Spent the last few months talking to founders and indie hackers who are quietly frustrated with subscription Chrome extensions.
The pattern I keep hearing: someone pays $20 to $50 a month for an extension that does one specific thing (usually an SEO checker, a research tool, a screenshot annotator, or an LinkedIn scraper). The extension itself is a few hundred lines of code, the underlying task is mechanical, and the monthly charge feels like rent on something that should be a one-time purchase.
I'm running growth for PlugThis (launching here on Product Hunt soon) and part of the pitch is that you can build or clone those tools yourself instead of renting them. But I want to stress-test the premise.
Two questions for this forum:
This looks cool! Does it support complex extensions with multiple pages?
PlugThis
Hi @pixori We can build complex multi page extensions, do you have any particular idea you want to see as an extension?
@nefer_ai For example - a multi-page extension that pulls prices from several open tabs into one live comparison panel
PlugThis
@pixori I was able to get this done in 2 prompts. The extension fetches data from 3 open tabs and price compares yogurt and presents findings in a new tab.
@nefer_ai This is crazy!
PlugThis
@jill_camhi_osinoff First, thank you for trying out Plugthis.
Let me assist you with your question.
Please input the idea you have for the extension and click on the black arrow button.
I have pasted a screenshot below for your reference, if you still have questions please reply I ll assist.
@nefer_ai I entered in the prompt but there is no black arrow visible. I’m on mobile.
PlugThis
@jill_camhi_osinoff Hi apologies, currently plugthis.ai works best on desktop. Can you please try creating the extension from a desktop device.
Been sitting on a Chrome extension idea for probably a year now and never touched it because I don't really code. The Twitter ICP scoring one you mentioned is basically the exact vibe of the thing I've wanted to build. Gonna actually try this today instead of letting it rot in my notes app lol.
PlugThis
@mshen316 This is the exact person we built it for, Michael 😄 A year in the notes app is long enough, today's the day.
And good news, the Twitter ICP scoring idea is right in the sweet spot: read the profile or timeline, score it against your criteria, show the result inline. You describe it in plain English and it figures out the structure, the permissions, and the scaffolding for you, so not really coding is not the blocker it used to be. You can refine it just by telling it what you want changed.
One tip: start with the simplest version of the idea, get that working and seeing it live, then add the fancy scoring logic. Momentum is everything, and this time you won't lose it to setup.
Go build it, and please come back and tell me how it went. Genuinely rooting for you on this one.
I've had a few Chorme extension ideas setting in my notes because getting from an idea to working extensions always felt like too much work. i really like that you're focused on one problem instead of trying to build everything for everyone.
PlugThis
@tessa_lynch Thank you for appreciating exactly what we are doing. We just want to be the simplest way to build chrome extensions.
Please try out your ideas on Plugthis.ai Super excited to see your ideas to comes to life.
I've noiced there are plenty of AI tools for websites but not many focused on broswer extensions. that focus alno makes Plug this stand out to me.
PlugThis
@_angelinaashley Thank you, we were clear from Day 1. We ll only focus on chrome extensions. There are plenty of web app and mobile builders but none of them build proper chrome extensions.
Please take PlugThis for a spin, would love to see what you are going to build.
@nefer_ai Tested it today and it's genuinely fun to use. I expected to spend time fixing boilerplate, but it got me to a usable extension much faster than I thought. If you keep improving the generation quality, this could become a go-to tool for anyone building Chrome extensions. Congrats! 👏
PlugThis
@neerajkanoi Thank you, glad you found it to be useful. If there is any feature you wan to see in the app, please let us know.
PlugThis
@hamza_afzal_butt Thank you, the types of extension being created are wide spread from scrapers to AI powered extensions that do customer research.
But my favourite so far was an interactive digital wellness BFF someone had created that acts as your buddy reminding you to do exercise, drink water every 20 minutes.
One other thing I have observed is people re-creating extensions that already exist and adding features they want on top of them.