Compare Decentraleyes and PDF & Web Highlighter: 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.
With Web Highlights, you can easily highlight text on any website or PDF and create notes. It's free and easy to use without signing up. In our eyes the best online PDF and web highlighter extension.
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.
  • Website Highlighting: Easily highlight text on any website.
  • PDF Highlighting: Mark up both online and local PDFs directly in your browser.
  • Multiple Colors: Use various colors to organize your highlights.
  • Note-Taking: Add notes to your highlights for better context.
  • Bookmarking: Save pages as bookmarks for quick access.
  • Tagging: Organize your highlights and notes with tags.
  • Cross-Device Sync: Sync highlights across devices via cloud.
  • Export Options: Export your highlights to Notion, Obsidian, HTML, Markdown, or as PDFs and HTML files.
  • Reminders: "Snooze" your bookmarks and get reminded about them by email
  • Flashcard learning: Begin a daily review session of your highlights to help move your research into long-term memory using a spaced repetition system.
Our Rating
9.3
9.8
Total users
639,463
112,723
Total ratings
3,318
3,860
Average rating
4.8 ⭐
4.8 ⭐
Entry Level PriceFreeFree
Chrome
Chrome Web Store logo
4.8
4.53
236 ratings
100.0K+Users
Chrome Web Store logo
4.8
4.80
3.8K+ ratings
100.0K+Users
Edge
Microsoft Edge Store logo
4.8
4.71
32 ratings
55.8K+Users
Microsoft Edge Store logo
4.7
4.69
67 ratings
11.9K+Users
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Store logo
4.8
4.54
1.5K+ ratings
241.8K+Users
Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Store logo
5.0
5.00
24 ratings
795Users
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.

9.8

Web Highlights offers a range of features. In addition to its main function of highlighting text on websites and PDFs, it provides much more, making it the ideal tool for learning and self-improvement.

Top Features of Web Highlights

1. Highlighting websites & PDFs:

Highlight text using Web Highlights

Web Highlights excels at one thing better than any other tool we tested—highlighting websites and PDFs.

You don't even need an account. Just visit any site, highlight the text, and a marker icon will appear, letting you choose from different highlight colors.

Once highlighted, your highlights are visible on the website. And the best thing: Your highlights will also be visible on the website if you reload the page.

You not necessarily need the highlighter popup to mark up some text. In general, there are three ways to create a highlight:

  • clicking the highlighter popup
  • right-clicking the selected text
  • using a keyboard shortcut (Mac: ⌥ + S, Windows: ALT + S)

In our tests, we could easily highlight several websites, and those highlights were effortlessly restored when revisiting them. It works seamlessly with both online and local PDFs.

Highlighted website with Web Highlights

All of your highlights are not only visible on the page but also accessible through the sidebar, which gives you a good overview of your highlights made.

This is much like the highlighter sidebar which is common in PDF tools like Acrobat.

Here is how it looks:

Web Highlights Sidebar

The sidebar gives you an outline of your highlights on the current page.

2. Create Notes & Tags:

Taking notes made easy

You can either create tags & notes by using the sidebar or by clicking on a highlight on the page. This will open up a popup allowing you to add tags and notes to a specific highlight.

Any changes you make on the pages are also directly visible in the sidebar. Making it a perfect research tool to work with large articles.

Inside the sidebar you can then find all your highlights and bookmarks listed for the given tag.

3. Web App:

Web Highlights Dashboard

The best thing about Web Highlights is, that it can synchronize all your research to the corresponding web app at app.web-highlights.com.

The web app can be opened in your browser but works perfetly on your phone. If you have opened the website before, you can even access your research when you are offline.

The dashboard of the app shows all of your research in one place in a beautiful overview. You can also filter for specific tags or websites.

4. Save Bookmarks:

How to save bookmarks using Web Highlights

Web Highlights isn't just for highlighting text—it’s also great for saving pages as bookmarks. This way, you can either come back later to continue highlighting or easily find the page again.

5. Email reminders

Setting email reminders with Web Highlights

A standout feature of Web Highlights is its email reminder, which works a lot like "snoozing" emails.

You can set a reminder for a specific date and time by clicking the clock icon on a highlighted page. Web Highlights will then email you the article so you don’t forget to revisit it.

This feature is unique among competitors, and we use it daily to get reminders for websites we need to return to later.

6. Export to Notion, Markdown, and more

Export to Notion

Web Highlights gives you plenty of export options. With the Markdown export, you can easily send your research to any Second Brain or PKM tool you prefer.

On top of that, it directly integrates with Notion and Capacities through full API connections.

For instance, if you're on a highlighted page, just click the three dots in the sidebar and choose "Export to Notion." In seconds, a Notion page will be created. The same process works for Capacities.

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.

10

The extension performs seamlessly, allowing you to highlight websites and PDFs without any lag or interruptions.

The full-text search functionality is quick and accurate, enabling you to find your highlights effortlessly. Additionally, the ability to sync your highlights across devices ensures that you can access your research from anywhere, enhancing your productivity.

The best part is that the web app works entirely offline. So, you can access your research from any device, even without an internet connection.

Design
9.5

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

9.9

The design is clean and intuitive, making it easy to get started right away. We loved the customizable highlight colors and the overall look and feel of the sidebar.

What users love most is the intuitive sidebar and the well-organized web app. It’s super easy to navigate and quickly find what you need.

The web app also looks great on mobile devices, making it simple to access the articles you've read on your phone.

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.

9.5

Web Highlights can be used for free without signing up, providing access to a wide range of offline features.

To fully enjoy the benefits of Web Highlights, including accessing your highlights and bookmarks from anywhere with automatic cloud-sync, you can upgrade to the PREMIUM or ULTIMATE version of the extension.

The pricing plans are affordable, making it a cost-effective solution for students, researchers, and avid online readers. No other tool gives you this much value for so little cost.

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
9.5

We can’t think of a simpler Chrome Extension to start with than this one. The best part? It works seamlessly right out of the box, no account needed.

Installing it is a breeze, and you can easily add the extension to both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Once installed, a highlighter pop-up appears whenever you highlight text on any website. The process is intuitive and easy to grasp.

If you need help, Web Highlights offers plenty of blog posts that guide you through its features.

With so many powerful features, Web Highlights might seem a bit overwhelming at first, but everything falls into place quickly. The tagging system, in particular, is easy to use and much simpler than traditional folders.

That’s why we rate it 9.5 out of 10. It’s extremely user-friendly, though some features might take a little time to fully appreciate.

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.

9.9

In the Security & Privacy category, we give Web Highlights a solid 10/10. The fact that you can use this tool offline without needing an account sets it apart from its competitors.

Even if you opt for cloud sync by creating an account, Web Highlights puts data privacy first. Your highlights, notes, and tags are visible only to you by default unless you decide to share them.

Your data isn’t sold to third parties, nor is it used or transferred for anything beyond the extension's core functionality. This dedication to data privacy ensures your information stays secure and confidential.

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.

We have been using Web Highlights - PDF & Web Highlighter for years and can confidently say it’s a top-notch tool for anyone who spends a lot of time reading online.

Its user-friendly design and powerful features make it a must-have for students, researchers, and professionals alike. The free version is fantastic, but if you need more advanced features, the premium options are well worth the price.

If you’re serious about staying organized while reading online, we highly recommend giving Web Highlights a try.

Our Recommendation

In our comparison between Decentraleyes and PDF & Web Highlighter, PDF & Web Highlighter came out on top, scoring 9.8.

Decentraleyes is the most widely used, with over 639k users and 3k+ reviews, but PDF & Web Highlighter outperformed it in our review. User reviews reflect our findings.

Notably, PDF & Web Highlighter has the highest user rating in the Chrome Web Store at 4.83, which supports its strong performance in our review.

In the end, the differences between these extensions are minimal, so your choice may come down to personal preference or specific features.



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