Compare Decentraleyes and Weava: 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. | Weava Highlighter was once a popular choice, but now it’s filled with ads and has a poor user experience. Better options like Web Highlights do the job better without the hassle. | |
| Key Features A summary of the most important features offered by each extension. |
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| Our Rating Tooltivity's expert review score for each extension, based on hands-on testing and research. | 9.3 Winner in this category | 7.0 |
| Total users Total active users across all major browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. | 639,463 Winner in this category | 200,000 |
| Total ratings Total number of user ratings received across all supported browsers. | 3,318 Winner in this category | 2,728 |
| Average rating Average user rating across all browsers, calculated from available store ratings. | 4.8 ⭐ Winner in this category | 4.1 ⭐ |
| Entry Level Price The minimum price required to start using the extension. "Free" means a free tier is available. | Free | Free |
| Chrome User rating and stats for the extension on Chrome browser. |  4.8 4.53 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 100.0K+Users Winner in this category | 4.1 3.01 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 200.0K+Users |
| Edge User rating and stats for the extension on Edge browser. |  4.8 4.71 Average Microsoft Edge Store rating from the last 100 reviews 55.8K+Users Winner in this category | - |
| Firefox User rating and stats for the extension on Firefox browser. |  4.8 4.54 Average Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Store rating from the last 100 reviews 241.8K+Users Winner in this category | - |
| Safari User rating and stats for the extension on Safari browser. | - | - |
| Features Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Features' aspect of each extension. | 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. 
Another advantage of the extension is that the code is completely open source and can be found on GitLab. This ensures transparency and trust. Winner in this category | 8.5 Weava offers basic but functional features like web and PDF highlighting, annotations, and folder organization. The basic functionalities work great but the lack of innovative or advanced functionalities, especially compared to competitors, limits its appeal. Top 3 Features of Weava Highlighter1. Highlight Websites and PDFs  Similar to our favorite highlighter Web Highlights, you can highlight text on any website or PDF. Choose different colors to customize your highlights and make important information stand out. 2. Organize Research into Folders  Weava lets you save your highlights and organize them into folders, making it simple to keep your research organized and find what you need fast. 3. Collaborate with Your Team  Weava allows you to share folders with your team, making collaboration on research projects easy. Everyone can add and view highlights and notes all in one place. Winner in this category |
| Performance Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Performance' aspect of each extension. | 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. Winner in this category | 7.0 Weava performs adequately when it comes to basic highlighting and syncing. However, the overall performance is marred by the intrusive ads and occasional bugs that make the experience less smooth than it should be. |
| Design Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Design' aspect of each extension. | 9.5 The design is intuitive and simple. This also includes the settings menu. Winner in this category | 6.0 The design is where Weava really struggles. The interface is cluttered with ads, making it not only visually unappealing but also frustrating to use. Here's a screenshot showing one of their ads taking up nearly half the height of their sidebar:  The overall design feels outdated and lacks the intuitive flow found in other tools. This poor design significantly hampers the user experience. |
| Value for Money Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Value for Money' aspect of each extension. | 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. Winner in this category | 6.8 The free version of Weava offers basic features, and their premium plan at $3.99/month is priced similarly to competitors. However, given the ads in the free version and the overall user experience, you can find better value in alternatives that provide more features and a cleaner interface for the same or even lower cost. |
| Ease of Use Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Ease of Use' aspect of each extension. | 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.  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.  Winner in this category | 6.5 Weava’s basic highlighting functionality is straightforward, but the poor design and mandatory account creation add unnecessary friction. The ads make navigation cumbersome, and while it’s not difficult to learn, using the tool effectively can be a challenge due to these barriers. |
| Security & Privacy Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Security & Privacy' aspect of each extension. | 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. Winner in this category | 7.0 Weava does take steps to protect user data, and their privacy policy is clear about not selling personal information. However, the requirement to create an account and the potential for data collection through ads could be a concern for privacy-conscious users. |
| Conclusion A summary of our findings and final thoughts for each extension. | 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. | Weava Highlighter may still be a popular choice, but its current state leaves much to be desired. The overwhelming presence of ads and a clunky design significantly detract from the user experience, making it hard to justify its use when other tools offer a more polished and ad-free environment. If you’re serious about your productivity, it’s worth exploring alternatives like Web Highlights, which delivers all the benefits of Weava without the downsides. |
| Our Recommendation | In our comparison between Decentraleyes and Weava, 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 Weava 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.
If you want a quick recommendation, Decentraleyes is our top pick. But as always, the best choice depends on what matters most to you. | |
