Answers to common questions. If you’re stuck, we’ve got you.
Portara replaces your browser’s default new tab page with a calm, beautiful dashboard that’s actually yours. You can add cards for weather, bookmarks, clocks, sticky notes, stocks, RSS feeds, and more — all styled with a customizable liquid glass look you can tune to match any wallpaper. It’s not a productivity app or an enterprise dashboard. It’s a really nice place to start your day on the internet — or to keep open all day as your browser home base.
Head to portara.me/login. You can sign in with your Google account (one click, no passwords) or with a magic link sent to your email — just enter your address and click the link in the email. Either way, you’re in within seconds.
Nope. Portara works perfectly as a regular website at portara.me without any extension. The Chrome extension is optional — it lets Portara override your new tab page (so it opens automatically every time) and gives you access to your existing browser bookmarks inside the Bookmarks card. If you prefer to keep Portara as a pinned tab throughout your day rather than a new tab override, just visit portara.me, sign in, and pin the tab. All features work identically.
Cards are the building blocks of your dashboard. Each card is a self-contained widget — a clock, a weather forecast, a list of bookmarks, a sticky note, a stock ticker, whatever you want. You arrange them on a grid, resize them, and stack up as many as you need. Your layout is saved automatically so it’s the same every time you open a new tab.
Click the + button in the top-right corner of your dashboard (it appears when you hover near the controls). That opens the card picker — choose a card type and it drops onto your grid. From there you can drag it to where you want it and resize it by dragging the edges.
Just drag them. Click and hold any card and drag it to a new spot on the grid. On desktop you can drop cards anywhere in the grid — they’ll snap to the nearest open slot. On mobile, cards stack vertically and you can reorder them with a long press and drag.
Yes. You can create multiple dashboard pages — one for work, one for travel, one for home, whatever makes sense for you. Use the page tabs along the top of your dashboard to switch between them. Click the + tab to add a new page, and you can rename or delete pages by clicking on an existing tab.
Open Settings (the gear icon in the top-right corner), then go to the Wallpaper tab. You can search Unsplash for any image, paste a custom image URL, or browse curated seasonal collections. Turn on daily rotation and Portara will automatically swap to a fresh wallpaper every day.
In Settings, the Appearance tab gives you sliders for card transparency, blur intensity, border opacity, corner radius, and shadow depth. Moving the transparency slider left makes cards more frosted and opaque; moving it right makes them more see-through. The blur slider controls how much the wallpaper smears behind each card. Changes apply in real-time so you can see exactly what you’re getting.
All cards share the same global glass style you set in Appearance. Individual card types have their own configuration options — for example, the Sticky Note card lets you pick a custom background tint, and the World Clock card lets you choose fonts and colors per clock. Open any card’s settings by clicking the gear icon that appears when you hover over it.
The Portara Chrome extension does two things: it overrides your new tab page so that every new tab opens your Portara dashboard instead of the browser default, and it bridges your existing browser bookmarks into the Bookmarks card in the web app. Without the extension, you can still use Portara — you just visit portara.me manually and bookmarks come from ones you add manually inside the app.
The extension is currently in early access. To install it:
Once loaded, every new tab will open Portara. You’ll only need to sign in once — after that it remembers you.
Absolutely. Many users skip the new tab override entirely and instead pin portara.me as a dedicated browser tab they keep open all day. This works especially well if you use Portara heavily for stocks, feeds, sticky notes, and tasks — and prefer to keep your browser’s new tab as the default. To pin the tab, right-click it and choose Pin tab in Chrome. No extension needed for this workflow.
Once the extension is installed, add a Bookmarks card to your dashboard. The card will automatically detect the extension and offer to load your browser’s bookmark folders. Choose a folder from the dropdown in the card settings and your bookmarks will appear instantly. If you don’t have the extension, you can still add bookmarks manually inside the card.
The free plan gives you a fully functional Portara dashboard — you can add cards, customize the glass effect, set a wallpaper, and build out your layout. Some card types and advanced features (like AI News Digest and certain layout options) are Pro-only.
Open Settings and go to the Account tab. You’ll see the upgrade options there — Pro is $34/year. Click the button and you’ll be taken to the checkout. After payment, your account upgrades instantly.
Go to Settings → Account → Manage Subscription. That opens your billing portal where you can cancel anytime. When you cancel, you keep Pro access until the end of the billing period you’ve already paid for. No partial refunds, but you won’t be charged again.
In Settings → Account, scroll to the bottom and you’ll find the option to delete your account. Deleting is permanent — all your cards, pages, settings, and data are removed from our servers and cannot be recovered. If you have an active Pro subscription, cancel it first from the billing portal before deleting.
Portara gives you two ways to store your data, and you can switch between them anytime in Settings → Privacy.
Local Mode is great for privacy, but it comes with a few trade-offs worth knowing about:
If you use one device and you care a lot about privacy, Local Mode is a good fit. If you switch between devices or want a safety net, Cloud Mode is the safer choice.
Open Settings (gear icon), go to the Privacy tab, and click either “☁ Cloud” or “🖥 Local”. The switch takes effect immediately. Local Mode requires a Pro plan — if you’re on the free plan, you’ll see it listed as locked.
No. We don’t sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for advertising or marketing purposes. The full breakdown of what we store and why is in our Privacy Policy.
Yes. Go to Settings (gear icon) and switch to the Data tab. Click Export Data and your browser will download a file called portara-export-{date}.json. That file contains everything — all your pages, cards, card configurations, and settings — in a single JSON file you can store wherever you like.
Everything. All your dashboard pages, every card on every page along with its settings (RSS sources, bookmark lists, clock zones, sticky note content, etc.), and your global appearance settings (wallpaper, glass effect, search engine preference). If it’s part of your Portara setup, it’s in the export.
In the same Data tab in Settings, click Choose Backup File… and select your exported .json file. You’ll see a confirmation prompt before anything changes. Once you confirm, Portara replaces your current dashboard with everything from the backup and reloads automatically.
Important: importing is a full restore, not a merge. Whatever is in the file completely replaces what you have now — all current pages, cards, and settings are overwritten. There’s no undo, so make sure you’re restoring the right file.
Any time you’re about to make big changes to your layout — like reorganizing pages or deleting cards — it’s worth grabbing an export first as a safety net. It’s also just good practice before switching devices or if you’re experimenting with a new setup and want the option to roll back.
If something isn’t working or you have a question that isn’t covered here, the easiest way to reach us is through the in-app support form. Click the gear icon to open Settings, then switch to the Help tab (the speech bubble icon). Fill out the form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
You can also email us directly at hello@portara.me. We’re a small team so replies might not be instant, but we do read everything.