# Tampermonkey

16 Hacker News commenters recommended Tampermonkey and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as one place to run custom scripts that are easier to build and review than full browser extensions. Main caveat: it is closed source.

## Why people recommend it

- Keeps all scripts in one place (2 comments): "I switched everything over to Tamper Monkey so all my CSS and non CSS related scripts would be in one place." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018190)) "at least it reduces the surface area to a single extension" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46857232))
- Easier than building full extensions (2 comments): "its way much easier to deal with compared to building pure extensions themselves" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46520961)) "They are like more lightweight/easier way to build extensions mostly imo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46609411))
- Free with no monetization (2 comments): "Rules are deterministic, you have full control, and you don't have to worry about monetization" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45917871)) "Greasemonkey and Tampermonkey exist, for free." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45917884))
- Blocks popups and helps with doomscrolling (2 comments): "This lets you see the video but breaks you out of doomscrolling." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47022949)) "uBo + tamper monkey is needed just to block popups." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46305183))

## What people warn about

- Closed source, not open source (4 comments): "TM is capable of doing most of what other extensions do, so it's too bad it's not open source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981792)) "Tampermonkey has analytics enabled, and is closed source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47911735)) "it's so sad that Tampermonkey isn't open source" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46981203))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

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