Comparison

Safari vs Files

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Safari

Browse the web at high speeds with advanced privacy features and extensive customization. Access your tabs, translate pages, and sync data across your Apple devices. Enjoy a cleaner reading experience and personalized browsing.

Highlights
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Private Browsing mode
  • Intelligent Tracking Prevention
  • Tab Groups
  • Profiles
  • Web page translation
  • Reader mode
Read full description

Explore the web with lightning-fast speed, powerful privacy protections and robust customization options. With Safari you can browse sites, translate web pages, and access your tabs across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Features • Passwords, bookmarks, history, tabs and more seamlessly sync across iPhone, iPad and Mac • Private Browsing mode doesn’t save your history and keeps your browsing your business • Intelligent Tracking Prevention prevents trackers from following you across websites you visit • Tab Groups let you save and organize your tabs and access them across iOS, iPadOS and macOS • Profiles help keep your browsing history, website data, and more separate between topics like work and personal • Shared Tab Groups help you share tabs and collaborate with family and friends • Extensions allow you to personalize Safari and add even more functionality to the browser • Reader formats articles for easy reading without ads, navigation, or other distracting items • Privacy Report shows known trackers that have been blocked from tracking you • Reading List easily saves articles for you to read later • Voice Search lets you search the web using just your voice • Web page translation converts entire webpages into other languages right in the browser • Handoff effortlessly passes what you’re doing in Safari from one device to another • Add to Home Screen allows you to quickly launch a website or web app from your Home Screen • Notify Me periodically checks a webpage for updates and notifies you if a change occurs

About

Files

Manage files from your device, cloud storage, or external drives in one place. Organize with tags, search, and access recent documents easily. Share files and connect to network drives.

Highlights
  • Access files from device, cloud, and external drives
  • Recents view with high-resolution thumbnails
  • Organize files with tags
  • Search and navigate folders
  • Connect to cloud services (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.)
  • Connect to file servers (SMB)
  • Pin favorite folders
Read full description

Access and organize your files no matter where they’re located — on your device, in the cloud, on an external drive or file server— with Files. The Recents view displays the files you’ve been working on lately in high-resolution thumbnails. Use the powerful Browse view to navigate folders, organize your files with tags, move files between folders, and search. Files also makes it easy to access iCloud Drive and third-party cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive. Features • Press the Files icon in the Dock or Home screen to quickly open a file from anywhere • Connect an external drive or SD card to your device to access the files • Connect to a file server at work or a home PC using SMB from Files • Use tags to organize files stored with different cloud providers and across different apps. • Pin your favorite folders in Browse view for quick access to the ones you use most. • Give people access to any file stored in iCloud Drive by sharing a link from the Files app • Drag and drop to select files and organize them into folders

Screenshots

Safari4 screens
Files4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Safari at 4.4 against Files's 2.9. Safari also leads on review sentiment (37% vs 14%) and ratings volume (183K vs 7.6K). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Safari holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Safari has 183K ratings behind it against 7.6K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 37% of Safari's written reviews are positive against 14% of Files's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Safari ships an update every 9 months, Files every 6 months. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Safari versus Files: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSafariFiles
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (183K ratings) — better2.9 (7.6K ratings)
Positive reviews37.3% of reviews — better14.1% of reviews
Number of ratings183K — better7.6K
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 6 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision ProiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro
Requires iOS10.0 — better11.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB5 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperAppleApple

Customer experience

Safari

All ratings181,461 ratings
Positive83.8%
Neutral3.9%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews6,051 reviews
Positive37.3%
Neutral9.4%
Negative53.3%

Files

All ratings7,538 ratings
Positive41.8%
Neutral9.0%
Negative49.2%
Written reviews2,561 reviews
Positive14.1%
Neutral10.1%
Negative75.8%

User reviews

Safari

From 183K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and responsive
  • 🔒 Robust privacy features
  • 👍 Seamless integration with Apple ecosystem
  • 🤩 Excellent reading mode
  • 💡 Useful tab management options

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and freezes
  • 🔍 Difficulty finding specific tabs
  • 🤦‍♀️ Confusing UI changes
  • 🔋 High battery consumption
  • 🤔 Inconsistent search results

Files

From 7.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Smooth performance
  • 💡 Useful for storing and organizing files
  • 🔒 Secure file storage

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes
  • 🐛 Files disappearing or not saving properly
  • 🐛 Unreliable sync with cloud services
  • 🐛 Limited functionality compared to desktop file managers
  • 🐛 Buggy PDF annotation and editing

Bugs and requests

Safari

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Tabs randomly closing or disappearing
  • Issues with website loading and rendering
  • Unexpected behavior when switching between tabs
  • Problems with syncing and iCloud integration
  • Compatibility issues with certain websites

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add 'Find in Page' functionality
  • Improve tab management and organization
  • Provide more customization options
  • Enhance search capabilities
  • Optimize performance and stability

Files

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Files app not showing any files after iOS 15 update
  • Inability to delete downloaded files
  • Keyboard glitches when editing documents
  • Inconsistent behavior when transferring files to external storage

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to view file extensions
  • Improve search functionality
  • Allow more customization of the interface
  • Integrate better with other Apple apps and services
  • Add support for more cloud storage providers

In-app purchases

None

Safari

No in-app purchases

None

Files

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Safari free?
Safari is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Files free?
Files is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Safari or Files?
Safari is rated higher. Safari averages 4.4 out of 5 from 183K ratings, while Files averages 2.9 from 7.6K ratings.
Do Safari or Files have ads?
Neither Safari nor Files shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Safari or Files?
Safari ships an update every 9 months, and Files every 6 months. Most recently, Safari was updated on November 5, 2026 and Files on November 5, 2026.

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