one dock icon per browser profile

No. It watches your browser from the outside. It reads the profile list and works out which profile owns each window. The browser itself is never changed.

Accessibility is required: it lets the app see which window belongs to which profile and bring the right one forward. Screen Recording is optional and only draws the live previews: turn it on in the setup guide, or later by clicking Show Live Previews when hovering an icon. Nothing is recorded or saved.

No. You give them once while setting up, and every update keeps them. The only repeat prompt comes from macOS itself: on macOS 15 and later it asks about once a month whether an app may keep seeing your screen, which matters only if you use live previews.

Yes, as an option. Turn on Focus Window Under Pointer from the menu bar icon or in Settings. Rest the pointer on any window, in any app, and it gets focus without coming to the front, so your first click already works and typing goes where you are pointing. Windows stay stacked where you put them. It is off by default and needs no extra permission.

That is how the macOS Dock works for every app. Icons you keep in the Dock sit left of the divider, and you can arrange them any way you like. Right of the divider macOS lists apps that are open but not kept, in an order it picks, and nothing can be dragged there. To move a kept profile icon to the right side, right-click it and turn off Options, Keep in Dock. To keep one on the left, turn it on and drag it where you want.

No. The browser’s icon stays and still shows every window. The profile icons sit next to it.

Chrome (including Beta, Dev and Canary), Brave, Microsoft Edge, Arc, Dia, Opera, Opera GX, Vivaldi, Chromium and Yandex, plus Firefox, Firefox Developer Edition, Firefox Nightly, Zen, LibreWolf and Waterfox, and Safari profiles (Safari 17 or later). Each profile of each browser gets its own icon.

Windows are matched by profile name, so two profiles with the same name cannot be told apart. Rename one in your browser and it works.

Any Mac, Apple Silicon or Intel, running macOS 14 Sonoma or later, with any supported browser installed.

From version 1.3.0 the app updates itself. It checks for a new version every hour, downloads it in the background and installs it by itself the next time your Mac is idle for two minutes. Your permissions stay on after every update. Every update is signed, and the app refuses any file that is not. To check right away, open Settings, General and click Check Now. On 1.2.x, download 1.3.0 from this page once.

Every feature is free for 30 days from the first launch, with no account. The menu bar icon shows the days left. Then it is $49 once for a lifetime license on 1 Mac at a time, with every future update included. The key arrives by email: click the menu bar icon, choose Enter License Key, paste it and click Activate. Moving to a new Mac? Open Settings and click Deactivate this Mac, then enter the key on the new Mac.

Yes, for now. The app is signed by ZwayStudios but not yet notarized by Apple, so on first launch macOS asks you to confirm. Open System Settings, Privacy and Security, and click Open Anyway next to Chrome Profile Switcher. You only do this once: updates never need it again. Step by step with pictures: the install guide at zwaystudios.com/apps/chrome-profile-switcher/install.