Seven options for Chrome, Edge and Firefox, compared on the three things that actually differ: what they can detect, what they send off your device, and what they cost. PhishClean is ours; the rest are described as fairly as we can manage.
Anti-phishing extensions come in two kinds. Reputation-based tools check each URL you visit against a cloud blocklist of known bad sites — fast, free, and blind to a phishing page that went up an hour ago. Page-analysis tools inspect the page itself for the signs of phishing: a login form posting to a different domain, a domain one character off a real brand, an invisible iframe, a leaked token. They catch new campaigns but cannot know a site's history.
Your browser already ships a reputation tool (Chrome Safe Browsing, Edge SmartScreen, Firefox's blocklist). The useful question is therefore not "which extension replaces it" but "what does it miss" — and the answer is the first hours of every new campaign, which is when the clicks happen.
| Extension | What it detects | What leaves your browser | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| PhishClean | Page analysis: fake login forms, lookalike/homograph domains, leaked API keys & JWTs, hidden iframes, HTTPS downgrades (17 checks) | Nothing — all detection is local; only a random install ID is sent for licensing | 15-day full trial, no account; then 2 checks free forever, all 17 at $9/mo or $59/yr |
| Chrome Safe Browsing (built in) | Known malicious URLs from Google's blocklist; Enhanced mode adds real-time checks | Standard: hashed URL prefixes; Enhanced: URLs and some page content sent to Google | Free |
| Microsoft Defender Browser Protection | Known phishing and malware URLs via Microsoft SmartScreen reputation | Visited URLs are checked against Microsoft's service | Free |
| Malwarebytes Browser Guard | Malicious sites, scam pages, ads and trackers via reputation lists plus some page heuristics | URLs checked against Malwarebytes' cloud service | Free; Premium bundle for the desktop product |
| Bitdefender TrafficLight | Known phishing, fraud and malware URLs; search-result badges | URLs sent to Bitdefender's cloud for reputation lookup | Free |
| Guardio | Phishing and scam sites, malicious extensions, plus identity-monitoring extras | Browsing data processed in Guardio's cloud | Subscription (~$10–15/mo) |
| Norton Safe Web | Site reputation ratings, known phishing URLs, some shopping-scam checks | URLs checked against Norton's reputation service | Free |
Details verified September 2026 from each vendor's published documentation and store listings. Prices and features change; check the vendor before relying on a row.
The only page-analysis tool on this list that keeps everything local. It runs 17 checks on every page — fake login forms, lookalike and homograph domains, leaked API keys and JWTs in page source and scripts, hidden iframes, HTTPS downgrades, link destinations on hover — and transmits nothing about the page — the source is public so that claim can be checked. Trial is 15 days with no account; after that, link-safety hover checks and the password-destination check stay free, and the other 15 are $9/month or $59/year. Weakness: no reputation blocklist, so pair it with your browser's built-in protection rather than replacing it. PhishClean vs Chrome Safe Browsing covers exactly how the two fit together.
Built into Chrome and most Chromium browsers, and worth leaving on. Standard mode checks hashed URL prefixes against Google's list; Enhanced mode sends more (including some page content) in exchange for real-time checks. It is excellent on known threats and structurally unable to flag a domain registered this morning.
Brings Edge's SmartScreen reputation to Chrome. Free, low-friction, and the right choice in a Microsoft-managed environment where policy alignment matters. Same blind spot as any reputation tool. See the full comparison.
Reputation lists plus ad and tracker blocking and a few page heuristics for tech-support scams. Broad, free, and a reasonable single install for someone who wants "block bad things" without thinking about categories. URLs are checked in the cloud. PhishClean vs Browser Guard.
Reputation-based, with badges on search results so you can see a rating before clicking. Free. Sends visited URLs to Bitdefender. Best for people who want a visible signal in search results. Comparison.
A subscription product that bundles phishing protection with extension auditing and identity-monitoring extras. Processing happens in Guardio's cloud, which is the trade-off for the breadth. If you want one paid suite covering more than the browser, it is the candidate; if you want the browser layer only, it is expensive for that. Comparison.
Reputation ratings and known-phishing blocking from Norton, free, with some shopping-scam checks. Fine as a second opinion on a site's history; not a page-analysis tool. Comparison.
Running one of each is the combination we would recommend to a friend: the browser's own blocklist for known threats, and a local page-analysis extension for the ones that are not known yet.
It depends on what you want caught. Chrome's built-in Safe Browsing blocks known malicious URLs for free and should stay on. For phishing pages that are too new to be on a blocklist — fake login forms, lookalike domains, injected content — you need an extension that analyses the page itself, such as PhishClean, which runs 17 local checks without sending your browsing anywhere. Reputation-based extensions like Malwarebytes Browser Guard, Bitdefender TrafficLight and Norton Safe Web add broader blocklists and are free.
Most do. Reputation-based tools (Safe Browsing Enhanced mode, Defender Browser Protection, TrafficLight, Norton Safe Web, Guardio) check the URLs you visit against a cloud service, which means those URLs leave your browser. PhishClean is the exception in this list: every check runs inside the browser and the only thing it transmits is a random install ID for licence checks.
For known threats, mostly yes — Safe Browsing is good at blocking URLs that have already been reported. Its gap is the first hours of a new phishing campaign, before the domain is on any list, which is exactly when most victims click. A page-analysis extension covers that window; a reputation extension largely duplicates what Safe Browsing already does.
Yes. A page-analysis extension such as PhishClean and a reputation extension such as Malwarebytes Browser Guard look at different things and do not conflict. Running two reputation-based extensions together adds little, since they largely share the same kind of blocklists.
PhishClean, Malwarebytes Browser Guard, Bitdefender TrafficLight and Norton Safe Web all publish Firefox versions. Chrome Safe Browsing, Microsoft Defender Browser Protection and Guardio do not; Firefox has its own built-in Safe Browsing-style blocklist.
All 17 PhishClean checks, no account, nothing sent off your device. Keep your browser's built-in protection on alongside it.
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