrome Work from any app, with no script to maintain. Opening a browser profile with a keyboard shortcut covers that setup. ## Which Chrome profile gets links from other apps? Whichever one you used most recently. When you click a link in Slack or Mail, Chrome hands it to the last active profile, and there is no Chrome setting to name a different one. With a single profile that never matters. With three running at once, it means roughly every link has a chance of landing in the wrong place. The fix is to decide per link rather than letting recency decide. A profile-aware browser chooser becomes your default browser, receives every link first, and opens the Chrome profile you pick. Burly does this with a radial picker under your cursor, a key for each profile, and an option to send everything to one pinned profile unless you hold a modifier. It also covers Safari and Firefox profiles, if not all of yours live in Chrome. ## What do Chrome profiles share, and what do they keep separate? Almost nothing is shared. Each profile has its own cookies and logins, its own history, its own bookmarks, its own extensions and their settings, and its own saved passwords and autofill. If you sign a profile in to a Google account, that profile syncs with that account only. That separation is the whole point, and it is why two profiles can be signed in to two different accounts on the same site at the same time. What the profiles do share is the Chrome app itself: one installation, one version, and one set of updates. And because every profile is running inside the same Chrome, quitting Chrome closes all of them at once. ## How many Chrome profiles should you keep open? As many as you can tell apart without thinking, and usually no more than three or four in daily use. Every open profile adds windows to switch between and another place a link might land. If you keep a profile only for occasional tasks, close its windows when you are done, and it will still be there in the Profiles menu when you need it. If a profile exists only to keep a few logins separate for one client or one project, consider whether a different browser would serve that better. Putting that work in Safari or Firefox gives it a completely different window style, which some people find easier to keep apart than a fourth Chrome color. ## What setup works best with several Chrome profiles? Give each profile a distinct color and a short name. Use the Profiles menu or Command+Shift+M to switch when you are already in Chrome. Use a global hotkey to jump into a profile from anywhere else. And let a picker handle links from other apps, so the profile you are looking at is never an accident. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc - How to Open Links in a Specific Chrome Profile on Mac - Open Any Browser Profile With a Keyboard Shortcut on macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/brave-edge-arc-profiles-mac Title: Brave, Edge, and Arc Profiles on a Mac | Burly Chrome and Safari get most of the attention, but plenty of people keep their work life in Edge because their company signs in with Microsoft, or their personal life in Brave, or everything in Arc. Each of those browsers handles profiles a little differently, and each answers the question of which profile gets a link from another app in its own way. Here is how the three compare on a Mac, what each one offers built in, and where an outside tool helps. For Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, see the guide to browser profiles on a Mac. ## How do Brave profiles work on a Mac? Brave is built on Chromium, so its profiles work like Chrome's. Each profile is a folder inside Brave's data directory, named Default for the first and Profile 1, Profile 2, and so on after that. To see which folder belongs to which profile, open a window in that profile and visit brave://version, where the Profile Path line shows the folder. Like Chrome, Brave opens links from other apps in the profile you used last. Because the folders follow the Chromium pattern, the same approach that targets a Chrome profile applies here, explained step by step in opening links in a specific Chrome profile. Burly lists Brave profiles alongside Chrome ones and launches the one you pick by its folder, with nothing to configure. ## Does Microsoft Edge let you choose the profile for external links? Yes, and it is the only browser here with a proper setting for it. In Edge's profile preferences there is an option called Default profile for external links, which decides where links from other apps open. On Macs managed by an organization, a Microsoft policy can send external links to the signed-in work profile instead, and with that policy turned off the last used profile becomes the default, as Microsoft's Edge policy reference explains. If Edge is the only browser you use and one profile should receive every outside link, set that option and you are done. You do not need another app for that. It is worth checking the setting even if you never changed it. On a Mac managed by your employer, the work profile policy may already be deciding for you, which explains why links sometimes land in the work profile no matter which window you were just using. - Open Edge and go to edge://settings/profiles. - Open the profile preferences for multiple profiles. - Set Default profile for external links to the profile you want. The setting is still a single standing choice, though. It cannot send one link to Work and the next to Personal, and it has nothing to say about profiles in any other browser. Edge also accepts the Chromium profile directory flag, and you can read a profile's folder at edge://version, but some Mac users report that the flag is ignored when they launch Edge by hand while it is already running. If you rely on scripts, test yours with Edge both open and closed. ## How do Arc profiles and Spaces work? Arc is organized around Spaces rather than windows. A profile in Arc holds its own logins, cookies, and history, and it is attached to one or more Spaces, so switching Space can switch identity too. For links from other apps, Arc has its own routing feature, Air Traffic Control, which sends a link to a particular Space when its URL matches a rule, and otherwise to a default Space or the one you used most recently, as Arc's help center describes. Air Traffic Control is a good fit if Arc is your only browser and your routing is predictable by domain. Like Safari's per-site setting, though, it decides in advance by URL, and it stops at Arc. ## Can another app open a link in a specific Arc profile? Not reliably. Arc runs as a single instance and cannot be launched straight into a named profile, so an outside tool can hand Arc a link but cannot choose which profile it lands in. Burly treats Arc that way: it appears in the picker as one destination, and the link opens in whichever Arc profile is active. Burly does help with one Arc problem. Arc quietly drops a link it receives while it has no browser window open, which is its state right after you quit it. Burly waits for a real Arc window before handing the link over, and opens one itself if none appears, using the Accessibility permission. The supported browsers page lists Arc with Dia and ChatGPT Atlas as browsers that open links in the current profile. It is also worth knowing where Arc is heading. The Browser Company stopped developing new Arc features in May 2025 to focus on Dia, and Atlassian announced in September 2025 that it was acquiring the company. Arc still works, but it is not the browser to build a new profile setup around. ## How do the three compare at a glance? Put side by side, the three browsers split cleanly into two groups. Brave and Edge behave like Chrome, with folder-based profiles that an outside tool can open by name. Arc does its own thing, and keeps routing decisions inside itself. - Brave: Chromium profile folders, shown at brave://version. External links go to the last used profile, with no built-in setting to change it. - Edge: Chromium profile folders, shown at edge://version. External links follow the Default profile for external links setting, or a work profile policy on managed Macs. - Arc: profiles attached to Spaces. External links follow Air Traffic Control rules, and Arc cannot be launched into a named profile from outside. ## Which approach fits your setup? If Edge is your only browser, use its external links setting. If Arc is your only browser, use Air Traffic Control. If your profiles are spread across more than one browser, say Edge for work and Brave or Safari for personal, no single browser setting can cover them all, because each one only knows about itself. That is the case a profile-aware browser picker is built for. Burly becomes the default browser, shows every Brave and Edge profile, along with Chrome, Safari, and Firefox ones, in one picker, and opens the one you choose for each link. It is free, and if one profile gets nearly everything you can pin it and only choose when you hold a key. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc - How to Open Links in a Specific Chrome Profile on Mac - How to Use Multiple Chrome Profiles at Once on a Mac --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/safari-open-links-with-profile-not-working Title: Safari Open Links With Profile Not Working? | Burly Safari profiles are a genuinely good way to split work and personal browsing on a Mac, and Apple added a setting that sounds like it finishes the job: Open Links With Profile. Pick a profile for a website, and links to that site should open there. Then you click a link in Mail or Slack, and it lands in Personal anyway. The setting usually works exactly as designed. The trouble is that the design is narrower than its name suggests. This guide walks through what the setting actually covers, the seven reasons it appears broken, a checklist for setting it up so it holds, and what to use when a per-site rule is the wrong shape for how you work. For the bigger picture across Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, see the guide to browser profiles on a Mac. ## What does Open Links With Profile actually do? It assigns a website to a Safari profile, so that links to that website opened from another app go to that profile. Everything else still follows Safari's default, which Apple describes as opening links from outside Safari "in the profile used most recently" (Apple Support). Apple is explicit that the feature "works only with links opened from outside of Safari, such as links in Mail, Messages, the Finder, or other apps." It lives under Safari > Settings > Websites, in the Open Links With Profile item in the sidebar, and it is keyed to the destination site. It is not a rule about which app the link came from, and it is not a general per-profile default (Apple Safari User Guide). ## Why do links still open in the wrong Safari profile? Almost every report of the setting "not working" traces back to one of seven causes. Work down the list in order; the first ones are the most common. - Safari is not your default browser. The setting only acts on links macOS hands to Safari. If Chrome, another browser, or a link router is the default, Safari never sees the click. Check System Settings > Desktop & Dock > Default web browser. - The link is a redirect or a shortener. Links from newsletters, chat apps, and marketing email often point at a tracking domain or a short link such as youtu.be, not the real site. The rule is matched against the site the link points at, so a rule for youtube.com does not catch a youtu.be link, and a rule for your company's app does not catch a click-tracking wrapper around it. - The site was never actually configured. Apple's instructions start with visiting the website, then choosing a profile for it under Settings > Websites. If you set the rule for www.example.com but the link goes to app.example.com, check that the site you configured is the one the link really opens. - The link started inside Safari. Clicking a link on a page, or opening a bookmark, stays in the current window's profile. The setting only governs links arriving from Mail, Messages, the Finder, and other apps. - You need the rule to depend on context. A per-site rule cannot say "Google Docs from Slack goes to Work, but Google Docs from Messages goes to Personal." One site gets one profile, whatever app it came from. - The site has no rule, so it follows the most recently used profile. Any site you have not configured goes to whichever profile you used last. If you were just in Personal, an unconfigured work link lands in Personal. - The destination is not Safari at all. The setting cannot send a link to a Chrome or Firefox profile. If your work lives in Chrome, no Safari setting can route to it. ## How do you set up Open Links With Profile correctly? Configure it per site, from a window where the site is open, and test it from another app. It takes about a minute per site, and it is worth doing before you install anything. - Make Safari your default web browser in System Settings > Desktop & Dock. - In Safari, visit the website you want to route, using the exact address your links point to. - Choose Safari > Settings, open the Websites tab, and select Open Links With Profile in the sidebar. - Find the site in the list and choose the profile from its pop-up menu. - Test it properly: paste the link into Notes or Messages and click it there, rather than clicking it inside Safari. - Repeat for each domain your work links use, including any short-link or login domains they pass through. ## A quick checklist before you give up on it If the setting still misfires, run through these four checks. If all four pass, the setting is doing its job and the gap is in its design, not your configuration. First, confirm Safari is the default browser. Second, open the link once and look at the address bar: is the final site the one you configured, or did a redirect change it? Third, confirm you clicked the link outside Safari. Fourth, ask whether the same site ever needs to go to two different profiles. If it does, no per-site rule will ever satisfy you. ## When is the built-in setting enough? If your work uses a small, stable set of domains, your links go straight to those domains, and all your profiles live in Safari, Open Links With Profile is enough. Use it, and you do not need another app. It stops being enough when links arrive wrapped in redirects, when one site belongs in different profiles on different days, or when you keep Chrome or Firefox profiles alongside Safari ones. Those are the cases where choosing at the moment you click beats a rule you wrote in advance. ## What is the alternative to a per-site rule? Put a Safari profile switcher in front of the click, so every link asks where it belongs. Burly becomes your default browser, receives each link before any browser does, and shows a radial picker with every Safari profile, and every Chrome and Firefox profile, as its own destination. Because Burly sees the link before it resolves, redirects and short links do not matter: you choose the profile, and Burly opens that profile with the URL. Safari has no public way to launch a named profile, so Burly uses the macOS Accessibility API to press Safari's own New Window item for the profile you picked, then hands that window the link. That is why it needs the Accessibility permission and Safari running. - Download Burly, move it to Applications, and grant Accessibility when macOS asks. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings > Desktop & Dock. You can leave your Open Links With Profile rules in place; they simply stop being consulted. - Click any link and pick the Safari profile from the picker, or press that profile's key. - If nearly every link belongs in one profile, pin it under What to open and turn on Invert, so links go straight there and the picker appears only when you hold your modifier. The walkthrough is in always open links in one browser profile. ## The short version Open Links With Profile is a per-site rule for links from outside Safari, and it only fires when Safari is the default browser and the link goes straight to the configured site. Set it up carefully and it covers simple cases well. When it cannot, because of redirects, context, or profiles in other browsers, pick the profile at click time instead. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - New in Burly: Always Open Links in One Browser Profile --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/firefox-open-external-links-in-profile Title: Open External Links in a Firefox Profile on Mac | Burly Firefox profiles keep bookmarks, logins, history, and extensions completely separate, which makes them ideal for splitting work from personal, or a clean testing profile from your daily one. Opening them is easy. Getting a link from Mail, Slack, or the Terminal to land in the right one is not. This guide covers how Firefox decides which profile receives external links, what changed with the newer profile manager, the command line route to a named profile on macOS, the lock error that trips it up, and the simpler option. For Safari and Chrome equivalents, start with the guide to browser profiles on a Mac. ## Which Firefox profile do external links open in? Links from other apps go to the profile Firefox treats as the default. In the long-standing profile system, that is the profile marked as default in Firefox's profiles.ini file (the entry with Default=1), and you can change it without editing files: type about:profiles into the address bar and click Set as default profile on the one you want. That is a single global choice. Every external link goes to that one profile, whichever app it came from. There is no rule for "links from Slack go to Work" in the long-standing system. - Open Firefox and type about:profiles in the address bar. - Find the profile you want external links to use. - Click Set as default profile. - Quit Firefox completely, then click a link in another app to check where it lands. ## Does the new Firefox profile manager change this? Firefox now ships a friendlier profile manager, available to all desktop users since October 14, 2025 with Firefox 144 (Mozilla). You create and switch profiles from the Profiles item in the Firefox menu, and each one keeps its own bookmarks, logins, history, extensions, and theme. What it did not add, as far as we can find, is a way to choose which profile receives links from other apps. Late in 2025 that was still a requested idea on Mozilla Connect, and at the time of writing there is no documented setting for it. If that changes, it will be the simplest fix for anyone who only needs one profile to receive every external link. ## How do you open a URL in a named Firefox profile from the command line? Firefox accepts a -P flag that launches it with a named profile, bypassing the profile manager, and a -new-window flag for the URL (Mozilla command line options). On a Mac you pass them through the open command. Assembled from those documented flags, a working form is: open -na Firefox --args -P "Work" -new-window "https://example.com" Replace Work with the exact profile name shown in about:profiles. You can wrap the line in a Shortcuts action, a Keyboard Maestro macro, or a shell alias. One honest caveat: -P is documented for classic profiles, and whether profiles created in the newer profile manager are addressable by name this way is something we have not been able to confirm. Test it with your own profiles before you build a workflow on it. ## Why does Firefox say it is already running? Firefox locks a profile while it is in use, so a second launch that asks for the same profile can fail with "Firefox is already running, but is not responding" (Mozilla Support). The fix is to quit every Firefox process, or, if one crashed, clear the stale lock, which on a Mac is the .parentlock file in the profile folder. Running two Firefox profiles at the same time is normal, and each keeps its own windows. The lock only bites when two launches ask for the same profile, or when a crashed session leaves the lock behind, so if the error appears right after a crash, the stale lock is the first thing to check. The -no-remote flag makes things worse for link opening, not better. It tells the new launch not to talk to a running Firefox at all, which lets you run two profiles side by side, but it also means the URL is not handed to the window you already have open. For routing links, leave it off. ## When is the built-in approach enough? If every external link should land in one Firefox profile, set it as the default in about:profiles and you are done. You do not need another app for that. It stops working the moment different links belong in different profiles, or some belong in Firefox and others in Safari or Chrome. A single default cannot express that, and a command line only helps for links you can intercept yourself. ## What is the simpler way to route links to Firefox profiles? Let a link router catch the click and ask. Burly becomes your default browser, discovers your Firefox profiles, and shows each one as its own destination in a radial picker at your cursor, next to your Safari and Chrome profiles. Pick one, or press its key, and Burly launches Firefox with that profile by name, the same -P mechanism described above, with nothing to type. It works with Firefox and its variants, including Firefox Developer Edition and Zen, as listed on the supported browsers page. Because the -P question is still open for profiles created in the new manager, check that each of your profiles appears in Burly's picker after you install it. - Download Burly and move it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings > Desktop & Dock. - Open Burly once so it can read your installed browsers and their profiles. - Click a link in any app and choose the Firefox profile it belongs in. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS - Work vs. Personal: Keeping Browser Profiles Separate on a Mac --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/open-slack-teams-outlook-links-in-browser-profile Title: Open Slack, Teams, Outlook Links in a Profile | Burly Work links mostly arrive through three apps: Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Outlook. Each one hands the link to macOS, macOS hands it to your default browser, and the browser drops it into whatever profile happens to be in front. A shared doc opens logged into your personal account, a dashboard asks you to sign in again, and a work link ends up in a window you are about to screen-share. Here is what each app actually does on a Mac, which settings help, and how to make work links land in Work every time. For how profiles work in each browser, see the guide to browser profiles on a Mac. ## Where do Slack, Teams, and Outlook send links on a Mac? All three ultimately rely on the macOS default web browser, set in System Settings > Desktop & Dock (Apple Support). None of them knows about browser profiles, so the profile is decided by the browser, not the app. Slack for Mac opens links in the system default browser, and we have not found an in-app setting to change that. Outlook for Mac follows the default browser too: the Open hyperlinks from Outlook in setting, and the change that sends Outlook links to Microsoft Edge, are documented by Microsoft as applying to Windows only (Microsoft Support). Teams is the exception. Microsoft documents a Link open preference under Settings > Files and links. On a Mac, look for that setting; reports of the Mac rollout describe a choice between your system default browser and Microsoft Edge. It picks a browser, not a profile. ## Why do work links land in the wrong profile? Because browsers route external links to the last profile you used. Safari opens links from other apps "in the profile used most recently" (Apple Support). Chrome sends them to the most recently focused profile, and offers no setting to change it. Firefox uses its single default profile. So the profile a Slack link lands in depends on what you were doing a minute ago, not on where the link belongs. Switch to Personal to check a delivery, click a Jira link in Slack, and it opens in Personal. ## Which browser settings can help? Two browsers offer a partial fix of their own, and if your setup fits them, they are all you need. Safari has Open Links With Profile, under Safari > Settings > Websites. It assigns a website to a profile for links opened from other apps, so you can send your company's domains to Work. It is per website, it misses redirected and shortened links, and it only covers Safari. If it seems to ignore you, the troubleshooting is in why Safari's Open Links With Profile does not work. Microsoft Edge has a Default profile for external links setting in its profile preferences, and Microsoft's own policy notes that links opened from Outlook or Teams can be configured to launch in a specific Edge profile (Microsoft Learn). If your work lives in Edge and every external link can go to one Edge profile, that is a clean fix. Chrome has no equivalent setting, and Firefox only offers one global default profile in about:profiles. One thing to avoid: splitting work and personal by browser instead of by profile, with Chrome as the default for work and Safari opened by hand for personal. It seems tidy, but the default browser still receives every link from every app, so personal links from Messages land in work Chrome, and you are back to copying URLs between windows. ## How do you make every chat link open in your Work profile? If nearly every link from Slack, Teams, and Outlook belongs in one profile, pin that profile as the destination for every link, and keep a way to override it. That is the one-profile setup, and it is the fastest to live with. Burly does this with two settings. Set What to open to your Work profile and turn on Invert, and every clicked link opens there with no picker. When a link belongs somewhere else, hold your modifier and the picker appears. The full walkthrough is in always open links in one browser profile. - Download Burly and set it as your default web browser in System Settings > Desktop & Dock. - Open Burly Settings from the menu bar and choose Bypass. - Set What to open to your Work profile, in Safari, Chrome, Firefox, or another supported browser. - Turn on Invert, so a plain click goes straight to Work. - Click a link in Slack, Teams, or Outlook. It opens in Work, whatever profile you used last. ## What if links from the same app belong in different profiles? Then no single default can help, and choosing at click time is the answer. With Burly left on its default behavior, every link opens a radial picker at your cursor, with each profile on its own key. A client's doc in Slack goes to that client's profile, a Teams meeting link goes to Work, and a personal link a colleague shared goes to Personal. Because Burly is a link router rather than a browser setting, it works the same for Slack, Teams, Outlook, and every other app, and it reaches profiles in Safari, Chrome, and Firefox from one picker. Safari profiles need the Accessibility permission, which Burly asks for on first launch. ## Which fix should you use? If all your work lives in Edge, use its Default profile for external links. If it lives in Safari and your work domains are few and stable, use Open Links With Profile. If links belong in different profiles, or your profiles span more than one browser, let a picker ask. Whichever you choose, set the default browser in Desktop & Dock first, because every one of these fixes starts there. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Browser Profiles on a Mac: Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Arc - New in Burly: Always Open Links in One Browser Profile - Safari "Open Links With Profile" Not Working? Why, and How to Fix It --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/burly-supporter-program Title: Introducing Burly Supporters, $1.99 Once | Burly Burly has been free since the first build, and it is staying free. Every feature, every supported browser, Safari profiles included, no account, no trial, no time limit. That does not change today. What is new is a way for the people who use it every day to chip in, and to turn off the small promotions the picker has shown since 1.2.0: Burly 1.4.0 introduces the Supporter program. ## What are the promotions in the picker? Since Burly 1.2.0, every so often when the picker opens, one of its petals is a small promotion, usually for one of my other apps, sometimes for the Supporter license itself. It sits alongside your profiles rather than in front of them, it never delays the link you clicked, and you can ignore it and pick a profile exactly as before. Most picker opens show nothing extra at all, and you will not see a promotion twice in a row. There is no tracking behind it. Burly decides whether to show one entirely on your Mac, from a random roll, with no network call, no profile of what you browse, and no targeting of any kind. It knows nothing about the links you click beyond what it always needed to know: where you want them to open. If you are curious what those other apps are, they are the same kind of small, focused Mac software as Burly, and you can browse them on the Other Projects page any time. ## What do Supporters get? A Supporter license is one $1.99 payment. Not a subscription, not a yearly renewal: you pay once and you are never charged again. In return: - The picker never shows promotions again. Every petal is one of your profiles. - You can reach me directly through Contact Support for bug reports, purchase questions, feature requests, or anything else. - You keep every feature, same as everyone else. Nothing is held back from the free version, and nothing ever will be. ## How does paid support work? The support page is how Supporters get help from me directly. Write your message, enter the email address you paid with, and I email you a short code. Enter the code and the message is sent. That one step confirms you are a Supporter without asking you to sign in or create an account, and it keeps the inbox clear enough that I can actually answer what arrives. Everyone, Supporter or not, can still find answers in Help and talk with other Burly users in the community. ## How do you become a Supporter? Supporter licenses need Burly 1.4.0 or later. If you are not there yet, click the Burly menu bar icon and choose Check for Updates. Then: - Click Hide promos on any promotion in the picker, or choose Become a Supporter from the Burly menu bar icon, or use the Upgrade button on the pricing page. - Pay $1.99 through Stripe. Burly never sees your card details. - Click Activate on the confirmation page. Burly opens with promotions already turned off. - If the Activate button does not open Burly, copy the license token from that page and paste it into Burly Settings, under Supporter. Reinstalled Burly or moved to a new Mac? Restore your license with the email you paid with, and it comes right back. ## Why $1.99? Because Burly is a small utility that does one job, and the price should feel like it. I would rather a lot of people find it an easy yes than have a few people weigh it like a purchase decision. If Burly saves you the copy, switch window, paste dance a few times a day, it has probably paid for itself by lunch. And if you never want to pay, that is fine too. The free version is the whole app, and it will keep getting updates either way. Thank you for using it, and thank you, in advance, to everyone who becomes a Supporter. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - New in Burly: Always Open Links in One Browser Profile - How to Open Links in a Specific Browser Profile on macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/blog/burly-multilingual Title: Burly v1.5.0 Is Multilingual | Burly Until today, Burly only spoke English. That was fine for me and less fine for a lot of the people who use it. Browser profiles are not an English-speaking habit: plenty of people keep a work profile and a personal one in Tokyo, São Paulo, Seoul, and Berlin, and they deserve an app that talks to them in their own language. Burly 1.5.0 does. It is the biggest change to the app since launch, even though nothing about how it routes a link looks any different. ## Which languages does Burly support? Nine, counting English: - English - Spanish (Español) - Brazilian Portuguese (Português) - Japanese (日本語) - Korean (한국어) - French (Français) - German (Deutsch) - Simplified Chinese (简体中文) - Traditional Chinese (繁體中文) Everything you see is translated: the picker, every Settings pane, onboarding, the menu bar menu, permission prompts, and the update dialogs. If your Mac uses a language that is not on the list yet, Burly falls back to English. ## How do you switch Burly to another language? You do not have to do anything. Burly follows the language your Mac already uses, so if macOS is in Japanese, Burly is in Japanese the first time it opens. If you want Burly in a different language from the rest of your Mac, macOS can do that per app: - Open System Settings, then General, then Language & Region. - Under Applications, click the add button and choose Burly. - Pick the language you want Burly to use. - Quit Burly from its menu bar icon and open it again. ## Safari profiles now work in every language Translating the app turned up a real bug. To open a Safari profile, Burly presses the matching New Window item in Safari's File menu through the Accessibility API, because Safari has no other way to launch into a named profile. Burly found those menu items by their English titles. On a Mac set to German or Japanese, Safari's menus are in German or Japanese, so Burly could not find them, and Safari profile links quietly opened in the wrong place. Arc had the same problem with its New Window item. Burly now finds those menu items by an internal identifier Safari and Arc attach to them, which never changes with the language. I checked it with Safari running in Japanese, German, and Chinese. If you tried Burly on a non-English Mac before and gave up on Safari profiles, this release is worth another look. ## The website speaks your language too The site you are reading is translated into the same languages, with every page under its own address: /es, /pt, /ja, /ko, /fr, /de, /zh, and /zh-hant. The first time you visit, it picks up your browser's language, and the language menu in the header switches it any time. Checkout for a Supporter license and the emails that go with it, restoring a license and contacting support, arrive in the language you were reading. ## What else is in 1.5.0? Two smaller things. Settings has a new Accessibility pane, and Reduce animations now lives there. And when Chrome, Brave, Edge, or another Chromium browser is already running, Burly hands a profile link straight to it. Before, a link that arrived right after Chrome had updated itself could stall for a few seconds behind a second bouncing Dock icon. The full list, for this release and every earlier one, is in the release notes. ## Help me get the wording right I do not speak all of these languages, and I would rather know about an awkward phrase than have you put up with it. If a label reads oddly, a term is not what your Mac calls it, or a translation is simply wrong, tell me in the Burly Discord. Traditional Chinese in particular is new and would benefit from a native speaker's eye. To get 1.5.0, click the Burly menu bar icon and choose Check for Updates, or download the latest build from this site. Your profiles, hotkeys, and settings carry over unchanged. ## Try Burly free Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. Native, private, and free. No account required.Download for macOS ## Keep reading - Safari "Open Links With Profile" Not Working? Why, and How to Fix It - Introducing Burly Supporters: Hide Promos and Get Real Help for $1.99 --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare Title: macOS Link Routers Compared: Price & Profiles | Burly Comparisons # How Burly compares Plenty of macOS apps route links. Most pick a browser, charge for it, or hide behind a config file. Burly is free, native, and built around one idea: your browser profiles, Safari profiles included, are the destination. Here is an honest look at how it stacks up. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. Updated September 28, 2026 ## Every macOS link router at a glance The four things that usually decide it. Full detail, including where each app beats Burly, is on the individual comparisons below. macOS link routers compared on the four features that usually decide it. Features checked against each vendor's site as of September 2026; prices for App Store apps are the App Store listing price. | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) | BrowserosaurusBrowserosaurus site ↗ | Free | ✗ | ✗ | Grid popup | BumprBumpr site ↗ | $2.99 one-time | ✗ | ✗ | Popup under the cursor | OpenInOpenIn site ↗ | $11.99 one-time | ✓ | ✓ | Selection dialog | BrowserFairyBrowserFairy site ↗ | Free; Pro $8.99/yr | Chromium and Firefox, Pro only | ✗ | Keyboard launcher panel | Open Link ProOpen Link Pro site ↗ | Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime | Browsers only (no profiles listed) | No profiles listed | Number-key picker ## How to choose one Almost every choice here comes down to one question: do you want to decide where a link goes at the moment you click it, or do you want to write rules once and never think about it again? Velja, Choosy, Finicky, and OpenIn are built for the second answer. Burly, Browserosaurus, and Bumpr are built for the first. Neither is better, and picking the wrong side of that line is the most common reason people end up replacing whatever they installed. The second question is how far down the app needs to reach. Bumpr and Browserosaurus stop at the browser: they can send a link to Chrome, but not to your work profile inside Chrome. Velja, Choosy, and Finicky reach Chromium and Firefox profiles but cannot target a Safari profile. Only Burly and OpenIn reach every profile, Safari included, so if your work life lives in a Safari profile the field narrows to two immediately. Price sorts the rest. Finicky and Browserosaurus are free but ask for a config file or are no longer maintained. Burly is free and needs neither. If you want rules, native-app routing, or link types beyond the web, the paid apps genuinely earn their money, and each comparison below says exactly where. If the category itself is new to you, the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do, why macOS needs one, and how to set one up before you start comparing prices. ## The full comparisons ### Burly vs. Velja$8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. Velja alternative → ### Burly vs. Choosy$10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. Choosy alternative → ### Burly vs. FinickyFree, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. Finicky alternative → ### Burly vs. BrowserosaurusFree, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. Browserosaurus alternative → ### Burly vs. Bumpr$2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. Bumpr alternative → ### Burly vs. OpenIn$11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. OpenIn alternative → ### Burly vs. BrowserFairyFree; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. BrowserFairy alternative → ### Burly vs. Open Link ProFree; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Open Link Pro alternative → ## See it for yourself Free, native, and private. Signed and notarized by Apple, and no account required.Download for macOS --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/velja-alternative Title: Burly vs. Velja: Free Velja Alternative for Safari | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. Velja # The free Velja alternative that targets Safari profiles Velja is a great $8 router. If you want the same profile aware link routing for free, with Safari profiles as real destinations and a picker that blooms under your cursor, Burly is the alternative to try. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## Velja and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) | OpenInOpenIn site ↗ | $11.99 one-time | ✓ | ✓ | Selection dialog ## Why people switch from Velja People shopping for a Velja alternative almost always arrive for one of two reasons. The first is the $8: Velja is fairly priced, but link routing feels like something the OS should do, and paying for it grates. The second is Safari. Velja routes to Chromium and Firefox profiles but cannot target a Safari profile, so if your work life lives in a Safari profile, Velja simply cannot reach it. Burly is free and treats Safari profiles as first-class destinations, which is why most switchers land here. ## Is Burly a good Velja alternative? If you are shopping for a Velja alternative, the question is usually one of two things: you want the same profile-aware routing without the $8, or you need to reach Safari profiles that Velja cannot target. Burly answers both. It is free, it discovers your profiles automatically, and Safari profiles are first-class destinations. What you give up is Velja's rules engine and its ability to route links into native apps, so weigh how much of your routing you want to happen automatically versus at click time. ## How to switch from Velja to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Open System Settings, then Desktop & Dock, and set Burly as your default web browser. This replaces Velja as the handler; you do not need to uninstall Velja first. - Burly reads your installed browsers and their profiles automatically. There are no rules to port over, because there are no rules. - Optionally give each profile an emoji, a color, and a keyboard key so the picker becomes muscle memory. ## What you give up Be honest with yourself about automation before you switch. Velja's rules route each link silently by host or by the app it came from, so Slack links can land in one browser and Mail links in another with no picker at all. Burly can skip the picker too, but only one way: pin a single profile under What to open, turn on Invert, and every link goes straight there until you hold a key to choose. It has no per-host or per-app rules. You will also lose Velja's native-app routing, so Zoom links stop opening in Zoom, and its tracking-parameter stripping. If most of your routing already happens by rule and you like it that way, Velja is the better tool and this is not a switch worth making. Velja is a polished, well loved browser picker by Sindre Sorhus. It routes links to the right browser, profile, or native app using rules you set per host or per source app, and it can strip tracking parameters from URLs on the way. It costs $8 as a one time purchase, with a free trial. ## Burly vs. Velja: the quick take The quick take: Velja wins on automation (per-host and per-app rules, native-app routing, tracking-parameter stripping) and is worth its $8 if you want links to route silently. Burly wins on price, on its radial picker, on per-profile hotkeys, and on reaching Safari profiles. If you would rather choose at click time than maintain rules, Burly is the better fit; if you want set-and-forget routing, Velja is. ## Burly vs. Velja, feature by feature | | Feature | Burly | Velja | Price | Free | $8 one-time | Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | Chromium and Firefox | Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | ✗ | Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | List popup | Per-profile keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | Letter keys in the prompt | Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | ✗ | Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | ✗ | Per-URL and per-source-app rules | ✗ | ✓ | Opens links in native apps, not just browsers | ✗ | ✓ | Strips tracking parameters from URLs | ✗ | ✓ | Fully local, no account | ✓ | ✓ | Native macOS app | ✓ | ✓ Features checked against the Velja site as of September 2026 (latest release 3.2.4 on October 4, 2026). Velja lists at $8 one-time on the Mac App Store. ## Where Velja is the better pick - •Velja routes to more than browsers. It can send a link straight to a matching native app, like opening a Zoom link in Zoom instead of the web. - •It has a real rules engine: open links from a given app or host in a chosen browser automatically, with no picker in the way. - •It strips tracking parameters from URLs, a privacy touch Burly does not do. - •At $8 it is a mature, frequently updated app from a developer with a long track record. ## The verdict If you want rule based automation, native app routing, or tracking parameter cleanup, Velja is well worth its $8. Choose Burly if you would rather have a free, picker first tool that treats every profile, Safari profiles included, as a first class destination, with a radial picker, per-profile keys, and a global hotkey to jump into any profile without a link. ## Other Velja alternatives Burly is not the only option, and if you are searching for Velja alternatives in the plural you probably want to see the field before you commit. Choosy is the closest like-for-like swap: another paid, polished rules engine, with deeper matching than Velja and the same Safari blind spot. Finicky is the free answer if you are happy writing your routing as JavaScript instead of clicking it. OpenIn is the one to look at if you want Velja's automation plus mail, file, and phone-number routing, and it reaches Safari profiles too. Bumpr is the cheap picker if you only ever switch whole browsers. Here is the shortlist. - Choosy · $10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. - Finicky · Free, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. - Browserosaurus · Free, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. - Bumpr · $2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. - OpenIn · $11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. - BrowserFairy · Free; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. - Open Link Pro · Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## Velja alternatives: common questions Is there a free Velja alternative?Two, with different shapes. Burly is free, needs no configuration, and shows a radial picker at your cursor. Finicky is free and open source but has no picker: you describe your routing in a JavaScript config file. Browserosaurus used to be the third free option, but it was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. Can Velja open links in a specific Safari profile?No. Velja routes to Chromium and Firefox profiles, but Safari profiles are not available as destinations. Among the macOS link routers, only Burly and OpenIn can send a link to a chosen Safari profile. Do I have to uninstall Velja before trying Burly?No. macOS routes links to whichever app is set as your default web browser, so setting Burly as the default in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, is enough to take Velja out of the path. Velja stays installed and unchanged, and switching the default back restores it. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/choosy-alternative Title: Burly vs. Choosy: Choosy Alternative With Safari | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. Choosy # A free Choosy alternative with Safari and Firefox profiles Choosy is a powerful $10 browser chooser with deep rules. If you want profile first routing for free, including the Safari and Firefox profiles Choosy cannot reach, Burly is the alternative to try. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## Choosy and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) | OpenInOpenIn site ↗ | $11.99 one-time | ✓ | ✓ | Selection dialog ## Why people switch from Choosy Choosy is the most powerful browser chooser on the Mac, and people leave it for exactly that reason: they were never using the power. If your routing needs are "put this link in the right profile" rather than "match on URL and source app and time of day," Choosy's rules are a setup cost you keep paying for a result Burly gives you with no configuration. The other reason is reach: Choosy routes to Chromium profiles only, so both Safari and Firefox profiles are out of range. Burly reaches all three, and it is free. ## Is Burly a good Choosy alternative? People looking for a Choosy alternative usually fall into two camps: those who find its rule engine more than they need, and those who want to route to Safari or Firefox profiles, which Choosy cannot do. Burly is built for the first camp and capable for the second. There are no rules to write; you click a profile, or press its hotkey, and the link opens there. If conditional, time-of-day routing is the reason you used Choosy, Burly will feel simpler by design, which may or may not be what you want. ## How to switch from Choosy to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock. - Let Burly discover your browsers and profiles. Your Choosy rules do not transfer, and for most people that is the point. - Assign per-profile keys and colors so the picker is faster than any rule would have been. ## What you give up The trade is real and it is all about automation. Choosy can decide without asking you, using rules that match on URL, source app, and even time of day, and it hooks into the Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop. Burly has no conditions at all: the only way it skips the picker is by sending every link to one pinned profile until you hold a key to choose. If you have built a rule set you trust, or you route from places other than a click, Choosy earns its $10 and you should stay. Choosy is a long running macOS browser chooser with the deepest rule engine of the bunch. Rules can match on URL, source app, and even time of day, and it hooks into AirDrop, Handoff, and the Share menu. It can route to a specific profile in Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Vivaldi, and costs $10 as a one time purchase. ## Burly vs. Choosy: the quick take The quick take: Choosy has the deepest rule engine on macOS and integrates with Share, Handoff, and AirDrop, so it is the pick for heavy conditional automation at $10. Burly is free, picker-first, and reaches the Safari and Firefox profiles Choosy cannot, with per-profile keys and a system-wide hotkey for every profile. Choose by whether you want to automate routing with rules or make the call yourself at click time. ## Burly vs. Choosy, feature by feature | | Feature | Burly | Choosy | Price | Free | $10 one-time | Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | Chromium only | Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | ✗ | Targets Firefox profiles | ✓ | ✗ | Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | Menu or list | Rules engine (URL, source app, time of day) | ✗ | ✓ | Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing | ✗ | ✓ | Per-profile keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | ✗ | Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | ✗ | Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | ✗ | Free, local, no account | ✓ | Paid, local | Native macOS app | ✓ | ✓ Features checked against the Choosy site as of September 2026 (latest release 2.5.2 on October 4, 2026). Choosy lists at $10 one-time on the Choosy site. ## Where Choosy is the better pick - •Choosy has the deepest rule engine here. You can combine conditions across URL, source app, and time of day to route automatically and never see a picker. - •It integrates with macOS Share, Handoff, and AirDrop, so links from those flows route too. - •More than a decade of releases make it stable and well understood. ## The verdict Choosy is the pick if you want heavy, conditional rule based routing and deep macOS integration. Burly is the pick if you want a free, profile first picker with zero rules to write, that also reaches the Safari and Firefox profiles Choosy cannot target, plus per-profile keys and a system wide hotkey for every profile. ## Other Choosy alternatives If you are weighing Choosy alternatives in the plural, the field splits by how much automation you want to keep. Velja is the closest paid substitute at $8, with per-host and per-app rules and native-app routing, though its matching is shallower than Choosy's. Finicky is the free way to keep rules, written as JavaScript in a config file you can version-control. OpenIn is the only other app here that reaches Safari profiles while still giving you a real rules engine, and it routes mail and files as well. Bumpr is the budget picker if the rules were never the point. Here is the shortlist. - Velja · $8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. - Finicky · Free, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. - Browserosaurus · Free, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. - Bumpr · $2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. - OpenIn · $11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. - BrowserFairy · Free; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. - Open Link Pro · Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## Choosy alternatives: common questions Is there a free Choosy alternative?Burly and Finicky are both free. Burly asks you at click time with a radial picker and needs no setup; Finicky keeps the rules-first approach but expects you to write them as JavaScript. Neither reproduces Choosy's ability to match on time of day, or its Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop hooks. Can Choosy send a link to a specific Safari profile?No. Choosy targets Chromium profiles, and cannot target a Safari or a Firefox profile. Burly targets Chromium, Firefox, and Safari profiles, which is the usual reason people switch to it from Choosy. What happens to my Choosy rules if I switch?They stay in Choosy, unused. Burly has no rules engine and nothing to import: it discovers your browsers and profiles automatically and asks you at click time instead. If your rule set is doing real work, that is a downgrade, and Choosy is the better tool to stay on. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/finicky-alternative Title: Burly vs. Finicky: A No-Config Finicky Alternative | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. Finicky # A Finicky alternative with a picker and no config file Finicky is a free, scriptable router for developers, but it lives in a JavaScript config file with no picker. If you would rather click a profile than write code, Burly is the free alternative to try, with automatic profile discovery and Safari profile support. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## Finicky and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) | BumprBumpr site ↗ | $2.99 one-time | ✗ | ✗ | Popup under the cursor | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list ## Why people switch from Finicky Finicky is free and genuinely good, so people rarely leave it over money. They leave over the config file. Finicky expects you to write and maintain JavaScript, name every profile by hand, and redo it when a profile changes. That is a fine trade for a developer who wants routing to be code, and a bad one for anyone who just wants the right window to open. Burly needs no configuration at all: it finds your profiles itself, shows them under your cursor, and adds Safari profiles that Finicky cannot target. ## Is Burly a good Finicky alternative? The usual reason to look for a Finicky alternative is that you do not want to maintain a JavaScript config file. Finicky is powerful, but every routing decision lives in code you write and keep up to date. Burly is the opposite approach: it discovers your profiles automatically and shows a picker, so there is nothing to script. Both are free. The honest trade is control versus convenience, and Burly also reaches Safari profiles, which Finicky cannot. If you love your finicky.js, you will miss its precision; if you dread it, Burly removes it entirely. ## How to switch from Finicky to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock. - Skip the config step entirely. Burly discovers your browsers and profiles on launch, so there is no file to write and nothing to name. - You can leave your finicky.js in place; it simply stops being consulted once Burly is the handler. ## What you give up You are giving up programmability, and that is not a small thing. Finicky's rules are real JavaScript and TypeScript, so it can express routing logic Burly has no way to represent, and it is open source in a way Burly is not. If you enjoy having your routing in version control, stay with Finicky. Burly is the better choice only if you would rather never open that file again. Finicky is a free, open source, actively maintained browser router for macOS. You describe your routing in a JavaScript or TypeScript config file, and Finicky sends each link to the right browser or profile with no picker in the way. It can target Chrome and Firefox profiles and is endlessly scriptable, which makes it a favorite among developers. ## Burly vs. Finicky: the quick take The quick take: Finicky is free, open source, and the most programmable router here, ideal if you want silent, version-controlled routing and never want to see a picker. Burly is free too, but trades the config file for automatic discovery and a radial picker, and it targets Safari profiles Finicky cannot. Pick Finicky if you want to write rules; pick Burly if you want to click a profile. ## Burly vs. Finicky, feature by feature | | Feature | Burly | Finicky | Price | Free | Free | Open source | ✗ | ✓ | Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | Chrome and Firefox | Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | ✗ | Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | No picker (config only) | Works with zero configuration | ✓ | ✗ | Automatic profile discovery | ✓ | You name profiles by hand | Scriptable JavaScript and TypeScript rules | ✗ | ✓ | Per-profile keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | ✗ | Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | ✗ | Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | ✗ | Native macOS app | ✓ | ✓ Features checked against the Finicky site as of September 2026 (latest release 4.2.2 on October 4, 2026). Finicky lists at Free, open source on the Finicky site. ## Where Finicky is the better pick - •Finicky is free and open source, with a config file you can version control and share across machines. - •Its JavaScript config is the most powerful routing language here: regular expressions, custom functions, and arbitrary logic decide where each link goes. - •Because it routes silently from rules, links can open with no picker at all once your rules are dialed in. ## The verdict If you are a developer who wants fully scriptable, version controlled routing and never wants to see a picker, Finicky is excellent and free. Burly is for people who would rather click a profile than write a config file: it discovers your profiles automatically, shows a radial picker, targets Safari profiles Finicky cannot, and needs zero setup. ## Other Finicky alternatives Searching for Finicky alternatives in the plural usually means you want to know which routers replace the config file with something you can click. Burly and Bumpr are the two pickers: Burly chooses between profiles, Bumpr between whole browsers and mail clients for $2.99. Velja ($8) and Choosy ($10) keep rule-based routing but move the rules into a settings UI instead of a file. OpenIn ($11.99) is the one that keeps Finicky's ambition, with regex rewriting and scriptable targets, while also reaching Safari profiles. Here is the shortlist. - Velja · $8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. - Choosy · $10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. - Browserosaurus · Free, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. - Bumpr · $2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. - OpenIn · $11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. - BrowserFairy · Free; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. - Open Link Pro · Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## Finicky alternatives: common questions Is there a Finicky alternative that does not need a config file?Yes. Burly is free and configuration-free: it reads your installed browsers and their profiles automatically and shows them in a picker at your cursor. Velja and Choosy also drop the file, but they move the rules into a settings UI rather than removing them, and both are paid. Can Finicky route links to a Safari profile?No. Finicky can open a specific Chrome or Firefox profile, but Safari profiles are not addressable from its config. Burly and OpenIn are the two apps on this list that can target a Safari profile. Can I run Finicky and Burly at the same time?Not usefully. macOS sends http and https links to exactly one default handler, so whichever of the two is set as your default browser gets every link and the other never sees one. Pick one, and keep your Finicky config in case you switch back. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/browserosaurus-alternative Title: Burly vs. Browserosaurus: A Maintained Alternative | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. Browserosaurus # A maintained Browserosaurus alternative that knows your profiles Browserosaurus was a friendly, free, open source browser picker, but it was retired in 2025, and it picked browsers, not profiles. If you need a maintained app that routes to a specific profile, Work Chrome versus Personal Chrome, or a Safari profile, Burly is the free, native alternative to try. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## Browserosaurus and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | BrowserosaurusBrowserosaurus site ↗ | Free | ✗ | ✗ | Grid popup | BumprBumpr site ↗ | $2.99 one-time | ✗ | ✗ | Popup under the cursor | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup ## Why people switch from Browserosaurus This one is simpler than the others: Browserosaurus was retired in 2025, so the question is not really whether to switch but what to switch to. It was also a browser picker rather than a profile picker, which means it could send a link to Chrome but never to the right Chrome profile. Burly is actively maintained, native rather than Electron, and profile-aware, so it covers both the maintenance gap and a capability Browserosaurus never had. ## Is Burly a good Browserosaurus alternative? If you are after a Browserosaurus alternative, there are now two reasons. It was retired in 2025 and its repository is archived, so it no longer gets updates, and even while it was active it could only pick between browsers, not profiles. Browserosaurus was a lovely, free grid picker, but it could not tell Work Chrome from Personal Chrome, and it had no concept of Safari profiles. Burly is the natural step up: it is also free, but it is actively maintained, makes each profile a destination, runs as a native app rather than Electron, and adds per-profile emoji, colors, and hotkeys. ## How to switch from Browserosaurus to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, replacing Browserosaurus. - Burly picks up your browsers and, unlike Browserosaurus, every profile inside them. - Move your muscle memory over: assign each profile the key you were already reaching for. ## What you give up The honest loss is openness. Browserosaurus was open source and auditable, and Burly is not, so if running only inspectable software is a hard requirement, Burly will not satisfy it and Finicky is the closer fit. Beyond that there is little to weigh: an unmaintained app on a moving OS target gets worse on its own. 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) | ✓ | ✗ Features checked against the Browserosaurus site as of September 2026 (latest release 20.12.0 on October 4, 2026). Browserosaurus lists at Free, open source on the Browserosaurus site. ## 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. ## Other Browserosaurus alternatives Because Browserosaurus is retired rather than merely disliked, everyone leaving it is shopping for alternatives in the plural, and the honest answer is that several are worth a look. Burly is the closest in spirit: free, a picker under your cursor, keys on every option, and no configuration, but it chooses profiles rather than browsers. Bumpr, at $2.99, is the nearest match to what Browserosaurus actually did, a maintained popup that picks between whole browsers and mail apps. Finicky is the free, open-source choice if you would rather write rules than click, and it is the only remaining option that satisfies an open-source requirement. Velja, Choosy, and OpenIn are the paid routers if you want automation. Here is the shortlist. - Velja · $8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. - Choosy · $10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. - Finicky · Free, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. - Bumpr · $2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. - OpenIn · $11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. - BrowserFairy · Free; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. - Open Link Pro · Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## Browserosaurus alternatives: common questions Is Browserosaurus still maintained?No. Its developer retired the project in 2025 and the repository is archived, so there are no further releases or macOS compatibility fixes. The source stays readable and forkable, but a link handler that stops tracking macOS changes is a poor bet for something that sits in the path of every link you click. What is the best Browserosaurus replacement in 2026?It depends on whether you need profiles. If a single browser holds both your work and personal profiles, Burly is the replacement: free, native, maintained, and profile-aware, Safari profiles included. If you only ever switch between whole browsers and want the same popup-of-browsers behaviour, Bumpr does that for $2.99. If open source is non-negotiable, Finicky is the maintained option, at the cost of writing a config file. Could Browserosaurus open a specific Chrome profile?No. It listed installed browsers, not the profiles inside them, so it could send a link to Chrome but never to Work Chrome specifically, and it had no concept of Safari profiles. That limit is why most people leaving it go to a profile-aware router rather than another browser picker. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/bumpr-alternative Title: Burly vs. Bumpr: Profile-Aware Bumpr Alternative | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. Bumpr # A free Bumpr alternative that routes to browser profiles Bumpr is a polished $2.99 picker for web and email links, but it chooses apps, not profiles. If you need links to land in a specific browser profile, Work Chrome versus Personal Chrome, or a Safari profile, Burly is the free alternative to try. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## Bumpr and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | BumprBumpr site ↗ | $2.99 one-time | ✗ | ✗ | Popup under the cursor | BrowserosaurusBrowserosaurus site ↗ | Free | ✗ | ✗ | Grid popup | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list ## Why people switch from Bumpr Bumpr is cheap, well made, and does something Burly deliberately does not: it routes mail links as well as web links. People switch when they realise the picker stops one level too early. Bumpr picks the app, so it can send a link to Chrome, but it cannot send it to your work profile inside Chrome, and it cannot reach a Safari profile at all. If your day is split across profiles rather than across browsers, that gap is the whole problem, and it is the one Burly exists to close. ## Is Burly a good Bumpr alternative? If you are after a Bumpr alternative, it is usually because you have outgrown picking between browsers and now need to pick between profiles. Bumpr is a polished, inexpensive picker, and it does one thing Burly does not: it routes email links too, sending a mailto to the email client or webmail you choose. But it picks apps, not profiles, so it cannot tell Work Chrome from Personal Chrome, and it has no concept of Safari profiles. Burly is free, makes each profile a destination, and adds per-profile emoji, colors, and hotkeys. If you lean on Bumpr for email routing, that is the one thing you would give up. ## How to switch from Bumpr to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock. - Burly enumerates every profile in every installed browser, which is the level Bumpr's picker does not reach. - If you also want mailto links routed, keep Bumpr installed and set it as your default mail handler; the two settings are separate. ## What you give up Keep Bumpr in mind for what it uniquely does. It routes mailto links to your chosen mail client, supports per-domain rules, and ships browser extensions for right-click routing, and Burly has none of that. The good news is that this is not strictly an either/or: the default web browser and the default mail client are different settings, so you can run Burly for links and leave Bumpr handling mail. Bumpr is a tidy macOS link picker on the Mac App Store. Click a web link and it shows a small popup of your installed browsers under the cursor; click a mailto link and it offers your email apps instead, so it routes email as well as web links. It supports per-domain rules, number-key shortcuts, and browser extensions for right-click routing. It picks browsers and apps, not profiles, so it cannot target a specific browser profile or a Safari profile. It costs $2.99 as a one time purchase. ## Burly vs. Bumpr: the quick take The quick take: Bumpr is a $2.99 Mac App Store picker that handles both web and email links, with per-domain rules and browser extensions, so it is the pick if routing mailto links matters to you. Burly is free and profile first: it chooses between browser profiles, Safari profiles included, with a radial picker, per-profile keys, and a global hotkey for every profile. The dividing line is profiles, Bumpr picks apps and Burly picks profiles. ## Burly vs. Bumpr, feature by feature | | Feature | Burly | Bumpr | Price | Free | $2.99 one-time | Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | ✗ | Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | ✗ | Routes email (mailto) links to your choice of app | ✗ | ✓ | Per-domain rules | ✗ | ✓ | Browser extensions for right-click routing | ✗ | ✓ | Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | Popup under the cursor | Keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | ✓ | Per-profile keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | ✗ | Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | ✗ | Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | ✗ | Fully local, no account | ✓ | ✓ | Native macOS app | ✓ | ✓ Features checked against the Bumpr site as of September 2026 (latest release 1.4.5 on October 4, 2026). Bumpr lists at $2.99 one-time on the Mac App Store. ## Where Bumpr is the better pick - •Bumpr routes email too. Click a mailto link and it lets you choose the email client, or send it straight to Gmail in the browser you pick. - •It supports per-domain rules, so chosen hosts can always open in a chosen browser with no picker in the way. - •Its browser extensions for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Edge let you right-click or shift-click a link to route it from inside the browser. - •At $2.99 on the Mac App Store it is mature, inexpensive, and easy to install and trust. ## The verdict Bumpr is a great, inexpensive pick if you want one tidy app to route both web and email links, with per-domain rules as a bonus. Choose Burly if you need to reach a specific browser profile, Work versus Personal Chrome, or a Safari profile, which Bumpr cannot do. Burly is free, native, and treats every profile as a first class destination, with a radial picker, per-profile keys, and a global hotkey for every profile. ## Other Bumpr alternatives Looking at Bumpr alternatives in the plural, the first question is whether you need profiles or just a different picker. Burly is the free profile-aware picker, and the only free one still maintained. Browserosaurus was the other free browser-level picker, but it retired in 2025. If you would rather links routed silently, Velja ($8) and Choosy ($10) both add per-host rules, and Velja can open links in native apps the way Bumpr opens mail in your mail client. OpenIn ($11.99) is the broadest, covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers in one utility. Here is the shortlist. - Velja · $8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. - Choosy · $10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. - Finicky · Free, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. - Browserosaurus · Free, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. - OpenIn · $11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. - BrowserFairy · Free; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. - Open Link Pro · Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## Bumpr alternatives: common questions Is there a free Bumpr alternative?Burly is free, native, and maintained, and it goes a level deeper than Bumpr by routing to a specific browser profile rather than a browser. Finicky is free too, but it replaces the picker with a JavaScript config file. Browserosaurus was the other free picker and is no longer maintained. Can Bumpr open a link in a specific browser profile?No. Bumpr picks between installed browsers and mail apps, so it can send a link to Chrome but not to your work profile inside Chrome, and it cannot target a Safari profile. That is the single biggest difference between it and Burly. Can I keep Bumpr for email links and use Burly for web links?Yes. macOS keeps the default web browser and the default mail client as separate settings, so you can set Burly as the default browser and leave Bumpr as the handler for mailto links. Burly does not route mail at all, so nothing overlaps. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/openin-alternative Title: Burly vs. OpenIn: Free OpenIn Alternative, No Rules | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. OpenIn # A free, focused OpenIn alternative for browser profiles OpenIn routes every kind of link for $11.99. If all you want is to get web links into the right browser profile, for free, with a fast picker and nothing to configure, Burly is the alternative to try. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## OpenIn and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | OpenInOpenIn site ↗ | $11.99 one-time | ✓ | ✓ | Selection dialog | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) ## Why people switch from OpenIn OpenIn is the most capable app in this comparison, and that is exactly why people look for something else. It routes links, mail, files, and phone numbers, rewrites URLs with regex, and can call out to shell scripts, all of which has to be set up. If the only job you actually need done is getting a web link into the right browser profile, you are paying $11.99 and doing rule configuration for a fraction of the app. Burly does that one job, for free, with nothing to configure. Note that OpenIn does reach Safari profiles, so unlike the others this is a comparison about scope and price, not capability. ## Is Burly a good OpenIn alternative? OpenIn is the rare competitor that, like Burly, can target Safari profiles, so an OpenIn alternative search is usually about scope and price. OpenIn routes everything: web links, mail, files, phone numbers, with regex rewriting and scripts, for $11.99. If all you actually want is to get web links into the right browser profile, that is a lot of utility to pay for and configure. Burly does that one job for free, with a picker and zero setup. If you also need to route non-web links, OpenIn is the better tool and worth its price. ## How to switch from OpenIn to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock. - Burly discovers your browsers and profiles on its own, so there are no OpenIn rules to recreate. - Leave OpenIn installed if you still want it handling files, mail, or phone links; only the web-link handler changes. ## What you give up You are trading breadth for focus, knowingly. OpenIn handles link types Burly ignores entirely, rewrites URLs with regex, and can route to scriptable targets in zsh or JavaScript. If you route more than web links, or you have rules doing real work, OpenIn is worth its price and Burly will feel narrow by comparison. OpenIn (OpenIn 4) by Loshadki is the most full featured router on this list. It sends not just web links but mailto links, phone numbers, and files to the app of your choice, with regex URL rewriting, scriptable targets, and a selection dialog when more than one target matches. Like Burly, it can open links in a specific browser profile and can target Safari profiles. It costs $11.99 as a one time purchase, or comes with Setapp. ## Burly vs. OpenIn: the quick take The quick take: OpenIn is a do-everything router for $11.99 that also reaches Safari profiles, the pick if you want one utility for web, mail, files, and phone links with deep rules. Burly is free and deliberately narrow: web links to browser profiles, through a fast radial picker, with per-profile keys and global hotkeys and nothing to configure. Choose by scope, whether you want one tool for every link type or a free, focused one for browser profiles. ## Burly vs. OpenIn, feature by feature | | Feature | Burly | OpenIn | Price | Free | $11.99 one-time | Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | ✓ | Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | ✓ | Routes mail, files, and phone links | ✗ | ✓ | Regex URL rewriting and rules | ✗ | ✓ | Scriptable targets (zsh, JavaScript) | ✗ | ✓ | Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | Selection dialog | Works with zero configuration | ✓ | Rule setup | Per-profile keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | ✗ | Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | ✗ | Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | ✗ | Native macOS app | ✓ | ✓ Features checked against the OpenIn site as of September 2026 (latest release 4.5.2 on October 4, 2026). OpenIn lists at $11.99 one-time on the Mac App Store. ## Where OpenIn is the better pick - •OpenIn routes everything, not just web links. Mailto links, phone numbers, and files all go to the app you choose. - •It has regex URL rewriting and can run zsh or JavaScript scripts as targets, for advanced automation. - •Like Burly, it can target Safari profiles, which most competitors cannot. ## The verdict If you want one utility to route every kind of link, mail, files, and phone numbers included, with deep rule based automation, OpenIn is an excellent $11.99 tool. Burly is free and does one job intently: getting web links into the right browser profile through a fast radial picker, with per-profile keys and global hotkeys and nothing to configure. ## Other OpenIn alternatives OpenIn is the most capable router on macOS, so alternatives in the plural are really a question of which capability you are willing to drop. Burly drops everything except web links and makes profiles, Safari profiles included, the destination, for free. Velja ($8) keeps native-app routing and rules but cannot reach Safari profiles. Choosy ($10) keeps the deepest rule matching, also without Safari profiles. Finicky is free and scriptable, the closest thing to OpenIn's power-user side, at the cost of a config file. Bumpr ($2.99) is the minimal option if all you route is web and mail. Here is the shortlist. - Velja · $8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. - Choosy · $10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. - Finicky · Free, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. - Browserosaurus · Free, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. - Bumpr · $2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. - BrowserFairy · Free; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. - Open Link Pro · Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## OpenIn alternatives: common questions Is there a free OpenIn alternative?Burly is free and, like OpenIn, can open a link in a specific browser profile including a Safari profile. Finicky is free and open source, and closer to OpenIn in spirit if you like scripting, but it cannot target Safari profiles. Neither routes files, mailto links, or phone numbers. Which OpenIn alternatives can target Safari profiles?Only Burly. Velja, Choosy, Finicky, Bumpr, Browserosaurus, BrowserFairy, and Open Link Pro all stop short of Safari profiles, so if that is why you bought OpenIn, Burly is the one substitute that keeps the capability, and it is free. Does Burly route mailto links, files, or phone numbers?No. Burly handles http and https links only. If you rely on OpenIn to route mail, files, or tel links, keep it, or run Burly as the default web browser and leave your other defaults where they are. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/browserfairy-alternative Title: Burly vs. BrowserFairy: Free Alternative With Safari | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. BrowserFairy # A free BrowserFairy alternative that also reaches Safari profiles BrowserFairy is a polished rules-first router, but its profile support is a paid Pro feature and stops short of Safari. If you want every profile, Safari profiles included, for free and without writing rules, Burly is the alternative to try. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## BrowserFairy and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | BrowserFairyBrowserFairy site ↗ | Free; Pro $8.99/yr | Chromium and Firefox, Pro only | ✗ | Keyboard launcher panel | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | ChoosyChoosy site ↗ | $10 one-time | Chromium only | ✗ | Menu or list | FinickyFinicky site ↗ | Free | Chrome and Firefox | ✗ | No picker (config only) ## Why people switch from BrowserFairy BrowserFairy is capable and well kept, so people rarely leave it because it broke. They leave over two limits. Profile routing, the feature that sends a link to Work Chrome rather than just Chrome, sits on the Pro tier, which is a subscription. And Safari profiles are out of reach entirely: the developer documents that a rule pointed at Safari simply opens Safari. If your day is split across Safari profiles, or you do not want a subscription for profile routing, Burly covers both for free. ## Is Burly a good BrowserFairy alternative? Most people comparing BrowserFairy alternatives want one of two things: profile routing without a subscription, or a way into Safari profiles. BrowserFairy gates the first behind Pro and, by its own documentation, cannot do the second, because a rule that targets Safari always opens plain Safari. Burly does both for free. What you give up is BrowserFairy's rule list, which can route a link silently by domain, wildcard, or source app, and its browser extensions for handing a tab to another browser. ## How to switch from BrowserFairy to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock, in place of BrowserFairy. - Burly reads your browsers and every profile inside them, Safari profiles included, so there is no profile list to rebuild. - Your BrowserFairy rules do not carry over. If a handful of them sent nearly everything to one profile, pin that profile under What to open instead. ## What you give up Rules are the real loss. BrowserFairy can route a link with no prompt at all by matching its domain, a wildcard, or the app it came from, and Burly has no per-link conditions: its only automatic path is one pinned profile for every link until you hold a key. You also lose BrowserFairy's browser extensions and its Command-Option-B launcher. If your routing is mostly rules you trust, stay with BrowserFairy. BrowserFairy (BrowserFairy 2, by venqoo GmbH) is a long-running, actively maintained browser chooser on the Mac App Store. It lives in the menu bar, opens a keyboard launcher on Command-Option-B, and routes links by exact domain, wildcard pattern, or source app, first match wins. It can open a specific profile in Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, Helium, and Opera, but profile routing and unlimited rules need Pro, and its own documentation says Safari profiles are not supported. The free tier includes three rules; Pro is $0.99 a month or $8.99 a year. ## Burly vs. BrowserFairy: the quick take The quick take: BrowserFairy is the pick if you want links to route themselves by rule, with a keyboard launcher for the rest, and you only need Chromium and Firefox profiles. Burly is the pick if you would rather choose at click time from a radial picker, want Safari profiles as destinations, and do not want to pay for profile support. ## Burly vs. BrowserFairy, feature by feature | | Feature | Burly | BrowserFairy | Price | Free | Free; Pro $8.99/yr | Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | Chromium and Firefox, Pro only | Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | ✗ | Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | Keyboard launcher panel | Rules by domain, wildcard, and source app | ✗ | 3 free, unlimited on Pro | Browser extensions to hand a tab to another browser | ✗ | ✓ | Per-profile keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | Number keys in the launcher | Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | One hotkey opens the launcher | Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | Uses browser profile names and colors | Native macOS app | ✓ | ✓ Features checked against the BrowserFairy site as of September 2026 (latest release 2.3.4 on October 4, 2026). BrowserFairy lists at Free; Pro $8.99/yr on the Mac App Store. ## Where BrowserFairy is the better pick - •BrowserFairy routes by rule: exact domains, wildcard patterns, and the app a link came from, so most links never need a prompt. - •Its browser extensions for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Edge hand the current tab to another browser in one click. - •It reaches profiles in Helium and Firefox as well as Chromium browsers, and has a long track record on the Mac App Store. ## The verdict BrowserFairy is a strong choice if you want rule-based routing with a keyboard launcher and your profiles all live in Chromium browsers or Firefox, and the Pro subscription is fine by you. Burly is the choice if you want every profile, Safari profiles included, as a destination for free, picked at click time rather than matched by rules. ## Other BrowserFairy alternatives Shopping for BrowserFairy alternatives in the plural usually means deciding how much of the rule list you want to keep. Velja ($8) and Choosy ($10) are the one-time-purchase rule engines, both profile-aware for Chromium browsers and both blind to Safari profiles, like BrowserFairy. Finicky keeps the rules and drops the price by moving them into a JavaScript file. OpenIn ($11.99) is the paid option that keeps rules and reaches Safari profiles. Burly drops the rules and asks at click time, for free. Here is the shortlist. - Velja · $8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. - Choosy · $10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. - Finicky · Free, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. - Browserosaurus · Free, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. - Bumpr · $2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. - OpenIn · $11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. - Open Link Pro · Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime A paid browser picker with regex rules, tracker stripping, and link history, but no profiles listed. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## BrowserFairy alternatives: common questions Can BrowserFairy open links in a Safari profile?No. BrowserFairy's own documentation says Safari does not support profiles in its app, so a rule that targets Safari always opens Safari directly, in whichever profile Safari picks. Burly and OpenIn are the two routers that can send a link to a named Safari profile. Is browser profile routing free in BrowserFairy?No. BrowserFairy's free tier includes three rules, and browser profile support is listed as a Pro feature, at $0.99 a month or $8.99 a year on the Mac App Store. Burly routes to every browser profile, Safari profiles included, at no cost. Does Burly have rules like BrowserFairy?No. Burly asks at click time with a radial picker instead of matching domains or source apps. Its one automatic option is a pinned destination: turn on Invert with a profile under What to open, and every link goes there until you hold a key to choose. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table --- URL: https://www.burly.click/compare/open-link-pro-alternative Title: Burly vs. Open Link Pro: Free Profile Alternative | Burly ← All comparisons Burly vs. Open Link Pro # An Open Link Pro alternative that opens the exact browser profile Open Link Pro chooses the browser, and cleans the link on the way. If you need the link to land in a specific profile, Work Chrome versus Personal Chrome, or a Safari profile, Burly is the free alternative to try. By Matt Senter, who builds Burly Matt Senter is an independent Mac developer who designs, builds, and ships small native apps end to end. He built Burly to send every link on his own Mac to the right browser profile, including Safari profiles that other routers cannot reach, and he writes these pages from that first-hand use. ## Open Link Pro and its closest alternatives at a glance | | App | Price | Browser profiles | Safari profiles | Picker | Burly | Free | ✓ | ✓ | Radial, under the cursor | Open Link ProOpen Link Pro site ↗ | Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime | Browsers only (no profiles listed) | No profiles listed | Number-key picker | VeljaVelja site ↗ | $8 one-time | Chromium and Firefox | ✗ | List popup | OpenInOpenIn site ↗ | $11.99 one-time | ✓ | ✓ | Selection dialog | BumprBumpr site ↗ | $2.99 one-time | ✗ | ✗ | Popup under the cursor ## Why people switch from Open Link Pro People move on from Open Link Pro when they realise the question they needed answered was not "which browser" but "which profile". Its picker and rules choose between Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Opera, and nothing in its listing reaches the profiles inside them. Price is the other nudge: the useful features sit behind a $14.99 yearly subscription or a $19.99 lifetime license. Burly costs nothing and routes to the profile itself. ## Is Burly a good Open Link Pro alternative? Open Link Pro is a broad utility, and the usual reason to look past it is depth rather than breadth. It decides which browser opens a link, and its listing never mentions profiles, so Chrome is as far as it goes. If one browser holds two lives, a work profile and a personal one, that is the gap. Burly is free, discovers every profile automatically, and treats Safari profiles as destinations. You would give up Open Link Pro's tracker stripping, AMP skipping, regex rules, and link history. ## How to switch from Open Link Pro to Burly - Download Burly and drag it to Applications. - Set Burly as your default web browser in System Settings, under Desktop & Dock. - Burly lists every profile in every installed browser, the level Open Link Pro's picker does not show. - If you relied on Open Link Pro to strip tracking parameters, keep a cleaning extension in each browser, because Burly passes links through unchanged. ## What you give up Open Link Pro does several things Burly does not do at all. It removes tracking parameters and AMP wrappers before a page loads, routes by regex or keyword without asking, opens Zoom and Slack links in their apps, and keeps a searchable history of links you opened. If those are the reason you bought it, you will miss them, and running Burly means handing those jobs to other tools. Open Link Pro, listed on the Mac App Store as Open Link for Chrome & Firefox, is a feature-dense browser picker by Cristian Gav. It sits in the menu bar, offers a number-key picker, and routes by website, keyword, source app, or regex. It also strips more than 70 tracking parameters, skips AMP pages, sends Zoom, Slack, Figma, and Spotify links to their apps, keeps a searchable link history, and ships a Safari extension. Its listing names browsers, not profiles. It is a free download, with Pro at $14.99 a year or $19.99 for a lifetime license. ## Burly vs. Open Link Pro: the quick take The quick take: Open Link Pro is the pick if you want a browser picker that also cleans tracking parameters, routes by regex, and remembers every link you opened. Burly is the pick if the job is getting links into the right profile, Safari profiles included, and you want it free with nothing to configure. ## Burly vs. Open Link Pro, feature by feature | | Feature | Burly | Open Link Pro | Price | Free | Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime | Opens links in a specific browser profile | ✓ | Browsers only (no profiles listed) | Targets Safari profiles | ✓ | No profiles listed | Picker at your cursor | Radial, under the cursor | Number-key picker | Rules by website, keyword, source app, or regex | ✗ | ✓ | Strips tracking parameters and skips AMP | ✗ | ✓ | Opens Zoom, Slack, and Figma links in their apps | ✗ | ✓ | Searchable link history | ✗ | ✓ | Per-profile keyboard shortcuts | ✓ | Per-browser shortcuts | Global hotkey to open a profile (no link needed) | ✓ | ✗ | Per-profile emoji, account photo, and color | ✓ | ✗ Features checked against the Open Link Pro site as of September 2026 (latest release 3.6.71 on October 4, 2026). Open Link Pro lists at Free; Pro $19.99 lifetime on the Mac App Store. ## Where Open Link Pro is the better pick - •Open Link Pro strips more than 70 tracking parameters, including utm, fbclid, and gclid, and skips AMP pages before they load. - •Its rules match by website, keyword, source app, or regex, so routine links route without a prompt. - •It keeps a searchable history of opened links and ships a Safari extension for sending the current page elsewhere. ## The verdict Open Link Pro is a good buy if you want one app that picks the browser, cleans the link, and remembers it, and you never need a particular profile. Burly is the free choice when the profile is what matters: it sends each link to Work or Personal inside the browser, Safari profiles included, through a radial picker with per-profile keys. ## Other Open Link Pro alternatives If you are looking at Open Link Pro alternatives in the plural, sort them by whether you need profiles. Velja ($8) is the closest match in spirit, with rules, native-app routing, and tracking-parameter stripping, and it adds Chromium and Firefox profiles. OpenIn ($11.99) goes further still, with regex rewriting and Safari profiles. Bumpr ($2.99) is the simple, cheap browser picker. Burly is the free one that routes to profiles, Safari included. Here is the shortlist. - Velja · $8 one-time A polished $8 router from Sindre Sorhus, built around per-host and per-app rules. - Choosy · $10 one-time The deepest rules engine of the bunch, at $10, with Share menu, Handoff, and AirDrop routing. - Finicky · Free, open source Free and open source, driven by a JavaScript config file rather than a picker. - Browserosaurus · Free, open source A free, open-source browser picker that was retired in 2025 and is no longer maintained. - Bumpr · $2.99 one-time A $2.99 picker that chooses between browsers and mail clients, but not between profiles. - OpenIn · $11.99 one-time An $11.99 route-everything utility covering links, mail, files, and phone numbers. - BrowserFairy · Free; Pro $8.99/yr A rules-first launcher with Chromium and Firefox profiles on Pro, and no Safari profiles. Want them side by side instead? The comparison hub puts every macOS link router in one table, and the Mac link router guide explains what these apps do and how to set one up. ## Open Link Pro alternatives: common questions Can Open Link Pro open a specific Chrome profile?Its Mac App Store listing describes choosing between browsers, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave, and Opera, and does not mention browser profiles anywhere. If you need a link to land in Work Chrome rather than Personal Chrome, Burly routes to the profile itself, for free. Which Open Link Pro alternative also strips tracking parameters?Velja does: it removes tracking parameters from URLs as they pass through, and adds profile routing for Chromium and Firefox browsers for $8. Burly does not clean URLs at all, so pair it with a privacy extension in each browser if tracker stripping matters to you. Is Open Link Pro free?It is a free download, but its Pro features are sold as a $14.99 yearly subscription with a three-day trial or a $19.99 lifetime license on the Mac App Store. Burly is free outright, with no tiers, trial, or account. ## Try Burly free Native, private, and free. Route every link to the right browser profile in seconds. No account required.Download for macOS ## See how Burly compares - What a Mac link router is, and how to set one up - The best browser picker for Mac in 2026 - How to open links in a specific browser profile - Compare every macOS link router in one table