YouTubers are selling their channels to private equity. The problem is, you’d never know if a channel was sold, because YouTubers aren’t legally required to disclose this information, so I made a Chrome extension that exposes the true ownership of channels.

made a video on it: https://youtu.be/WNGNhItoRh8

it shows her shopping carts in hours worked instead of dollars.

it's called CartShame.

$300 cart becomes "15 hours of your husband’s life" and suddenly she doesn't need those shoes anymore.

she has no idea why she's seeing these pop ups.

open sourcing it so you can do the same for free.

Check my X post for the GitHub link and start using it:

https://x.com/candymachineatr/status/2007689683690762489

I started building this extension in April 2024 to solve myself a problem - to use ChatGPT to paraphrase my writing on email, LinkedIn etc.

Link: https://wandpen.com/

After 1.8 years, I have finally hit 100+ paying customers.

If you have any questions about building Chrome extensions, please let me know. Thank you.

Hey everyone, I'm Aaron Klinker and I've been writing build tools and libraries for creating web extensions for the last 6 years! In 2018, the extension ecosystem was really lacking - to use a frontend framework or NPM packages, you had to DIY it. So I created vite-plugin-web-extension, one of the first Vite-based tools for building chrome extensions, and webext-core, a set of libraries to simplify common tasks, like running code in the background, scheduling jobs, and testing.

With the knowledge I learned from working with the community on those two projects for 5 years, I created WXT a little over a year ago:

• Docs: https://wxt.dev/

• GitHub: https://github.com/wxt-dev/wxt

The main goal was to provide the best DX possible - auto-imports, dev mode that automatically opens the browser, a file-based system for detecting entrypoints, Firefox support, and more.

Just last week we hit 4K stars on GitHub and we're getting close to releasing v1.0! Several extensions with over 100K active users are already built using WXT.

I won't claim to be a top expert in writing extensions, but I am very confident about my knowledge of building/bundling them. Ask me anything!

Hi fellow makers!

Today my extension has hit a baby milestone - 5 active paying subscribers.

Not a big achievement but I am excited. Here is the exact timeline:

• 9 months since launch for the 1st customer

• 4 months to hit 4 subscribers

• 1 week to reach 5 subscribers

The idea of the extension is to offer users simple, distraction-free writing assistant powered by AI to help with daily writing chores - improving tone/ articulation/ vocabulary in your emails, articles, docs, etc.

Link for those curious: https://wandpen.com/

If you are currently building an extension, my two cents would be to keep going - it happens slowly and steadily. 😉

I built a chrome extension that allows us to create GIFs as if we were using a snipping tool! It's called SnipGIF and it's free to try out with a Google Chrome browser.

https://snipgif.com/
https://chromewebstore.google.com/.../mhgddeohepfndpmimom...

After 5 months of developing this project and over a hundred continuous improvements, Focus Mode has reached 1,000 users 🥹🎉

At first, this was just another project, but with patience and a constant drive to make the best extension possible, I finally made it happen!

Good things take time, I wish you success and hope you achieve even your wildest goals.

Thank you all for this incredible adventure 🫶 and for all the support I’ve received throughout this project!

Keep believing! 🔥

Happy building!

Alex

Over the past 5 years, I’ve built and maintained several Chrome extensions. My most-used one has over 500,000 users. My latest published one? Just 21 users. It’s not publicly launched yet, and I’m still deciding if it should be.

Despite the range, one thing has stayed consistent: I usually build for myself first - to scratch an itch, simplify a workflow, or reduce a friction point in my day.

But experience has taught me something important. Just because something annoys me doesn’t always mean it’s worth building or sharing.Once I have an idea, I go through this process before I even start writing code:

1. Check if anyone else feels this pain

I start by searching Reddit, Twitter, and Chrome Web Store reviews. I'm not looking for praise. I'm looking for complaints. If I can find at least 3 to 5 people describing the same frustration in their own words, I dig deeper.

Takeaway:
If the pain is personal and also shared, you're likely onto something useful.

2. Look for DIY fixes or "frustrated workarounds"

Manual spreadsheets, opening 20 tabs, keyboard shortcuts, repeated Google searches. These are signs that people are trying to solve it but haven’t found the right tool. This was key in my most successful extension. I saw the same workaround mentioned in threads, comments, and Chrome reviews. That’s when I knew it had legs.

3. Study existing solutions and their weakest points

I install similar extensions (if they exist), read 1- to 3-star reviews, and take note of recurring complaints:

• Too many permissions

• Clunky UX (my biggest extension started off this way)

• Poor customer support

• Bloated features

Takeaway:
Negative reviews are a goldmine for browser extension builders. They reveal how intense the need is and teach you what not to do.

4. Draft a clear, single-line value proposition

Before I build, I force myself to write something like

“It automatically [verb] so you don’t have to [repetitive pain].”

It automatically [verb] so you don’t have to [repetitive pain].”If I can’t express it clearly in one sentence, the idea probably needs work. Especially if I plan to launch it.

5. Mock the idea and test reactions (not installs)

Sometimes, I quickly sketch out a Figma mockup or put together a simple Notion page outlining the idea, its core benefit, and a mock UI. I then share it privately with a few people or post it anonymously in forums to get an honest first reaction.

I avoid using ChatGPT for this step, it tends to be overly encouraging and optimistic about building ideas (based on my own experience).In the past, I used Twitter for this kind of feedback.

Lately, I’m leaning toward Reddit, as I’ve found the responses there to be more thoughtful and candid. That’s just a working hypothesis for now (I’m still experimenting).

Takeaway:
The goal isn’t validation or compliments. It’s constructive friction. I want people to point out what’s missing, what’s unclear, or why they wouldn't use it.

6. Only build the ‘aha’ moment first

No login. No settings page. No onboarding. Just the one click or popup that proves the core mechanic works.If people see value in that 10-second experience, I know it’s worth building further.

7. Decide: is this for me or for the world?

Some ideas stay private. And that’s completely fine. Just because it solves a real need doesn’t mean it has to be shared. But if it feels too useful to keep to myself, I’ll take the extra steps to polish and publish it.

In short:
I still follow my instincts, but now I pair them with structured curiosity.
I build for myself, but I always research as if I’m building for others.If you’ve launched extensions or plan to, I’d love to hear:

What do you do before you build?

I know it's "just" $9, but I can't stop smiling.

Over the last few weeks I've been building a Chrome extension for developers.

There were days where I wondered if anyone would actually pay for something I made.

Today, a complete stranger did.

The money isn't what made me happy. It's the fact that someone I don't know looked at my product and thought, "Yeah, this is worth paying for."

That feeling is hard to describe.

It's also a reminder that every bug fix, late night, feature request, and Reddit post wasn't for nothing.

I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but today feels like the first real step.

If you're building something and haven't made your first sale yet, keep going. You never know which feature, post, or conversation will convince that first customer.

Now it's time to make the product even better for customer #2.

I built a chrome extension as a distraction-free alternative to Grammarly.

To improve your articulation, vocabulary, and tone wherever you write.

With BYOK support.

Link: https://wandpen.com/

Couple of days ago, I have posted the update of it hitting 10 sales. Today, I have crossed 20 lifetime license sales. 🥳

If you have a question about building Chrome extensions, or BYOK apps, I would love to answer them.

My Chrome extension lets you:

• Take a screenshot of a selected area

• Remove elements that are ruining your shot

• Easily edit and annotate shots in editor

• Share final shots in seconds

There are many use cases beyond the obvious ones, for example, you can open the editor to upload or paste your own images and work on them, which is ideal for product shots and marketing posts.

The extension is currently in beta and is free to use without any watermarks. More features will be added in the future.

Check it out here: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/snapforge/jddlbdehkgmdcgmmjinaplmfdaogelin

All feedback is welcome.

I pushed a huge update to my Extension … new UI, new features, small improvements, a “buy me a coffee” button, everything.

Three days later:
user count went DOWN instead of up.

I even checked the uninstall feedback and people said things like:

• “too complicated now”

• “has bugs”

• “harder to use”

💀💀💀

The crazy part? I still got a random 3 dollar donation from someone who uses my extension daily. So at least someone appreciated it LOL.

But yeah… I ended up rolling everything back to the old simple version and immediately the numbers stabilized again.

Lesson learned:
Extensions with 100k or 1M users are usually stupid simple. They solve one problem and stay in their lane. When you start adding too much “cool stuff,” you lose the magic.

Now I’m shipping a new version that’s basically 95% the old one with tiny fixes.
Still testing, still learning, still messing up. 🚀

PS: Extension site: WordCt.com

I'm always looking to get my typing speed up but the existing typing test sites felt useless past a point (you know the drill - same stock paragraphs on loop, no variety) . Wanted to practice on real prose, blog posts, Wikipedia articles, whatever I was already reading. App built fully with Claude code on Perplexity Computer. Feel free to flag any bugs you spot in the comments. Thanks!

Check out the repo here, installation steps included

For some reason, Chrome doesn't have a single button to toggle all your extensions on or off.
So I decided to build a solution myself: a quick extension that lets you disable everything or switch between extensions with just one click.

Since the initial release, I’ve added multiple features including a really cool feature called Isolation Mode. It essentially runs a binary search on your extensions: it toggles half of them on, asks for your feedback, and repeats the process until only one is left.
This is an incredibly fast way to identify exactly which extension is causing you issues.

When I added this feature, my userbase began to grow significantly.
I built this extension when I found a problem I couldn't solve, published it, and was glad to find out a lot of other people had the exact same issue.

My advice for creating a successful Chrome extension is simple:

Find something that bothers you. If the current solutions are not good enough (or non-existent), create the solution that you and likely many others could use.

I am the developer for Porn Blocker - a free chrome extension that blocks NSFW sites. If any of y’all are trying to stop viewing porn or just want to protect yourself and others from those types of sites, you should check it out!

Hi,

I am building a Chrome extension to help people use all the language models on any site they are on to polish their writing, generate new ideas, and assist with their writing flow.

Link: https://wandpen.com/

I started building this extension in 2024. I had a rough time figuring out various monetization plan and finally settled with a subscription plan and a BYOK plan.

Recently, our subscription plan has hit $100 MRR.

I regularly share my journey here, so, if you have any questions about building a chrome extension or growing them, please let me know. I would love to answer them.

Thank you.

Dang man, talking to people is so hard. When I launched my youtube chrome extension I never thought it would be this hard to get people to check it out and use it. Lol. Its been more than a year and I am a bit tired. I resorted to paid ads and still got only 70 users! Its a totally free extension! Even friends and relatives have no time to pay attention.

Disclaimer: Found this funny meme somewhere and adapted it to chrome extension.

I genuinely cannot believe this 😭😭

I built an extension called SubChat a month back and today it sits at 120+ users and these 2 goats.

It’s basically a side widget which opens up if you have a question about any specific line anywhere. The good thing is that you don’t need to configure any API keys because it uses your current logged in Claude / Gemini.

You can check it out here

This took A LOT of time to build but I guess it was worth it.

Cheers!

Most People post their chrome extension in this sub hoping to get users. But this is the last place you should be looking for users.

The only thing you will achieve is to get 10 more copy cats to your extension.

There are no real extensions users here - only other chrome extension builders.

Universal bypass is no longer working with linkvertise, are there any alternatives i can use? Thanks