Best dark mode and page styling extensions

Dark Reader is the best-known dark mode extension, and the idea is simple. Instead of waiting for each site to offer a dark theme, it rewrites the page's colours as it loads, so almost any website turns dark. It is made by Dark Reader Ltd, has been developed since 2014, and is MIT licensed on GitHub.

You can adjust brightness, contrast, sepia and fonts, switch between a dark theme and a lighter filter mode, and turn it off for individual sites. It can follow a schedule or your system setting. The Chrome version is Manifest V3, and it is also listed on Firefox (Recommended by Mozilla), Edge and Safari. Its privacy policy says it has never collected personal data or browsing history.

The core extension is free and partly funded by donations through Open Collective, but there are commercial edges. Dark Reader Plus, an optional paid upgrade described on its Edge listing, adds premium themes and custom colours, and the Safari app is a paid download. Look-alikes exist, and malware-removal guides describe a fake "Dark Reader for Chrome" that injects ads, so install from the links on darkreader.org. For most people, this is the one to start with.

Stylus is a userstyles manager: instead of one automatic dark mode, it lets you apply custom CSS themes to any website. Dark themes are the most popular use, but you can also change fonts or hide clutter. It exists because of a scandal. The original Stylish extension was sold, and in 2018 a researcher showed it was sending users' browsing history to an analytics firm. Stylus began as an open source fork, and its README says it has no analytics or tracking.

A Find button searches theme galleries such as userstyles.world, and one click applies a style to the current site. You can also write your own in the built-in editor, which highlights problems as you type, and sync your styles through Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or WebDAV. Chrome's build is Manifest V3 and Firefox marks the add-on Recommended.

The trade-off is effort. Stylus gives you the tools, not a finished dark mode, and the themes you install are written by other people, so stick to popular, well-reviewed ones. It has no Safari version. If you want to tinker, or want dark themes hand-built for specific sites, Stylus is the right choice, and it pairs well with Dark Reader.

Noir is a dark mode extension made for Safari by an independent developer, Jeffrey Kuiken. When a page starts loading, it analyses the colours used and generates a custom dark style for that site, aiming to keep contrast and highlights readable. By default it follows your device's dark mode setting, so sites only go dark when the rest of your system does.

There are over 20 built-in themes and you can create your own, and you can switch Noir on or off per website. It works with Shortcuts, Control Center, Focus filters and widgets on iPhone and iPad, and your settings sync through iCloud. The iPhone and iPad app and the Mac app are separate App Store purchases.

The developer's privacy policy says Noir collects no browsing data and stores only your settings, and the App Store label says Data Not Collected. Like every dark mode extension, it needs permission to access the websites you visit so it can restyle them. It is a one-time purchase with no subscriptions or ads, according to the developer, and the code is closed. If you use Safari and want a polished, low-cost dark mode that respects your privacy, Noir is an easy recommendation.

Night Eye is a commercial dark mode extension from Promotino OOD, a company based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Like Dark Reader it converts websites on the fly, and it converts only small images and icons, leaving larger media alone. Its pitch is polish rather than openness: you pay if you want it on every site.

It offers dark, filtered and normal modes, adjustable brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and dimming, scheduling, and settings for a single site or every site. It also darkens online PDFs in its Safari app. The Chrome build is listed on the Chrome Web Store as a Featured extension, and it is also on Edge, Firefox and Safari.

The catch is the pricing. The free Lite plan covers one browser and five websites of your choice, and new users get three months of Pro without a card. After that, Pro and Pro Max are yearly subscriptions and Ultimate is a one-time purchase, each limited by the number of browsers you can use. Night Eye says it does not monitor or store browsing activity and shows no ads, but the source code is not published. If Dark Reader does not suit you and you will pay, it is a credible alternative.

Turn Off the Lights started as a video tool: it fades the whole page to black except the video player, so you can watch as if in a cinema. That is its distinct idea, and why it sits at the edge of this category. It also offers a night mode, an eye-protection overlay and a darker YouTube theme, so it can double as a way to cut glare. It is made by Stefan van Damme and is GPL-2.0 on GitHub.

You control how dark the dimming is, switch the lights back on with a click or Ctrl+Shift+L, and set a time window for night mode, with allow and block lists for sites. It is listed on Chrome, where the repository's manifest is Manifest V3, and on Firefox, Edge and Safari.

Its privacy policy says the extension has no ads or spyware and that your personal information is not sold, distributed or leased; an optional analytics dashboard stays on your device. It is not a Dark Reader replacement, since it does not recolour whole sites in the same way. The developer's own support site also runs promotional posts that criticise rivals such as Dark Reader, so weigh its comparisons accordingly. Choose it if dimming video pages is your main goal.