CaddoraHome

Cameleon · Compare

A Dark Reader alternative for Safari

Dark Reader is the better choice if you want dark pages on an iPhone or iPad, or in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, or if you want to set your own colours: Cameleon is Safari on a Mac only, with five fixed skins. Cameleon's difference is two light skins made for reading a dark site on paper, a different skin kept for each site, and skins switched by Shortcuts or a Focus. Prices checked 9 November 2026.

In short

  • Dark Reader works in more places: one App Store purchase covers Safari on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and it is free in Chrome, Edge and Firefox. It has brightness and contrast controls, a sepia tone, and colours you choose yourself.
  • Cameleon works both ways: three dark skins and two light ones, so a site that only comes dark can be read on warm paper. A skin chosen for a site stays with that site, and a skin can follow your Focus or a Shortcut. Every text colour it draws is re-lit to at least 4.5:1, and the result is measured on 15 sites.
  • Neither is free in Safari. Cameleon is $3.99 once after a seven-day trial; Dark Reader for Safari is $4.99 in the US. On 30 October 2026, Darker, Nitefall and Aurora were free to download on the Irish Mac App Store; we did not check them for in-app purchases.

Buy Cameleon — $3.99, onceDownload the 7-day trial

Feature by feature

FeatureCameleonDark Reader
Price
Price$3.99, onceSafari: $4.99 in the US App Store, €5.99 in Ireland, £4.99 in the UK, once. Chrome, Edge and Firefox: free
Try before payingSeven days, with everything on
Where you get itA download from caddora.ie. The Mac App Store edition is waiting for Apple's reviewThe App Store, and each browser's extension store
Where it works
Safari on a MacmacOS 13 or later
Safari on iPhone and iPadOne purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac
Chrome, Edge, FirefoxFree to install, as separate extensions
Colours
Dark themesThree skins: Midnight, Dusk and LegacyPresets, with brightness and contrast to adjust
Light themesTwo skins: Sunset and Yardage BookA sepia tone, and custom colours
Your own coloursFive fixed skinsCustom background and text colours
Leaves a site's own dark mode aloneDark skins do; light skins go aheadDetects already-dark sites
Contrast floor, measuredText re-lit to at least 4.5:1; measured on 15 sites
Per site and automation
Per siteA different skin for each site, rememberedOn or off for each site
Follows the Mac's light and dark appearanceA default skin for eachSyncs with system dark mode
Shortcuts actions
Focus filterYardage Book while Work is on, say
Menu bar itemOptional
Privacy and age
Data collectedNone. The extension has no networking codeNone, its listing says, and no ads
On sale since29 October 2026 (version 1.0)Safari: 10 October 2018 (now 1.5.10, updated 17 September 2026)

“Not listed” means Dark Reader's App Store listing doesn't say either way; it is not a guess that it is missing. Dark Reader's prices are from the App Store's public lookup on 9 November 2026, for the US, Irish and UK stores. Prices change; check the store before you buy.

Cameleon's light skins on a site that only comes dark

Daring Fireball's page in its own colours
1 of 336 pieces of text is under WCAG AA contrast. Median contrast 6.84:1.
Daring Fireball's page recoloured by Cameleon's Midnight skin
All 336 pieces of text clear WCAG AA contrast. Median contrast 17.00:1.
Daring Fireball's page recoloured by Cameleon's Dusk skin
All 336 pieces of text clear WCAG AA contrast. Median contrast 18.89:1.
Daring Fireball's page recoloured by Cameleon's Legacy skin
All 336 pieces of text clear WCAG AA contrast. Median contrast 14.84:1.
Daring Fireball's page recoloured by Cameleon's Sunset skin
All 336 pieces of text clear WCAG AA contrast. Median contrast 13.50:1.
Daring Fireball's page recoloured by Cameleon's Yardage Book skin
All 336 pieces of text clear WCAG AA contrast. Median contrast 13.02:1.

Captured and measured 3 November 2026 with Cameleon's own engine, on the real page. How it was measured.

What Dark Reader does that Cameleon doesn't

  • Safari on iPhone and iPad, from the same purchase.
  • Chrome, Edge and Firefox, free.
  • Brightness and contrast controls, and colours of your own.
  • Eight years on sale in Safari. Cameleon went on sale on 29 October 2026.

What Cameleon does that Dark Reader's listing doesn't mention

  • Light skins designed as skins: Sunset (warm paper, indigo type) and Yardage Book (sage paper, navy), which go ahead on a site that is already dark.
  • A different skin for each site, remembered, and a default for each of the Mac's light and dark appearances.
  • Shortcuts actions, a Focus filter and an optional menu bar item that can set a skin.
  • A contrast floor that is published and measured, site by site: the numbers, dated.
  • Hovering a skin in the toolbar previews it on the page before you choose it.

Safari's warning, for either

Safari shows the same warning for Cameleon as for Dark Reader or any extension that can work on every site, because it describes what an extension is allowed to do. What Cameleon does with that access, and how to limit it to the sites you choose.

Try it on your own sites

The download runs for seven days with everything switched on. When the trial ends the skins stop applying, and a skin you chose for a site comes back the moment a licence is in. A licence is $3.99 once and covers two Macs.

Buy Cameleon — $3.99, onceDownload the 7-day trial

How we checked

We make Cameleon, so read this with that in mind. Every entry for Dark Reader is from its App Store listing, read through Apple's public lookup on 9 November 2026, or from its developer's own blog for the other browsers; nothing is from our own testing of it. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.

Dark Reader belongs to Dark Reader Ltd, which has nothing to do with Cameleon. See also how to make websites dark, or light, in Safari.