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Apps// Review

The Extensions Worth Installing in 2026

Marcus Vale 11 min read Updated Jun 9, 2026

The short answer

We installed 60 browser extensions and kept 14. The winners cover privacy, translation and productivity without leaking your data or slowing the browser — and we name the ones quietly harvesting it.

Sixty installed. Fourteen survived. We ran each extension for a fortnight against three tests: does it earn its permissions, does it slow the browser, and does it phone home with data it has no business touching.

What we tested for

Every extension was profiled for CPU and memory on a mid-range laptop, audited for network calls, and checked against its requested permissions. Anything that demanded "read and change all your data on all websites" for a job that did not need it was cut.

The 14 that earned a permanent slot

The keepers fall into three buckets — privacy, translation and productivity. Each one does a single job well and gets out of the way.

Privacy

A content blocker, a tracker blocker and a single-purpose cookie cleaner covered 90% of the privacy wins without the bloat of an all-in-one suite.

Productivity

Tab management and a clipboard manager were the two that testers refused to give back.

Chrome Privacy Productivity

Frequently asked

Are browser extensions safe?

Most are, but permissions matter. Avoid any extension that requests access to all your data on every site unless its core job genuinely requires it.

Do extensions slow down your browser?

Some do. In our testing, content blockers actually sped up page loads, while a few "all-in-one" suites added noticeable memory overhead.

How many extensions is too many?

There is no hard limit, but each one is attack surface and memory. We recommend keeping the list under fifteen and auditing quarterly.

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