Leash Browser vs Pane Browser

I made Leash out of my own necessity: For years, I've not only uninstalled social media apps and email from my mobile, I also had disabled my browser – otherwise, it was too tempting to simply distract myself with news sites or access webmail. Some people may have enough willpower to simply not do that, but I need more friction. Enter disabling the browser! Life without a browser is great, as my phone usage drifted towards more creative things: taking photos, capturing thoughts, catching up and a meticulously curated stream of news, via a RSS reader. But then, life comes along, and asks you to scan a QR code to purchase a ticket. Also, when people sent me a website that I should check out, I had to go a lot of extra miles to do that (i.e. adding it to my todo list and checking it at the laptop). Lastly, some things just don't work without a browser, such as signing in for an app that requires you to do the authentication via their website. Oh, and search! I even installed the Wikipedia app to look up things, but it also has limits. So, I decided to make a 'minimal' browser that will keep the friction where it's needed to withstand the sirens of the internets, but be assistive as a browser should be in living a life in 2026. So here comes Leash! It's built to replace your system browser, and it has three major features: - no address bar - no favorites - no color ... but you can register it as the 'default browser' on your system, and so you'll be able to use it to open links that come 'from the outside world' (= friends, QR codes) and also to open a web search from your phone's search bar. I enjoy it a lot, and I hope, you do, too! (If anything goes wrong, please get in touch – I'm actively developing this, and I'd love to learn about things that aren't working well just yet.)

Pane Browser is a browser built for actually reading the web. There is no top URL bar, no bottom toolbar, no persistent chrome. The web page fills the entire screen. Everything else hides behind a single floating button on the side — tap it once for a radial menu of back, home, more, and two slots you customize yourself. Designed for one-thumb mobile use: • Tap the floating button to open the radial menu — back, home, more, plus your two custom slots. • Drag the button anywhere on the screen; it snaps to either edge so it never gets in the way of the page. • Swipe from the left edge to go back, with a Safari-style parallax preview of the previous page sliding in. • A four-tile shelf on the start screen for the sites you visit most. • Tabs, bookmarks, and history live behind the More menu, not above the page. Privacy by default: • No accounts, no sign-in, nothing leaves your phone. • Bookmarks and history stored on-device only. • No analytics, no tracking, no third-party SDKs. • Default search engine is Bing — reachable worldwide without a VPN. Switch to Google or DuckDuckGo in Settings. Pane Browser uses Apple's WKWebView, the same engine as Safari, so every site you visit renders the way it would anywhere else on iOS.