Arc Spaces Alternative for Chrome: Keep the Workflow, Not the Browser

Let's clear up the premise first, because a lot of "is Arc dead" content out there gets this wrong: Arc is not dead. The Browser Company said so directly, in a public letter to Arc's own users. What's true is narrower and less dramatic — Arc stopped getting new features in mid-2025, the company that builds it was acquired by Atlassian in Q4 2025 to focus on a different browser called Dia, and Arc itself is in maintenance mode: security patches and bug fixes continue, active feature development doesn't.

If you're here because you liked one specific piece of Arc — Spaces, the feature that let you split your browsing into separate tab contexts — and you're wondering what to do now that it's not getting new capabilities, this post is for you. We'll be straight about what Spaces actually does, what your options are, and where our own product (Amazing Tabs) does and doesn't fit.

What actually happened to Arc, precisely

Worth being precise here, since this is exactly the kind of claim that gets exaggerated into "Arc is dead" clickbait:

• May 2025: The Browser Company published a "Letter to Arc members" announcing they were shifting engineering focus to a new AI-first browser, Dia. The letter's own words: "we never stopped maintaining Arc. We do regular Chromium upgrades, fix security vulnerabilities, related bugs, and more" — but also, plainly, "we are not actively developing the core product experience like we used to."
• September–October 2025: Atlassian agreed to acquire The Browser Company for roughly $610 million, with the deal closing in Q4 2025. Atlassian's stated goal is making Dia "the AI browser for work" — Arc wasn't the reason for the deal, Dia was.
• Today: Arc is still installable, still free for individual users, and still maintained for stability. It just isn't where new features are landing anymore.

So: deprioritized, not discontinued. If you're weighing whether to keep using Arc itself, that distinction matters — a maintained-but-frozen browser is a very different risk profile than an abandoned one.

What Arc Spaces actually does

Spaces is Arc's answer to "I use my browser for three unrelated things and my tabs are all mixed together." Inside one Arc window, you can create multiple Spaces — say, Work, Personal, and a Side Project — and each one gets:

• Its own set of open tabs, separate from the other Spaces.
• Its own pinned tabs/sites (your always-there apps for that context).
• Its own colour/theme in the sidebar, so you know which one you're in at a glance.
• A quick switch (click or keyboard shortcut) to jump between them without losing what's open in each.

It's a genuinely good idea: most of us don't actually want 40 tabs in one flat list, we want 3 contexts of ~10 tabs each. Spaces names that problem correctly.

Why people search for a Spaces alternative anyway

Given Arc isn't dead, why is this even a search people make? A few honest reasons we hear:

• They're on Chrome for work reasons (extensions, enterprise policy, a team standardized on it) and can't run Arc, but they want the same organizing idea.
• They're hedging. Maintenance mode with no new features is a reasonable moment to make sure you're not fully dependent on one company's roadmap decision.
• They just want the Spaces idea, not the whole browser. Switching browsers is a bigger commitment than switching a tab-organizing habit.

That last one is the group this post is really for.

Being honest about what a Chrome extension can and can't do

Amazing Tabs is a Chrome extension, not a browser. That's a real, structural difference from Arc, and we're not going to paper over it:

• What Arc/Spaces does that a Chrome extension can't: Arc's sidebar layout, split view, built-in ad/tracker blocking, and the Space-level visual theming are browser-level features. No extension reproduces Arc's whole shell.
• What a Chrome extension can do: the actual organizing job Spaces solves — separating tabs into named, switchable contexts you can jump between — without touching how the browser itself looks or works.

If what you want is "Arc, but I don't want to leave Chrome," the honest framing is: you're not getting an Arc replacement, you're getting the specific tab-organization habit back inside the browser you're already using. Here's how that maps.

1. Amazing Tabs — Spaces' organizing idea, inside Chrome

Disclosure: we built Amazing Tabs. We didn't build it as an Arc clone — it predates this post — but the overlap with what people use Spaces for is real, so we're including it honestly rather than pretending it's not relevant.

Mapped to the Spaces job:

• Separate contexts: Save tabs into named groups or sessions — Work, Personal, a project — and switch between them from / search instead of a sidebar.
• Quick switch: Press /, type a few characters, jump straight to the group or saved tab you want.
• Cross-device continuity: Your saved groups sync across every device you sign into, which Spaces doesn't do on its own beyond Arc's own sync.
• What it doesn't do: no sidebar, no split view, no visual per-Space theming, no built-in blocking. This is a tab-organization layer, not a browser shell.

Pricing:

• Free: up to 100 saved links, no card required.
• Premium: $2.90/mo billed annually ($34.80/yr), or $4.90/mo monthly. Cancel any time, 30-day refund.
• Lifetime: $99 one-time, capped at 200 founder spots.

Pick this if: the Spaces feature you actually miss is "separate my tabs into named contexts I can switch between," and you want that inside Chrome rather than a whole new browser.

2. Chrome tab groups + separate profiles — the built-in answer

Chrome itself, used deliberately, covers a rougher version of the same job with nothing to install:

• Tab groups — name and colour-code tabs into groups within one window, collapse the ones you're not using.
• Browser profiles — a harder split: separate Chrome profiles for work vs. personal give you fully separate tab bars, history, and extensions, closer to how Arc Spaces visually separates contexts.

Where this stops:

• No single-click "Space switch" — profiles require a full window switch, which is heavier than Arc's in-window toggle.
• No saved-session concept — closing a tab group loses it unless you'd bookmarked it.
• Search across groups/profiles is basic.

Pick this if: you want a zero-install answer and don't mind a heavier switch than Arc's in-place toggle.

3. Sidebar-style browsers (Sidekick, Opera with Workspaces) — closer to Arc's shell

If what you actually miss is Arc's whole visual approach — sidebar tabs, per-context switching built into the browser chrome — a few other browsers lean the same direction:

• Some Chromium-based browsers ship their own "Spaces"-like workspace concept natively in the sidebar, closer to Arc's actual UI than any Chrome extension can get.

Where this stops:

• It's still a browser switch, with the same category of trade-off (new default browser, new extension ecosystem quirks, learning curve) that made you consider leaving Arc in the first place.

Pick this if: what you actually want is Arc's shell, not just its organizing idea — and you're open to another full browser switch rather than staying on Chrome.

Side-by-side: pick by what you actually miss about Spaces

What you miss from Arc Spaces	Best fit
Named, switchable tab contexts, inside Chrome	Amazing Tabs
Zero-install, don't mind a heavier switch	Chrome tab groups + profiles
Arc's whole sidebar/shell experience	Another Chromium browser with native workspaces
Nothing's actually broken, Arc still works fine for you	Stay on Arc

When staying on Arc is the right call

We're not here to talk you out of a browser that's working for you:

• Arc is still maintained — security patches and Chromium upgrades continue — so there's no urgent reliability risk today.
• If you're not missing any feature that would have shipped under active development, "no new features" costs you nothing in practice.
• Switching browsers is a bigger disruption than switching a tab-organizing tool. Don't do it just because of a headline that overstated Arc's status.

The only reason to actively plan an exit is if you specifically need capabilities that would only come from active development — in which case maintenance mode is a real signal, just not an emergency.

Want Spaces' organizing idea without leaving Chrome? Add Amazing Tabs to Chrome — free up to 100 saved links, no card required. Press / after install to switch between saved contexts instantly.

The honest pick

• You want Spaces' context-switching, inside Chrome, actively maintained: Amazing Tabs.
• You want it free with zero installs and don't mind a heavier switch: Chrome tab groups + profiles.
• You actually want Arc's whole shell, not just the tab-organizing idea: another Chromium browser with native workspaces — understanding that's a full browser switch, same as Arc was.
• Arc still works fine for you and you're not chasing new features: stay. It's maintained, not abandoned.

If what sent you searching was "Spaces was the one thing I actually used," Amazing Tabs gets you that specific habit back without asking you to change browsers — which is a smaller ask than it sounds.

Further reading: OneTab vs Toby vs Workona vs Amazing Tabs for the full four-way comparison.

Add Amazing Tabs to Chrome — free → Install from the Chrome Web Store. 100 saved links free, then $2.90/mo billed annually (or $4.90/mo) for unlimited and cross-device sync, $99 lifetime capped at 200 founder spots. See pricing for the full breakdown.