As a web developer, your browser is your primary tool. The right Chrome extensions can dramatically speed up debugging, testing, and development workflows. Here's the complete toolkit, organized by use case.
Debugging & Inspection
| Extension | Best for | Key feature |
|---|
| React Developer Tools | React apps | Inspect component trees, props, state, hooks |
| Vue.js Devtools | Vue apps | Inspect components, Vuex store, events, routing |
| Redux DevTools | Redux state | Time-travel debugging, action replay |
API & Network
| Extension | Best for | Key feature |
|---|
| Postman Interceptor | API testing | Capture browser requests, sync cookies/headers |
| JSON Viewer | API responses | Collapsible tree view for raw JSON |
| ModHeader | Header testing | Modify HTTP request/response headers on the fly |
Performance & SEO
| Extension | Best for | Key feature |
|---|
| Lighthouse | Auditing | Performance, accessibility, SEO scores |
| Web Vitals | Core Web Vitals | Real-time LCP, FID, CLS metrics |
| Wappalyzer | Tech detection | Identify frameworks, CMSs, analytics on any site |
CSS & Design
| Extension | Best for | Key feature |
|---|
| CSS Peeper | Style inspection | See colors, fonts, dimensions without DevTools |
| ColorZilla | Color picking | Eyedrop any color, get hex/RGB/HSL values |
| Responsive Viewer | Responsive design | Preview multiple screen sizes simultaneously |
Utilities
| Extension | Best for | Key feature |
|---|
| EditThisCookie | Cookie management | View, edit, delete cookies for any site |
| XPath Helper | Web scraping | Extract and evaluate XPath expressions |
| Regex Tester | Pattern matching | Test regex against sample text in-browser |
Getting Started
Don't install all of these at once — start with the ones relevant to your current stack and add more as needed. Chrome extensions do use memory, so keep your active set lean.
Browse our developer tools category for the full list, or compare specific extensions using our comparison tool.