What is the difference between addons and plugins

It is also compatible with all of the popular web browsers like IE, Firefox, and Opera. An Add-on also extends the functionality of a certain program but they are usually meant to function on a certain program.

Taking the web browser for comparison, add-ons that are meant for Firefox would only work with Firefox and so would for other browsers. These are usually not full blown software but are simply pieces of code that you can use to modify the interface.

The most common add-ons for browsers are toolbars which take a little bit more space and give you instant shortcuts to certain online services. Add-ons are also very prominent in online games like World of Warcraft, where players who have a little know-how can create their own add-ons to help other players. The separation between an add-on and a plug-in is not really that clear. The primary reason why these codes are not embedded into the program in the first place is that they are not really that essential and while some people might appreciate having that, others might not and find it a nuisance.

These are also tools that a software maker can utilize to motivate the members of their community to get involved in improving the software. Cite APA 7 , l. Difference Between Add-on and Plug-in. Difference Between Similar Terms and Objects. MLA 8 , lanceben. Nice, thanks. Create a free Team What is Teams?

Collectives on Stack Overflow. Learn more. Exact difference between add-ons, plugins and extensions Ask Question. Asked 6 years ago. Active 2 years, 11 months ago. Viewed 32k times. Improve this question. Community Bot 1 1 1 silver badge.

Hosein Aqajani Hosein Aqajani 1, 4 4 gold badges 23 23 silver badges 43 43 bronze badges. The answer depends on thew browser you're talking about, since they use different terminology. In firefox, plugins are different from addons. In firefox, extensions are the same thing as addons. Plugins can be created like this in firefox: developer.

Xan Thank you, You are expert in Google Chrome, could you please determine these differences in your scope? Dear Noitidart I see the page you cited, It says "plugins are legacy technology", what is your opinion? What is your opinion about 4 definitions that I have mentioned in the question?

Is it true that plugin embed in htm pages and have not any separated files like xpi? The alternative is js-ctypes from addons. I dont have experience of embeding plugins into HTML pages, the article makes it sound like it is possible though. Show 4 more comments. Despite of their matching properties, both the terms are not same. Plug-in is a complete program and add-on is not a program.

For example Flash is an plug-in which is a complete program. Flash player is required to play a video which is made by a company known as Adobe. Also Java is a plug-in made by Sun Microsystem which is used to run programs based on Java. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Ex: An add-in for excel to display graphs.

Improve this answer. Vamsi Emani Vamsi Emani 1, 7 7 gold badges 20 20 silver badges 21 21 bronze badges. This answer is wrong. See stackoverflow. The Overflow Blog. Does ES6 make JavaScript frameworks obsolete? Podcast Do polyglots have an edge when it comes to mastering programming