Comparison

Google vs Safari

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

Head to head
About

Google

This app provides a comprehensive search experience, integrating AI for quick answers and personalized content. It allows you to search using images, voice, or text, and offers features like song identification and real-time translation.

Highlights
  • AI Overviews for quick answers
  • Image search with Lens
  • Hum to Search for song identification
  • Personalized Discover feed
  • Real-time camera translation
  • Home screen search widget
Features
Read full description

Download the Google app to find quick answers, explore your interests, and ask anything on your mind in any way. Try AI in Google Search with AI Mode, Lens, Search Live, and more. Feature highlights*: • AI Mode: Get AI-powered responses to your toughest questions with AI Mode–talk, type, or snap a photo to get started, and ask follow-up questions to dig deeper. You’ll continue to see a range of helpful links so you can keep exploring across the web. • Google Lens: See something you like? Snap a photo and discover where to shop for it, find related images, and more. Refine your camera searches by adding words – whether you want those shoes but in ‘blue’, or want to learn how to ‘repair’ that broken bit on your bicycle. • Search Live: Have a live, real-time conversation in Search by using your voice and camera to easily get answers and on-screen links to the web when you need them. • AI Overviews: Get a snapshot of key information about a topic or question, like ’how to fix a broken zipper’, with links so you can easily explore more on the web. • Hum to Search: Can't remember the name of that song? Hum the tune and Google will help find it for you—no lyrics, artist name or perfect pitch required. You can also search for a song playing near you. • Discover: Stay up-to-date on topics that matter to you. Get personalized news, articles, and videos based on your interests. • Google Search Widget: Search faster from your home screen or lock screen, with easy shortcuts to AI Mode, Lens, and more. Google Search, totally reimagined with AI • Explore a new intelligent Search box that expands with your curiosity, offers AI powered suggestions and lets you search with text, videos and more. • Bring your toughest questions to Search. With a more seamless Search experience, you can go from an AI Overview on the search results page to asking follow-up questions in AI Mode, with links to the web. • Get help with planning, researching, brainstorming new ideas, and more with the latest Gemini models delivering frontier performance for agents and coding. • Bring your ideas to life by transforming your photos in Lens or creating images in AI Mode with Nano Banana. Available in select languages and locations. Search what you see with Google Lens: • Use your camera to identify what you’re looking at. Identify plants and animals, translate text in real-time, find similar products to buy, and even solve math problems with step-by-step guides. • Translate over 100 languages on things like road signs when you travel, menus, and more by pointing your camera at text. • Reverse image search: Find the source, similar photos, and related information for any image. • Get step-by-step homework help on math, physics and word problems, and testing your knowledge with Questions and Answers are now fully supported within the Google app. Search safely and securely: • All searches in the Google app are protected by encrypting the connection between your device and Google. • Privacy controls are easy to find and use. Tap your profile picture to access your menu and delete recent search history from your account with one click. • Search proactively filters webspam to help ensure that you see safe, high-quality results. Learn more about what the Google app can do for you: https://search.google/ Privacy policy: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy Your feedback helps us create products you'll love. Join a user research study here: https://goo.gl/kKQn99 *Features may not be available in all countries.

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

Screenshots

Google4 screens
Safari4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Safari at none against Google's 37. Safari also leads on ads (none vs shown) and device support (4 vs 2). Google's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 10 months) and review sentiment (59% vs 37%). On price and rating 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. Google sells 22 in-app purchases, starting at $0.89 per month. Safari asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Google holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Google has 5.1M ratings behind it against 177K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 59% of Google's written reviews are positive against 37% of Safari's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Google ships an update every 5 days, Safari every 10 months. Both last shipped on September 27, 2026.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Google versus Safari: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGoogleSafari
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (5.1M ratings) — better4.4 (177K ratings)
Positive reviews59.2% of reviews — better37.1% of reviews
Number of ratings5.1M — better177K
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 10 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS16.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size485 MB6 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperGoogleApple

Customer experience

Google

All ratings5,108,043 ratings
Positive91.4%
Neutral2.9%
Negative5.7%
Written reviews10,467 reviews
Positive59.2%
Neutral5.7%
Negative35.1%

Safari

All ratings177,311 ratings
Positive83.8%
Neutral3.9%
Negative12.3%
Written reviews5,737 reviews
Positive37.1%
Neutral9.4%
Negative53.5%

User reviews

Google

From 5.1M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Reliable and feature-packed
  • 👍 Seamless integration with other Google services
  • 🔍 Accurate and personalized search results
  • 📱 Intuitive and smooth interface
  • 🔍 Helpful Google Assistant

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🔍 Biased or irrelevant search results
  • 📱 Slow performance and freezing issues
  • 🔍 Forced use of Google Lens
  • 🔍 Difficulty removing unwanted content from feed

Safari

From 177K 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

Bugs and requests

Google

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Search bar freezes or takes a long time to load
  • Tabs disappearing or not saving properly
  • Inability to save images or access image search
  • Crashing or force closing issues
  • Inconsistent dark mode/light mode behavior

Requested features

5 requests
  • Option to disable Google Lens
  • Improved tab management
  • Ability to customize news feed interests
  • Restore image download functionality
  • Dedicated search mode for trucks and larger vehicles

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

In-app purchases

22 purchases

Google

Subscriptions22
  • 30 GB$0.891 Month
  • 100 GB$1.991 Month
  • 100 GB1 Month trial3 variants$1.991 Month
Show 19 more
  • 100 GB3 Months trial$1.991 Month
  • 200 GB$2.991 Month
  • 200 GB1 Month trial3 variants$2.991 Month
  • Google AI Plus (400 GB)$4.991 Month
  • Google AI Plus (400 GB)1 Month trial$4.991 Month
  • Google AI Plus (2 TB)$9.991 Month
  • 2 TB1 Month trial3 variants$9.991 Month
  • 100 GB$19.991 Year
  • Google AI Pro (5 TB)1 Month trial2 variants$19.991 Month
  • Google AI Pro (5 TB)$19.991 Month
  • Google AI Pro (2 TB)$19.991 Month
  • 5 TB2 variants$24.991 Month
  • 200 GB$29.991 Year
  • 200 GB1 Year trial$29.991 Year
  • Google AI Plus (400 GB)$49.991 Year
  • 10 TB$49.991 Month
  • Google AI Plus (2 TB)$99.991 Year
  • 30 TB$149.991 Month
  • 5 TB$249.991 Year
None

Safari

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Google free?
Google is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Safari free?
Safari is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Google or Safari?
Google is rated higher. Google averages 4.6 out of 5 from 5.1M ratings, while Safari averages 4.4 from 177K ratings.
Do Google or Safari have ads?
Google shows ads; Safari does not.
Which is updated more often, Google or Safari?
Google ships an update every 5 days, and Safari every 10 months. Most recently, Google was updated on September 27, 2026 and Safari on September 27, 2026.

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