Compare Weava and Diigo: Which Extension is the Best?
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. | 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. | 7.0 | 7.8 Winner in this category |
| Total users Total active users across all major browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari. | 300,000 Winner in this category | 100,000 |
| Total ratings Total number of user ratings received across all supported browsers. | 2,727 Winner in this category | 2,321 |
| Average rating Average user rating across all browsers, calculated from available store ratings. | 4.1 ⭐ | 4.6 ⭐ Winner in this category |
| 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. |  4.1 3.01 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 300.0K+Users | 4.6 3.56 Average Chrome Web Store rating from the last 100 reviews 100.0K+Users Winner in this category |
| Edge User rating and stats for the extension on Edge browser. | - | - |
| Firefox User rating and stats for the extension on Firefox browser. | - | - |
| 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 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 | 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. | 7.0 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. | 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. | 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. | 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. Winner in this category |
| Value for Money Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Value for Money' aspect of each extension. | 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. | 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. | 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. | 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. Winner in this category |
| Security & Privacy Tooltivity's expert score for the 'Security & Privacy' aspect of each extension. | 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. | 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. Winner in this category |
| Conclusion A summary of our findings and final thoughts for each extension. | 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. | 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 Weava and Diigo, Diigo came out on top, scoring 7.8. Weava is the most widely used, with over 300k users and 3k+ reviews, but Diigo outperformed it in our review. We rate Weava and Diigo 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.
If you want a quick recommendation, Diigo is our top pick. But as always, the best choice depends on what matters most to you. | |
