Tab Notes lets you jot down notes right in your browser tabs. It's got an easy-to-use interface and works smoothly, making it a great tool for anyone looking to boost their productivity. | 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 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. | 7.9 Winner in this category | 7.8 |
Total users Total active users across all major browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. | 1,459 | 200,000 Winner in this category |
Total ratings Total number of user ratings received across all supported browsers. | 40 | 2,319 Winner in this category |
Average rating Average user rating across all browsers, calculated from available store ratings. | 4.8 ⭐ Winner in this category | 4.6 ⭐ |
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. | ![]() 5.0 5.0 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 1.0K+Users Winner in this category | ![]() 4.6 3.56 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 200.0K+Users |
Edge User rating and stats for the extension on Edge browser. | - | - |
Firefox User rating and stats for the extension on Firefox browser. | ![]() 4.6 4.64 Average Mozilla Firefox Add-ons Store rating from the last 100 reviews 459Users 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. | 7.0 In our tests, the functions of Tab Notes proved to be ideal for quickly creating notes directly in the browser. If you need to develop ideas or jot down information quickly while browsing, you don't have to jump back and forth between apps. ![]() Notes can be synchronized across different devices with GitHub gists to keep everything in one place. There is a dark and light mode function, but we would like to see more customization options here. The option to access your notes offline can also be an advantage. This also includes the export function, where the notes are exported as a text file. ![]() Functions such as “Customize: Edit font, font size and more” and “Styled text: Make your text bold, italicized or underlined.” are listed as features on Github. These were not found in our tests in the extension on Chrome and Firefox. We feel that this function is important to be able to structure the notes a little, which would further improve the extension. | 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: ![]() 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. ![]() The dashboard where your highlights are stored works well and gives you an overview of all your highlights. ![]() Winner in this category |
Performance Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Performance' aspect of each extension. | 7.5 In terms of performance, Tab Notes is fast and responsive. It doesn't take up any resources, so your browser runs smoothly. Only the settings selection page didn't work for us. Selected options could not be saved here. | 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. Winner in this category |
Design Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Design' aspect of each extension. | 8.0 The user interface is very clear and easy to use. We had no problems finding my way around and using the tool. In our test, we noticed that we would like to see a few more themes and color options. The layout is intentionally simple to minimize distractions, but it would be important to have different layout options for the font. Winner in this category | 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 Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Value for Money' aspect of each extension. | 8.0 The price-performance ratio of Tab Notes is fine. The extension is completely free. Compared to other free tools, however, the functions and customization options are somewhat limited. However, if you are looking for a simple extension for short notes without any frills, you will find it here. Winner in this category | 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. Winner in this category |
Ease of Use Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Ease of Use' aspect of each extension. | 8.2 We found Tab Notes to be super easy to use. Installation and subsequent navigation is a breeze, and you can get started straight away without needing a manual. Due to the small number of functions, it is suitable for anyone, no matter how tech-savvy they are, to take simple notes. Only the non-functioning of the settings page can confuse new users. Winner in this category | 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 Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Security & Privacy' aspect of each extension. | 8.5 Tab Notes uses standard encryption to protect your data. Advanced security options are not available. The privacy policy is also kept very simple and does not provide detailed information about data management. In general, the basic security and data protection guidelines are adhered to, but in our opinion they could be presented in more detail. Winner in this category | 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 A summary of our findings and final thoughts for each extension. | Tab Notes is a good tool for anyone who wants to write down ideas as a note as quickly as possible without having to sort them out too much. Its intuitive and simple design increases productivity by reducing distractions when you just want to make a quick note. It could still be improved in areas such as customization and the number of features. Overall, it's worth considering for anyone who wants to quickly collect notes and possibly sort them into another application later. | Diigo is a handy tool for collecting stuff from the web, like bookmarks, highlights, and notes.
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Our Recommendation | In our comparison between Tab Notes and Diigo, Tab Notes came out on top, scoring 7.9. Diigo is the most widely used, with over 200k users and 2k+ reviews, but Tab Notes outperformed it in our review. We rate Tab Notes and Diigo lower than users do. Notably, Tab Notes has the highest user rating in the Chrome Web Store at 4.80, which is even higher than our rating of 7.9. 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, Tab Notes is our top pick. But as always, the best choice depends on what matters most to you. |