Allow Right Click vs Enable Copy Extensions: Which One Is Better?

If you've searched for a fix to copy restrictions on websites, you've probably landed on two categories of extension: "Allow Right Click" tools and "Enable Copy" tools. They sound like they do the same thing. They mostly do — but the overlap isn't complete, and choosing the wrong one means you might fix one problem while another one persists.

Here's a plain-language breakdown of what each type of extension actually does, where they differ, and how to pick the right one for your situation.

Two Different Problems That Look Like One

The confusion starts because copy restrictions and right-click restrictions often appear on the same site, at the same time. But they're caused by different code, and they're solved by different fixes.

What right-click blocking actually is

When a site blocks right-click, it's listening for the contextmenu event and calling event.preventDefault(). This suppresses the browser's context menu — the one with options like "Save image as," "Open link in new tab," "Inspect," and "Copy." The context menu is blocked. Text selection may still work fine.

What copy blocking actually is

When a site blocks copy, it's listening for the copy, selectstart, or keydown events (targeting Ctrl+C) and preventing the default action. This stops text from being copied to your clipboard — but right-click might still work normally. The context menu appears, but clicking "Copy" does nothing, or the text isn't selectable in the first place because user-select: none is applied in CSS.

These are different blocks. A right-click extension fixes the first. A copy extension fixes the second. A good all-in-one extension fixes both.

Feature Comparison Table

Allow Right Click: What It's Good At

Allow Right Click extensions shine on sites that disable the context menu specifically — usually image galleries, photography portfolios, and sites protecting images from being saved.

When you're on a page like that, the right-click menu is what you actually need. You want to save the image, inspect an element, open a link in a new tab, or view page source. Text copying might already work fine — the problem is purely the blocked context menu.

These extensions are also useful for accessing the Inspect option in DevTools. On sites with aggressive right-click blocks, you can't inspect an element by right-clicking it — you have to open DevTools manually with F12 and navigate manually. A right-click extension removes that friction.

For a feature-by-feature breakdown, Enable Copy Everywhere vs other extensions covers how these tools compare in more detail.

Enable Copy: What It's Good At

Enable Copy tools are purpose-built for text-heavy restrictions. On news sites, academic databases, and paywalled content, the context menu often works but copying text doesn't — either because user-select: none prevents selection entirely, or because the copy event is blocked.

These extensions typically do a better job of handling the CSS user-select override than right-click-focused tools, because that's their core job. They also often handle the selectstart event block, which prevents you from even initiating a text selection by clicking and dragging.

If your main frustration is that you can't highlight text to quote it, summarize it, or paste it somewhere, an enable-copy extension is the more targeted fix.

When You Need Both

The honest answer for most people is that you need both — or rather, you need one tool that does both.

Many sites layer their restrictions: they block right-click AND disable copy AND set user-select: none. If you install only a right-click extension, you get the context menu back but still can't select or copy text. If you install only a copy extension, you can copy text but still can't right-click to save images.

The best practical setup:

• Install Enable Copy Everywhere as your primary extension (it covers right-click and usually handles copy as well on most sites).
• Add Don't Fuck with Paste specifically for form paste issues.
• If a particular site's copy protection is not lifted by Enable Copy Everywhere, toggle on a dedicated copy extension for that session.

For a complete view of all the top Chrome extensions across both categories, a dedicated comparison covers the full landscape including specialty tools.

Performance and Compatibility

Both extension types have roughly the same performance profile. They inject a small script at page load — typically under 20KB — that adds event listeners and modifies CSS. No background processes, no network calls, no persistent data collection.

Chrome's shift to Manifest V3 (MV3) for extensions changed how scripts are injected. Extensions built on the older Manifest V2 may behave inconsistently on newer Chrome versions. When choosing an extension, check that it's been updated within the last year and notes MV3 compatibility in its description.

Which One Wins?

For most users: Allow Right Click wins as the primary install because it covers more ground. Most right-click extensions also handle copy restrictions, making it an effective all-in-one tool.

For text-focused users (researchers, students, writers): Enable Copy is slightly better for pure text selection tasks, especially on academic databases where image-saving is irrelevant.

For power users with both problems: run both. They don't conflict, and together they cover every standard copy restriction pattern.

The next step after picking your tool is knowing that some sites go beyond standard restrictions. For those, see how to restore full browser right-click behavior in Chrome including browser-level settings that don't involve extensions at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Allow Right Click do that Enable Copy doesn't? Allow Right Click restores the browser context menu on pages that have blocked the contextmenu event. Enable Copy focuses on text selection and copy-to-clipboard restoration. Both are needed for comprehensive coverage.

Can I use both extensions at the same time? Yes. They target different mechanisms and won't conflict. Running both gives complete coverage of right-click, text copy, and CSS selection restrictions.

Which is better for students and researchers? Enable Copy handles the most common academic use case — selecting and copying text from restricted databases. Add Allow Right Click if you also need to save images or access right-click menu options.

Do these extensions work on PDFs in Chrome? No. Chrome's PDF viewer is a separate context and extensions generally can't inject into it. Chrome's native PDF text selection usually works fine without any extension.

What if an extension stops working after a Chrome update? Check whether the extension has been updated for Manifest V3 compatibility. Visit the extension's Chrome Web Store page for recent update notes.