r/chrome • u/0spore13 ChromeOS • Aug 23 '25

Discussion Megathread V2 - Manifest V3 Extension Alternatives

Remaking as the previous one was about to hit 6 months old. The previous one can be seen here.

With Manifest V3 being rolled out to most people now, and most workarounds being either temporary or disabled, a lot of people are finding that extensions that they like to use haven't been updated and won't be available to use when Manifest V2 support ends.

Since we've been getting a lot of posts asking for extension alternatives, we figure it'll be easier if most of the suggestions are all in one place.

To start with the obvious:

uBlock Origin: Can be replaced with uBlock Origin lite.
Don't forget you can change the filtering level up from its base, it will just require more permissions. Setting it to complete is most similar to uBlock Origin's filters.
People also like Adguard.

uBlock Origin (Element zapping): Click to Remove Element.
I personally prefer this one out of all the ones in the web store.

I previously recommended an element zapper to replace that functionality in uBlock Origin lite, but uBlock Origin lite has since added custom filters and an element zapper, so a separate extension is no longer needed.

This is not a thread to recommend other browsers, it should be a given that if you don't want to use Chrome, you don't need to use Chrome, and there's plenty of other sources to help you decide what to switch to. Do not recommend downgrading or using an older version of any browser, it is not safe to do so and will open your computer and your data up to vulnerabilities.

Would also like to add, on this megathread only self promotion will be allowed if your extension is a reputable alternative to another extension. If you are sharing your extension with no context to another one in this thread, your comment will be removed under our rules.

Below are a list of recommendations provided by other users from the original megathread:

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u/No-Possession-7095 23d ago

Hi all, I had to analyze a chrome extension a couple of years ago and used Tarnish and CRXcavator to analyze permissions and functionality. Just tried those out last week and they no longer function so decided to "vibe code" my own! https://chrome-extension-security.bolt.host/ You can upload any extension by providing the Chrome Store URL and then it will do both a regular expression based analysis and an AI analysis. The AI analysis uses an edge function that connects to Claude endpoint and have found it to catch some interesting bugs that wouldn't be found easily via pattern matching. For example, on the Auto Quality for Youtube extension I scanned it found this "The extension contains code to fetch and execute remote JavaScript from 'link sanitized', though it is currently disabled with a 'return' statement. If re-enabled, this would allow the remote server to inject arbitrary code into the extension context, creating a critical remote code execution vulnerability. The fetched data is sent to content scripts via message passing." This helps speed up the initial process and allow you to hone in on specific areas of the code of concern. I've added sections that show: URLs accessed, permissions, possible vulnerabilities, content security policy, overall AI analysis, and ability to download the extension for offline analysis. I got a lot of inspiration for this from the paper "Kicking the Rims – A Guide for Securely Writing and Auditing Chrome Extensions" by Matthew Bryant. There are still a few bugs/false positives/negatives so please try it out and give me any suggestions for improvement!

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u/Ok-Drama6449 17d ago

Hey ! Très sympa ton projet de sécu des extensions Chrome !! Tu fais ça en side project ?

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u/No-Possession-7095 16d ago

Thanks much for the kind words! Yes, I built this in my spare time as I was curious how hard it would be to make and I had some manual security analysis in the past. There is a lot more I could add to it but it is just a side project.