Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Violentmonkey VS Dark Reader

Compare Violentmonkey VS Dark Reader and see what are their differences

Violentmonkey logo Violentmonkey

Violentmonkey is a userscript manager to support running userscripts in web pages.

Dark Reader logo Dark Reader

Reduce eye strain in your browser with this extension that provides a dark theme for browsing.
  • Violentmonkey Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-16
  • Dark Reader Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-27

Violentmonkey features and specs

  • Free and Open Source
    Violentmonkey is freely available to use and the source code is open for anyone to inspect, modify, and contribute to. This ensures transparency and community-driven development.
  • Active Development
    The project is actively maintained and updated, which means that bugs are fixed promptly and new features are regularly added.
  • Cross-Browser Support
    Violentmonkey is compatible with multiple browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Opera, providing flexibility to users regardless of their browser preference.
  • User Script Manager
    It allows users to manage and run custom scripts to enhance web pages, providing extensive customization options for a tailored browsing experience.
  • Easy Backup and Sync
    Features like backup and sync allow users to easily transfer their settings and scripts across different devices, ensuring a consistent experience.

Possible disadvantages of Violentmonkey

  • Learning Curve
    For new users, especially those not familiar with scripting, there might be a learning curve involved in understanding how to write and manage scripts effectively.
  • Security Risks
    As with any tool that runs third-party scripts, there is a potential risk for malicious scripts that can compromise user security and privacy if not properly vetted.
  • Dependency on Community Scripts
    The quality and functionality of Violentmonkey heavily rely on the availability and maintenance of user-submitted scripts, which can vary in quality.
  • Browser Performance Impact
    Running multiple or poorly optimized scripts can affect browser performance by increasing loading times and resource consumption.

Dark Reader features and specs

  • Eye Strain Reduction
    Dark Reader converts bright websites to dark mode, which reduces eye strain and improves visual comfort, especially in low-light environments.
  • Customizable Settings
    The extension offers various customization options like brightness, contrast, and sepia filters, allowing users to adjust the appearance to their liking.
  • Improved Battery Life
    Using dark themes on OLED screens can help save battery life because pixels consume less power when displaying black.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source project, Dark Reader allows for community contributions and transparency, ensuring better security and continuous improvements.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    Dark Reader is available for multiple browser platforms such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, ensuring a consistent experience across different devices.

Possible disadvantages of Dark Reader

  • Performance Impact
    The extension can sometimes slow down browser performance, particularly on resource-intensive websites or less powerful devices.
  • Inconsistent Behavior
    Not all websites are fully compatible with Dark Reader, leading to occasional rendering issues or incomplete dark mode implementations.
  • Learning Curve
    New users might find the range of settings and customization options overwhelming and might need some time to adjust the extension to suit their needs.
  • Limited Support for Dynamic Content
    Websites with dynamic content or frequent updates may not immediately reflect changes in dark mode, requiring manual adjustments or refreshes.
  • Privacy Concerns
    As with any browser extension, there are potential privacy concerns if the extension collects browsing data, though Dark Reader's open-source nature mitigates this risk to some extent.

Analysis of Violentmonkey

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Violentmonkey is a reliable and efficient userscript manager that caters to the needs of users who want to customize their web browsing experience.

Why this product is good

  • Violentmonkey is considered a good choice for users looking to manage userscripts on their web browsers. It provides a clean and straightforward interface, supports a wide range of script sources, and is compatible with multiple browsers including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Moreover, it is open-source, allowing for community contributions and transparency.

Recommended for

  • Tech-savvy users interested in enhancing their web browser functionality through userscripts.
  • Developers who want to test userscripts in a flexible environment.
  • Users looking for an open-source alternative to other popular script managers like Greasemonkey or Tampermonkey.

Analysis of Dark Reader

Overall verdict

  • Dark Reader is generally well-reviewed and considered good by users who prefer browsing with a dark theme.

Why this product is good

  • Dark Reader is a popular browser extension designed to provide a dark mode for websites that do not natively support it. It helps reduce eye strain during prolonged browsing sessions, especially in low-light conditions, by inverting bright colors and creating a consistent dark theme across websites.

Recommended for

  • Users who experience eye strain from bright screens
  • Individuals who frequently browse in low-light environments
  • People who prefer a consistent dark theme across different websites
  • Users looking for customizable dark mode options for web pages

Violentmonkey videos

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Dark Reader videos

Dark Mode for Google Chrome โ€” Dark Reader

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Violentmonkey and Dark Reader)
Browser Extensions
23 23%
77% 77
Dark Mode
27 27%
73% 73
Developer Tools
34 34%
66% 66
Tool
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Violentmonkey and Dark Reader

Violentmonkey Reviews

We have no reviews of Violentmonkey yet.
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Dark Reader Reviews

Top 10 Productivity Apps for MacOSย 2025
I live for dark mode. Anyone whoโ€™s worked with me knows how much I reject working in light mode. Seriously, I donโ€™t know how you light-moders stay relaxed with so much brightness. That said, when it comes to browsing the web, itโ€™s sometimes hard to avoid the bright white background of a blog or article. With one click, Dark Reader strips it all away and returns me to the...
Source: dev.to
7 Best Dark Mode Extensions For Chrome
Using an on-demand dark styles theme generator, this eye-care extensions for google chrome turns on night mode for web pages. Bright color are turned into high contrast, easy-to-read hues at night thanks to Dark Reader.
Source: thedroidguy.com
The 10 best dark mode extensions for Google Chrome in 2022
Dark Reader also provides you with other controls that let you tweak your display however you want. They allow you to change any websiteโ€™s brightness, contrast, font, and other display elements. You can also store the settings for a particular URL so that you do not have to make these adjustments every time. The most notable feature of Dark Reader is its toggle switch that...
Source: chromeready.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Dark Reader should be more popular than Violentmonkey. It has been mentiond 197 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Violentmonkey mentions (46)

  • Show HN: UserScript to manually choose model for ChatGPT website
    - GPT 4o mini, so you can save your 4o calls for more complex queries https://github.com/altbdoor/userscripts/raw/master/force-gpt3.user.js. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • If your Firefox suddenly started to hang or become extremely slow today, check if you have tampermonkey 5.0. Disable it for now as it seems to be the culprit.
    Since Tampermonkey seems to be misbehaving, consider using Violentmonkey. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Current plan for the flag
    Step 1Install violentmonkey (or your favorite user script manager). Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Andrej Karpathy โ€“ State of GPT ( At MSBuild 2023)
    Sounds like a good violent monkey [0] script for you do this weekend. :) [0] https://violentmonkey.github.io/. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Auto expand for reports button in modqueue
    Toolbox is great, but if that is all you really need, here's this! You can copy and paste this as a new script to use in ViolentMonkey [AMO] or whatever script manager you use. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

Dark Reader mentions (197)

  • Dark Mode Sucks
    Install Darkreader, enable Light mode https://darkreader.org/ I think most users are capable of that :). - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Dark Mode Sucks
    Yes. There's a reason that https://darkreader.org/ has 10 million+ installs while no inverse extensions even exist to my knowledge. The entire web is already light-mode first and much of it, including your site (no offense) offers zero built-in support for the provably massive demand that exists for dark-mode color schemes. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Dark Mode Sucks
    Yes. I have Dark Reader[1] on by default for all websites and only disable it when it activly breaks a site, or a site has a suitibly dark theme and Dark Reader thus flips things the wrong way. If a site is borked to the point that Dark Reader can't fix it, I'll use reader mode or just go somewhere else. Your site looks just fine to me. [1] https://darkreader.org/. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Dark Mode Sucks
    This is the privileged majority punching down at minority, not unlike an abled person whining about the existence of accessibility options, or a native-born American complaining about government forms also having a Spanish section after the English section. There's a reason that extensions like Dark Modeยน have 10,000,000+ installs while no "Light Mode" extensions can even exist as far as I can tell: more or less... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Ask HN: Dark Mode for HN is overdue
    Use https://darkreader.org/ Automagic dark mode on every site. - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Violentmonkey and Dark Reader, you can also consider the following products

Greasemonkey - Customize the way a web page displays or behaves, by using small bits of JavaScript.

f.lux - f. lux is a piece of software for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android that provides a blue light filter over your screen. Research suggests limiting our exposure to blue light in the hours before bedtime can help us fall asleep faster.

Tampermonkey - Greasemonkey compatible script manager.

Midnight Lizard - Accessible color schemes for all websites

Greasy Fork - A site for user scripts.

Night Eye - Night Eye is a browser extension that enables dark mode on any website you visit. It does not ruin your browsing experience by simply inverting images.