Compare Decentraleyes and Diigo: Which Extension is the Best?

Decentraleyes enhances browsing by locally emulating CDN resources, boosting privacy and speed. Our detailed review reveals its features, pros, and cons.
Diigo is a handy tool for bookmarking, highlighting, and annotating web pages. It has many features, but its old design and limited highlight colors might make it less appealing.
Key Features
  • Local CDN Emulation: Reduces reliance on third-party servers by serving local copies of CDN resources.
  • Privacy Protection: Prevents tracking by major CDN providers.
  • Speed Enhancement: Improves page load times by using local resources.
  • Open Source: Transparent and community-driven development.
  • Highlighting: Works well and highlights are recreated on refresh.
  • Notes: You can add notes to your highlights.
  • Link Creation: Create links to your highlights, although this feature is not very reliable.
  • Sidebar Outliner: Simple design but requires time to understand.
  • Syncing: Highlights are synced across devices.
Our Rating
9.3
7.8
Total users
639,463
200,000
Total ratings
3,318
2,319
Average rating
4.8 ⭐
4.6 ⭐
Entry Level PriceFreeFree
Chrome
Chrome Web Store logo
4.8
4.53
236 ratings
100.0K+Users
Chrome Web Store logo
4.6
3.56
2.3K+ ratings
200.0K+Users
Edge
Microsoft Edge Store logo
4.8
4.71
32 ratings
55.8K+Users
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Firefox
Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Store logo
4.8
4.54
1.5K+ ratings
241.8K+Users
-
Safari
-
-
Features
8.5

Nowadays, websites request data through third parties. The local CDN emulation offered by Decentraleyes is a unique and effective feature that blocker competitors currently lack. This means that the same locally stored data is always sent directly to the websites before they can even request relevant private data.

CDN


The extension is aware that this function is only an additional function and advertises it as being used in addition to regular ad blockers. The extension could be expanded here and offer these additional functions directly so that you have them all in one extension.

Another advantage of the extension is that the code is completely open source and can be found on GitLab. This ensures transparency and trust.

8.5

Diigo offers basic features for a highlighter and bookmarking tool.

It works well and we were able to highlight most websites and they were recreated when revisiting them.

The highlighter popup makes it easy to highlight text offering 4 colors. It looks like this:

Highlighter Popup with four colors

We would have wished to have more color options.

Also, note-taking and the tagging functionality are working, but its design does not look appealing.

Notes Editor: Adding notes to your highlight

The dashboard where your highlights are stored works well and gives you an overview of all your highlights.

Diigo Dashboard
Performance
9.3

The extension offers a noticeable improvement in page load times. We did not find any problems in our tests, but according to user reviews, there are occasional compatibility problems with certain websites. However, according to Decentraleyes, these are constantly being fixed by updates.

8.0

Diigo performs well in terms of highlighting and syncing across devices. The fact that highlights are always synchronized can cause some loading delays.

It's not as fast as other highlighters that use an offline-first approach, but it works reasonably well.

However, the unreliable link creation feature and the simple sidebar outliner design need improvement.

Design
9.5

The design is intuitive and simple. This also includes the settings menu.

7.0

The design fulfills its functionality. The design of Diigo is outdated and could use a modern refresh.

The lack of a nice overview of all your highlights on the page itself means you have to open the dashboard on diigo.com instead.

The dashboard on diigo.com is okay, but other highlighters like Web Highlights have a much nicer user interface.

Value for Money
9.5

The extension is completely free to use with optional donations. The price-performance ratio is therefore perfect, as functions that are not offered by other providers are made available here free of charge. Only the lack of further functions in the area of ad blocking results in deductions.

8.0

The free version of Diigo offers basic features and is fine for most users. The paid plans are reasonably priced and similar to other highlighters.

However, we think other highlighters offer more value for the same price.

Ease of Use
9.9

The extension is characterized by its user-friendliness. Installation is very simple and you have the option of testing the function immediately on the website. When you open the website https://decentraleyes.org/test/, you are shown whether the function works and an example of what it looks like in the icon when data is blocked.

icon

The settings are also very well described so that even beginners should have no problems here. Advanced users can also read the complete documentation or the code on GitLab.

settings
7.8

Diigo is fairly easy to use, but the sidebar outliner takes some time to get used to.

You can't see all your highlights on the page itself, so you have to go to the dashboard on diigo.com.

We wish there was a sidebar to quickly access all our highlighted pages, like in the Web Highlights extension.

Security & Privacy
9.2

The extension offers strong features in the area of data protection, so it goes without saying that it scores well in this area. The open-source code allows anyone to review the extension in detail. Only the lack of a proper privacy policy detracts from this for beginners, who can do little with the code. There is a privacy policy that states in one sentence that no data is collected. However, this should be a little more detailed.

7.5

Diigo takes reasonable steps to protect user data. However, since you need an account and your data is stored in their database, absolute protection can't be guaranteed.

We think a highlighter should work without needing to sign up, but this feature is missing in Diigo.

Conclusion

Decentraleyes is a valuable tool for anyone who wants more privacy and faster browsing. With local CDN emulation, Decentraleyes has features that bring both security and performance benefits. While it currently excels in this one area, you need to be aware that websites also make adjustments and it won't always work 100% of the time, especially without further updates.
Overall, Decentraleyes is a recommended choice for privacy-conscious users as an addition to the usual ad blockers.

Diigo is a handy tool for collecting stuff from the web, like bookmarks, highlights, and notes.


It’s a good deal with its premium plans, but the old-fashioned design and limited highlight colors might be a turn-off.


If you want something that looks nicer and offers more customization, check out alternatives like Web Highlights.

Our Recommendation

In our comparison between Decentraleyes and Diigo, Decentraleyes came out on top, scoring 9.3.

Decentraleyes is the most widely used, with over 639k users and 3k+ reviews—and it also delivered the strongest performance in our tests. User reviews for Decentraleyes reflect our findings, while we rate Diigo lower than users do.

Notably, Decentraleyes has the highest user rating in the Chrome Web Store at 4.78, which supports its strong performance in our review.

There are big differences between these extensions, so it's important to look at the details below to find the best fit for your needs.


  • Can't decide on features? It's a close call: Decentraleyes and Diigo. In the Features category, Decentraleyes has scored a very good 8.5. It offers a solid array of features, though there may be room for a few additional capabilities.
  • Need top performance? Decentraleyes stands out with a rating of 9.3. On the other hand, Diigo lags behind in this area with a rating of 8.
  • Design lovers, take note: Decentraleyes stands out with a rating of 9.5. On the other hand, Diigo lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.
  • Want to get the most for your money? Decentraleyes stands out with a rating of 9.5. On the other hand, Diigo lags behind in this area with a rating of 8.
  • If you hate complicated tools, Decentraleyes stands out with a rating of 9.9. On the other hand, Diigo lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.8.
  • With privacy and security becoming ever more important, Decentraleyes stands out with a rating of 9.2. On the other hand, Diigo lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.5.

If you want a quick recommendation, Decentraleyes is our top pick. But as always, the best choice depends on what matters most to you.