20 Best Chrome Extensions to Help Developers Save Hours

In today’s dynamically growing web development environment, developers face a variety of challenges. To implement flawless user experiences, they require various tools to ease the complexity. This is where Chrome browser comes in with a wide range of extensions that boost productivity for a variety of industries. 

The accessible Chrome extensions are quite advantageous for the field of web development in particular. These extensions can turn the browsers into finely calibrated tools improving speed and accuracy in various tasks from ordinary to very sophisticated. 

So, this article will explain how a developer can improve their work effort using Chrome extensions. Then we will present some of the best Chrome extensions that will save hours of your work. 

How A Chrome Extension Can Help Developers

Chrome extensions are currently serving countless tasks for developers to minimize their effort. Thus, developers can now focus on innovative and problem-solving aspects of their jobs instead of doing repetitive tasks. Here are some web development tasks that can be simplified using Chrome extensions:

Picking Color & Evaluating

Web developers use different color pallets for their design components. Extensions such as ColorZilla enable users to swiftly choose colors from online pages, create gradients, and retrieve color codes.  Thus, they can retrieve color codes rather than tirelessly sample colors from websites or photos. 

Capturing Screenshots

Taking screenshots from web pages for documentation, bug reporting, or design inspiration is a common task for web developers. So, developers can easily take screenshots of full web pages, including those that extend outside of the visible viewport. 

Formatting Code 

Web development involves a long line of codes that need formatting and proper organization. Some extensions automatically format the code in accordance with present style requirements. As a result, developers don’t need to format the codes manually.

Testing Websites & Debugging

As a developer, one must execute testing and debugging to analyze the performance of a website. Some Chrome extensions are capable of assisting developers to test, debug, and fix their websites. Some notable features are element inspection, JavaScript console, and network monitoring that can easily spot errors and enhance website performance. 

Integrating Version Control

Git is a renowned version-controlling tool among developers, and Chrome extensions have also made it easier. Developers can now see dependencies, pull requests, and related code files from the repository’s web interface. There are extensions available in Chrome that have improved the GitHub viewing experience. 

Checking Compatibility 

If you are a web developer, you must check your project’s compatibility with different browsers. This is where Chrome extensions can help you test your site on various browsers, platforms, and environments without using any external services or virtual machines. 

Automating Tasks 

There are various website-related tasks that are automated by different Chrome extensions. For example: Creating a profile by automatically filling out the forms, extracting visitor data, detecting user interactions, showing updated product information, etc. 

Detecting Technology

With the help of Chrome extensions, developers and analysts can quickly determine the technology stack, software, and framework used behind a website. It helps them to check compatibility, analyze security, and take targeted actions. 

Now, let’s take a look at some amazing Chrome extensions that are already helping developers save hours: 

ColorPick Eyedropper 

If you are looking to easily extract colors from websites, then ColorPick Eyedropper is a robust option for you. It functions as a precisely calibrated zoomed eyedropper and color selector tool that offers great configurability and usability. 

Key Features:   

• Zoomed Eyedropper, which lets you choose a specific color value. 
• Color picker that lets you choose color from any web page.
• Colors are chosen from a snapshot of the web page that changes on scroll.
• Source code available for developers to examine.  

ColorPick Eyedroppers is primarily intended for designers and developers. Because it is a useful tool for quickly determining color values in online settings. 

ColorZilla

ColorZilla is a thoughtfully designed Chrome extension that helps web developers and graphic designers. It assists in managing a variety of color-centric tasks ranging from simple to complex. A wide range of tools and utilities are included in this tool.

Key Features:

• Eyedropper helps in determining the color of any pixel on a page.
• Comparable to the Photoshop color picker.
• Identifies comparable elements by analyzing the colors of DOM components. 
• Creating CSS gradients with the aid of a gradient generator.
• Records the most recent colors chosen.
• Option to sample the typical color of any chosen location.

Users can easily get color readings from any location inside their browsers and transfer them to other programmers. As a result, it helps improve accuracy, optimize processes, and increase creative potential.

Font Picker

Font Picker is a crucial tool when it comes to providing the ability to quickly analyze font properties. The add-on also makes it possible to quickly extract font information, making it a useful tool for transferring pertinent information to the clipboard.

Key Features: 

• Examines any font on a current webpage.
• Any data from the element can be copied to the clipboard
• Customizable font settings inline for any active element, including its color, size, and family.
• Captures color & background color (RGB and HEX), family, size, Line height, vertical alignment, letter, font weight, style, variant, Text transform, decoration, align and indent.  

Additionally, Font Picker offers facilities for using custom fonts, changing the font family, and getting fonts enlisted in the current frame.

WhatFont

It’s never been easier for developers to determine the fonts used on a website or a webpage. But extensions such as WhatFont have made it simple for users to get all the font-related info. It’s a simple yet sophisticated solution that only requires you to hover your mouse over a font. 

Key Features: 

• Instantly reveal the font name, size, color, and even line height.
• Provides useful details about the typographic decisions made by designers. 
• User-friendly extension that requires a few clicks to install and use.
• Multipurpose and reliable tool for identifying HTML fonts on websites. 

This plugin is praised for its usability and efficacy and has received endorsements from reputable websites such as Wired WebMonkey, Lifehacker, and SwissMiss. 

Marker.io

Maker.io is a Chrome extension developed to simplify the process of flagging visual bugs on a website. It flawlessly integrates with leading project management platforms and captures screenshots of visual glitches. 

Key Features:

• Connects with your favorite bug-reporting software (such as Jira, Asana, Trello, and others)
• Allows you to take snapshots of the visual problems, showcase them, and crop them.
• Lets you complete the form to create a ticket/issue/card, etc., without leaving your site. 
• Automatically includes technical metadata and console logs into the tickets.
• Form fields include the elements of a ticket that are visible to teammates, visitors, and customers.  

This extension stays well Within your budget yet provides all the reliable features. Thus, you can improve your internal testing and bug-reporting process. 

BugHerd

BugHerd serves as a visual feedback solution designed specifically for websites. It is a vital project management tool available online and is trusted by many prestigious teams throughout the world.

Key Features:

• Providing and receiving feedback is as simple as pointing and clicking it. 
• Non-technical folks can also use it.
• The sidebar allows you to directly organize and manage tasks.
• Minimizes time and cuts down on team-to-team email exchanges.
• Share and work together on projects with customers and distant team members.  

The collected context-rich data can include screenshots, videos, browser details, OS specifications, and CSS selector data. Moreover, projects and tasks are managed via the Kanban board.

Lightshot

Lightshot is a very efficient tool for taking screenshots from any website. It pulls all its capabilities directly into your Chrome browser. So, if you are looking for a lightweight and simple screenshot tool, it’s definitely worth checking out. 

Key Features:

• Capture and share your screenshot within a few clicks.
• Choose any area of the page.
• Edit screenshots on the go. 
• Sort out similar screenshots.

Furthermore, you can copy your screenshots into a clipboard for future use, save them on your device, and enable notification after taking every action with a screenshot. 

Loom 

Loom is an amazing screen recording & capturing extension that lets you easily record your screen and camera activities. After capturing, you can share your content with a single click. 

Key Features:

• Records your device screen, camera, internal speaker audio, and microphone.
• Auto uploads videos to the cloud and quickly shares them through a link.
• Sends notifications when someone watches, responds, or comments on your video. 
• Allows you to control who can view your content with security and access control. 
• Allows emoji replies and time-based remarks.

This extension has a large user base of over 14 million people that is spread over 200000 businesses.  It works as a conduit for staying informed and connected through product demos, insightful feedback, or expressing thoughts. 

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is a free-to-use extension for raising the quality of web pages. Any online page, whether one that requires authentication or is public, can be tested with this extension. It features audits for SEO, progressive web applications, performance, accessibility, and so on. 

Key Features:

• Finds and addresses typical issues that have an impact on your site’s performance.
• Scans accessibility issues and offers recommendations for improvements.
• Determines if your website satisfies the requirements for a Progressive Web App.
• Scans if your site is optimized for SEO and search engine discoverability. 

You will get a detailed report on a page’s performance, and with that report, you can enhance the page. There is a reference document for each audit that explains its significance and offers suggestions for improvement

Web Vitals

Web Vitals is a Chrome extension that serves as an indicator of web user experience excellence. This extension monitors Core Web Vitals and offers immediate feedback on metrics for loading, interaction, and layout changes. 

Key Features: 

• Examines and evaluates Core Web Vital metrics: First Input Delay, Cumulative Layout Shift, and Largest Contentful Paint.
• Handles the upcoming INP metric: Interaction with Next Paint.
• The ambient badge assists in determining if a page has reached the core web vital levels. 
• If your provided URL meets the Core Web Vitals metrics, it will alter the badge to green, amber, or red

This tool ensures a unified approach to data interpretation and optimization. Thus, it aligns with Chrome’s metric evaluation and reporting methodologies across several Google resources.

Beautifer & Minify

Using the Chrome addon Beautifer & Minify, you can easily minify and accentuate CSS, HTML, and JavaScript code. Through the use of minification, this addon reduces the size and loading time of your website’s JS, HTML, and CSS code. 

Key Features:

• Minifies and Beautifies CSS, HTML, and JavaScript code.
• Minifies multiple files at the same time.
• Offline support is available for minifying and beautifying codes.

The extension uses open-source code that consists of the beautifier JS library by Einar Lielmanis, the minify API by Andy Chilton, jQuery, the Ace Editor Library, and Emmet for JS. 

Code Minifier

Code Minifier is the extension If you are looking to quickly minify your code from your browser. This extension supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript codes when it comes to input languages. You can simply drag and drop a file into the text located on the left or use the button on the top-left corner of the UI to explore files. 

Key Features: 

• Minifies HTML, CSS, and JavaScript codes.
• User-friendly UI with drag and drop option.
• Works offline without any internet connectivity.
• Changes are presented live through the output field. 
• Minified files can be downloaded. 

The extension utilizes an open-source library called Terser, accessible on GitHub. Plus, it uses the renowned CodeMirror library to format the input and output codes. 

Fake Data

Fake Data is a highly customizable Chrome extension that serves as a form filler. No matter how complex the form is, it can help you fill out the form with random data.

Key Features:

• Assist in inserting random values from any form field. 
• Utilize JavaScript code to craft your own custom data types.
• Fill out the form completely or only individual fields. 
• Right-click on any input box to choose the kind of data to be entered.
• Create random names, emails, addresses, phone numbers, and different data types.

The extension does not require any advanced setup or configuration process.  Besides, you can easily tweak it and extend it with custom code to generate data 

Fake Filler

Fake Filler is an extension that fills in all the fields on a page with phony or fake data. It can randomly generate dummy sample data and fill in every input field on a website.       

Key Features: 

• Populates all input fields with randomly generated details such as names, numbers, emails, and more.
• Achieve robust personalization through custom fields, harnessing powerful customization options.
• Bypass CAPTCHA, hidden, disabled, and read-only fields, ensuring smooth and comprehensive form population.

This extension boosts the efficiency of the developers and testers who deal with forms. Thus, users won’t have to deal with manual data entry into field values. 

Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is a cutting-edge technological profiler that reveals the complex structure of web pages. Thus, you can explore the architecture of the website with this extension to find the CMS, frameworks, e-commerce platforms, JavaScript libraries, and a host of other technical platforms.

• Reveals the technology stack behind any website 
• Enlists websites, companies, contact details, social media profiles, and more.
• Notifies when competitor website upgrades or changes any technology. 
• API that gives you access to website technology stacks, company contact details, email verification, social media profiles, and more. 

This extension works beyond a typical CMS or framework detector and uncovers a broad range of technologies of different categories.

BuiltWith Technology Profiler

BuiltWith Technology Profiler Chrome extension enables you to discover the technologies used to create a website. You simply need to click the BuiltWith icon to get the details behind the technology stack of a website. 

Key Features:

• Requires a simple click to find out the technologies behind a website.
• Returns all the technologies found on a webpage. 
• No need to change the tab or browser to find out the technology info.
• Offers country-based analytics for all web technologies. 

The extension creates a list of sites through a database of more than 673 million websites and 72,354 web technologies. Thus, you can see which site uses shopping carts, analytics hosting, and a variety of other features. 

WordPress Plugins Detector

WordPress Theme and Plugins Detector extension allows you to detect the installed themes and plugins on a website that you are viewing. This plugin is extremely fast when it comes to providing the result. 

Key Features: 

• Quickly identifies WordPress Themes and Plugins without any errors or hassle 
• Provides design insights after identifying the theme in use. 

The fun part about this extension is that you can detect the theme and plugin of a website even if you are offline. 

WordPress Theme Detector

While visiting a WordPress site, WordPress Theme Detector extension can find out the themes & plugins installed on that site. Since this plugin won’t utilize your browser’s performance, it will serve you really quickly. Besides, it exclusively uses the server-side API for detection purposes.  

Key Features:

• Rapidly identifies WordPress with the change in icon color
• Shows the details of plugins and themes used in a website

The extension symbol changes to blue while you are browsing a WordPress website. Moreover, the extension icon remains gray if WordPress is not present on the site you are visiting. 

Automa

Automa extension allows you to automate your hectic or repetitive tasks while using the Chrome browser. So, you can automate your browsing experience by linking different blocks. 

Key Features:

• Helps automate the data-retrieving process that requires clicking and typing.
• Provides a no-coding experience for retrieving data 
• Minimizes repetitive tasks by auto-filling forms, taking screenshots, and scraping data from a site.
• You can schedule the task automation.

You can get full support by opening an issue in the Git repository of this extension. 

Browserflow

Browserflow is a well-known extension for web scraping and web automation. With this extension, you can teach your browser to remove your repetitive tasks. Thus, you can save hours of work and concentrate on your major tasks. 

Key Features: 

• Automate typical tasks such as filling out forms, sending emails, extracting data, downloading files, taking screenshots, etc.
• Automate tasks without writing any code. 
• Can automate a variety of tasks such as managing Shopify stores, responding to customers through intercom, and more.
• Assists in moving data between different web apps. 
• Create a schedule, and reuse workflows.  

Furthermore, you can save files that are essential for you and create screenshots and PDFs for web pages. Plus, after creating a workflow, you can deploy those in the cloud while being busy with other tasks. 

Conclusion 

It is evident that Chrome extensions have evolved from being simple add-ons to crucial tools for present-day developers. Developers are not only saving their time by adding these extensions, but they can also improve their problem-solving skills and keep up with the latest web development trends. 

You may also explore some best AI-based Chrome extensions for better productivity.