Pocket Alternatives
Pocket is undoubtedly one of the best read-it-later services available. No matter if you like using an app for iOS or Android or a solid web solution, Pocket has you covered. With more and more information being consumed digitally, the need for saving articles, blog posts, videos, and other content from the web to read them later is constantly increasing. Pocket began as an extension for Google Chrome but has evolved into a feature-packed service with support for most modern operating services and with extensions for the most popular browsers. It lets you save content offline so you can read, watch, or listen to it when and where you like.
The free version has all the basic features you need for bookmarking, organizing, tagging, and consuming content, but the $4.99 per month Premium Membership lets you save your content permanently, customize the reading experience, and more. If the Pocket free plan is not enough and you don’t want to pay for a plan, then there are many free alternatives available below. If you’re looking for specific features or clients for your favorite OS, then just use the filters and check out the best picks crowdsourced by our community!
Pocket alternatives are mainly Read It Later Tools but may also be Bookmark Managers or Screenshot Capture Tools. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Pocket.- Freemium • Proprietary
- Mac
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Blackberry
- Android Tablet
- Windows Phone
- iPad
- Google Chrome
- Safari
- Opera
- Firefox
- Freemium • Open Source
- Windows
- Linux
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Windows S
- Android Tablet
- Windows Phone
- iPad
- Self-Hosted
- Google Chrome
- Cloudron
- Opera
- Firefox
wallabag has many of the features that Pocket has and is a great and totally free alternative. The reading experience is clean and free from distractions. What makes it even more attractive is the fact that it’s open source and can be self-hosted, which makes it a good solution if you value privacy. If you need hosting, wallabag offers a competitive price for only €9 per year. With migration tools for Pocket, Instapaper, and more, existing users of those services can switch quickly to wallabag. There are apps and plugins for many operating systems, RSS readers, and browsers, but their quality is not always equal. There’s an API so developers can build their own apps or get involved in the open source project.
wallabag vs Pocket opinions
JohnFastmanWallabag is open-source (more trustworthy).
sondrakDoes everything Pocket does, and is self-hosted
intpWallabag might be a nice alternative for those looking to self-host their own data, but for most this will not be a realistic option, and thus, the cloud component will not be free.
vaz__arNo way to display the tags on the main view, Android and iOS apps lacking in functionalities
weekendwarriorOpen source, can be self hosted. Pocket sells your data to make profit.
androtunaWallabag is more useful than pocket and open source.
- Freemium • Open Source
- Mac
- Windows
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Vivaldi Browser
- Google Chrome
- Safari
- Yandex.Browser
- Opera
- Firefox
Raindrop.io is a solution that is very similar to Pocket when it comes to features, ease of use, and organization. The user interface is modern, clean, and customizable with themes. Unlike Pocket, you can collaborate with your friends or coworkers to edit and read the same content saved from the web. There is a free version that has all the basic features most people need, but the Pro plan offers a lot of additional pro features like full-text search, Dropbox backup, permanent library, priority support, and a duplicate links finder tool. It has clients for most browsers, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and a web version. Unfortunately, like Pocket and most alternatives to it, there is no Linux version.
Raindrop.io vs Pocket opinions
orangePlaneThis is bookmark manager. You can't read and highlight the articles inside the app.
You can edit the titles and description. This is a feature that Pocket seems reluctant/unwilling to add, and their suggested workaround is in a word, DUMB..
Saving and organicing links and articles is the same function
- Freemium • Proprietary
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Apple Watch
- Google Chrome
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Firefox
Instapaper has been around longer than most read-it-later services and bookmarking apps, and it is still a relevant and powerful Pocket alternative. In fact, the two apps share most features and both offer a free and premium plan. Instapaper's free plan offers saving unlimited blog posts, articles, videos, etc. and syncing them across the iOS app, Android app, and the web service. The Premium version costs $2.99 per month and lets you use full-text search, save unlimited notes, get an ad free experience, and more. If you use a Mac, then the lack of an Instapaper Mac app is a con compared to Pocket, which offers one via the Mac App Store.
- Freemium • Open Source
- Online
- Android
- iPhone
- Android Tablet
- iPad
- Vivaldi Browser
- Google Chrome
- Brave
- Firefox
If privacy and open source are your priorities, then Memex is a powerful bookmarking service that could replace Pocket for you if you don’t need all its features. The free plan has powerful features that lets you save links, find them later, organize them with tags and collections and share them with the world. The paid version is €3 per month and offers syncing between mobile and desktop and backups to cloud services. Existing users of Pocket, Raindrop.io, etc. can easily import existing bookmarks and links.
Tagpacker is more of a bookmarking platform than a fully-featured solution to save and consume content on the web. If you prefer to save links and read them in their original format on the website it was first published, then Tagpacker could be a good and free alternative to Pocket. The lack of apps for Android and other systems is a con for some, but the features for collecting, organizing, and searching for your content is considered extensive.
Tagpacker vs Pocket opinions
alcaldeTagpacker is much faster to search through large collections of bookmarks; Pocket choked on a 26K bookmark collection and would often time out or fail to find all matching bookmarks when searched. It allows descriptions to be entered with bookmarks. You can filter by multiple tags whereas Pocket free only lets you filter by one. Similarly, Tagpacker lets you search within tags while Pocket free cannot do this.
justAguyHighly recommend Tagpacker! It's simple and has a clean design!
entrepreneurThe best social bookmarking tool I've been using for a long time!
- Free • Proprietary
- Online
- Microsoft Edge
- Internet Explorer
- Google Chrome
- Safari
- Opera
- Firefox
If you’re an Evernote user already, then you might want to use the Evernote Web Clipper feature as a replacement for Pocket. The free plan of Evernote allows users to save web content to their Evernote account, but in order to read them offline you need to pay for a Premium or Business plan. You can save the entire web page (or just a selection of it) and read it in a clean format later. Evernote also offers great tagging and organization into different categories or notebooks.
- Freemium • Proprietary
- Mac
- Windows
- Linux
- Electron / Atom Shell
- Chrome OS
Polar only has apps for Windows, Mac, and Linux, but if you prefer to do your reading on a computer, then this is a powerful reading platform. It acts as a knowledge base and lets you save web pages, articles, PDFs, EPUB books, and more. Polar keeps track of your reading progress and motivates you to read consistently with detailed statistics. Polar has support for flashcards to help you learn by spaced repetition, and it even syncs with other flashcard tools like Anki.
Pinboard is a bookmarking website intended for people who want to reliably keep track of large numbers of links. Its goals are to be useful, fight bloat, keep things fast, and stay small. Social bookmarking for introverts. m.pinboard.in
Because modern websites are complicated and often rely on dynamic content, ArchiveBox archives the sites in several different formats beyond what public archiving services like Archive.org and Archive.is are capable of saving.
- Freemium • Proprietary
- Online
- Microsoft Edge
- Internet Explorer
- Google Chrome
- Opera
- Firefox
Collect any article you want to read later, image that inspired you or video you want to watch later. Save anything, never lose it and view it without ever leaving GGather. Organize your bookmarks with tags and notes. And GGather tags are special.