[oefrha]

> I understand that the Chrome extension store is free

Pretty sure it’s not free, I had to pay a nominal $5 fee ages ago, and looks like that hasn’t changed.

https://developer.chrome.com/webstore/publish#pay-the-develo...

Even found a recent news article reporting that now you need to pay the fee immediately on signup as opposed to when you publish the first extension/app.

https://9to5google.com/2020/03/12/chrome-web-store-fee/

(In case anyone wonders why $5 is even worth mentioning — if you’re a teenager in a third world country you probably have neither the fund nor a credit card to publish a Chrome extension.)

[jiveturkey]

If you don't have $5, how do you have the resources to develop an extension?

[oefrha]

No first hand experience, but I’ve heard stories of African kids doing impressive tech stuff using very limited resources. Presumably quite a few have access to school computers these days? Developing extensions is free as long as you have access to a computer. Anyway, not having access to a credit card (also need to be capable of international payment, which is not a given) is a much bigger issue than not having $5.

[bovine3dom]

I have $5 but on principle I don't want to give it to Google so that I can make their web browser better.

That with the horror stories about the review process has stopped me from publishing an extension for Chrome.

Edit: there was a nice article on HN last week about how relationships change once you start to have a monetary exchange, which I think suggests I wouldn't be the only one to be irrational about it [1].

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23104875

[sudosysgen]

The issue is a credit card that can pay US Dollars. These are heavily restricted in a lot of developing countries, for good reasons.

[smilekzs]

Having to pay US Dollars can still be a big hurdle