Chrome is the most popular web browser on the market today, with more than 2.65 billion internet users covering 63.58% of the global browser market share across all devices.
To make the user experience better, chrome developers have come up with different chrome extensions that do basically what their name expresses, i.e. extend the capabilities and features of chrome and improve the user experience.
Since 2009, when they first were enabled, and up till today, the number of extensions on Google has increased exponentially and includes more than 137.000 in number. Though their usage and purpose are vast, in this article, we will focus on a list of chrome extensions that web developers and designers find very helpful in their line of work.
Google Chrome extensions are software applications built on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that extend the capabilities of the Google Chrome web browser. By integrating with third-party websites and services, they add new features and functionalities, enable users to personalize their browsing experience, and boost their efficiency.
They provide, amongst others, productivity tools, web enrichment, and information aggregation. Some examples of Chrome extensions include ad-blockers, custom themes, password managers, etc. They can be obtained from the Chrome Web Store and, once installed, are displayed as icons in the browser's toolbar from which they can be accessed.
For those of you who are on a chrome extension search, here is a list of chrome extensions we consider to be the most helpful and needed for web developers!
With the rapid changes happening in web development, we chose to start this list of extensions with Daily.dev - a Chrome extension that offers web developers a daily dose of the latest news and updates from the web development industry.
Daily.dev compiles articles, tutorials, and resources from a range of more than 400 sources, including well-known websites and blogs, to keep developers up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies.
The extension offers personalization options, allowing developers to tailor their news feed based on topics that interest them, such as JavaScript, HTML, CSS, or specific frameworks or libraries. It is free and has more than 200,000 users and a 5-star rating. No sign-up is required.
Additionally, it can also be used as a platform for developers to showcase their own work and network with others in the web development community. It is a valuable tool for staying informed and connected in the web development industry.
Web developer helps developers in simplifying the web development process by adding a toolbar with helpful tools. This includes disabling JavaScript, viewing source code, resizing the browser window, displaying image file sizes and topographic information, etc.
Those tools make it easier for developers to test and debug their websites and web applications. The extension is pretty useful, with more than 1,000,000 users and a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5.
CSS Peeper is an inspection tool that allows designers to analyze the styles of any web page without having the need to dig into the code.
The extension offers a comprehensive view of all CSS styles used on a page, making it simple for designers to understand and reuse elements in their own designs. You can easily check what’s the line height, font, or a button size on a website with a single click on its dedicated switch on the toolbar.
It is downloaded by more than 400,000 users and has a 5-star user rating.
JSONView helps you view the JSON documents that in the browser are normally shown as plain text.
It formats the JSON data in a readable format, with features like syntax highlighting and folding, making it easier to work with the data and troubleshoot any issues. It is downloaded from more than 100.000 users and has a 4-star rating. Check this example of a JSON data text modified through this extension (the extension should be activated).
React Developer Tools is a chrome-based toolset for debugging and inspecting the open-source React JavaScript library.
It offers visibility into the structure of React components, current state and props, and real-time interaction, simplifying debugging and optimization of React applications.
To access the page's React tree permissions are required, but don't worry the data are not transmitted. The extension is widely used with more than 4,000,000 users and has a 4/5 user rating review.
Stylebot is a user-friendly CSS editing tool for Chrome. It enables developers to efficiently test and apply custom CSS styles to any web page, facilitating experimentation with design variations.
It allows you to modify various elements such as font, color, margins, visibility, and more. It also offers the option to manually code CSS.
It has more than 200,000 users and a 4/5 user rating. For more information about its features, click on this link. With Stylebot, developers can make on-the-fly changes without the need to access source code or reload the page, thus streamlining the development process.
Wappalyzer is a Chrome extension that helps to identify the technologies used on websites. This technology profiler detects various tools such as content management systems, e-commerce platforms, web frameworks, server software, analytics, and more.
It aids web developers, marketers, and researchers to better understand the web landscape and make informed decisions by gaining insights into website technologies.
Simply install it and click the button on the toolbar to use it. With over 2 million downloads and a rating of 4.6 out of 5, Wappalyzer is a widely used and highly rated browser extension.
Similar to CSS Peeper but with fewer features, WhatFont simplifies font identification on web pages with a single click.
Designers can quickly determine the typeface and font size of any text on a page by just hovering over them. This Chrome extension that reads text and detects its details is very simple and elegant, that's why it's widely used, counting over 2 million users with a 4-star rating out of 5.
Even though Loom is not an extension dedicated specifically to developers, we thought of including it in this list because of the value it brings to the users. This chrome extension for screen recording is the ultimate tool to use when creating and sharing video content!
It lets you effortlessly capture video recordings of both your screen and webcam simultaneously, and create video tutorials, presentations, and more. The video gets automatically uploaded after you press the stop record button.
You can provide a more engaging experience by simply clicking and sharing the link of the uploaded video or you can invite your entire team to your workspace and access your videos together.
By using Loom, web developers and designers can save time compared to traditional methods of presenting their work. When working remotely, they can give feedback or training to their clients without the need to write them an email or wait and align their schedule for an online meeting.
With more than 6,000,000 downloads and a 4.7 out of 5 user rating, this chrome extension screen recorder is the highest-downloaded extension on our list.
If you want to quickly download pictures that catch your attention while scrolling through the web, the chrome extension Image downloader is the right one for you.
It allows you to easily download multiple images at once. By simply clicking the button on the toolbar, every image on that webpage will be shown on the menu. Then you can choose to select all the images or just a specific one you want to download.
Customization options are also available, including downloading images based on specific criteria such as size, resolution, or format. With a user base of more than 1 million, it has an average rating of 3.6 out of 5.
ColorZilla is a tool for web designers and developers, offering a convenient way to pick colors from any website and apply them in their designs.
It features a color picker, color history, palette generator, CSS gradient generator, and other features, providing all the tools needed for a seamless color selection process. Its eyedropper feature allows users to find the color of any pixel on the page. This chrome extension color picker helps more than 3 million users in finding the colors they want and has a user rating of 4.4 out of 5.
While on this topic, make sure to also read our article about the importance of color theory in web design, and get inspired by the different color combination ideas!
Using Fake filler is one of the easiest ways to fill out forms and blank fields on a page with dummy data. Filling a lot of forms manually and repeatedly will take out a lot of valuable time from you, whereas by utilizing Fake filler you can do that in a matter of seconds.
Fake filler randomly fills out inputs with names, emails, phone numbers, etc. It is a must-have for developers who test out applications with a lot of forms.
The extension is customizable, giving you the means to make the necessary changes to match your requirements. It also allows you to sync the data to all the browsers where you install it, without the need to copy the settings.
It has been downloaded by more than 200.000 users and has a rating of 4.4 out of 5. Its free option is limited to 25 custom fields, whereas the paid subscription is unlimited and offered with a monthly or yearly payment, as can be seen below.
Have you had to go through the multi-step process of clearing the cache to troubleshoot website issues you might stumble upon? Clear cache is a simple and fast way to clear anything from cache to cookies, downloads, history, and more with a single click on the dedicated toolbar button.
Clear cache helps to improve browser performance, troubleshoot website issues, and save device storage space. You can customize what and how much of your data you want to clear on the options page, as seen in the image above.
The extension has more than 900,000 users and a 4.5 out of 5 user rating.
Google Chrome is the most used web browser on the planet, with more than 2.65 billion users. To further improve the user experience quality, Chrome offers a variety of extensions that ‘extend’ its capabilities. This article highlights 13 of the best Chrome extensions that are especially helpful for web developers and also designers. Each of these tools offers unique functionalities, such as news updates, debugging, CSS analysis, JSON formatting, etc.
By using these Chrome extensions, web developers can streamline their workflow and improve their productivity.
Lastly, thank you for your time and attention. We keep our blog fresh with new articles on web design and related topics, so be sure to check back often for the latest insights. We guarantee it'll be worth your while.