16 Best Chrome Extensions for Developers in 2023

Extensions add extra features and functions to your browser, enhancing the work or process. For example, Grammarly is a writing assistance extension that can help you review grammar, spelling, and punctuation and suggest better-phrased sentences, making writing emails or documentation a breeze.

Similarly, with the help of these browser extensions, web developers save time and cost, as many of these highly effective tools are free. From the web page font to the technology behind it, this help builds and optimize products daily and can improve the ones already in use.

But Why Chrome Extensions?

• The answer is simple. Since its release in 2008, the Chrome browser has seen exponential growth and adoption in its user base.
• According to StatCounter Browser Market Share, as of April 2023, Chrome has a 66.13% worldwide browser market share. Safe to say that most users prefer using Chrome and hence one of the critical browsers to be considered during web development.
• Chrome always had the upper hand with its Chrome web store extensions. Read more about the key differentiating and winning factors in the debate between Edge vs Chrome in 2023.

Since most developers prefer the Chrome browser, we have curated a list of Chrome extensions and best plugins for Web Developers.

Top 14 Chrome Extensions for Web Developers:

1. Window Resizer

The number of people browsing the web is increasing daily through a combination of different devices, browsers, screen sizes, and resolutions. Providing a good user experience is critical to make the web pages and apps responsive and fully functional across possible device combinations.

Window Resizer resizes the browser window to mimic various screen resolutions making it very useful for web developers to test their layouts, especially while working with responsive designs.

Most standard mobile, tablet, and desktop are covered, and there are options to add custom sizes if your desired resolution is not already mentioned. This Chrome extension also has the option to export your settings and import them to another computer.

Add Window Resizer Extension

2. BrowserStack

BrowserStack is another handy Chrome extension for web developers that lets you test your work on every possible on-demand browser and OS.

This plugin provides real devices to test on and not emulators/simulators. It launches new test sessions on real browsers with a couple of clicks. You can also initiate up to 12 browsers for effortless access, switch between browsers, and spend less time on the overall testing process using the Chrome Extension.

It lets you test out the responsiveness of your webpage or app and check the user experience in real-time to file bugs.

To use BrowserStack integration:

1. Install the BrowserStack Extension.
2. Open the webpage you want to test and click on the BrowserStack logo on your extension toolbar.
3. Select the browser & device combination you want to test on.

Add BrowserStack Chrome Extension

3. ColorZilla

Colorzilla is an eyedropper tool with a color picker, color history, CSS gradient analyzer, etc. It is an excellent Chrome extension for web developers or designers to directly pick up the color and use it in your design or work.

Add ColorZilla Extension

4. WhatFont

This extension helps you identify the font from any web page easily and effectively and enables you to get the results within seconds. Just hover over the text you want to know the font of.

It also helps identify the text’s style, size, weight, and color.

Add What Font Extension

5. Check My Links

The extension does exactly what it says. Check My Link crawls through your web page to show if it has broken links and checks for valid and redirected links. It can be easily used and can be very helpful for maintaining the SEO standards of your webpage.

Add Check My Links Extension

6. JavaScript and CSS Code Beautifier

As a web developer, you often want to check the source of any web page. How often do you see the code arranged haphazardly after ctrl + c & ctrl + v code from the source or after opening .css/.js/.json files?

This extension helps to beautify the code and arrange it in a manner that can be understood and worked upon easily.

Add JavaScript and CSS Code Beautifier Extension

7. Web Developer

This extension is a must-have for web developers. Web Developer plugin will add a toolbar button to the Chrome web browser. When clicked, the button shows a series of tools used on any web page.

It has CSS, Disable, Cookies, Images, Forms, Outline, Information, Miscellaneous, and Resize categories. Under each category, there are various tools to perform different actions. For example, under the ‘Images’ category, there are options to:

• Find broken images
• Display image dimensions
• Display image path
• Reload images

And many more.

Add Web Developer Extension

8. Session Buddy

Session Buddy is one of the most popular session managers that allows developers to manage their tabs by saving the open tabs as collections to be restored later. It can also recover the charges after a crash.

With the help of search functions, you can easily find what you are searching for in open or saved tabs.

Add Session Buddy Extension

9. JSON Viewer

As a developer dealing with JSON data can be difficult sometimes. JSON viewer extension beautifies and systematically structures the data to make it easy to work with it.

Some of its features include:

• Open-source (at https://goo.gl/fmphc7)
• Syntax highlighting
• Option to sort json by keys
• Option to show line numbers

Add JSON Viewer Chrome Extension

10. Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is an effective tool to help find out all the underlying technologies used to build any website.

With just one click, you can discover the programming languages, CMS, databases, web services, content management, generators, server software, analytics tools, eCommerce platforms, plugins, widgets, JavaScript frameworks, etc.

Add Wappalyzer Chrome Extension

11. Test IE

Even if most internet users prefer Chrome or other new-age browsers, some still use Internet Explorer or Edge. The numbers are low but still there, and as a developer, we want to reach out to as many users as possible.

BrowserStack develops test IE and runs tests on real IE browsers (IE6 – IE11) and all versions of Edge within Chrome. With a click from your Chrome browser, you can start a test session for Internet Explorer.

Add Test IE Chrome Extension

12. Lighthouse

How the site looks is not as important as how it performs. Even if the site looks stunning, it cannot get more users without poor performance.

This is where this extension proves to be of great help to developers. Lighthouse is a tool that improves web pages’ performance and quality by running quick tests and audits the page to generate a report that helps identify weak spots.

Add Lighthouse Chrome Extension

13. Ghostery

A web developer’s most significant asset can be the speed of their system. To be effective is to be fast, but if the system fails to support you, it can be a huge loss, even if you are fast.

Ghostery is a powerful plugin that blocks any website ads and terminates the trackers activated on the site, which speeds up the performance. You can browse faster while protecting your privacy.

Add Ghostery Extension

14. CSSViewer

You often stumble upon a website whose CSS properties you would want to know and use in your work. This plugin can effectively make it easy for web developers to know the underlying CSS attributes.

You can click the toolbar CSSViewer icon and then hover over those elements you want to inspect on the web page.

Add CSSViewer Extension

15. ClickUp

For those Devs who like productivity tools, ClickUp is a platform that makes your personal and work lives more productive, saving you time. Its Chrome Extension lets you create your ideal dashboard and get a high-level overview of your tasks with progress, checklists, and more.

Add ClickUp Chrome Extention

16. React Developer Tools

React Developer Tools is a Chrome DevTools extension for the open-source React JavaScript library. It allows you to inspect the React component hierarchies in the Chrome Developer Tools. The Components tab shows you the root React components that were rendered on the page, as well as the subcomponents that they ended up rendering.

Add React Developer Tools Chrome Extention

So, these were our curated list of top 14 web developer Chrome extension picks. These tools can help web developers work faster and more efficiently. These extensions are handy today to increase productivity in the fast-paced, technologically advanced world. Hopefully, a few of these Chrome extensions can be added to your browser and come in handy for faster and more reliable results.