The Browser Extensions That Changed How Power Users Work Online
If you’re still using your browser with zero extensions, you’re doing the internet on hard mode. Power users — developers, writers, marketers, researchers — have quietly assembled toolkits that make their browsers 10x more capable than yours. We spent two weeks surveying hundreds of them to find out which extensions they actually can’t live without.
The results were surprising. Some of the most-praised tools are completely free. Others are beloved specifically because they remove the friction that tech companies have deliberately built into their products. Here are the seven that kept coming up, over and over again.
1. uBlock Origin — The Ad Blocker That Does So Much More
Everyone knows uBlock Origin blocks ads. What fewer people know is that it’s also one of the most powerful privacy tools available. Unlike many ad blockers that accept payment from advertisers to let certain ads through (a practice called “acceptable ads”), uBlock Origin has no such deals. It blocks everything you tell it to block, period.
Advanced users customize their filter lists to block cookie consent pop-ups, social media trackers, and even specific page elements. The extension runs on a tiny fraction of the memory that competitors use, making it the rare security tool that actually makes your browser faster.
2. Bitwarden — The Password Manager You Should Actually Trust
Password reuse is responsible for the majority of account takeovers. Most people know they should have unique passwords for every site. Almost none of them actually do — because remembering hundreds of passwords is impossible without help.
Bitwarden solves this, and unlike LastPass (which suffered a massive breach in 2022), Bitwarden is fully open-source, meaning security researchers can audit every line of its code. The free tier covers everything most users need: unlimited passwords, cross-device sync, and autofill that actually works reliably across browsers.
3. Notion Web Clipper — Save Anything, Find It Later
The problem with browser bookmarks is that they’re a graveyard. You save things with the best intentions and never look at them again. Notion’s Web Clipper is different because it saves pages directly into your Notion workspace, where you can tag them, organize them into databases, and actually surface them when you need them.
Researchers and writers swear by it for building reference libraries. Instead of trying to remember “I read something about this somewhere,” you can search your clips by tag, date, or keyword and find exactly what you need.
4. Dark Reader — Because Not Every Site Has a Dark Mode
Eye strain is a real issue for anyone spending eight-plus hours staring at screens. While most major apps now offer dark modes, countless websites still blast you with white backgrounds at full brightness. Dark Reader applies an intelligent dark mode to every website, inverting colors smartly so that images stay natural while backgrounds turn dark.
It’s customizable — you can adjust brightness, contrast, and sepia tones, and whitelist sites where you want the default appearance. For night owls or anyone with light sensitivity, it’s genuinely life-changing.
5. OneTab — Collapse 50 Tabs Into a Neat List
Researchers estimate that the average knowledge worker has 10-20 browser tabs open at any given time. Many have far more. Each open tab consumes memory and creates cognitive overhead — your brain registers each tab as an unfinished task.
OneTab converts all your open tabs into a single list with one click. You can then restore individual tabs or all of them at once. Power users use it to create “session snapshots” before logging off, capturing exactly what they were working on to pick up seamlessly the next day.
6. Mercury Reader — Strip Any Article to Pure Text
Most news sites and blogs are now cluttered battlegrounds of autoplay videos, overlapping pop-ups, and sidebars screaming for your attention. Mercury Reader strips all of that away instantly, rendering just the article text and images in a clean, readable format. You can adjust font size and switch between light and dark backgrounds.
For anyone who does serious reading online — journalists, researchers, students — this extension is the difference between concentrated reading and constant distraction-fighting.
7. Honey / Capital One Shopping — Never Pay Full Price Again
These extensions automatically find and apply coupon codes at checkout. They scan thousands of codes in seconds, trying each one until they find a discount. Capital One Shopping goes further, comparing prices across retailers to show you if the same item is cheaper elsewhere.
According to the companies’ own data, users save an average of $126 per year just by having these installed — and all it requires is a one-time installation. The extensions only activate on shopping sites, so they’re invisible during normal browsing.
The Setup That Takes 20 Minutes and Pays Off Forever
Installing all seven of these takes less than 20 minutes. The combination of uBlock Origin and Bitwarden alone makes your browsing meaningfully safer and faster. Add OneTab and Mercury Reader and you’ll handle information differently — more intentionally, with less noise.
The best browser setup isn’t about having more features. It’s about removing friction at every step, so that the actual work of thinking, creating, and deciding can happen with less resistance. These extensions don’t make you smarter — they just get out of the way so you can be.
