What People Love About Raindrop.io
Before we get into where Start Page HQ goes further, credit where it's due.
- A genuinely beautiful bookmark manager with one of the cleanest UIs in the category.
- A free tier with unlimited bookmarks, collections, and devices — generous compared to most paid bookmark tools.
- Native apps for Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone, and Android, plus extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
- Powerful organization with nested collections, tags, full-text search, and bulk editing.
- Pro features like permanent backups, file uploads, and integrations for users who want more.
Where Start Page HQ Goes Further
Specific differences, not vague claims.
Bookmarks On Every New Tab, Not in a Separate App
Raindrop.io is a destination — open the app, find a bookmark, close it. Start Page HQ's Links and Collection widgets sit right on every new tab. Your most-used sites are always one click away.
Bookmarks Plus 49+ Other Widgets
Raindrop.io is one tool, optimized for saving links. Start Page HQ is a dashboard with 50+ widgets — Links, Collections, RSS, weather, calendar, tasks, AI tools, dev utilities. All on one page.
Quick-Access Links, Not Just a Library
The Links widget organizes your most-visited sites into clean, customizable groups for one-click access — exactly the pattern your most-used Raindrop bookmarks should be in.
Visual Collections With Images and URLs
The Collection widget saves URLs and images side-by-side. Use it as a moodboard, a wish list, a read-later list, or a research backlog — beyond a flat bookmark list.
Multi-Page Dashboards by Context
Build a Tools page with the Links widget grouping your most-used sites. A separate Reading page with Collections and RSS. A Work page with tasks and calendars. Switch with one click.
Hosted Web App and Browser Extensions
Use startpagehq.com on any browser, or install extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Sync is included on every paid plan.
Side-by-Side Comparison
An honest line-by-line look at how the two stack up.
| Feature | Raindrop.io | Start Page HQ |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free or paid Pro tier | $25/yr or $49 lifetime |
| Free tier | Yes (unlimited bookmarks) | Free demo only |
| Lives on every new tab | No | Yes |
| Chrome | Yes | Yes |
| Firefox | Yes | Yes |
| Safari | Yes | Yes |
| Edge | Yes | Yes |
| Hosted web app | Yes | Yes |
| iOS / Android apps | Yes | No |
| macOS / Windows apps | Yes | No |
| Save URLs | Yes | Yes |
| Save images | Yes | Yes |
| Visual collections | Yes | Yes |
| Quick-access link groups | Via collections | Dedicated widget |
| Nested collections | Yes | No |
| Tags and full-text search | Yes | No |
| Permanent backup of saved pages | Pro only | No |
| File uploads (PDF, images) | Pro only | No |
| Multi-page dashboards | No | Yes |
| Other widgets (RSS, weather, tasks, etc.) | No | 50+ |
Widgets That Replace Raindrop.io
Drop these onto your dashboard and you've covered Raindrop.io's core features — plus a lot more.
Frequently Asked Questions
For your most-used and most-visited sites, yes — the Links and Collection widgets put them on every new tab. For deep bookmark archival with nested collections, tags, full-text search, and permanent backups, Raindrop.io is still the more specialized tool. Many users keep both: Raindrop for the long-tail archive, Start Page HQ for the daily-driver links.
There is no automated Raindrop importer today. The Links widget is designed for fast bulk paste — most users recreate their top 50-100 most-used links in a few minutes by exporting from Raindrop and pasting in.
Not in the same way Raindrop does. Start Page HQ uses pages and link groups instead of nested collections, and there are no per-bookmark tags. If your workflow depends on a deep tag taxonomy, Raindrop is still the right tool.
Yes. Sign in once and your pages, links, collections, and widgets sync across every browser and device automatically.
Raindrop's Pro tier is billed monthly or annually. Start Page HQ Annual is $25/year, and the lifetime plan is $49 once. Both include cross-device sync, all 50+ widgets, and AI credits — no Pro tier upsell.
There is a free public demo at startpagehq.com/demo where you can try every widget without signing up. Full access requires a paid plan: $25/year or $49 one-time. Both plans include all 50+ widgets, cross-device sync, and AI credits.