What Live Start Page is for
Live Start Page replaces the new tab with a moving picture. A waterfall, a fire, a shoreline at dusk: video, not a photograph. Its site puts the pitch in one line, "Incredible Start page with live wallpapers," and counts "more than 500 live themes." Over the video sit a clock, a weather reading, a to-do list and a grid of Speed Dial tiles.
Then there is the feature the product is really built around. Press the meditation button and the tab becomes a break. The store listing describes "10-15 minutes of viewing the best live wallpapers to the sounds of nature," and offers "a special meditative series from professional psychologists to help you better understand yourself and improve your mood and sleep."
So the people who love it are not shopping for a dashboard. They want the tab to slow them down for a minute. 200,000 of them use it on Chrome, where it holds 4.7 stars from 8.6K ratings and a Featured badge; its own description claims a place in Editor's Picks as well. APPTITUDE LLC is on version 40.5.10.
Where Live Start Page wins
Motion, first. Dashy's wallpapers are curated photography that shifts with the time of day, and you can upload your own, but a still image is a still image. If you want a fire actually burning behind your clock, and hundreds of scenes to rotate through, Live Start Page has them and Dashy does not.
The meditation break, second. Treating the new tab as a place to stop rather than start is a genuinely good idea, and this is the product built around it. Dashy has soundscapes you can leave running as long as you like. It has no guided session and no psychologists.
Third, a price you can read. Its pricing page names one plan and what it covers: search engine choice, synced tiles, groups and tasks, a passcode, a detailed forecast, meditation guides and ambient sounds, priority support. Dashy has no price published yet, and a comparison page that skipped past that would not be worth your time.
Fourth, reach and maturity. There is a Firefox add-on, and Dashy has none. Version 40 is not a first draft.
Where Dashy is different
Dashy opens on the same idea, a calm picture on an empty tab, and then goes three other ways.
Sound is not a mode. Dashy's soundscapes are included and always to hand: rain, ocean, forest, fireplace, cafe and more, running while you work rather than only during a fifteen-minute session. Live Start Page's pricing page files "Meditation Guides and Ambient Sounds" under Pro.
The page holds your day. Live Start Page gives you a to-do list, clocks, weather and tiles, and its pricing page says "More services will be available soon, like Google Calendar etc." Dashy ships the calendar now, next to notes and tasks, with Google Calendar, Todoist and Google Tasks offered. The layout is yours as well: add, move, resize and restyle anything on the grid, or start from one of four templates, Focus, Productive, Curious and Aesthetic. Customizing costs nothing. New to the category? What a new tab dashboard is walks through the shape of it.
Nothing on the tab is being sold. Live Start Page is unusually candid about this, which we respect: its listing declares "built-in monetization (ads)," names "sponsored bookmark tiles (for example Amazon bookmark)" and a "search bar provided by Bing or Yahoo," and tells you where to switch all of it off. The default stands, though, and its home page repeats it: "By default new tab LiveStartPage search bar will use Bing." Choosing a different engine is a Pro feature. Dashy shows no ads, sells no tiles, and leaves the rest of Chrome alone.
Then the new part. Dashy runs an MCP server, so the assistant you already use can set the wallpaper, add widgets and lay out a template. It has to be approved by name first, its edits go into a log, and whatever it invents sits switched off until you have read it. It is in early access now and reaches everyone in October 2026; the AI page has the detail. Live Start Page lists no AI features at all.
The honest trade-offs
Data is the sharpest one. Live Start Page's store listing discloses collecting personally identifiable information, authentication information, location and web history, and its description explains each: history builds your Speed Dial tiles, location drives the weather, and the extension "sends requests to the server to synchronize your bookmark tiles (speed dials), tasks, and other settings." You can turn all of those off. The privacy policy it links to also covers EverHelper and FVD Speed Dial, and says the company uses data "to deliver ads to you." Dashy works without an account, and nothing leaves the device until you connect something; each integration says what it uses before you turn it on.
The Firefox story is thinner than it first looks. That add-on, "Live Start Page - Speed Dial," has 1,387 users and 4.3 stars from 410 ratings, and it is version 40.2.6 from August 23, 2023, against 40.5.10 on Chrome. Three years is a long gap. Dashy has no Firefox version to weigh against it, which is worse, and we would rather say so than count a stale build as coverage.
Weight runs the other way. The Chrome listing is 35.37 MiB, which is what hundreds of video themes cost, and video on every tab is not free on a battery or an older laptop.
Dashy's own numbers are smaller, too. The original Dashy has 10,000+ users and 4.7 stars from 273 reviews, with a Featured badge. The new Dashy arrives in October 2026. Until then, that is the record to judge.
How to decide
Ask what you want the tab to do when you are tired.
If the answer is take me somewhere else for ten minutes, Live Start Page was built for exactly that, and its yearly price is not much to ask. Nothing here is a reason to uninstall it.
If the answer is show me my day, calmly, try Dashy. You get the picture and the sound first, with no account and nothing sold on the page, and your calendar, notes and tasks are there when you look down. The other comparisons are written the same way, concession first.