Custom Start Page Platform
LinkHUB

Build a personal dashboard that actually fits the way you work.

LinkHUB is a highly customizable start page and launcher for people who want their links, widgets, notes, search tools, weather, backgrounds, and branded layout all in one place. It is built around one private page per user ID, with an editor that lets you place and style elements freely on a visible desktop grid.

You can use LinkHUB as a daily homepage, a browser new-tab target, a media wall, a private launchpad for work, or a themed page that you share by direct URL. The whole thing is meant to feel flexible instead of locked into a rigid template.

Open LinkHUB Read Extension Privacy
Preview of a LinkHUB layout with widgets and shortcuts
Free layout Move and size elements on a desktop-oriented canvas.
Share by URL Use your user ID as the page identity and share when needed.
Theme everything Backgrounds, buttons, borders, widgets, logo and more.

What LinkHUB is meant to do

LinkHUB is not just a bookmark page. It is closer to a visual workspace where you decide what should be on screen, how big it is, where it sits, how it looks, and how much of the page should be static structure versus live information.

Personal homepage

Use it as the first page you open every morning. Put your most-used tools, notes, search box, weather, time, quick links, media panels, and reference info in a single layout that stays familiar.

Daily launcher

Group websites, services, dashboards and internal tools into boxes. Create visual areas for work shortcuts, home automation, entertainment, banking, streaming, or admin tasks.

Shareable setup

A page can be shared by URL using the user ID. That makes it possible to move the same setup between browsers or machines, or hand a specific layout to someone else when that is useful.

Private page model Manual save flow Grid-based editing Desktop-first layout Theme-heavy setup

Widgets and building blocks

The canvas is composed from movable elements. Each widget type has its own purpose, but the idea is that they should still feel part of one coherent page.

L

Link widgets

Visual shortcut tiles with title and favicon. Favicons are cached server-side so layouts load consistently.

B

Box widgets

Layout containers for grouping content. Boxes can get their own background image, opacity, blur, border and rotation so they work both as structure and design elements.

T

Text widgets

Content blocks that support plain text, Markdown, or sanitized HTML. That makes them useful for notes, mini dashboards, embeds, labels, callouts or formatted information panels.

N

Note widgets

Plain-text note areas that support line breaks and can be edited directly without entering the main edit mode. They are good for small working notes without HTML noise.

S

Search widgets

A built-in search field with selectable search engine support. Suggestions can be enabled per widget and are proxied through the backend for a cleaner integration.

W

Weather widgets

Server-cached weather panels with last-updated state and force-refresh support. Useful when you want situational information without opening another site first.

C

Clock widgets

Time and date widgets with configurable timezone and time format. Good for multi-zone setups, desk dashboards, or simply keeping the page useful at a glance.

I

Image widgets

A dedicated image display widget for uploaded visuals. It is separate from box backgrounds so you can place standalone images, artwork, reference panels, or decorative visual anchors on the canvas.

Layout and editing behavior

The editor is meant to stay visual instead of abstract. The grid is visible in edit mode, elements can be moved or resized directly, and helper lines appear when things align with other elements or the canvas center.

Free placement on a fixed workspace

The page uses a centered working area with explicit width and height. Default is 1920x1080, but you can change the grid size. This makes the result predictable and easier to design with intent instead of fighting responsive auto-flow behavior everywhere.

Edit controls on the canvas

Each element can expose an inline toolbar, resize handles, and where supported even rotation. This keeps editing contextual, because the element itself is the thing you manipulate, not a detached settings tree only.

Alignment guides

When you drag or resize, LinkHUB can show visual guide lines for matching edges and centers. The lines help with composition without forcing snapping, so you still keep manual control over the final placement.

Movable editor panels

The settings and properties panels can be shifted aside so you can see the canvas while tweaking. This matters when you are adjusting image placement, box styling, transparency or other visual details live.

Design and theming depth

A big part of LinkHUB is visual control. The goal is not a generic dashboard skin but a page that can look clean, loud, minimal, atmospheric, or aggressively personal depending on what you want.

Background system

Use a solid background color, a custom uploaded image, or a slideshow sourced from server-side folders. Slideshows can start randomly, shuffle, and transition with configurable timing and effects.

Element-wide style controls

Global element settings include background color, opacity, blur, border color, border style, button color, hover behavior and more. This creates a baseline look before widget-specific styling even starts.

Per-widget image and frame control

Logo images, image widgets and box background images all have their own fit, opacity, blur, repeat or frame-related settings. That makes decorative and branded compositions possible without hardcoding them.

LinkHUB is built for the moment when a normal bookmark bar starts feeling too small and a normal dashboard starts feeling too rigid.

That is where the editor, the widget mix, and the theming controls start making sense together.

Branding and logo behavior

The page logo can be enabled, moved, resized, given custom text, switched to image mode, or mixed as image plus text. The default wordmark intentionally follows the LinkHUB grey/orange visual identity.

Custom logo image Text split into two fields Frame styling

Saving, importing and sharing

LinkHUB is intentionally not having a login system. The page identity is tied to a generated personal ID that lives in the browser and can also be carried by URL or browser extension storage.

Privacy, identity and data behavior

LinkHUB does not use a classic account login. Instead it stores a personal ID in the browser and uses that to load the corresponding page configuration from the server.

How identity works

  • Each page is connected to one generated user ID.
  • The ID is stored in a cookie and also mirrored in local storage.
  • If LinkHUB runs inside the browser extension wrapper, the page can sync the ID via postMessage so the extension keeps opening the right page.
  • The ID can remain in the URL and will be adopted by the browser state when used.

What is stored

  • The page configuration itself is stored in MariaDB.
  • Some technical request and client metadata is stored to support operation. This is: UserID, UserAgent, Settings, Browser, OS, TimeZone, Creation time of User, last update, last visit.
  • Uploads like backgrounds, logos and widget images (User content) is saved on the server in a media directory, tied to the user id.
  • Notepad widget content is stored in a seperately from the configurations to enable a seperate update from configuration and enable encrypting them.

Browser extension support (WIP)

LinkHUB is also designed to work well as a browser new-tab experience. The project includes extension work for Firefox and Chrome that can load LinkHUB directly inside a new-tab wrapper. This is currently in development and not yet available.

New-tab integration

The extension can replace the new tab page and load LinkHUB in an iframe. That gives you immediate access to your personalized page every time a new tab opens.

Top visits overlay

The Firefox and Chrome extension work includes a `Top Visits` overlay concept with configurable placement. This keeps browser-native browsing shortcuts available without sacrificing the LinkHUB layout underneath.

User ID sync

The extension layer can read the LinkHUB cookie, keep a local copy of the user ID, and append the correct `?userid=` parameter so the right page opens consistently.

What makes this different from a plain dashboard

Most start pages give you a fixed arrangement and maybe a handful of blocks. LinkHUB goes further by combining loose visual layout, upload-driven styling, widget variety, share-by-ID behavior, extension support and manual control over what gets saved.

It is not stuck to one template

You can build sparse pages, dense tool boards, branded homepages, media-heavy panels, launchpads with grouped services, or a mostly decorative environment with a few useful widgets embedded into it.

It is visual first

The canvas editing model matters. It lets you work by sight instead of by forms only. Grid, drag, resize, guides, rotation and widget-specific styling all push the experience toward composition instead of plain configuration.

It works for both utility and atmosphere

Some pages want to be efficient. Others want to feel good to open. LinkHUB is aimed at both, so functionality like search, notes and weather can coexist with visual identity, custom backgrounds, logos and image widgets.

It keeps evolving

LinkHUB is an actively evolving project. New widgets, additional settings, improved controls and further customization options can keep being added over time as the system grows.