10 Free Chrome Extensions for WordPress Users

In December of 2013, w3schools reported that Chrome has captured 55.8 % of the global market share of top web browsers, with Firefox at 26.8% and IE coming in at 9.0%. With Chrome usage on the rise and now dominating the web, we’d like to highlight a few tools that will help WordPress users detect the software on websites as well as publish content directly from Chrome.

WordPress.com Extension

The WordPress.com Extension is a free tool created by WordPress.com. It brings features from WordPress.com into your browser, including notifications, the ability to follow sites and start new blog posts instantly from your browser toolbar.

The latest version of the extension displays notifications like other native notifications in Chrome. These can be configured in the extension’s preferences to show notifications that are the most useful to you and hide the others.

WordPress.org Plugins SVN Link

The WordPress.org Plugins SVN Link fits in seamlessly with plugin pages. It’s something I use so often that I forget that it has been added by my browser. This extension does one simple thing: It adds a button linking to the plugin’s SVN repo under the .zip file download button on WordPress.org. This makes it super easy to explore the code of a plugin before you decide to install it.

WordPress Version Check

WordPress Version Check provides a quick way to see what version of WordPress a site is running. First, it checks to see if the site is running WordPress and then displays whether it’s current or outdated. This extension is available in a Firefox version.

Quick Switch for WordPress Accounts

Quick Switch for WordPress Accounts is a handy extension that lets you easily switch between accounts on your WordPress sites. If you have sites you maintain regularly where you’re always signing in and out of accounts, this extension could be a huge time saver for you.

Theme Sniffer

Theme Sniffer is a handy little extension that will tell you what theme a WordPress or Joomla site is using. During my tests, I found that it isn’t able to detect child themes. It will, however, correctly display the parent theme in use.

WP Write

WP Write is a simple, browser-based client for WordPress. It uses XML-RPC to post to your WordPress site directly from Chrome, without you having to log into the admin. The extension supports WordPress.com blogs and self-hosted WordPress sites. It’s very handy for quickly saving ideas for posts as drafts while browsing but can also be used to format and publish posts.

Chrome Sniffer

Chrome Sniffer is a useful extension if you often find yourself wondering what CMS a site is running. It inspects the web framework / CMS and javascript library on the site you’re browsing and displays icons in the address bar indicating the detected framework. Chrome Sniffer currently detects more than 100 popular CMS and Javascript libraries and is in the process of adding version detection to the extension.

WordPress Admin Bar Control

WordPress Admin Bar Control is a simple extension that lets you easily turn on/off the WordPress admin bar on any site you are viewing. The extension also remembers your choice between pageloads and browser sessions. If you want the admin bar back, simply click the button again to restore it.

WordPress Site Manager

WordPress Site Manager is an extension that stores WordPress site information for multiple sites and gives you quick access to important pages. It also changes the WordPress theme editor into a CodeMirror editor.

MultiPress

The MultiPress extension adds WordPress’ Press This interface to Chrome. The latest version of this extension opens in a new tab instead of a popup. You can add up to five WordPress sites to the settings, allowing you to quickly post to any of your favorite sites.

Something To Consider

If you install multiple WordPress-related Chrome extensions, please be advised that the developers quite often use the WordPress logo in the toolbar. In some cases you may have two or three WordPress logos in your toolbar with no distinction between them for what extension it launches. It’s best to select the extensions that will be the most useful for you instead of going crazy installing all of them. If you’re a Chrome extension developer who creates WordPress-related extensions, please consider using a more unique button design.

Which extensions are the most useful for your WordPress workflow? Do you use any other WordPress-related Chrome extensions not listed here? Let us know in the comments.