How to Change Your Homepage in Safari

Mobile and desktop Safari use different procedures

by Scott Orgera
Scott Orgera is a former writer who covering tech since 2007. He has 25+ years experience as a programmer and QA leader, and holds several Microsoft certifications.
Updated November 19, 2019

You can choose any page to display when you launch Safari or open a new window or tab in the browser. For example, if you usually begin browsing with a Google search, you can set Google's home page as the default. If the first thing you do when you get online is check your email, you can go directly to your email provider's page by opening a new tab or window.

Information in this article applies to Macs running OS X El Capitan (10.11) through macOS Catalina (10.15) and iPhone iOS 11 through iOS 13.

How to Set the Homepage in Safari on a Mac

You have several home page options in the Safari preferences on a Mac.

  1. Open Safari on your Mac.

  2. Click Safari in the menu bar and choose Preferences from the drop-down menu.

    Safari Preferences location

  3. Select the General tab in the preferences screen.

  4. Next to Homepage, type the URL you want to set as the Safari homepage or click the Set to Current Page button to make the current page the permanent homepage.

    General preferences for Safari on a Mac

    If you also want new tabs and new windows to open on the same or a different homepage, you can do that.

  5. In the same General preferences screen, next to New tabs open with or New Windows open with make a selection in the drop-down menus. Options include:

    • Favorites
    • Top Sites
    • Homepage
    • Empty Page
    • Same Page

  6. Exit the General preferences window to save the changes.

Set the Safari Homepage on an iPhone

You can't set a homepage on an iPhone or another iOS device like you can with the desktop version of the browser. However, you can add a web page link to the Home screen of the device to make a shortcut that opens Safari and goes directly to that web page.

  1. Tap the Safari icon on the iPhone Home screen to open the browser.

  2. Open the web page you want to use as a Safari shortcut.

  3. Tap the Sharing icon—the square with an arrow—at the bottom of the web page to display the Sharing options.

    iPhone screens showing Safari sharing options

  4. Scroll up on the sharing options and tap Add to Home Screen.

  5. Accept the suggested name or change it and tap Add to add the shortcut to a Home screen and close Safari.

    Path to add a web page shortcut to iPhone Home screen

Whenever you tap the web page shortcut icon, Safari opens and displays the page.