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
Pocket was the default read-later app for a decade until Mozilla shut it down in July 2025. Readwise Reader is the most feature-rich active alternative. If you're here because you need to move off Pocket and you don't mind the learning curve, Reader is often the chosen upgrade.
Reader wins by availability alone since Pocket is gone. The real question is whether you want Reader's power-user density ($9.99-$12.99/mo with highlights-into-PKM as a headline feature) or something simpler like Instapaper or Matter.
You can also try Keep for free as an alternative to Pocket and Readwise Reader.
Save articles, videos, and stories from any publication.
Free, paid from $4.99/mo
A read-later app for articles, PDFs, emails, tweets, and YouTube, with deep highlights and AI features.
Free, paid from $9.99/mo
Reader covers nearly everything Pocket did and much more, including PDFs, EPUBs, RSS, and AI summarisation. Here's the full feature comparison.
| Feature | Readwise Reader | |
|---|---|---|
| Capture and save | ||
| Browser extension | Chrome, Firefox, Safari | |
| Mobile apps | iOS, Android | iOS, Android |
| Save from email | Send-to-Pocket address | Per-user Reader address |
| Save tweets | Threads compiled as articles | |
| Save YouTube videos | URL only | With transcript highlighting |
| Save GitHub stars | ||
| Save PDFs | ||
| Save files (docs, spreadsheets) | PDFs, EPUBs, HTML | |
| Save audio files | ||
| Save via API | ||
| Auto-sync sources | ||
| RSS auto-sync | ||
| YouTube channel sync | Via RSS | |
| X bookmarks sync | ||
| GitHub stars sync | ||
| Newsletter inbox sync | ||
| Library and reading | ||
| Reader view | ||
| Offline reading | ||
| Full-text search | Premium | |
| Semantic / AI search | Ghostreader Q&A | |
| Highlights | Premium | |
| Notes | Partial | |
| Tags | ||
| Collections | Folders | |
| Public sharing | Partial | |
| Full-text RSS extraction | Partial | |
| AI and agents | ||
| Markdown export for AI agents | ||
| Bulk markdown export | ||
| MCP server | ||
| CLI tool | ||
| Claude Code skill | ||
| AI summaries | Ghostreader | |
| Public API | ||
| Import and export | ||
| OPML import / export | ||
| Pocket import | ||
| Instapaper import | ||
| CSV / JSON export | Via API | |
| Send to Kindle |
Pocket Premium was $4.99/mo (no longer sold). Readwise Reader is $9.99/mo billed annually or $12.99/mo monthly, included in the Readwise Full plan. Keep is $10/mo Pro with a 50-item lifetime free tier.
Free
Save unlimited items, basic offline reading.
Premium
Permanent library, full-text search, unlimited highlights, suggested tags, premium fonts, ad-free.
Free
30-day trial of Readwise Full (includes Reader). No card required.
Readwise (Full)
$9.99/mo billed annually or $12.99/mo monthly. Includes Reader, highlights sync, and export to Notion/Obsidian.
Reader's edge is density and integrations. Pocket's were simplicity and distribution, which no longer matter.
Pocket has shut down and is no longer available. Any of the active alternatives is a safer bet.
You want the most feature-rich read-later experience available: articles, PDFs, EPUBs, tweets, YouTube with transcripts, newsletters, RSS, Ghostreader AI, and highlights that sync to Notion, Obsidian, Logseq, Roam, Evernote, or Airtable.
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.
Readwise Reader is the reading companion to Readwise's highlight sync service. It handles articles, PDFs, EPUBs, emails, tweets, and YouTube transcripts in one inbox, with a Ghostreader AI copilot for summaries, definitions, and Q&A. Highlights sync to Notion, Obsidian, Logseq, Roam, Evernote, and Airtable. It ships as web, iOS, Android, and browser extensions, with a public REST API for scripting. Pricing is $9.99/mo billed annually (or $12.99/mo monthly) as part of the Readwise Full plan, which includes the highlight sync service. A 30-day free trial is available.
Yes. Reader has a Pocket importer if you have an HTML export from before Pocket was deleted. Go to Settings → Import.
For some. If you only used Pocket to save articles and read them later, Reader has more than you need. Instapaper or Matter are gentler upgrades.
Yes, but it's a 30-day trial of the full Readwise subscription rather than a permanent free plan.
$9.99/month billed annually or $12.99/month monthly, as part of the Readwise Full plan. Pocket Premium was $4.99/month. Reader is about twice the price but offers more features.
Yes. Reader compiles Twitter threads into articles and fetches YouTube transcripts for video saves. Pocket stored URLs but didn't extract tweet threads or video transcripts.
Yes, Kindle delivery is included. Pocket never had native Kindle integration. For anyone moving off Pocket, this is a meaningful upgrade if you read on Kindle.
Ghostreader is Readwise Reader's AI assistant. It summarises articles, answers questions about them, defines terms, and can translate passages. It's included with the Readwise Full subscription.
Yes. Readwise Reader's highlights sync to Notion, Obsidian, Logseq, Roam, Evernote, and Airtable via the Readwise side of the product. This is one of the biggest reasons people pay for it.
Yes, but it's more. If you want the simplicity of Instapaper, Instapaper itself is still running. Reader makes sense when you want highlights, AI, and PKM integrations in addition to read-later.
Yes, iOS and Android, both active and frequently updated. Browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari round out the platform coverage.