Top 10 Chrome Extensions Every Freelancer Must Have

Freelancing in Nigeria has become widely accepted. It is no longer news that many freelancers want to be productive with their time. Did you know the key to saving time can be done through your browsers? This involves using browser extensions like the popular Chrome extensions. 

Chrome extensions are software programs added to the web browser to improve productivity and make work easier. Many extensions are not created for mobile or phone browsers. These extensions are accessible and used on personal computers using Windows or Mac Operating systems.

These extensions can be accessed in the Chrome Web Store. This article highlights the top 10 Chrome extensions that are important to have. 

Why use Google Chrome?

Why should freelancers use Google Chrome? Chrome is the most popular web browser in the world. Moreover, many of these extensions are built to function in Chrome, as Chrome allows multiple extensions to be hosted on the Chrome extensions store.  

Top 10 Chrome Extensions for Freelancers

There are several Chrome extensions available. To improve productivity and workflow as a freelancer, these are the top 10 Chrome extensions you should add to Chrome today. These top ten extensions cover sales, grammar, documents, highlighting, printing, AI writing, paraphrasing, time management, language, on-screen recording, and search engine optimization.

1. Grammarly

Grammarly is an AI tool that gives real-time writing suggestions. These suggestions help to improve grammar and clarity while writing on websites, documents, emails, or articles. It functions on Google Docs, Gmail, and Word documents online. It saves time on proofreading, corrects grammatical errors, and suggests words that convey an idea correctly. 

As a freelancer, you want to be able to send emails or write to clients without any errors or grammatical blunders. Whether you are blogging or sending cold emails, Grammarly is a must-have. 

It is important to have Grammarly because it works anywhere you write on the web. This includes Gmail, Google Docs, Yahoo, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Hashnode, and LinkedIn. 

Grammarly for Chrome is an extension installed in Chrome to check grammar, style, tone, and errors while writing. Grammarly helps to give you confidence in your write-up. Grammarly Chrome extension has a recent AI feature called GrammarlyGo for removing writer’s block and writing sentences based on the prompt given. 

Grammarly has three plans. These plans are Free, Premium, and Business. The free plan is available to use forever. The Grammarly Chrome extension is free to add to Chrome and to use. It is also one of the most popular Chrome extensions in use. 

How to add the extension in Chrome? Launch Google Chrome and navigate the Chrome Extensions Store to get the Grammarly extension. To begin the download, click ‘Add to Chrome’. This automatically adds the extension to Chrome, and you can confidently start writing. 

2. QuillBot 

Quillbot is an AI tool used to paraphrase and summarise words. Quillbot extension is accessible on the Chrome extensions store. The Chrome extension has a Quillbot summarizer. It can convert a 1200-word Medium article and summarise it in 600 words. Besides paraphrasing and summarising, Quillbot extension checks for grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. It helps to reduce plagiarism and passing ideas clearly and concisely.

The extension is free to use. However, the tool has a free and premium subscription. The premium plan has more features and unlimited words to paraphrase. Quillbot is great at rewriting articles, paragraphs, and sentences for individuals. 

Freelancers in any sphere need to pass ideas, send emails, make social media posts, write essays or articles and simply summarize words. This is where Quillbot makes it faster and easier.  

Features:

• Summarizing
• Paraphrasing
• Grammar Checker

3. Glasp 

Glasp is an online highlighter for the web. Glasp is an application for users to highlight words or sentences on websites and PDFs. Glasp helps to save time from note-taking apps. It saves time spent writing down information accessed on the internet. The text can be highlighted, and it automatically saves on your profile page. 

To install the Glasp extension, sign up with your email address on the Glasp Website. Next, select “Add to Chrome.” There would be a pop-up to add the extension. The extension automatically adds to Chrome. Web pages can be highlighted in web browsers that have the extension installed. Glasp also has the YouTube summary with ChatGPT to summarise articles and provide transcripts of YouTube videos.

Glasp is an important extension for freelancers, as they can easily highlight and organize research from websites and PDFs. This saves time in looking for important information read online. All words highlighted can be found on the Glasp profile page. An alternative to Glasp is Weava. But Glasp provides a profile page and more tailored highlighting. 

4. Print friendly and PDF 

Print-friendly and PDF is a Chrome extension for making web pages printable and converted to PDF. It also provides the feature to email the web page to people. Many websites contain ads, junk and texts that may affect printing. Print-friendly removes ads and junk. One great thing about Print Friendly is that it provides an editable preview page (a pop-up window) to increase the font and image size. It also gives the option to delete texts and undo changes made. It formats web pages very fast, and it is free to use. 

How do you use Print Friendly? Perform the Chrome extensions download from the Chrome extensions store. Add it to Chrome and Pin it on the Chrome quick access bar. Open the webpage you want to print, and click on the extension. This brings up the printable page to print to a nearby printer, convert to PDF or email to someone. Print-friendly supports 30 languages for printing.

Print, convert to PDF or email web pages with ease to anyone as a freelancer in Nigeria. 

Features:

• Print with ease
• Convert to PDF
• Email anyone

5. WebChatGPT

The invention of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about the use of chatbots. These chatbots receive prompts and texts to provide information. ChatGPT was introduced and has been used to provide direct answers to questions. Freelancers enjoy doing more work in less time. Chatbots like ChatGPT administers solutions to problems faster than searching on Google and websites. 

WebChatGPT is an AI Chrome extension for providing answers to prompts with accurate web search results. ChatGPT, despite being an artificial intelligence tool, gives incorrect information to prompts. WebChatGPT extension uses the Google and Yahoo search engines for its results to be accurate.  

There are many other AI extensions with their uses. Some of these are Chatsonic, TweetGPT, ReaderGPT, Scribe, EngageAI, ShareGPT, ChatGPT for Google, ChatGPT Writer, Compose AI, and Gamma AI (for designing presentations).

Join our WhatsApp community to gain access to resources and opportunities that will boost your productivity.

6. HubspotSales 

HubspotSales Chrome extension is a sales tool to help users generate more leads and close deals faster with email tracking. It is a CRM (customer relationship management) for Gmail. HubspotSales allows you to send and receive Gmail messages, schedule email sends, and modify email drafts in the HubSpot app. You will also be able to log and track emails sent in-app. 

Users can schedule meetings using the HubSpotSales tool, insert document links in an email and track who viewed the link. This information can be viewed on the Hubspot app placed by the side when the extension is installed. 

Freelancers require automation with regard to emails, as emails are one way to reach clients, generate leads and get more sales. Hubspot helps to automate tasks done in Gmail. 

Hubspot has another extension, HubspotSocial, to schedule and publish social media content. 

Features:

• Track and log emails
• Use sales tools to generate leads
• Create templates to send to Gmail
• Use contact profiles.
• Schedule meetings
• Access who viewed a document link

7. StayFocusd 

StayFocusd is a time management and time-tracking app for productivity. Some challenges freelancers face are distractions from social media sites, procrastination, and inability to focus. StayFocusd is a Chrome extension to help users boost productivity, manage time while working, and block distracting websites. 

StayFocusd helps freelancers spend less time on social media applications and focus on work. It allows you to configure your working days, working hours and limited hours to use on sites. StayFocusd is an anti-procrastination app to help freelancers work, be focused and produce results. 

StayFocusd manages and monitors time within the sites and then restricts browsing activity when the time allotted is up. Users can set a challenge to prevent them from changing the settings, bypassing the system, thereby cheating on the time set. This is a great extension for freelancers who want to achieve more, be less distracted and work diligently within their working hours. 

8. Google translate 

Language is a beautiful system of communication. All around the world, there are a vast number of languages. Many websites, texts and information on the internet are in different languages. Google Translate builds a bridge between language and humans. 

Google Translate is a Chrome extension developed by Google to translate languages when browsing the internet. Google Translate can translate text and an entire web page in the browser. 

How to add the extension in Chrome – Visit the Chrome Extensions store. Click on ‘add to Chrome’. This would add it to Chrome, and you can easily translate web pages. Freelancers work with different companies with different languages. Also, while surfing the web and accessing files, it is necessary to understand the information in your language. 

Google Translate helps to make foreign languages understandable in your language easily and quickly. With a single click on the extensions page, Google Translate will translate the language to your preferred language in the browser. The best part, it is free to use. 

9. Loom 

Loom is a video messaging app to record your screen and camera easily and simultaneously. Loom works on desktops, mobile apps, and as a Chrome Extension. The Loom extension is used to record using your webcam and screen with a single click. Loom lets you easily record your entire screen, browser or application windows. With Loom, you can easily cut and trim videos. Loom also removes embarrassing umms and ahhs, making the videos professional. 

Loom offers these features, sharing with a link and using comments and emojis to drive engagement on the video. A great advantage is that users can export or download the videos without any watermark. 

An alternative to Loom is Screencastify, but Loom is more business-oriented for users. 

Loom is a great video messaging app for teams, businesses, and freelancers in any industry. Also, videos can be uploaded from Loom to YouTube. Freelancers who want to reach more clients via videos or create videos for their YouTube channel can use the Loom extension. 

Features:

• Video Recording.
• Automatic and unlimited transcriptions.
• Viewer Insights.
• Videos are protected and secure.
• Upload to YouTube.

10. Keywords surfer 

Keywords Surfer is a search engine optimization (SEO) tool for content and keyword research. SurferSEO developed it to generate keywords that rank on Google. It was designed to help individuals optimize their published articles or content on search engines such as Google or Yahoo. 

When a word or sentence is searched on Google, Keyword Surfer provides the estimated monthly traffic for a domain within a location, e.g., Nigeria. It provides the exact number of times the phrase is mentioned in the article and the number of words in the article. By the side, Keyword Surfer provides keyword ideas with their overlap and volume. 

KeywordSurfer evolved and invented the Surfer AI to write content and generate traffic for users’ websites. 

One great advantage of KeywordSurfer for freelancers is that they can publish content, their services, websites, and businesses using Keywords that rank on search engines. This way, they can get potential clients from the internet when searches are done. 

Conclusion

These Chrome extensions are very useful for different purposes. Check out the extensions you need from the Chrome Extensions Store. The Chrome Web Store has tens of thousands of extensions useful for freelancers. 

There are various extensions based on use. These are based on Gmail, work from home, business owners, online education, designs and graphic tools, online presence (SEO), games, annotation, weather, and shopping. Also available are screen recordings made for creatives, travelling, editing, PDFs, and note-taking. 

All of these extensions listed here have different uses. Depending on your work, check out the categories of extensions available and maximize their features. 

Oluwanifemi Akintomide edited this piece.

Subscribe to our newsletter so that you won’t miss out on our latest posts designed to help your productivity as a freelancer. 

About Author

Temitope Victoria

Hi. I'm Temitope Victoria, a technical writer with a strong foundation in computer science.

I'm passionate about writing engaging articles that enlightens readers on latest technologies.

My interests span across women, technology and lifestyle and entrepreneurship.

Latest entries

• TechnologyDecember 13, 2023A Beginner’s Guide to Object-Oriented Programming
• TechnologyNovember 22, 2023Who is a Network Engineer, and How Do You Become One?
• Business InsightsNovember 7, 202310 Top and Emerging Delivery Companies in Nigeria
• TechnologyOctober 23, 2023Cloud Engineering: The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Cloud Engineer