About Simple Translate
Simple Translate does one thing and stays out of the way. It is a lightweight extension from the developer sienori: select text on a page and a small button appears, click it and the translation shows in a popup. You can also open the toolbar popup and type or paste text, and it can switch automatically between two languages you choose.
By default it uses Google Translate, and you can switch to the DeepL API with your own key. A context menu offers translate this page, selected text and selected link, but page translation is basic. The code is on GitHub under MPL-2.0, and it is on the Chrome Web Store, Firefox Add-ons and Edge Add-ons. Version 3.0.0 moved it to Manifest V3, and version 3.1.0 arrived in August 2026.
The privacy policy says the extension sends the input or selected text and the page URL to Google's API, or to DeepL if you change the engine, and that the developer does not access or collect this data. The text still goes to those companies, so their policies apply. It has no paid plan, though the developer takes sponsors, and support depends on one person. For reading whole sites, look at Linguist or Immersive Translate instead.
Pros and cons
- Small and simple: a popup for selected text and a toolbar box for typed text
- Free, MPL-2.0 licensed, and the developer's policy says it collects no data
- Moved to Manifest V3 in version 3.0.0
- On Chrome, Firefox and Edge, with a release in August 2026
- Page translation is a context-menu option, not a polished reading mode
- Sends text and page URLs to Google, or to DeepL if you switch
- One developer, so support depends on one person
Permissions
The Chrome build asks only for storage and context menus. On Firefox the listing also shows access to all sites. That is a short list for a translator.
