Balance Browser vs Sill
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Balance Browser
A modern web browser designed for productivity and privacy. It offers built-in tools like notes, AI assistance, split view, and an RSS reader to enhance focus and organization while browsing.
- Productive sidebar with notes, history, and RSS
- Split View for side-by-side browsing
- Local AI chat assistant
- Command Palette for quick actions
- Reader Mode for distraction-free reading
- Password Manager
- Profile separation for work and personal use
Read full descriptionHide full description
Balance Browser is a modern web browser that combines fast and native browsing with powerful productivity tools and private AI. Stay focused, organize your work, and browse more efficiently with built-in notes, AI assistance, Reader Mode, Split View, maps, and more. Productivity Command Palette Quickly search browser commands, switch tabs, and perform actions with a single keyboard shortcut. Productive Sidebar Access Notes, History, Downloads, RSS feeds, and your favorite pinned websites from one customizable sidebar. Split View Browse and interact with two websites side by side in a single window. Built-in Notepad Capture ideas, snippets, and to-do lists without leaving your browser. AI Local AI Chat Chat with a private, on-device AI assistant for writing, coding, brainstorming, and everyday questions. Your conversations stay on your Mac. Interactive Map Workspace Extract locations from your open tabs and visualize them on an interactive map. Smart Address Bar Automatically recognizes URLs, domains, and search queries, so you can get where you're going faster. Reader Mode Enjoy a clean, distraction-free reading experiences. RSS Reader Subscribe to RSS feeds and access them directly from the sidebar. Password Manager Securely save and autofill passwords while browsing. Profiles Separate work and personal browsing with independent profiles. Optionally connect an IMAP account to view unread email counts for each profile. Chrome Extension Support Install compatible extensions from the Chrome Web Store to personalize your browsing experience. Flexible Tabs Choose horizontal tabs, vertical tabs, or hide the tab bar entirely to create the browsing experience that works best for you. More Features • Native macOS interface • Privacy controls and content blocking • Native PDF viewer • Customizable homepage • User Agent switching Balance Browser is designed for people who spend their day on the web and want a browser that helps them stay productive, organized, and focused.
Sill
Stream your Mac's desktop or individual windows to your iPhone or iPad. Control your computer remotely using touch, keyboard, or Apple Pencil with encrypted connections. Offers flexible streaming quality and connection options.
- Stream Mac windows or desktop to iPhone/iPad
- Remote control with touch, keyboard, Apple Pencil
- Encrypted connections with TLS 1.3
- Adjustable streaming quality and frame rate
- Virtual display option for continuous updates
- Multiple connection modes (Wired, Wi-Fi, Direct, Remote)
Read full descriptionHide full description
Sill shows a window from your Mac, or its whole desktop, on your iPhone or iPad, and lets you use it with touch, a keyboard, a touchscreen trackpad or Apple Pencil. It streams straight from your Mac to your device over your own network, so there is no account to create and no server in between. You pair each device once, and every connection is encrypted. Both parts are free: the Sill app for iPhone and iPad, and Sill for Mac. Streaming: * Any single Mac window, or the whole Desktop, on your iPhone or iPad * Hardware HEVC video, up to 120 fps on ProMotion screens (60 elsewhere); the rate follows each device * Seven bitrate quality presets, from Low (4 Mbps) to Extreme (150 Mbps), plus Resolution, a frame-rate limit and Prioritize Encoding Speed * Text size (Aa): resizes your Mac window to fit your screen, so text is the size you want * Optional virtual display: a window streams from its own HiDPI display, sized to your device, and keeps updating even when covered on your Mac; full-screen video works too Controls: * Touch: tap to click, drag to scroll with momentum, touch and hold to right-click * Apple Pencil as the mouse, with hover * Software and hardware keyboards, with ⌘, ⌃ and ⌥ shortcuts, plus a key row with latching modifiers and a Spotlight key * Laptop layout when you hold the device upright: the picture on top, a key row and a trackpad (two-finger scroll, two-finger tap, hold then drag, three-finger gestures for Mission Control, App Exposé, switching Spaces, Apps and Show Desktop) * Dedicated iPhone and iPad layouts * Each Mac app's menus (File, Edit, View, etc) on your device, behind a Menus button * Window thumbnails: switch with a tap; hold one for close, minimize and full screen; drag to reorder * An Apps drawer: open windows and all installed apps, with search, and it launches apps Connecting: * Finds your Mac automatically; each Mac has 4 modes: Wired, Wi-Fi, Direct or Remote * USB cable (Wired) support, and a live session moves between the cable and Wi-Fi without dropping * Direct Wireless Connection (Direct, optional), for when you and your Mac don't share a network * Remote Access from anywhere through your own VPN, such as Tailscale, or a port forward * Pairing: every connection encrypted with TLS 1.3; pair each device once by QR code or a 12-digit code, and a USB cable pairs by itself; Require pairing is on by default * Your Mac keeps its keys in the protected part of its keychain that only Sill can read Sill for Mac: * A ~6 MB menu bar app with a live status card: each device, its frame rate and latency * Settings: General, Devices, Streaming, Virtual Display, Remote Access and Permissions * Launch at Login, a log window, and an update check that tells you when a new version is out * A notarized disk image download from getsill.app Sill for iPhone and iPad: * A Settings panel that changes your Mac's stream settings, and shows the connection and latency * A first-run tour, and Take the Tour to replay it * Tells you when your Mac or the device needs an update Free and open source (Apache 2.0) No account, no servers, no tracking: video goes straight from your Mac to your device, forever! Website: https://getsill.app/ GitHub: https://github.com/Saffsanity/sill Site GitHub: https://github.com/Saffsanity/sill-site
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Sill at 11 against Balance Browser's 1. Sill also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Balance Browser against 5.0 for Sill. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sill has 11 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 16, 2026.
| Parameter | Balance Browser | Sill |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | Every 2 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bryce Agostini | NOAH WILLIAM SAFFER |
Customer experience
Balance Browser
Sill
In-app purchases
Balance Browser
No in-app purchases
Sill
No in-app purchases







