MurmSpy vs Koala Inspector
Both read a Shopify store's app stack and theme from the page. The practical difference is access: Koala Inspector runs on every site you visit and reads your signed-in Google identity; MurmSpy runs on Shopify and TikTok Shop pages only and has no account at all.
Short answer
If you want the largest app catalog and an account that syncs across machines, Koala Inspector is the more established product. If you would rather not grant all-sites access, not have your Google address read, and not send your browsing anywhere, MurmSpy does the same core job in about 0.24 MB with three narrow permissions.
How to check any of this yourself. Open an extension's
Chrome Web Store page and read the grey permission line under the install
button, or go to chrome://extensions → Details → Site access.
Every permission claim below is taken from the extension's own published
manifest and is visible to you in under a minute. We build one of these
tools, so verify rather than take our word for it.
Side by side
| MurmSpy | Koala Inspector | |
|---|---|---|
| Runs on | Shopify + TikTok Shop pages | All websites |
| Reads your Google account email | No | Yes — identity.email |
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Package size | ~0.24 MB | ~17.7 MB |
| App detection | 137 fingerprints, local | Larger catalog, server-side |
| Theme detection | Yes — canonical name | Yes |
| Where analysis runs | Your machine | Their servers |
| Affiliate links | None | Yes — theme/app referrals |
| Free tier | Permanent | Limited, Pro via Paddle |
| Price | €8.99/mo or €69/yr | Subscription (see their site) |
Where Koala Inspector is genuinely better
Its app catalog is larger than our 137 fingerprints, because detection runs server-side and can be updated without shipping an extension release. It has been around far longer, has a much bigger user base, and its account model means your saved data follows you between browsers. If those matter more to you than permission scope, it is the reasonable pick.
Where MurmSpy is different
- Scoped access.
activeTabmeans the extension can read a page only after you click its icon on that page. There is no standing permission to read your browsing. - No account, no identity read. Nothing to sign up for and no email is collected, because there is no server to hold one.
- Labelled numbers. A best-seller rank comes from Shopify's own best-selling sort. A discount is a real price pair from one purchasable variant. Where a figure cannot be proven, it is not shown.
- No affiliate links. Outbound links are never rewritten.
Try MurmSpy
Free tier is permanent — full app and theme detection with no limit.