Omnivore vs Pocket

Both of these products are no longer hosted services. Omnivore shut down in November 2024 after its team joined ElevenLabs; Pocket shut down in July 2025 after Mozilla wound it down. The comparison matters mainly as a historical reference for anyone trying to decide where their saved content should go next.

Short answer

Neither is available as a managed product. Omnivore still exists as a self-hostable open-source project; Pocket does not. For active alternatives, see the cards above for Keep, Readwise Reader, Instapaper, Matter, and Raindrop.

You can also try Keep for free as an alternative to Omnivore and Pocket.

Omnivore

Shut down

Open-source read-later app with strong newsletter and markdown workflows.

Free

  • Completely free and open source
  • Strong newsletter-to-library workflow with per-user email
  • Synced with Logseq, Obsidian, and Notion for PKM workflows

Pocket

Shut down

Save articles, videos, and stories from any publication.

Free, paid from $4.99/mo

  • Simple, polished reading experience
  • Strong native apps across iOS, Android, and web
  • Defined the read-later category for over a decade

Feature comparison

Both products were closer to each other than most pairs on this site: open APIs, newsletter inboxes, highlights, and a focus on export. Here's how they compared feature-by-feature.

FeatureOmnivorePocket
Capture and save
Browser extension
Mobile apps
Save from email
Save tweets
Save YouTube videos
Save GitHub stars
Save PDFs
Save files (docs, spreadsheets)
Save audio files
Save via API
Auto-sync sources
RSS auto-sync
YouTube channel sync
X bookmarks sync
GitHub stars sync
Newsletter inbox sync
Library and reading
Reader view
Offline reading
Full-text search
Semantic / AI search
Highlights
Notes
Tags
Collections
Public sharing
Full-text RSS extraction
AI and agents
Markdown export for AI agents
Bulk markdown export
MCP server
CLI tool
Claude Code skill
AI summaries
Public API
Import and export
OPML import / export
Pocket import
Instapaper import
CSV / JSON export
Send to Kindle

Pricing

Omnivore was free (open source). Pocket Premium was $4.99/mo. Both are now irrelevant since neither service is available. Keep is free for 50 items lifetime, then $10/mo for Pro.

Omnivore

  • Free

    All features free; open source.

    Free

Pocket

  • Free

    Save unlimited items, basic offline reading.

    Free
  • Premium

    Permanent library, full-text search, unlimited highlights, suggested tags, premium fonts, ad-free.

    $4.99/mo

Strengths and weaknesses

Both had clear strengths worth remembering: Omnivore for openness and newsletter handling, Pocket for simplicity and distribution. Their weaknesses were more important in the end: small team (Omnivore) and lack of strategic fit inside Mozilla (Pocket).

What Omnivore did well

  • Completely free and open source
  • Strong newsletter-to-library workflow with per-user email
  • Synced with Logseq, Obsidian, and Notion for PKM workflows
  • GraphQL API returned markdown, friendly to integrations
  • Active community and regular updates prior to shutdown

Where it fell short

  • Shut down in 2024 after acquisition by ElevenLabs
  • No path to import back into a hosted version
  • Self-hosting requires non-trivial infrastructure

What Pocket did well

  • Simple, polished reading experience
  • Strong native apps across iOS, Android, and web
  • Defined the read-later category for over a decade
  • Clean text extraction for most articles

Where it fell short

  • Pocket was shut down by Mozilla on July 8, 2025
  • Limited search and organization without Premium
  • No structured export for AI tools or LLM workflows
  • Proprietary lock-in; RSS and bulk sync workflows are limited

Which one should you pick?

Omnivore is no longer an option

Omnivore has shut down and is no longer available. Any of the active alternatives is a safer bet.

Pocket is no longer an option

Pocket has shut down and is no longer available. Any of the active alternatives is a safer bet.

About Omnivore

Omnivore was a free, open-source read-later app that did everything right on paper: RSS feeds, newsletter inbox, PDFs, highlights, labels, filters, rules, full-text search, a GraphQL API that returned markdown, and sync with Logseq, Obsidian, and Notion. It ran on iOS, macOS, Android, web, and extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. It shut down on November 15, 2024 after ElevenLabs acquired the team for their ElevenReader TTS product. The cloud service deleted all user data; the open-source codebase still lives on GitHub for anyone who wants to self-host.

About Pocket

Pocket launched in 2007 as Read It Later, pioneered the modern read-later category, and was acquired by Mozilla in 2017. For nearly two decades it was the default way to save web articles and read them later on any device, with a clean reader view and optional offline access. Mozilla shut Pocket down on July 8, 2025. All user data was permanently deleted on November 12, 2025. The apps and extensions no longer work, and any integrations built against the Pocket API have stopped. If you still have an export file from before that date, most modern alternatives (Instapaper, Readwise Reader, Raindrop, Matter, Keep) can import it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I self-host Omnivore as a Pocket replacement?

Technically yes. The repo is at github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore. Practically, it's a real infrastructure project with Postgres, Redis, multiple workers, email receivers, and OAuth. Not recommended as a first-time self-host.

Which active tool is the closest to either of these?

Keep for the markdown-and-open-API side that Omnivore emphasised. Readwise Reader for the rich reading and highlights side. Instapaper for the simple-Pocket-replacement side.

Is there a way to get my data out now?

Not from the hosted services. Omnivore's cloud data was deleted in late 2024; Pocket's in November 2025. If you exported before those dates and still have the file, alternatives will import it.

When exactly did each shut down?

Omnivore's hosted service ended November 15, 2024. Pocket's apps and extensions stopped working on July 8, 2025. Pocket's user data was permanently deleted on November 12, 2025.

Why did both shut down?

Different reasons. Omnivore's founders joined ElevenLabs, which didn't want the service. Mozilla shut down Pocket to refocus on Firefox. Neither failed technically; both were strategic decisions by their parent companies.

Can I still read the Omnivore source code?

Yes. The repo is public at github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore. It's unmaintained by the original team, but you can still fork it, self-host it, or learn from it.

Did either have an MCP server?

No, neither had MCP support. The Model Context Protocol was published in late 2024. Omnivore shut down before it could add support, and Pocket didn't implement it before shutdown.

Which alternative most resembles Omnivore's open approach?

Keep is the closest hosted match: markdown-first, open API, MCP server, newsletter inbox. For a fully open-source path, Wallabag remains the best-maintained self-hosted option.

What happens to my Omnivore export if I still have one?

Readwise Reader imports Omnivore exports directly. Raindrop and Keep accept the underlying HTML/markdown content. Your highlights and labels may not carry over cleanly depending on the target tool.

Is there any chance either returns?

Extremely unlikely. Mozilla stated the Pocket decision was permanent. ElevenLabs is not resurrecting Omnivore under its own name. The team works on ElevenReader instead.

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