Firefox is better with add-ons. (Yes, that’s what Mozilla calls their “extensions.”) Whatever you call them, there are good options available to help you do everything from improving your privacy to getting around restrictions you’ll encounter across the internet.
Firefox add-ons add lots of useful features to the browser, but you shouldn’t install them haphazardly. If you do, you could end up slowing Firefox down and compromising your privacy, as each extension requires permission to access your browsing data to some level. You should always check which permissions add-ons request before installing them. Lucky for you, we did that already, and determined the following add-ons are the best of the bunch.
uBlock Origin
To block ads and reduce tracking on the internet, look no further than uBlock Origin. It has a solid set of defaults that blocks all kinds of trackers and annoyances on the internet, but you can dive into advanced uBlock Origin settings to make it even more robust.
Configured correctly, uBlock Origin can halt bothersome cookie notices, block trackers, remove tracking information from URLs, and much more.
Enhancer for YouTube
For those who like watching a lot of videos, Enhancer for YouTube is a great Firefox add-on. It adds subtle but useful adjustments to YouTube and improves the entire experience overall. For example, with it, you can read all comments while watching a video, set your preferred default video quality for each video, add useful keyboard shortcuts to YouTube, and much more.
600% Sound Volume
600% Sound Volume lets you adjust the volume of individual tabs. As the name implies, it can boost the volume of any tab up to 600%, and maintains a different volume level for each tab. You can use this add-on to, for example, keep messaging app alerts at a lower volume than your YouTube videos.
SponsorBlock
Speaking of YouTube, uBlock Origin takes care of blocking ads before videos load, but it can’t do anything about embedded promotions. Many YouTubers spend a lot of time trying to get you to buy merchandise or use their sponsor’s products. If these sponsorships annoy you, SponsorBlock can automatically skip these promos.
Behind the Overlay
Picture this: You’re minding your own business, enjoying a nice article, when all of a sudden, a giant “subscribe to our newsletter” or “give us more money” overlay appears out of nowhere. To avoid this, install Behind the Overlay, which hides these overlays automatically.
ScrollAnywhere
ScrollAnywhere lets you mimic scrolling behaviour seen on smartphones. With it, you can use your mouse button to click and drag anywhere on a webpage to scroll, just as you’d tap anywhere and flick a finger in any direction to scroll on a smartphone.
Absolute Enable Right-Click & Copy
Plenty of websites block basic functions such as right-click, copy, or paste. You can bypass these blocks by using Absolute Enable Right-Click & Copy, which lets you paste account numbers and other long items on banking websites.
Dark Reader
For some reason, most websites prefer bright backgrounds. For those who prefer using a dark theme on all websites, Dark Reader is a great option.
Facebook Container
It’s common knowledge that Meta and all the websites it owns are bad for your privacy. If you must keep using the company’s products, install Facebook Container to Firefox. This add-on keeps all your Facebook data inside a container and prevents Meta from tracking you across the internet.
To do the same thing for multiple different websites, use Firefox Multi-Account Container.
LocalCDN
LocalCDN prevents unnecessary third-party requests to Google and other content delivery networks (CDN). It emulates several frameworks as local resources, which speeds up your browsing and reduces unnecessary pings to CDNs.
Augmented Steam
Steam is the most popular online storefront for PC gaming. If you browse Steam on Firefox, you should install Augmented Steam to see useful information such as historical pricing data, automatically skipping age gates, and improved search filters.
Everything Metric
The United States is one of only a few countries that still uses imperial units, and those who browse American sites from other countries or people who’ve recently moved to the U.S. may initially find these units confusing. Everything Metric fixes this problem by automatically converting all imperial units to metric and making measurements simpler to read for non-Americans.