What NavShelf is

NavShelf is a free, no-signup start page that runs in your browser. A nested folder tree on the left, link cards on the right: you put the dozen sites you actually use into your own categories and see them the moment you open a new tab — no feed, no pop-ups to dismiss. It ships in English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, with light and dark themes and a tools column of browser-based utilities (Base64, JSON formatting, timestamps). Folders, links and search settings live in your browser; nothing is uploaded, and there is no account.

The short version

NavShelf has no accounts and no server-side database. Folders, links, search engines and interface settings live on the device and browser you are using right now. Close the tab, come back next month, and they are still there — and nobody else, including the people who run the site, can see them.

Where the data actually lives

Everything is in one browser storage key called navProjectData, holding a single JSON object with four parts: directories, links, searchEngines and ui. Every change — a new link, a rename, a drag — is written there immediately.

That is the whole storage story. There is no background sync, no queue of changes waiting to be pushed anywhere, no backup copy on a server.

You can see it yourself: open the browser dev tools, go to Application → Local Storage, and the entire contents of your collection are visible as plain JSON. Nothing is hidden from you, because nothing is stored anywhere else.

What local-first buys you

  1. No account. No sign-up, no password to forget, no monthly email, no risk of losing access to your own links because a login broke.
  2. No server-side copy to leak. The most common way bookmark data gets exposed is a database someone else runs. There is no database here.
  3. No dependency on a service staying alive. Your structure does not stop working if a company shuts down.
  4. The same is true of the tools. The utilities on this site — Base64, JSON formatting, timestamps, image compression — also run inside the browser. What you paste into them is not uploaded.

What it costs (the honest part)

  1. Nothing follows you to another browser. Switch browsers or devices and your collection does not come along. You move it deliberately with export and import.
  2. Clearing browser data deletes it. “Clear browsing data” with site data selected will take your collection with it, and private windows throw it away when they close.
  3. No recycle bin, no undo. Deleting a folder takes its subfolders and links with it. A JSON export is the only way back.
  4. There is a size ceiling. Browser storage typically allows about 5–10 MB, which is thousands of links but not unlimited. Export and tidy when you get close.
  5. No collaboration, no sharing, no sync. Nobody else can edit your collection, and it does not update live on another screen.

What does leave your browser

The bookmarks never do. Loaded pages are a different matter, and it is worth being precise:

  • The site carries page-level analytics that count visits, and — once advertising is enabled — ad scripts. Ad slots do not load at all when the app is opened as a local file.
  • Those scripts operate at the page level. NavShelf does not hand your bookmark data to them.
  • If you would rather not run third-party scripts at all, block them in your browser. The ad components are built to fail silently, so blocking them does not break any bookmark feature.

That is the tradeoff in plain terms: your data stays local, and the page you load it from is still a web page with the usual web analytics.

Verify it in ninety seconds

  1. Look at the storage. Dev tools → Application → Local Storage → one key, all of your data, readable JSON.
  2. Watch the network. Open the Network tab and start editing links. No requests fire — the app is not sending anything anywhere.
  3. Pull the plug. With the page already open, disconnect from the network and keep adding, renaming and deleting. Everything works, because none of it depends on a server.
  4. Read the policy. The specifics are written up on the privacy page.

FAQ

Is my data uploaded? No. There is no endpoint to upload it to.

Can support recover a collection I deleted? No — and that is the point. Nobody has a copy, which is why the export habit matters.

Why not offer cloud sync? Sync needs accounts, a database and someone to be responsible for both, which turns a free local tool into a service with a subscription attached. Export and import cover the occasional device move; strong synchronisation is a separate product.

Does it work in a private window? Yes, and the collection disappears the moment that window closes.

Can my phone and laptop share one collection? Not automatically. Moving it takes an export and an import.

What if I run out of storage? Export first, then delete what you no longer need. The app keeps working; the export is your reset button.

Why it is built this way

A bookmark collection is one of the more personal things you keep online: it is a map of what you are working on, worrying about and planning. Local-first means the map stays yours. In exchange you accept a bit more responsibility — an export now and then, a deliberate move when you change devices.

Open NavShelf and check the storage tab if you like. Seeing your own JSON sitting in your own browser is a more convincing privacy claim than any wording on a marketing page.