Diigo

Diigo is a personal knowledge management tool for saving, annotating, and organizing web material. Users can highlight pages and add sticky notes while browsing on computers, tablets, or mobile devices, then keep links, pages, notes, and pictures in a cloud library. Saved webpages can be archived and searched in full text. Groups can build shared repositories where members browse, search, and interact with page annotations. Diigo also supports saving links and notes by email, collecting bookmarked social-media items, and importing bookmarks from a browser, Delicious, or Pinboard. Users can export their library and annotated PDF files. Listed web services include an API, blog auto-publishing, tagrolls, and linkrolls. Diigo offers a browser extension, apps for Android and iOS, and Quick Note on Mac. The Free plan includes 1,000 bookmarks or notes and 200 highlights, with limits on other items and groups. Teacher is also free and has different limits. Paid plans include Standard at $5/mo and Professional at $6/mo. Diigo says it does not record browsing history beyond pages users specifically bookmark to its servers.

Diigo combines web clipping, annotation, archiving, and shared libraries. Its free and paid plans have different storage and collaboration limits, so check the plan details against how much you expect to save.

Diigo may suit researchers, students, teachers, consultants, and others who collect and annotate online material. Its group repositories can also serve teams that want to share saved knowledge.

Overview

Diigo is a personal knowledge tool for collecting web pages and keeping annotations alongside them. It is best suited to researchers, students, teachers and teams that need to search or share a growing source library. Its strongest case is the combination of searchable page archives and on-page notes; the plan limits make the right tier depend on how much you save and whether you annotate PDFs.

Key features

Diigo’s cloud library holds links, pages, notes and pictures, with full-text search across saved material. Its web archiving keeps saved pages searchable, which gives research collections more staying power than a list of links alone. Browser highlighters and sticky notes preserve context while reading on a computer, tablet or phone. Groups can share repositories and search, browse and interact with one another’s page annotations, making Diigo a practical fit for collaborative research when the group limits match the team.

There are several ways to capture and move material. Social-media bookmarking can save favorite items automatically, and Save by Email accepts links and notes sent by email. Diigo imports browser bookmarks and collections from Delicious or Pinboard, and exports the library and annotated PDF files. Its API, blog auto-publishing, tagrolls and linkrolls also give users options for connecting a collection to publishing workflows. These tools add flexibility, though they will matter more to users who already rely on those workflows than to someone seeking a basic bookmark list.

Diigo offers a browser extension, Diigo Browser for iOS, Diigo for Android and Quick Note on Mac. It says it does not record browsing history except for pages users choose to bookmark to its servers, which are in the United States. Accounts use member-created passwords, database protections and restricted employee access, but Diigo does not guarantee account security. It says the service meets most WCAG 2.0 standards.

Pricing

The Free plan costs $0 and allows 1,000 bookmarks and notes, 200 highlights, 50 screenshots or images and five outliners. It excludes PDF annotation and limits social-media bookmarking. Its one private group has room for three members. This is a sensible starting point for individual users with modest collections, but the saved-item and highlight caps make it a poor long-term fit for heavy research.

The Teacher plan is also free. It raises capacity to unlimited bookmarks and notes, 5,000 highlights, 50 PDF annotations, 1,000 screenshots or images and 20 outliners. It includes one public group with unlimited members and 20 private groups of up to 50 members each. Those generous sharing limits make it the clearest fit for classroom use; the 50-annotation allowance still constrains PDF-heavy work.

Standard costs $5 per month or $40 per year. It includes unlimited bookmarks and notes, highlights, cached pages and screenshots or images, plus 100 PDF annotations and 40 outliners. Group access is one public group with unlimited members and three private groups of 10 members each. It suits individuals who have outgrown Free and need searchable cached pages, but the PDF and private-group limits remain relevant for specialized or larger team workflows.

Professional costs $6 per month or $59 per year. It removes the listed caps on bookmarks and notes, highlights, PDF annotations, cached pages, screenshots and images, and outliners; it also includes unlimited groups and social-media bookmarking. For frequent collectors or teams that need room to scale, the modest step up from Standard buys meaningful headroom. Choose it when those limits matter; otherwise, Standard costs less.

Platforms

Diigo supports Android, iOS, macOS, the web and browser extensions. That spread accommodates people who save and annotate across mobile and desktop browsing, while Quick Note on Mac adds a dedicated capture option there.

Who it's for

Diigo makes the most sense for people who need more than a bookmark manager: researchers, students, teachers, consultants and other users who collect sources, annotate them and need to retrieve them later. Its shared libraries also suit groups such as marketing agencies, law firms, recruiters and web designers when shared source collections are part of the work. Someone who only wants to save occasional links may find the annotation and archiving toolkit unnecessary.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Searchable webpage archives, full-text search, highlights and sticky notes keep sources and reading context together.
• Pros: Import and export support, email capture and social-media saving offer several ways to build and maintain a library.
• Pros: The free Teacher plan provides extensive group capacity for classroom sharing.
• Cons: Free limits collections to 1,000 bookmarks and notes and 200 highlights, and provides no PDF annotation.
• Cons: Standard still caps PDF annotations at 100 and private groups at three, with 10 members each.
• Cons: Diigo says it cannot guarantee account security, despite describing protections and restricted staff access.

Alternatives

Bookmark Managers is a useful starting point for comparing the category. Choose Delinqs if its free plan’s unlimited bookmarks and all features for up to three users suit a small group better. floccus is worth considering for a free, open-source option with self-hosting. Karakeep offers a free plan with mobile and web apps and browser extensions, though its stated allowance is 10 bookmarks and 20 MB of storage. LinkAce is an option for readers seeking a self-hosted bookmark archive. Raindrop.io suits readers who want unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights and devices on a free plan, with 100 MB of file uploads per month. Start.me, Symbaloo and Atavi are other options to compare.

Verdict

Choose Diigo if your work depends on finding sources again with their annotations intact, or sharing them in searchable group libraries. Its free Teacher tier is especially compelling for classroom groups, while Professional removes the listed capacity and group limits for heavier use. Look elsewhere if you only need straightforward bookmarking, or if the Free plan’s caps would interrupt your collection before you are ready to pay.