If you’re a developer, you’d have heard about Chrome extensions, and how they can aid your work. But do you know what extensions are? And the necessary things to consider first before installing any extension?

This article will discuss why developers need Chrome extensions, and what they should look out for before selecting an extension. Also, we have profiled the best Google Chrome Extensions that will help you as developers work more efficiently. Keep reading to find out more. 

What are Chrome Extensions?

Google Chrome extensions are programs or add-ons installed on Google Chrome that allow users to modify their browsers and create an experience better suited for their needs. A vast majority of people use Chrome. In fact, research suggests that 65.27% of internet users across the globe use Chrome when compared to other browsers.

So it is only right to consider Chrome extensions because of the productivity it offers. Now, Chrome extensions are built on web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and installed into Chrome for the purpose of changing the browser’s functionality. 

Read: Best Chrome Extensions for eCommerce & Dropshipping Stores

These extensions also have different purposes, functionality, and compatibility.

For example, here are a few functionalities you can derive from adding extensions to your Chrome browser.

• Ease use of the copy and paste from sites feature.
• Web security and users privacy protection.
• Password management.
• Blocking ads from being displayed
• Optimizing memory usage for Chrome’s efficiency.
• To-do lists or notes’ addition to your Chrome browser.

These are a few of the benefits available to natural users when they install Google Chrome extensions into their browsers. However, adding Chrome extensions as a developer provides a wider range of functionality and a pleasant user experience.

Read: Best Chrome Extensions for Designers

This helps you to become more effective, you perform tasks easier and your level of productivity/creativity skyrockets. Now, why do you need Chrome extensions as a developer?

Why Developers Need Chrome Extensions 

Oftentimes, Chrome extensions are overlooked especially for developers but these extensions are necessary tools for developers. Here’s why;

1. Chrome extensions make your work easier and less complicated: Unlike some built-in developer tools, there are some Chrome extensions that provide you with categories of tools you can use to interact on the web with one single click. You can use these extension tools to resize browser windows, view a site’s meta tags and so much more. 
2. Chrome extensions are a great way to improve productivity: Chrome extensions can help you become more efficient by managing your time and mood. Most of your tasks require less effort because you can automate, organize your to-do list, and also provide web updates.
3. Chrome extensions are a good boost of creativity: This is easy because you have a variety of tools to select from. These tools can help you generate ideas, improve on them and motivate you to perform beyond your limits.

Read: 21 Chrome Extensions for Academic Researchers in 2022

What Developers Should Look Out for in Chrome Extensions

There are so many Chrome extensions available in the web market today that many developers don’t know what exactly to look out for. These are the 3 things that you should prioritize before installing any extension on your browser.

• The ease of use
• The safety
• The cost

The ease of use: This is perhaps the most important thing you should consider before installing any extension. How easy to use will the extension be? Therefore conduct as much research as possible on the extension that is of interest to you. Learn about the features and specifications. You can also study its navigation so that you don’t install an extension you can’t use.

Safety: The security of your data should also be highly considered. You do not want to install a bad extension that will tamper with your privacy or your browsing experience. So, read reviews from users on their experience using the extension. Also, always install your extensions directly from the Chrome web store. That way you’re ahead of any third-party breach.

The cost: There are many free extensions and there are extensions that are pricey. You will most definitely find extensions that are free and still fit your needs. But some may come with a price. The most important thing is to have a budget and work with it. Regardless of whether the extensions are free or priced, ensure that they match your needs and budget.

Read: Best Chrome Extensions for Doctors and Medical Personnel

Best Chrome Extensions for Developers

• Githunt:

Pricing: Free for individuals, $4/Month for Team, $21/month for Enterprise

Githunt is a tool that allows you to view top trending projects in your new tabs. Githunt can be installed as a Chrome extension in your browser. This extension can help you see the repositories of any technology that you want on GitHub.

It shows the trending projects in terms of popularity. You can decide if you want your repositories to be shown weekly, monthly, or yearly. You can also select your most preferred language and you will see the repositories in this order whenever you open the new tab.

• WhatFont: 

Pricing: Free

WhatFont is a popular Chrome extension for developers. This extension will help you identify the typeface of any font used on any website. You can use the WhatFont extension to inspect fonts on any webpage by just hovering on them.

WhatFont also allows you to detect the services used to serve the web fonts on the sites.

• Window Resizer:

Pricing: Free

Window resizer is a great extension for developers to resize their browser window so that you can emulate various screen resolutions. This Chrome extension also helps developers to test their layout on different browser resolutions and you can customize the resolutions completely.  You’ll also be able to set the height and width of the window and you can also position the presets icon on your phone, laptop, or tablet. You can also apply new dimensions to the entire window. Window resizer is the best extension for developers to test the responsiveness of your website.

• BrowserStack:

Pricing: Freelance plan is $12.50/month, Team plan costs $125/month

BrowserStack helps developers to build top-notch experiences. The Chrome extension gives developers an avenue to test their mobile applications and their websites across the best on-demand browsers, real mobile devices, and operating systems. Developers can also use this tool to test their visuals, automate across the board.

• CSS Viewer: 

Pricing: Free

CSS Viewer Chrome extension is an easy-to-use tool that developers can use to click and view any image, text, or button on a web page for the CSS code that was used in designing them. So if you as a developer want to find out the CSS code that is being implemented on a website then the CSS viewer extension is your best option.

• Lorem Ipsum Generator: 

Pricing:

Lorem Ipsum Generator is a great tool for you as a developer to generate text that you can customize to create your own text. Install Lorem Ipsum Generator into your Chrome browser and create placeholder, casual and fake text.

• Clear Cache: 

Pricing: Free

Clear Cache extension is particularly useful to developers in clearing the parts of images and pages that are residual and saved in the browsing data. This residual is known as cookies and they are created by the website visited. However, clearing the cookies helps to fix the problem of slower sites that you may experience.

• HTML Validator: 

Pricing: $69/year pro plan costs $129/year

HTML Validator is a tool that helps developers check the validity of HTML markup in web pages. This extension checks whether there are any syntax and lexical errors. So this extension will tokenize each line of code to check for errors such as quotation marks, misspellings, and open tags.

Installing a HTML validator extension will also help you check whether the HTML and CSS codes in your Web page meet the standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

• React Developer Tools: 

Pricing: 

Install React Developer Tools to enjoy the ability to inspect a React tree with its component hierarchy. React Developer Tools extension can also help you debug tools in the Chrome Developer Tools while you edit the props and state in the right panel. You can use this extension to assess the performance of your app.

• JSON Viewer:

Pricing: $1.99

This extension helps developers to evaluate decoded characters and display its Javascript Object Notation in a format that is readable. This extension makes it easier for developers to read and write. It is also customizable and you can use the JSON Chrome extension to print JSON.

• UX Check: 

Pricing: Free

UX Check extension helps in making your heuristic evaluation easier and faster. It allows you to add notes, take a screenshot and save it in your side pane. Developers can also use the UX Check extension for everything they save such as notes and screenshots to a docx file and share with their team.

• Web Developer Checklist:

Pricing:

If you want your site to follow web development best practices, then you should consider installing a Web Developer Checklist. This extension analyzes web pages to check any violation of the best practices. It also helps developers to quickly identify areas where there are issues in the website. 

• Checkbot:

Pricing:$100/year

Checkbot browser extension is particularly useful to developers as it allows you to test a huge number of pages for problems and then helps to boost the SEO, speed & security of your site. Checkbot performs evaluation on your site to check whether there are broken links, duplicated content, invalid HTML/CSS/JavaScript, page speed, insecure password forms, and other website issues directly in your browser.

• Web Developer:

Pricing:

The web developer extension offers functionality such as adding a toolbar button to your browser. Originally available for Firefox browsers, this extension is great for general developers and has tools that will aid your work.

• EditThisCookie:

Pricing: Free

This extension is great for developers because it allows them to create, edit, delete and even protect cookies on a page-by-page basis. You can also use this extension to export analysis and import them to JSON. You can also use it to search and read cookies.

• Daily.dev:

Pricing: Free

Daily.dev is an aggregator that focuses on development news. This extension will show you pages full of blog posts, news stories on your selected subject. You can also read reviews and stay trendy with Devs stories with this extension.

Conclusion

Extensions are programmed so that you can have a better internet experience and so you can work smarter. There are many good extensions available to improve your work as a developer but you have to be on the lookout for them.

We hope this article has exposed you to the possibilities that exist in trying out new technologies and programs. If you’re concerned about the extensions to go for, you can start with the list we provided above and see how much your work improves.