Pocket Is Shutting Down. Here Are My Picks for Read-It-Later Alternatives
Pocket is shutting down, and it feels like the end of an era. If you’re looking for alternatives to save, read, and organize articles, here are some of the best read-later apps, whether you’re a bookmark hoarder or a highlight-loving note-taker.
Not too long ago, I wrote about how my favorite free read-it-later app, Omnivore, is shutting down. And just a few days ago, another classic—Pocket, my first read-it-later app—announced it’s also closing up shop.
I started using Pocket in college back in 2014, mostly to collect links for research papers. Little did I know that it was my first real step into a new way of consuming and organizing content online. Going back through my old saved articles recently brought on a wave of nostalgia.
With both Pocket and Omnivore going away, I started exploring what’s out there now. Whether you’re a digital hoarder or a focused reader, there’s still a lot of good options available depending on how you use these apps.
Chris Huerta
Pocket alternatives
On a recent episode of The Vergecast, David Pierce laid out a helpful way to think about how people use these apps: Bookmark Managers and Actual Read-Later Apps.
Bookmark Managers
Many folks use read-later apps more as a bookmark managers – a centralized location where you can dump links and organize them so you can come back to them later. For those that want something like this, you can take a look at things like:
- Raindrop.io - it has a free and paid version and I've made the most of the free functionality. This is what I use to bookmark links that I expect to share with others or that I plan on coming back to. Think of this as something you would use in lieu of your browser's built-in bookmark manager. It's cross platform and has desktop apps and browser extensions to make it easy to save, find and share links.
- Plinkly - it's a newer app that's similar to Raindrop.io but with a few more useful features locked behind the paywall. I loved the overall look and feel of the app but felt like I had to pay to actually make use of it and having other alternatives, I chose otherwise. It's also Apple only.
Actual Read-Later Apps
These apps are meant more for consuming content on a dedicated app and often give you much more functionality, like note-taking, highlighting and the ability to integrate with other note-taking apps like Notion, Obsidian, Logseq and e-readers like Kindles.
- Reader by Readwise - probably one of the most popular options, as it offers everything you'd want from a read-later app plus the note-taking and tagging features. You get daily emails about what you've saved and highlighted, which makes it easy to revisit what you've read over the past. Pricey, but I would consider it the gold standard for these kinds of apps. Try it out and get an extra month.
- Instapaper - I remember when Instapaper came out and I bounced to it from Pocket. It's a great alternative and offers the same reader modes and highlighting features.
- Wallabag - I found out about this app when I was looking for an Omnivore alternative. It's a self hosted option and while it's not the cleanest looking app, it has the features you would want for free if you're willing to host it yourself.
- Matter - I tried Matter when it was free and in beta. It offers similar functionality to Readwise but lets you follow writers and fees, which was an interesting way to curate the content you consume. It as a lot of AI features now and great audio features if you'd rather hear your content.
- Goodlinks - a polished Apple app that lets you save and organize links and provides a clean reading experience. It's a paid app at $9.99 but one of those seemingly rare one-time purchase options that make it a bit more palatable to anyone's budget.
- Flyleaf - I also found Flyleaf when I was looking for an Omnivore alternative. It's a great free option with paid add ons if you're just looking for a clean reader. It opts for the Flipboard-like magazine reading experience, which I'm not too crazy about but it is a clean experience.
What's your favorite read-later app?
Let me know if there's something I missed! You can find me on Threads, Mastadon, Bluesky and Twitter.
