While creating websites can be fun but to appeal to a large number of people can be quite a task for web developers. Especially when it comes to delivering it faster within a tight deadline. That’s where the need for additional web development tools arises.
So, where is the easiest place to search for such tools? Of course, the browsers! Even though almost all web browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc come with built-in web development tools, sometimes there is a need for some more. So, where to find them? In the form of extensions. Yes, there is a large library of extensions that can be accessed within a browser that makes your job as a web developer easier than ever!
My elder brother is a web developer who is always busy making websites. Yesterday, he had an important assignment to complete in a limited time and he was running out of options to made changes to his website. Just then, I introduced him to the browser extensions for web design.
So here in this article, we are going to see 7 of the best extensions exclusively for web developers. We have also listed out their pros and cons so that you can decide on which one to choose.
Contents
Extensions for Web Designers and Developers
These best web developer-friendly extensions are selected based on their ratings, downloads, and of course, its offered features:
Web Developer
The first extension in this list is Web Developer. This extension adds a toolbar in your browser with a full suite of web development tools when installed.
All these tools come in handy for both developers and designers. Tools are divided into a total of 10 separate tabs. It was from PNH Developer Toolbar, the developer Chris Pedrick got the original concept of this extension.
Features for Web Developer:
- Add outlines to elements just by clicking
- Finds broken images on a page
- A wide range of user-friendly tools
- It can also disable javascript, plugins, popups, and notifications
Web Developer chrome is a flexible extension that can be customized by the developers as per their preferences. Also, it is highly secure and functions a lot better than a standard chrome inspector.
Even though it is a trustworthy extension, Web Developer chrome asks for a lot of permissions while installing, thus making the user concerned about the security issues. The latest versions appear to have a little problem with the tools. Though it’s one of the best chrome extensions, it comes with its own set of challenges.
Clockwork
Clockwork comes with a collection of web development tools for PHP. This extension simply uses a server-side component, using which it collects all the data. This data will be integrated with the PHP project.
It can help with profiling and debugging PHP applications. Also, it will give you an insight into your application runtime, tracing, variable values, etc.
Features of ClockWork:
- Integration with all PHP projects
- First-class Laravel and Lumen support
- Integration with vanilla or custom apps
- Limited support for Symfony and Slim framework
It comes with a pretty good PHP debugging tool, making it a perfect extension for debugging and one of the best chrome extensions.
One of the main drawbacks of Clockwork is that it will not work with an internal PHP web server.
Web Developer Checklist
As the name of the extension indicates, this tool will help you to discover problematic areas in your newly created website. It will analyze each web page and check whether there has been a violation of best practices and will report it to the developer.
Web Developer Checklist gives you the details of usability, accessibility, SEO, environment integration, and the performance of the web page.
Features of Web Developer Checklist:
- Work as a task reminder
- Verifies latest deployment
- Flawlessly coordinates the web development processes
- Identifies the problem, before website delivery
Web Developer Checklist saves you a lot of time and work. It is an awesome tool since it discovers bugs and plugins too.
There are no notable problems with the Web Developer Checklist, except it doesn’t work sometimes.
WhatFont
WhatFont is a simple extension that helps you to find the fonts used in a webpage in an instant. It comes with a variety of fonts palette.
Instead of writing codes for finding the font of a webpage, you can identify it with a single click. It makes it one of the best chrome extensions that are designed to save a lot of your precious time.
Features of WhatFont:
- Simple and user friendly
- Identify as many fonts as you want by dragging the cursor on the web page
- Detects the services used for serving the web fonts
- Supports Typekit and Google Font API
WhatFont is a quick and time-saving extension making it a better option than all other similar extensions available.
Sometimes you need to repeatedly refresh the webpage since it cannot identify the font quickly. Another issue with WhatFont is that it doesn’t work on offline web pages and local websites.
Wappalyzer
Wappalyzer chrome is a cool extension tool that helps you to identify the technologies used on various websites that too within seconds.
It is a cross-platform technographic data provider. It detects CMS, analytics tools, frameworks, etc that are associated with a specific website.
Features of Wappalyzer:
- Instant access to website technology stacks
- Tracks your competitor’s technology choices
- Provides Extension Programming and API Access Management
- Real-Time Analytics
Wappalyzer chrome extension is a simple and user-friendly extension. Plus, it can automatically detect the content and call of webpages in an instant.
Wappalyzer extension doesn’t work for unpopular websites. Since it cannot differentiate between angular and react, the results may not be always accurate.
CloudQA
CloudQA is another browser extension for web developers. This tool will help you in automating all your browser tests within 10 minutes. All you have to do is to install the extension and login into it.
All the tests recorded with this extension can be easily modified, you don’t need to write a code for that.
Features of CloudQA:
- Cloud-based service
- Run complex functional tests without coding
- Re-use functional scripts for recurring tests
- Complete control over workflow scripts
- Uses multiple datasets for each workflow
- Test Plan allows playback of recorded tests
One of the most appealing features of this extension is that you can playback recorded tests at any time as per the requirement with the aid of the Test Plan. This will save a lot of time and effort usually needed for QA. Also, you can easily record the test cases too and can execute them in all three main web browsers- browsers IE, Firefox, and Chrome.
There are two issues associated with CloudQA. One is that there is no maintenance scheduling feature. Another drawback is that it doesn’t provide real-time monitoring of processes.
Colorzilla
Colorzilla chrome is a cool extension that can get a color reading in your web browser from any point. So, as a web developer, you can quickly adjust the selected color and paste it into your program as required.
It comes with an ultimate CSS gradient generator. In addition to that, this tool has a palette viewer in it with 7 pre-installed palettes, that you can easily access.
Features of Colorzilla:
- Comprises of tools like advanced eyedropper, color picker, gradient generator, etc.
- It comes with a webpage color analyzer, which examines DOM element colors on any web page, thus locating corresponding elements
- Access to color history of recently picked colors
Colorzilla chrome has one of the best color management systems among other similar extensions. This extension can pick the color in an instant, even from any zoom level. In addition to that, you can pick colors from flash objects too.
In some instances, this tool won’t be able to pick the right color even when you place the cursor over it. Also, in some cases, the viewport will go blank while selecting the color picker.
Bottom Line: Chrome Extension Web Developer
The above extensions are really helpful if you are a web developer looking for more exciting tools other than the in-built tools to make your web development process smoother and faster. Each extension in this list serves an important requirement.
This article was written after I saw my brother troubling with the same issue of adding more designs to his website in less time. So keeping him and other web developers in mind, I decided to write this one. This article certainly helped my brother to work more efficiently in less time. I hope it does the same for you!
Every extension comes with its advantages and functional issues. This article will give a brief idea about their merits and demerits. You can go for the ones you need the most.
Did we miss any of your favorites? If yes, mention it in the comment section. We would love to hear from you.
Lastly, here are the recommended web browsers for your computer and mobile phone that you should give a try.
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