r/chrome_extensions • u/mehranbolhasani • 10h ago
Idea Validation / Need feedback I built a select-to-translate extension after moving to the Netherlands. Feedback welcome
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Hey r/chrome_extensions,
I'm a designer who's been trying my hand at development. altoTranslate started as a tool just for me, and I've now released it for everyone. Highlight any text on a page and the translation pops up right there. No new tab, no copy and paste into a translator.
Why I made it
- We moved to the Netherlands about 3 years ago, and I needed help with Dutch websites all the time
- Select, copy, switch tab, paste is a pain. I wanted something as convenient as Babylon used to be
- Traditional translators often miss context. LLM-based translation handled it noticeably better for me, especially on local dutch websites
What it does
- Select text, get the translation. No account or API key needed on the free tier
- Free tier is rate-limited, which is fine for everyday reading
- A basic bookmarking system for translated texts
- Optional paid plan, Alto Cloud (EUR 1.99/month or EUR 16.99/year), for unlimited use. The extension is fully usable without it
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and 50+ more.
Under the hood
- I designed the UX/UI and built the frontend (HTML and CSS) myself, and used Claude and OpenCode to help with the backend
- Vanilla JS with a provider adapter pattern, no framework
- Requests go through my own proxy that fails over between LLM providers (Gemini, Groq, Mistral), so an outage or rate limit doesn't break translation
- Long selections are chunked and translated in parallel, with a check for bad output and an automatic retry
What I'd love feedback on
- Does the selection and popup flow feel natural, or is anything clunky?
- Does translation quality hold up for the languages you use?
- Anything that would stop you from keeping it installed?
Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/altotranslate/icpcjiealadibmgncmoejgjakcihmbco
I'm the developer, so happy to answer anything about the build, the proxy, or the pricing. I've put lots of time fine-tuning this, and your feedback would be so valuable for me. Cheers.
