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:
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.
@nefer_ai I like that this is built specifically for Chrome extensions instead of trying to cover every kind of app. Sometimes focusing on one problem is what makes a product really instead out.
PlugThis
@morgan__harriss Thank you, we want to do one thing, in our case building chrome extensions and be the best in the world at it.
Please take PlugThis for a spin, would love to see what ideas you were able to make into a chrome extension.
The version history baked in is such a thoughtful touch, makes iterating with the chat feel safe instead of nerve-wracking. Glad someone finally focused on Chrome extensions instead of yet another web app builder.
PlugThis
@hamidesevg79879 Thank you version history was born out of pain we faced not having it :) And we wanted to be super focussed from day 1 and be the best platform to build chrome extensions.
Tried describing a simple tab grouper and was surprised the generated extension actually loaded without errors. The version history saved me when I tweaked the prompt too aggressively and wanted to roll back.
PlugThis
@mirabahieq3q Super happy that you were able to make the extension, if you are ok with it please share it here with us. Use the share button the preview pane.
Money View
Solid product. I've used this to create a few of my Chrome extensions to make my day to day work easier.
Although people with AI dev tools can create their own, I think everyone (even non-devs) needs to make their own chrome extensions to make their workflows easier, that's where this just works.
PlugThis
@soumitrasen Thank you for your kind words! Very happy to have you as a user from the earliest days of plugthis.