Compare Humble New Tab and Diigo: Which Extension is the Best?

Humble offers a simple and customizable interface for your browser's new tab. It’s open-source, lightweight, and focuses on functionality, making it ideal for users seeking efficiency over aesthetics.
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
  • Customizable Layout: Drag-and-drop functionality for easy organization.
  • Lightweight Performance: Minimal impact on system resources.
  • Open-Source: Available for tweaks and modifications.
  • Simple Design: Focuses on usability over aesthetics.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility: Available for Chrome and Firefox.
  • 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
8.5
7.8
Total users
20,993
200,000
Total ratings
1,220
2,319
Average rating
4.8 ⭐
4.6 ⭐
Entry Level PriceFreeFree
Chrome
Chrome Web Store logo
4.7
4.86
1.1K+ ratings
20.0K+Users
Chrome Web Store logo
4.6
3.56
2.3K+ ratings
200.0K+Users
Edge
-
-
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Store logo
4.8
4.80
130 ratings
993Users
-
Safari
-
-
Features
7.0

Humble New Tab Page shines in its simplicity and customization options. You can easily rearrange bookmarks, apps, and other elements using its intuitive drag-and-drop feature.

It’s not overloaded with unnecessary bells and whistles, which keeps it fast and efficient. However, compared to other tools, it lacks more advanced features like integrated to-do lists or news feeds.

If you’re looking for a straightforward way to manage your new tab content, it’s hard to beat. But for power users, the simplicity might feel like a limitation.

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
10

Performance is where Humble New Tab Page really excels. It’s incredibly lightweight, ensuring that your browser’s speed isn’t compromised.

The extension loads quickly and doesn’t introduce any noticeable lag, even with multiple elements on the page. This efficiency makes it a great choice for users with older or less powerful computers.

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
7.0

The design of Humble New Tab Page is, well, humble. It’s clear that the focus is on function over form. While it’s not going to win any awards for aesthetics, the design is clean, uncluttered, and gets the job done. For users who value a visually rich experience, this might be a drawback.

The minimalist design is fully customizable, allowing you to change the font style, background colors, and overall layout. You can even set your own background image.

Here's a screenshot showing how easy it is to adjust the tool's appearance:

Customize the appearance of Humble New Page

So, if you prefer a simple, distraction-free workspace, this tool might be the way to go.

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

It’s hard to argue with the value provided by a free, open-source tool that does exactly what it promises. Humble New Tab Page delivers solid performance without any hidden costs or premium upgrades.

It’s a fantastic option for users who want a customizable new tab experience without spending a dime. The only reason it doesn’t get a perfect score is that there are other free options with more features, albeit at the cost of simplicity and speed.

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
7.5

Setting up and using Humble New Tab Page is simple. There's no need to sign up, and it provides a lightweight bookmark manager right in your new tab.

The options menu is easy to navigate, making it intuitive to customize things like fonts, colors, and spacing.

That said, it might take a bit of time to discover that you can drag and drop everything around, and not everyone may realize that you can adjust columns by right-clicking.

Once you figure this out, the drag-and-drop interface makes customization easy, even for those who aren’t tech-savvy.

However, advanced features like injecting custom CSS may be more suited for developers. Overall, though, the experience is very user-friendly.

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
10

Humble New Tab Page respects your privacy by not collecting or storing any user data, which is a significant plus in today’s digital age.

As it is open-source you can always double-check.

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

Humble New Tab Page is a fantastic choice for users who value simplicity, speed, and customization.

While it may not offer the rich visuals or advanced features of other new tab extensions, its focus on functionality and user control makes it a standout tool. If you’re looking for a no-frills extension that just works, and you appreciate the transparency of open-source software, Humble New Tab Page is definitely worth considering.

It’s not the flashiest option, but it gets the job done.

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 Humble New Tab and Diigo, Humble New Tab came out on top, scoring 8.5.

Diigo is the most widely used, with over 200k users and 2k+ reviews, but Humble New Tab outperformed it in our review. We rate Humble New Tab and Diigo lower than users do.

Notably, Humble New Tab has the highest user rating in the Chrome Web Store at 4.76, which is even higher than our rating of 8.5.

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


  • Looking for the richest feature set? Diigo stands out with a rating of 8.5. On the other hand, Humble New Tab lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.
  • Need top performance? Humble New Tab stands out with a rating of 10. On the other hand, Diigo lags behind in this area with a rating of 8.
  • Both look and feel great: Humble New Tab and Diigo. In the Design category, Humble New Tab has scored an average 7. The design is serviceable, though it may not be particularly attractive or innovative.
  • Want to get the most for your money? Humble New Tab 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, Diigo stands out with a rating of 7.8. On the other hand, Humble New Tab lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.5.
  • With privacy and security becoming ever more important, Humble New Tab stands out with a rating of 10. On the other hand, Diigo lags behind in this area with a rating of 7.5.

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