Most Essential Chrome Extensions For Web Developers

You will find hundreds of chrome extensions for web developers to make the work process more smooth. But what is meant by these extensions? Well! These are small, individual software programs that allow users to customize the functionality of their browser according to their own, personal preferences. These extensions include different types of tools to help you with any type of work that you may be able to do using the internet and your browser.

Best Chrome Extensions For Web Developers to Raise Productivity

Starting from resizing your browser window to generating reports regarding bug fixings, these tools come with a view to helping you with any possible task related to your browser. In this article, we prepared a shortlist of the best chrome extensions for productivity in web development. Let’s have a look below at their extensive features.

Wappalyzer

Wappalyzer is a Chrome extension that effectively identifies 1225 types of technologies used in websites. Elbert Alias, the creator of this open-source, platform-independent utility, has collaborated with hundreds of developers worldwide. This browser extension is written in JavaScript. It remembers software by using different patterns found in script variables, response headers, website source codes, and many other ways.

Besides these, it can be run on any operating system. It collects data about content management systems, eCommerce platforms, analytic tools, and many more technologies anonymously. Wappalyzer then processes these data and presents it through datasets and APIs, providing important information about software.

Hiver

Hiver is a Chrome extension that is used for email collaboration. It will help you manage shared inboxes such as engineering@, support@, bugs@ and info@ directly from the inbox of your Gmail account. Important emails such as those about reporting bugs that are received in these shared inboxes can be assigned to individual developers automatically.

You can also keep track of the progress in real-time. This extension makes working very easy for teams like customer support, account management, and finance. So, if you have a team that collaborates mainly through email, Hiver is a must-have for you.

Toggl

Toggl is one of the best Google Chrome extensions for you if you are always busy with work and want to track the amount of productive time you spend on a specific task or project. In order to use this extension, you will need to create an account first.

After that, all you will have to do is log into the account, and Toggl will keep track of your productivity in real-time. You can easily turn your calendar events to time entries with a single tap. It also includes manual time entry options for those who don’t like real-time tracking.

Web Developer

Web Developer is one of the most useful extensions in Google Chrome. It has a 4.5 star rating on the Chrome Web Store and more than 1 million users, making it a huge success. It is an extension that you should add to your must-have list. Web Developer adds a toolbar to Chrome.

When you click on this toolbar, it displays an array of different types of tools that can be used on any type of web page. These tools are separated into categories to help you find your required tool easily, enabling you to perform any task ranging from disabling a JavaScript to resizing your browser window with the help of these tools.

Usersnap

Usersnap is a Chrome extension that allows you to capture the screen of your browser. You can also add notes to these screen captures of the web pages of your browser. Useful information such as browser version, screen resolution and details about the operating system that you are using, are automatically added to the screen capture in order to make things easier for you.

All the screenshots that you take of the web pages of your browser using this tool are directly saved to your dashboard. Reporting bugs and issues about prototypes cannot be made any easier than this.

Window Resizer

Window Resizer is a Chrome extension that helps you resize the windows currently open in your device. You will be able to choose, or enter your required dimensions and change the size of the window within a matter of a few seconds.

This feature enables web developers to test their designs on different types of resolutions. The most common resolutions that are used in mobiles, laptops, and desktops are already available for you to use, but you can also make your very own, customized window according to your needs.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an open-source, automated Google Chrome extension tool. Using this extension will improve the quality and performance of your web pages. It has a Generate Report option. When you click on this option and select the audits that you want to include, it will run the audits you selected and then generate a report on how well those audits did on the page.

There will also be links on how to fix problems regarding each audit. As a result, you will be able to see the audits that are contributing the least to the page and also fix them, improving the quality of the page.

Wireframe

Wireframe is another Google Chrome extension that highlights all the HTML5 elements of a website and displays it in a simplified way. This will help you grow your knowledge about the different elements together to build a web page, and also give you a better understanding of how to improve the quality along with the structure of a web page. The different perspectives that this extension gives you by showing a wireframe overlay over the different elements will also serve as an inspiration for ideas about any new project you may be working on.

ColorZilla

ColorZilla is a Chrome extension used to generate colour codes. It has over 1.3 million users and can be said to be one of the most reliable and popular Chrome extensions among its type. Generating colour codes manually can be pretty hectic, especially when you already have a ton of work occupying your busy schedule.

In times like this, ColorZilla is a true saviour for you. This tool saves you a lot of time and energy. All you have to do is hover the pointer of your mouse over the color you are interested in, and voila! The code for that colour will be generated in no time.

Marmoset

Marmoset is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to make attractive snapcodes within seconds. This tool allows you to create unique codes by applying a theme and effect of your choice. You can then save your work on the local disk of your device, or any other place you want to store it.

These snapcodes can also be used to promote businesses efficiently. Oftentimes, contents need to be created graphically in order to be used in portfolios or social media platforms. If you want to represent your work in a graphical form, then Marmoset is the tool for you.

One Tab

If you always have a lot of tabs open while working with Google Chrome, then this extension will be really useful for you. The One Tab extension can boost your productivity and effectively save both your time and energy. It does so by listing the URLs of all of the tabs that are currently open. This extension gathers all of your open tabs into one single tab, hence the name One Tab.

This way, you can see the list and go to any of the URLs you want to at any time, without having to keep the websites you have visited running in the background. This is one of the best Chrome extensions for web developers who are busy with different tasks at the same time.

Tampermonkey

Tampermonkey is a Google Chrome extension that helps you manage userscripts. Userscripts are programs that alter web pages to improve the browsing experience. These are usually written in JavaScript. Tampermonkey allows its users to add, remove, use, and manage userscripts that are in JavaScripts. 

You can also create your very own userscript using this extension. The Tampermonkey extension can also save you a lot of time. You can use Tampermonkey scripts to have your work done quickly and speed up the workflow of your web development instead of doing each and every step manually by yourself.

CSS Peeper

CSS Peeper is another very useful Chrome extension. It is a smart CSS viewer-created especially for designers. It allows you to build stunning designs by extracting CSS. This extension works by displaying the style information in a simple, but neat arrangement, and allows you to inspect the CSS rules for any element of a page. You will also be able to inspect the whole color palette used in a webpage, and easily find the one you need from the list that will be displayed in front of you by this tool.

WhatFont

WhatFont, just like its name suggests, finds fonts. It is an extension that identifies the type of font used on a website and is the best among its type. This extension provides you with a reliable, efficient, and quick method to find out the type of font used on a website.

Once you install this extension, all you have to do is hover the pointer of your mouse over the font you want to identify. The tool will make the job of identifying fonts effortless for you, and you will be done with the task with the speed of lightning.

Google Analytics Debugger

This extension of Chrome is a tool used to expose tracking beacon data to developers. It enables the debug version of the JavaScript and supplies vital information regarding the JavaScript console. You will then receive messages in the form of warnings that will inform you if your analytics tracking code is set up incorrectly or not. 

You will also be able to review metadata for every tracking beacon received by Google Analytics, making the task of debugging the Google Analytics tracking code easier than ever.

actiTIME

Another Chrome extension that gives you useful insights on tracking and managing projects and time is actiTIME. This tool helps you create and assign projects to teams. Additionally, it also helps you keep track of the progress of the work done by each member of the group and the resources being used.

You will be able to record the time spent on each project manually or use the timer available in the mobile version of this extension. This will help you get an overview of the work done by your staff, and analyze the efficiency of your employees.

Wrapping Up

These are just some of the many available Chrome extensions for web developers. If you are a busy person with a tight schedule facing a problem completing any task, nearing a deadline, or are running out of time, then these extensions will come in handy. I hope that this article was useful in letting you know about the different types of extensions available in Google Chrome.