Technology Chrome extensions may slow down browsing significantly

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Content source

https://www.ghacks.net/2024/05/20/chrome-extensions-may-slow-down-browsing-significantly/

Extensions are one of the greatest strengths of web browsers. They allow users to extend functionality, but this comes at a cost. A test of the 5000 most popular Chrome extensions showed that extensions may slow down the browsing experience significantly, with one notable exception.

The team at Debugbear analyzed the performance impact of Chrome extensions in various ways, including impact on CPU processing and website load time.

Here are the key findings:

• Even on basic websites, some Chrome extensions added 500ms or more to the processing time.
• 86% of tested extensions have minimal impact on simple websites.
• 1.7% of extensions add 500ms or more to the processing of simple websites.
• On complex websites, processing time reached 2000ms.
• The impact may be cumulative, which means that multiple extensions may impact the experience more.
• Popular extensions with high processing times: Honey Automatic Coupons, Klarna Pay Later, Monica - Your AI Copilot, Capital One Shopping, Popup Blocker, Dark Theme, Malwarebytes, Dark Reader, DDG Privacy Essentials.
• One type of extension reduces website processing: content blockers

Chrome extensions may slow down browsing significantly - gHacks Tech News

Browser extensions for Chrome may impact the loading time of websites and CPU processing significantly, but there is one notable exception.

www.ghacks.net

 

[SpiderWeb]

This makes all the sense in the world to me. I had Honey, Klarna, Malwarebytes, Dark Reader and DDG Privacy Essentials at some point and they were bogging down my browser. Not just Chrome but also Firefox and Safari. Especially Dark Reader is CPU heavy. Thankfully there are lighter alternatives of all of these.

 

[Vitali Ortzi]

This makes all the sense in the world to me. I had Honey, Klarna, Malwarebytes, Dark Reader and DDG Privacy Essentials at some point and they were bogging down my browser. Not just Chrome but also Firefox and Safari. Especially Dark Reader is CPU heavy. Thankfully there are lighter alternatives of all of these.

Extension are a resource hug and aren't secure you should probably use least possible
(To be fair I do have a ton of extensions but most mainly work on YouTube specifically )