UltraWideo vs Zoom to Fill – Which One Should You Use?

What Do These Extensions Do?

Both UltraWideo and Zoom to Fill make videos fill your screen instead of leaving black bars on the sides or at the top and bottom. Both work on YouTube, Netflix, Disney+, Max, Prime Video and most other sites, and both are free to install.

In September 2026 Zoom to Fill added a paid PRO tier and a control panel that opens inside the video. So the questions most people now have are what each one costs, what stays free, and which paid features work on the streaming services they actually use. This page covers all three.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Store figures are as of September 2026, taken from the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons listings on September 22. Zoom to Fill's prices come from its pricing page and website on the same day.

What Each One Costs, and What's Free

UltraWideo keeps everything you need to fill the screen free: all four modes (Normal, Upscale, Stretch and Custom), scale and pan, keyboard shortcuts and mouse or trackpad gestures, in fullscreen and in the page. The free version uses one global setting for every site. Pro costs $2.99/month or $29.90/year and adds per-site and per-page settings, Letterbox (crops black bars that are baked into the video), Ambient Light, Enhance sharpening, Mode Manager, and cloud sync between Chrome and Firefox.

Zoom to Fill also keeps the basics free: zoom to fill on any site, pan, six aspect-ratio presets with a fine-tune slider, lighting, shadows and contrast controls, 12 remappable shortcuts, and Auto Re-apply, which remembers a setting per site or per video. PRO costs $4.99/month, $35.99/year (marked as a launch price) or $139 once. It adds Elastic Stretch, Sharpness, Vibrance, HDR Boost, Fluidity (frame interpolation), Ambience, automatic black-bar removal, Profiles and Multi-Device Settings.

The real price difference: on yearly billing UltraWideo Pro costs $6.09 less per year ($29.90 vs $35.99). On monthly billing it costs $2.00 less per month ($2.99 vs $4.99), or $24 a year. Zoom to Fill also sells a $139 lifetime license, and UltraWideo doesn't have a lifetime plan.

The two paid tiers aren't the same bundle. Zoom to Fill's PRO is mostly picture processing: grading, sharpening, frame interpolation and elastic stretch. UltraWideo's Pro is mostly about where and how your settings apply (per-site and per-page settings, Mode Manager, cross-browser sync), plus Letterbox, Ambient Light and Enhance. The free tiers differ too. Zoom to Fill remembers settings per site for free, while UltraWideo's free version uses one global setting and makes per-site settings part of Pro. On the other hand, UltraWideo's Stretch and Custom modes are free, while Zoom to Fill's no-crop stretch (Elastic Stretch) is PRO.

Trials and refunds: Zoom to Fill offers a 7-day free trial on its monthly and yearly plans, and refunds within 30 days of the first charge. UltraWideo has no Pro trial and Pro purchases are final, so the free version is the way to test it on the sites you watch before you pay.

What Any Extension Can (and Can't) Do on Protected Video

Netflix, Disney+, Max and Prime Video play through the browser's DRM system (Encrypted Media Extensions). On those streams an extension can't read pixels straight from the video, and that splits video features into two groups:

• Changes to how the whole picture is displayed still work. The browser handles scaling, cropping, stretching and panning while it draws the video. Effects built from CSS or SVG filters, such as sharpening, contrast and saturation, don't have to read a frame either.
• Anything that has to read the picture is limited. Automatic black-bar detection has to find the dark rows, a glow that follows the picture's colors has to sample those colors, and generating in-between frames means comparing one frame with the next. An extension can still sample the picture from a screenshot of the tab, but only when the stream isn't on the browser's hardware-protected path, and occasional screenshots are too slow for frame-by-frame work like interpolation.

One more thing worth knowing: brightening highlights or boosting color on a standard (SDR) stream can make it look punchier, but it doesn't make it HDR. HDR has to come from the source, meaning the video is mastered and streamed in HDR, and your display and browser have to support it.

How UltraWideo handles it: on a protected stream, Ambient Light switches off and the popup shows a notice explaining why. Letterbox's automatic Detect isn't available there, so you use Measure instead: drag over the top black bar, and UltraWideo crops the same amount from the top and bottom. Enhance isn't switched off, because it's an SVG filter applied to the whole picture and doesn't need to read it. Modes, scale and pan work as usual.

What Zoom to Fill says: its FAQ says zoom, pan and aspect-ratio fill work on every player, including DRM-protected ones. It says its "GPU effects (Elastic Stretch, Fluidity, Sharpness, HDR Boost) run on non-DRM video like YouTube", and that Ambience and automatic black-bar removal "work on DRM players through a compatibility mode". The site doesn't explain what compatibility mode changes. If one of these features is why you'd pay, use the 7-day trial to test it on the services you watch.

The Interface

UltraWideo keeps its controls in a normal browser popup. Click the UltraWideo icon in the toolbar, or press Alt+Shift+V (Ctrl+Command+V on Mac). It doesn't add buttons or panels to video players. Its only on-page interface is a small confirmation pill when you change the mode, scale or on/off state with a shortcut or gesture (fullscreen included), and the Letterbox Measure overlay while you measure. Ambient Light, when it's on, also draws its glow around the video. In fullscreen, you control it with shortcuts and gestures. The popup has light, dark and auto appearance, 16 accent colors and 41 interface languages.

Zoom to Fill puts its controls in the video, and its toolbar icon opens the same panel as a popup. It adds a button to YouTube, Netflix and other major players, a floating button on other videos, and a panel that opens over the player. The panel works in fullscreen too, which is convenient if you like to fine-tune without leaving fullscreen. In replies to Chrome Web Store reviews, its developer says the in-video panel and the new buttons can be turned off in settings.

What Users Say About Zoom to Fill's Switch to Pro

Most reviews posted since the update on Zoom to Fill's Chrome Web Store page (September 16–21, 2026) are critical. Long-time users say a simple tool became cluttered. They point to the new on-video panel and buttons, prompts for PRO features, and changed keyboard shortcuts. A couple of reviewers say they like the new features, and one asked for regional pricing. In replies, the developer says the in-video panel and new buttons can be disabled in settings, that shortcuts for specific aspect ratios may come back in a later update, and that regional pricing is planned.

Firefox Support

UltraWideo is available on both the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-ons with the same features, and Pro settings sync between the two. It also runs in Chromium browsers (Edge, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Arc) and Firefox-based ones (Zen, LibreWolf, Waterfox).

Zoom to Fill lists Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Arc and other Chromium browsers on desktop. Its developer doesn't publish a Firefox version. A separate Firefox add-on, also called "Zoom to Fill", is published by a different author and was last updated in April 2022.

What Makes Each One Stand Out

Who Should Pick What?

Pick UltraWideo if you want every fill mode, scale, pan, shortcut and gesture for free, a cheaper Pro ($29.90/year vs $35.99), Firefox support or Chrome–Firefox sync, or controls that stay out of the video player.

Pick Zoom to Fill if you want a control panel inside the video (fullscreen included), per-site memory without paying, or picture processing like vibrance, HDR Boost and frame interpolation on unprotected video such as YouTube, and you only use Chromium browsers. Its 7-day trial is a good way to test the PRO features on the services you watch.