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 )

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Updated on June 26, 2024: How Do Chrome Extensions Impact Website Performance In 2024?

Concussion

While most extensions have a minimal performance impact there are also many widely used extensions that slow down pages significantly. This effect is additive between extensions, so installing 10 moderately fast Chrome extensions can still lead to a noticeable slowdown in your browsing experience. The performance impact of Chrome extensions will also be more noticeable on lower end devices.

In this article we’ve taken a high-level look at the impact that extensions have on browser performance. In future posts we’ll take a closer look at their impact on Core Web Vitals and investigate ad blockers in more detail. For example, we’ll compare the current Manifest V3 version of uBlock Origin that’s due to be deprecated in June 2024 to the Lite version that uses Chrome’s new Manifest platform.

How Do Chrome Extensions Impact Website Performance In 2024? | DebugBear

We've tested the 5,000 most popular Chrome extensions to see if they slow down your browsing experience.

www.debugbear.com

You can lookup extension performance here:

Chrome Extension Performance Lookup

Look up how the top 5000 Chrome extensions affect page load performance.

www.debugbear.com

Take for example the most popular adblockers:

 

[oldschool]

Extension are a resource hug and aren't secure you should probably use least possible

This indeed, especially regarding security. I only use: Privacy Badger & JShelter on Edge. µBO on Firefox.

Articles

Wladimir Palant's blog

palant.info

Edited

 

[kailyn]

"Honey Automatic Coupons, Klarna Pay Later, Monica - Your AI Copilot, Capital One Shopping, Popup Blocker, Dark Theme, Malwarebytes, Dark Reader, DDG Privacy Essentials"

LOL, OK now why does this not surprise me? People actually use these by the millions. So while the argument can be that such extensions slow down the browser, millions of people are using them and obviously are not bothered, they do not care, or they do not know any better.

 

[SeriousHoax]

Updated on June 26, 2024: How Do Chrome Extensions Impact Website Performance In 2024?

How Do Chrome Extensions Impact Website Performance In 2024? | DebugBear

We've tested the 5,000 most popular Chrome extensions to see if they slow down your browsing experience.

www.debugbear.com

You can lookup extension performance here:

Chrome Extension Performance Lookup

Look up how the top 5000 Chrome extensions affect page load performance.

www.debugbear.com

Take for example the most popular adblockers:
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I saw the article the day it came out but forgot to share here. Thanks to ever present @Gandalf_The_Grey for sharing.
The results are not surprising except uBlobk Origin Lite's negative ms result. But pretty sure that's because it was tested on default permission level which is very minimal and will not remove many ads.