# Greasemonkey

16 Hacker News commenters recommended Greasemonkey and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A Firefox extension that runs user scripts to customize how websites look and behave, recommended as a free, easy-to-review way to personalize the web.

## Why people recommend it

- Customizes websites with user scripts (4 comments): "browsers have greasemonkey to help me personalize websites easily" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48451967)) "I love customizing the web - I use Greasemonkey extensively" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45917884)) "I did like useing greasemonkey to customize everything" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46284847))
- Easy to review and free (2 comments): "easy to review, which is why I prefer them over the normal extensions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46396622)) "Greasemonkey is a free download" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46169493))
- Preferred over Tampermonkey alternatives (3 comments): "I don't have to for greasemonkey / tampermonkey, which let's me do the same thing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926978)) "I think it's better to use Tampermonkey/Greasemonkey." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45917871)) "I prefer using Greasemonkey / Tampermonkey" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46997666))

## What people warn about

- Syncing scripts across machines is annoying (1 comments): "copying scripts between machines became annoying, and I don't think it ever worked on mobile" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49310286))
- Installation can change unrelated page content (1 comments): "Had a bad time when I installed it and forgot about it and it replaced my manager's first name" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48110886))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Tampermonkey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tampermonkey.md): 16 recommend
- [Violentmonkey](https://hackerapproved.com/p/violentmonkey.md): 11 recommend
- [Refined GitHub](https://hackerapproved.com/p/refined-github.md): 6 recommend
- [WebUSB Extension for Firefox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/webusb-extension-for-firefox.md): 6 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Greasemonkey", https://hackerapproved.com/p/greasemonkey/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).