If you're a developer, your browser is basically your second IDE. The right set of Chrome extensions can save you hours every week — from debugging React state to picking the perfect hex code to testing APIs without leaving the tab.
I put together this list of the extensions I rely on (and a few community favorites), organized by category, with a quick description of what each one actually does.
Frontend Development & UI Design
| Extension | Description |
|---|---|
| React Developer Tools | Inspect the React component tree, view props/state in real time, and profile render performance. A must-have for any React project. |
| Vue.js Devtools | The Vue equivalent of React DevTools — inspect components, Vuex/Pinia state, events, and routing. |
| Angular DevTools | Debug Angular apps by exploring the component tree, checking change detection, and profiling performance. |
| Redux DevTools | Time-travel through Redux state changes, inspect dispatched actions, and debug your app's state management. |
| Wappalyzer | Instantly detect what technologies a website is built with — frameworks, CMS, analytics tools, hosting, and more. |
| WhatFont | Click any text on a page to instantly see its font family, size, weight, and color. |
| ColorZilla | An advanced color picker and eyedropper with gradient generator and CSS color analysis tools. |
| VisBug | An open-source design tool that lets you edit any live webpage's layout, spacing, and typography directly in the browser. |
| Dimensions | Measure distances, padding, and margins on any webpage by hovering over elements. |
| SVG Gobbler | Find, extract, and export every SVG, icon, and image on a page in one click. |
| CSS Viewer | See the computed CSS styles of any element just by clicking on it. |
| Eye Dropper | A simple, fast color picker that grabs the exact hex/RGB value of any pixel on your screen. |
| Window Resizer | Quickly resize your browser window to test responsive designs at common device resolutions. |
| Page Ruler | Draw a ruler over any part of a webpage to measure exact pixel dimensions. |
API Development & Testing
| Extension | Description |
|---|---|
| Postman Interceptor | Captures browser requests (including cookies) and syncs them into Postman for accurate API testing. |
| Talend API Tester | A lightweight tool for sending REST/SOAP requests and inspecting responses without leaving Chrome. |
| Requestly | Intercept, modify, redirect, and mock HTTP requests — great for testing edge cases and API mocking. |
| RESTED | A minimalist REST client for quickly firing off API requests and viewing formatted responses. |
| WebSocket DevTools | Monitor and debug WebSocket connections and messages in real time. |
| GraphQL Network Inspector | Inspect GraphQL queries, mutations, and responses directly in your browser's dev tools panel. |
| Swagger Viewer | Render and preview OpenAPI/Swagger specs as interactive, readable documentation. |
| JSON Formatter | Automatically pretty-prints raw JSON responses in the browser, making them readable and collapsible. |
| Fake Filler | Auto-fills forms with realistic dummy data — handy for quickly testing form validation and flows. |
| Mobile Simulator | Emulate different mobile devices and screen sizes to test responsive and mobile-first designs. |
Debugging & Performance
| Extension | Description |
|---|---|
| Lighthouse | Google's built-in auditing tool for performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices scoring. |
| Web Vitals | Displays Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID/INP, CLS) for any page you visit, in real time. |
| Reactime | A time-travel debugger for React that visualizes state changes and component re-renders over time. |
Screen Capture & Recording
| Extension | Description |
|---|---|
| Screenity | A free, open-source screen recorder with annotation tools, webcam overlay, and no watermarks. |
| GoFullPage | Capture a full-page screenshot of any website in one click, including content below the fold. |
| Loom | Record quick video walkthroughs of your screen and camera — great for bug reports and async updates. |
🚀 Productivity & Workflow
| Extension | Description |
|---|---|
| OneTab | Convert all your open tabs into a single list to save memory and declutter your browser instantly. |
| Session Buddy | Save, organize, and restore groups of browser tabs and sessions whenever you need them. |
| Workona | A tab and workspace manager that organizes tabs into projects for better focus. |
| Raindrop.io | A powerful bookmark manager with tags, collections, and full-text search for saved links. |
| Todoist | Manage your to-do lists and tasks directly from the browser toolbar. |
| Clockify | Track time spent on tasks and projects right from your browser. |
| Momentum | Replaces your new tab page with a personal dashboard featuring goals, to-dos, and inspiration. |
| Grammarly | AI-powered writing assistant that checks grammar, tone, and clarity as you type — including in code comments and docs. |
| Muzli | A curated feed of design inspiration, articles, and trends shown on your new tab page. |
| Octotree | Adds a file-tree sidebar to GitHub repositories for easier code navigation. |
| Toby | Organize and share collections of tabs across projects and teams. |
| Perplexity | An AI-powered search assistant that gives sourced, conversational answers directly in your browser. |
| Monica AI | An all-in-one AI copilot for chat, writing, summarization, and translation while browsing. |
| Sider AI | A sidebar AI assistant that summarizes pages, chats with PDFs, and helps with writing across any site. |
Final Thoughts
You don't need all 40+ of these installed at once — that'll just slow your browser down. Pick a handful from each category based on your actual stack and workflow.
What extensions made your list that aren't here? Drop them in the comments 👇
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