Zen Browser cannot play Netflix on a Windows PC or a Mac. Same for Spotify, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video, and Apple Music. Zen is a Firefox-based browser with a redesigned interface, and it has no licence of its own for Widevine, Google's copy-protection system. Zen says most browsers use Widevine to play protected video.
Zen's own help pages say all of this and list those services by name, plus Google Play Movies, and warn that other services using DRM may break too. Zen says it is in the process of getting a Widevine licence and is waiting on Google's approval, with no date attached.
One line of Zen's help pages adds that the licence gap only applies on Windows and macOS. On those two systems, Zen's own advice is to open Firefox or use the streaming service's app.
Linux is messier than that one line suggests. A Linux user filed a report in February 2026 saying protected video would not play, then closed it the same day after a newer build, 1.18.4b, played the video. A second Linux report, about Apple Music, was filed in March 2026 and auto-closed as stale in June without a fix.
Zen FAQ on DRM, Zen issue 12228 on Linux DRM, Zen issue 12597 on Apple Music
What Zen does differently
By default, tabs run down the left edge instead of across the top. Open 40 pages and you get a list you can read, not a row of shrinking slivers. You can group that list into workspaces, and each workspace keeps its own row of Essentials, the pinned site icons at the top.
Split View holds up to four pages side by side in one window. Alt-click a link and Zen's Glance feature opens it in a panel floating over the page you were already reading, so a quick check does not cost you your place. In pinned and Essentials tabs, a plain click opens Glance for links that leave the site.
Compact Mode can hide the tab list, the top toolbar, or both, though the toolbar choices only appear in Zen's Multiple Toolbar and Collapsed Toolbar modes. A hidden bar slides back when your mouse touches the edge of the window.
Zen Split View manual, Zen Glance manual, Zen Compact Mode manual, Zen tab defaults, Zen workspace defaults
Two years in, still a beta
Version numbers still end in a "b" and Zen's front page still announces a beta, two years after the first public build. The GitHub release notes call the latest beta-labelled build a stable release.
The release schedule does not read like a beta's. Zen put out 30 updates between mid-March and late August 2026. Mozilla's Firefox 154 security fixes reached Zen users on August 19, one day after Mozilla published them. Mozilla's two July advisories for the Firefox release channel, published on July 14 and July 21, landed in Zen on July 15 and July 25.
Zen home page, Zen 1.21.15b release, Firefox 154 security advisory, Firefox 152.0.6 advisory, Firefox 153 advisory
The most-commented open issue on Zen's tracker is a maintainer-run thread on speed and memory leaks. It opened in June 2025 and is 144 comments deep. Zen's help pages also say there is no phone version and no current plan for one. The team does not have the time or the resources, and it does not think vertical tabs suit a phone screen.
Who should actually try it
Zen says Firefox Sync carries your add-ons, bookmarks, history, and passwords across devices signed in to the same Mozilla account. Zen itself is free, open source, and runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The project has picked up roughly 44,000 stars on GitHub and has 77 community Mods: themes and small interface plugins, separate from the Firefox extensions that Zen also runs.
If you watch paid streaming in a browser, none of the rest matters. On Windows or a Mac, a browser that cannot play Netflix is a second browser at best. If you watch on a TV or in an app instead and drown in tabs all day, Zen costs nothing to try. Install it, give it a week, and your old browser is still sitting there if the side tabs never suit you.
