Compare Diigo and Weava: Which Extension is the Best?

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.
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
  • 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.
  • Web & PDF Highlighting: Easily highlight text on web pages and PDFs using various colors.
  • Annotations: Add detailed notes to your highlights for better reference and organization.
  • Cloud Syncing: Seamlessly access your highlights and notes across multiple devices.
  • Organize with Folders: Structure your highlights with folders and sub-folders for easy retrieval.
  • Citation Creation: Automatically generate citations for your highlighted text, simplifying your research process.
Our Rating
7.8
7.0
Total users
100,000
200,000
Total ratings
2,319
2,728
Average rating
4.6 ⭐
4.1 ⭐
Entry Level PriceFreeFree
Chrome
Chrome Web Store logo
4.6
3.56
2.3K+ ratings
100.0K+Users
Chrome Web Store logo
4.1
3.01
2.7K+ ratings
200.0K+Users
Edge
-
-
Firefox
-
-
Safari
-
-
Features
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
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 Highlighter

1. Highlight Websites and PDFs

Highlighting text with Weava

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

Organize in 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

Share folders with your co-workers

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.

Performance
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.

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
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.

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:

Ads are covering half of the 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
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.

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
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.

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
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.

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

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.

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 Diigo and Weava, Diigo came out on top, scoring 7.8.

Weava is the most widely used, with over 200k users and 3k+ reviews, but Diigo outperformed it in our review. We rate Diigo and Weava lower than users do.

Notably, Diigo has the highest user rating in the Chrome Web Store at 4.60, which is even higher than our rating of 7.8.

There are some noticeable differences between these extensions, so it's worth considering your priorities and the details below.


  • Can't decide on features? It's a close call: Diigo and Weava. In the Features category, Diigo 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? Diigo stands out with a rating of 8. On the other hand, Weava lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.
  • Design lovers, take note: Diigo stands out with a rating of 7. On the other hand, Weava lags behind in this area with a rating of 6.
  • Want to get the most for your money? Diigo stands out with a rating of 8. On the other hand, Weava lags behind in this area with a rating of 6.8.
  • If you hate complicated tools, Diigo stands out with a rating of 7.8. On the other hand, Weava lags behind in this area with a rating of 6.5.
  • With privacy and security becoming ever more important, Diigo stands out with a rating of 7.5. On the other hand, Weava lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.

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