One of the best things about web browsers nowadays is that they allow users to add different extensions to help them with various tasks.
We do almost everything online and to improve our productivity and efficiency; we rely on browser addons/extensions.
Google Chrome is a very popular browser and has so many browsers built on its Chromium engine. So the extensions on this list can work on Opera for PC and any other browser built on Chromium.
Best Free Chrome Extensions for Productivity, Performance and Security
Below is a list of the best free Google Chrome extensions out there to make things easier;
1. Grammarly
Grammarly is a free online spell checker, grammar checker and plagiarism detection tool that helps writers and any person with anything you write on the web.
It works on almost every platform (Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress, Gmail, LinkedIn, Tumblr etc.) to make sure your messages, documents, articles, and social media posts are always clear, mistake-free, and impactful. Download Grammarly
2. Privacy Badger
We are not impressed by how these ads agencies track all our habits across the web to serve us “personalise ads,” which are very annoying anyway.
Even when we instruct trackers not to monitor our online behaviour, there are always invisible trackers that do just that anyways. Privacy Badger is the extension that makes sure that doesn’t happen in any way at it automatically blocks invisible trackers.
Once it detects that an advertiser is tracking you across multiple websites without your permission, it prevents them. Download Privacy Badger
3. One Tab
One of the problems we have with Chrome is that it can slow down your computer immensely and having multiple tabs makes it worse.
Here is where One Tab comes into play as the plugin converts all your tabs into a list to free up memory. This helps speed up your computer. Download One Tab
4. HTTPS EVERYWHERE
HTTPS Everywhere is an extension created by EFF and the Tor Project which automatically switches thousands of sites from insecure “http” to secure “https”. It will protect you against many forms of surveillance and account hijacking, and some forms of censorship. Download HTTPS Anywhere
5. HotSpot Shield
HotSpot Shield is a free VPN extension that secures your browser connection. Unblock any blocked website and stay secure with Hotspot Shield. Easy use with one-click activation. Unlimited bandwidth! Download HotSpot Shield
6. SpeedTest
Take a Speedtest directly from your Google Chrome toolbar to quickly test your internet performance without interruption. Measure how fast the pages you visit load with Web Speed. Get your ping, download, and upload speeds within seconds, Measure how fast websites load. Download SpeedTest
7. The Great Suspender
This is a lightweight extension to reduce Chrome’smemory footprint. Perfect if you have a lot of tabs open at the same time.
Tabs that have not been viewed after a configurable length of time will be automagically suspended in the background, freeing up the memory and CPU being consumed by that tab. It will retain the tab’s favicon and title texts. Download The Great Suspender
8. Blur
Blur is a tool that helps Protect your Passwords, Payments, and Privacy. Better than a password manager: Blur makes it easy to keep track of and secure all your personal information online. Download Blur
9. Taco
So, you are using different productivity apps like Asana, Evernote, Slack, Wunderlist, Codebase etc and you are tired of checking each, Taco connects all the tools on a single page so you can see your tasks from over 40 services without stress. Download Taco
10. OneNote Web Clipper
The OneNote Web Clipper is an addon that allows one note users save anything on the web to OneNote. With this addon, you can clip all or part of a web page to OneNote, and save it for later.
Clip images, pdfs, videos, or a visual bookmark of a page. Best of all, you can organize and edit it then access them from any computer, tablet, or phone – even when you’re offline.
Can be used alongside the OneNote Online to access all notes and also Create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online or with a desktop version of Office. Download OneNote Web Clipper or Download OneNote Online
11. Momentum
This is a productivity tool that replaces your new tab page with a personal dashboard that features your to-do list, weather widget and inspirational quotes and also cool background photo. Download Momentum
12. Evernote Web Clipper
Use the Evernote extension to save things you see on the web into your Evernote account. Clip the web pages you want to keep. Save them in Evernote. Easily find them on any device. Download Evernote Web Clipper
13. Social Fixer
I for one thinks this extension should be renamed Facebook fixer cause that is what it does and does well. Social Fixer helps you fix your Facebook news feed by getting rid of things you may not need like ads, sponsored posts, political messages etc.
You can also hide posts you have seen before to avoid seeing them again. If there is anything trending that you don’t like, you can Filter your news feed by keyword, author, and more to block it. There are so many features you may want to check all of them out here. Download Social Fixer
14. I’m A Gentleman
This extension allows you to save a single image or all images on a web page quickly and easily with a single click. You can alt-click or drag to download. Quite cool. Download I’m A Gentleman
15. VisualPing
Whether you are monitoring a Reddit thread or an Amazon product page or your favourite news site for the latest headlines, you don’t have to spend time doing that.
VisualPing helps you monitor any webpage for changes and immediately messages you if there is any. Use the service for competition monitoring, price checks, ticket availability tracking and more using the server service and email alerts. Download VisualPing
16. uBlock Origin
An efficient ad/trackers blocker that doesn’t kill your CPU and use up your Memory. Download uBlock
17. Google Bookmark Manager
Sometimes I wonder why the guys at Google build nice tools (like this extension) and refuse to incorporate them into where they are truly needed. Google Bookmark manager will make Chrome Bookmark manager hide in shame.
Add images and notes to your bookmarks to make them more helpful. Also, Google will suggest a folder if it seems like it could be a fit.
You can organize bookmarks into folders. Your existing bookmarks will automatically get updated with images and descriptions, wherever possible. Bookmarks are synced across devices.
18. StayFocusd
The internet is interesting. One minute you are working, the next you have spent over 3 hours surfing the web doing almost everything except WORK.
StayFocusd is a productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day. Download StayFocusd
19. ScreenCastify
A Simple screen recorder for Google Chrome. The video explains everything. Download ScreenCastify
20. Adblock Plus
If you are afraid of using any of the ad blockers listed above, here is a more trusted extension you can use. Download Adblock Plus
21. Emoji Keyboard by EmojiOne
A fun tool. This keyboard allows emoji lowers to copy and paste emoji’s right from their web browser. Download Emoji Keyboard by EmojiOne
22. Office Editing for Docs, Sheets & Slides
If you hate installing Office suites on your machine but still need to work with office files then this is for you. View and edit Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files with Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Once the extension is installed, Office files that you drag into Chrome, open in Gmail, Google Drive, and more, will be opened in Docs, Sheets, and Slides for viewing and editing.
You can save each file back to its original Office format, or convert it to Docs, Sheets, or Slides to unlock more features, like inviting others to edit with you, commenting, chat, and more.
23. Checker Plus for Gmail
Get notifications, read, listen to or delete emails without opening Gmail or Inbox by Gmail & easily manage multiple accounts. Download Checker Plus for Gmail.
24. Todoist / Google Keep
Todoist is the beautifully simple to-do list designed to help you do more and stress less. Google Keep allows you to save web pages, images or notes so you can access them later. Download Todoist or Download Google Keep
25. LastPass
LastPass saves your passwords and gives you secure access from every computer and mobile device.
Only remember one password – your LastPass master password. Save all your usernames and passwords to LastPass, and it will autologin to your sites and sync your passwords everywhere you need them. Download LastPass
26. Text Mode
How do you remove adverts, images, videos and colours from a site thereby making it faster? You use Text Mode extension. The extension deactivates anything that is not text which reduces distractions. Download Text Mode
27. Google Dictionary
Yet another Google extension that should have been bundled with Chrome. No need to type words into Google Search to get their meaning.
With this extension, you can double-click any word to view its definition in a small pop-up bubble. And, view the complete definition of any word or phrase using the toolbar dictionary. Download Google Dictionary
28. Strict WorkFlow
Strict WorkFlow employs the Pomodoro technique web pages access for 25 minutes after which connection is restored for 5 minutes (25 minutes of distraction-free work, followed by 5 minutes of break.). Download Strict WorkFlow
29. Noisili
Improve your focus and boost your productivity. Block out annoying noises and create the right environment for working or relaxing. No matter if you are in an environment where it is too loud or too quiet, with Noisli you can create and listen to your favourite background sounds in order to focus and concentrate on your tasks. Download Noisili
30. Ghostery
Ghostery is a powerful privacy extension. Block ads, stop trackers and speed up websites. Download Ghostery
31. Wolfram Alpha
Wolfram Alpha is one of the biggest definitive source for expert, computable knowledge across thousands of domains.
iPhone users will have seen Siri use it as a source. From Finance and food. Math and medicine. Stocks and spacecraft. Wordplay and weather. Whatever you want to calculate or know about, you can get there faster with Wolfram|Alpha. Download Wolfram Alpha
32. Cite For Me
This extension is made for writers and researchers who will need to cite the source of their information Automatically create website citations in the APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard referencing styles at the click of a button.
Simply browse to the page you wish to cite and click the button to generate a correctly formatted citation. Then copy-and-paste the citation into your assignment, or add it to your online bibliography for safe keeping until later. Download Cite For Me
33. All-in-One Messenger
Use messengers like WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger, Skype and many more in one app!
All-in-One Messenger combines chat and messaging services into one simple application. You can even use multiple instances of one messenger e.g.
Whatsapp, Slack or Facebook, which makes it the perfect tool to manage multiple business accounts all at the same time. Download All-in-One Messenger
34. Click and Clean
Click and Clean helps you get away with whatever site you are visiting during work hours that you shouldn’t. Deletes typed URLs, Cache, Cookies, your Download and Browsing History…instantly, with just 1-click on Click&Clean button.
Click&Clean helps you;
- Scan your PC for Malware
- Delete your browsing history
- Remove download history
- Erase temporary files
- Clear cookies and Empty cache
- Delete client-side Web SQL Databases
- Remove Flash Cookies (LSOs)
- Protect your privacy by cleaning up all traces of your internet activity,
- Clean up your hard drives and Free up more disk space, including secure file deletion using external applications, like CCleaner or Wise Disk Cleaner.
Download Click&Clean
35. Panic Button
PanicButton makes it easier for you to hide all of your tabs at once just by clicking on a button. They are then saved as bookmarks in a separate folder. Afterwards, the PanicButton turns green and shows you how many tabs are currently hidden.
Another click on the PanicButton restores all of the tabs you have hidden earlier.
Download Panic Button
36. Draw IO
If you are into structural planning or programming and you need a quick diagramming tool the draw io is all you need. The extension has so many tools to support flow charts, class diagrams, database design, network diagrams, entity relationships diagrams, User Interface, UML, Project Charts etc. The extension is completely free.
Which of the extensions are you currently using? If you know any extensions that should be on the list please let us know by using the comment box.
Let us know in the comment box if we missed anyone and your favorite chrome extension.
