Music widgets
Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud or anything else playing in a tab shows up in the sidebar with artwork, a progress bar and play, pause and skip.
New in 2.2 · profiles, sidebar apps, gaming and sync
The browser that
gets out of your way.
Fast, private and yours to shape. Keep Discord, Spotify and Claude in the sidebar, give school and gaming their own profiles, and take all of it to any computer with an encrypted account.
Free · Windows 10 & 11 · No account needed
Everything you use, nothing you don’t.
Chrome extensions
Install straight from the Chrome Web Store with one click, or load your own unpacked extensions. Their buttons sit right next to the address bar.
Trackers blocked
Ads and trackers are blocked before they load, using the same filter lists privacy extensions rely on. The shield shows how many were stopped.
Make it yours
Eight animated gradient backgrounds, nine clock fonts, any accent colour, and dark or light themes. Every change takes effect straight away.
Sidebar apps
Your apps, one click from any page.
Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, PulsedConnect, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and Claude live in the sidebar next to whatever you’re doing. Sign in once and you’re signed in everywhere in that profile. Music you play there shows up in Now Playing with full controls.
- Spotify and Apple Music play right in the sidebar
- Chat with Claude without leaving the page you’re on
- Add any website as a sidebar app
Built for gaming
Stays out of your game’s way.
Game Control keeps Externo lean while you play. Set a RAM limit and old tabs go to sleep before it’s reached. The CPU limiter freezes background tabs that hog your processor. One click on Game Mode frees memory right before a match.
- RAM limiter, CPU limiter and a live list of the hungriest tabs
- A neon Gaming profile with Discord and Twitch built in
- Tabs you haven’t touched in 30 minutes sleep automatically
Profiles
One for school. One for gaming. One for you.
Each profile is its own browser with separate logins, history, bookmarks, theme, extensions and sidebar apps. Start from a School, Gaming or Work template and switch with the button in the corner.
Accounts and sync
Take your Externo anywhere.
Create a free account and everything already on your computer moves into it: every profile, bookmark, shortcut, sidebar app and theme. Sign in on another computer and it’s all there. Changes made on either computer are merged, not overwritten.
- End-to-end encrypted: we store data we can’t read
- Your password never leaves your computer
- A recovery code gets you back in if you forget your password
Music widgets
Your music, without hunting for the tab.
Externo reads what each tab is playing, including title, artist and cover art, and gives you controls in the sidebar. Skip a song on YouTube Music while you’re reading something else. Click the card to jump straight to that tab.
- Works with any site that plays audio or video
- Next and previous use the site’s own controls
- Click the progress bar to seek
Customize
A new tab page you’ll actually like opening.
Pick a slowly shifting gradient, a clock font from clean to pixel art, and an accent colour that carries through the whole browser. Add shortcuts to the sites you use. If you’d rather it was calm, turn the animation off.
Privacy
No tracking. No telemetry. No catch.
Externo never sends anything about you. You don’t need to sign in, there’s no usage tracking and there are no sponsored tiles on your new tab page. If you choose to create an account, what syncs is end-to-end encrypted. Your history, bookmarks and settings stay on your computer. On its own it only downloads blocklist updates and checks externo.org for new versions, and you can turn update checks off.
- Private windows that forget everything when closed
- A built-in password manager, encrypted on your computer and in sync
- Per-site permissions for your camera, microphone and location
- Private search by default (DuckDuckGo), switchable in one click
- Open source under GPL-3.0, so you can check all of this
And the basics, done properly.
Tab groupsPinned tabsTab search (Ctrl+Shift+A)Search shortcuts like “yt lofi”Tabs with drag to reorderRestore your last sessionAddress bar suggestions
Bookmarks barHistory searchDownloads with pause and resume
Find on pageZoom per tabReopen closed tabsPicture-perfect fullscreen video
Spell checkDevTools built inKeyboard shortcuts you already know
Questions
Is Externo free?
Yes, completely. There’s no paid tier, and no ads or sponsored content either.
What is it built on?
Externo uses Chromium, the same engine as Chrome and Edge, so websites work the way you expect. Everything around the pages (tabs, sidebar, new tab page, settings) is Externo’s own.
Will my Chrome extensions work?
Most will. Open the Chrome Web Store in Externo and click “Add to Chrome” as usual. Externo supports Manifest V3 extensions, including popups, toolbar buttons and context menu items.
Where is my data stored?
Only on your computer, in your user profile folder. Externo has no servers that receive your browsing data. You can clear it any time from Settings.
Is there a Mac or Linux version?
Windows comes first. The code runs on macOS and Linux too, and builds for those will follow.
Is my synced data private?
Yes. Externo encrypts everything on your computer before it’s uploaded, using a key that only your password can unlock. Our server stores scrambled data and a hash that proves who you are. It never sees your password or anything you sync. That’s also why we can’t reset your password: keep your recovery code safe.
Do I need an account?
No. Accounts are optional and only for syncing between computers. Everything works without one.
Does Spotify work in the sidebar?
Yes. Externo includes the protected-media support that Spotify and Apple Music need, so they play in the sidebar and in normal tabs.
Is it open source?
Yes, under the GPL-3.0 licence. The source is on GitHub.
What’s new
2.3 · Passwords, and no more passkey pop-ups
- The Windows Security “choose a passkey” window no longer pops up on its own when you sign in. It appears only when you pick passkey sign-in
- Built-in password manager: save, autofill and manage passwords, end-to-end encrypted in your account
- Extension keyboard shortcuts and right-click menu items now work
2.2 · Profiles, sidebar apps, gaming and sync
- Profiles with School, Gaming and Work templates, each with its own logins, history, theme and apps
- Sidebar apps: Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, PulsedConnect, WhatsApp, TikTok, X, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, Claude, Twitch, or any website
- Game Control: RAM limiter, CPU limiter, Game Mode, a Gaming look and optional UI sounds
- Free accounts with end-to-end encrypted sync, recovery codes and merging between computers
- Tab groups, pinned tabs, tab search and address bar shortcuts (yt, w, gh, steam, claude…)
- New tabs let you type straight away, plus smooth open and close animations
2.1 · Faster, and it updates itself
- The new tab page uses a fraction of the graphics power it used to, with the same look
- Tabs you haven’t looked at for 30 minutes go to sleep and free their memory (they reload when you click them)
- Snappier tab strip and address bar on busy, ad-heavy sites
- Opening a link in a background tab no longer switches to it
- Automatic updates: new versions download quietly and install when you close Externo
2.0 · Rebuilt from scratch
A brand new browser: music widgets, Chrome extensions, tracker blocking, private windows and a customisable new tab page.
Get Externo
Version 2.3 for Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit).
Externo-Setup-2.3.0.exe · 107 MB · Already installed? It updates itself.
Windows may say it “protected your PC”. The installer isn’t code-signed yet, so SmartScreen doesn’t recognise it. Click More info, then Run anyway.
SHA-256 aca9643080dbedddf43ddfeacf27f538fc75752c1640157e249aeed015d56c9a