Diigo - Web Collector
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.
We've tested Diigo and think it's a solid highlighter tool. However, the design looks a bit outdated, and we think there are better alternatives.
With over 300,000 users and a 4.6-star rating in the Chrome Web Store, Diigo has a solid standing. However, we have found some critical aspects that should be considered.
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.
Pros
- Highlights are recreated on refresh.
- Notes can be added to highlights.
- Highlights are synced across devices.
Cons
- Outdated design.
- Limited to 4 highlight colors.
- Link creation feature is unreliable.
- Sidebar is limited
Pricing
Diigo offers a free version with basic features and several premium plans that unlock advanced functionalities.
The premium plans include:
- Standard: $40/year
- No Ads
- Unlimited Cloud Bookmarks
- Unlimited Webpage and PDF Highlights
- Unlimited Image Storage
- Unlimited Cached Pages (Webpage Backup)
- Import Kindle highlights & notes
- Unlimited PDF Storage
- Unlimited Outliners
- Professional: $59/year
- All Standard features
- Advanced team features for your company
- Unlimited team library storage for Webpage, PDF, and Images
- Collaborative Web annotation in Team
- Collaborative PDF annotation in Team
- Admin console dashboard
- Business: $10/month/user
- All Professional features
- Try for free
Review
Diigo - Web Collector earned a score of 7.8 out of 10 in our tests. This rating indicates a solid tool with strong performance, though there are some areas that could benefit from improvement.
In our review of Diigo, we considered the categories Features, Design, Ease of Use, Security & Privacy, Value for Money and Performance. Each category was given equal importance and we'll dive into the details of each in the following section.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Deals 🔥
Good
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.
- Features
- 8.5
In the Design category, Diigo has scored an average 7. The design is serviceable, though it may not be particularly attractive or innovative.
- Design
- 7
In the Ease of Use category, Diigo has scored a decent 7.8. It is generally easy to use, but some aspects might be less intuitive.
- Ease of Use
- 7.8
In the Security & Privacy category, Diigo has scored a decent 7.5. It provides basic security and privacy features, though there may be gaps to address.
- Security & Privacy
- 7.5
In the Value for Money category, Diigo has scored a fair 8. It provides decent value for money, though there may be better options in its price range.
- Value for Money
- 8
In the Performance category, Diigo has scored a good 8. It performs reliably, though it may not excel in all scenarios.
- Performance
- 8
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