---
title: "Pocket vs Readwise Reader: feature and pricing comparison | Keep"
description: "Side-by-side comparison of Pocket and Readwise Reader: features, pricing, strengths, and what to pick for each use case."
canonical: "https://keep.md/compare/pocket-vs-readwise-reader"
language: "en"
---

# Pocket vs Readwise Reader

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.

Pocket has shut down. If you're choosing today, Readwise Reader is the live option.

## Short answer

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](https://keep.md/#pricing) as an alternative to Pocket and Readwise Reader.

### 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

### Readwise Reader

A read-later app for articles, PDFs, emails, tweets, and YouTube, with deep highlights and AI features.

Free, paid from $9.99/mo

-   Fastest, most polished app in the read-later category
-   Rich highlighting with Readwise sync to note apps
-   Handles articles, PDFs, newsletters, tweets, YouTube in one inbox

## Feature comparison

Reader covers nearly everything Pocket did and much more, including PDFs, EPUBs, RSS, and AI summarisation. Here's the full feature comparison.

| Feature | Pocket | Readwise Reader | Keep |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Capture and save |  |  |  |
| Browser extension | ✓ | ✓Chrome, Firefox, Safari | ✓Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Brave |
| Mobile apps | ✓iOS, Android | ✓iOS, Android | × |
| Save from email | −Send-to-Pocket address | ✓Per-user Reader address | ✓Forward to in.keep.md |
| Save tweets | × | ✓Threads compiled as articles | ✓ |
| Save YouTube videos | ✓URL only | ✓With transcript highlighting | ✓With transcripts |
| Save GitHub stars | × | × | ✓ |
| Save PDFs | × | ✓ | ✓Converted to markdown |
| Save files (docs, spreadsheets) | × | −PDFs, EPUBs, HTML | ✓Word, Excel, CSV, HTML, OpenDocument |
| Save audio files | × | × | ✓With Whisper transcription |
| Save via API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Auto-sync sources |  |  |  |
| RSS auto-sync | × | ✓ | ✓ |
| YouTube channel sync | × | −Via RSS | ✓ |
| X bookmarks sync | × | × | ✓Automatic sync is a $5/month add-on. Manual CSV or JSON import on every plan. |
| GitHub stars sync | × | × | ✓ |
| Newsletter inbox sync | × | ✓ | ✓ |
| Library and reading |  |  |  |
| Reader view | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Offline reading | ✓ | ✓ | −Partial |
| Full-text search | −Premium | ✓ | ✓ |
| Semantic / AI search | × | −Ghostreader Q&A | ✓ |
| Highlights | −Premium | ✓ | ✓Highlight from the extension or from inside the reader, with optional notes; renders inline |
| Notes | −Partial | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tags | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Collections | × | ✓Folders | ✓ |
| Public sharing | −Partial | ✓ | −Partial |
| Full-text RSS extraction | × | −Partial | ✓ |
| AI and agents |  |  |  |
| Markdown export for AI agents | × | × | ✓Per-item .md URL |
| Bulk markdown export | × | × | ✓ |
| MCP server | × | × | ✓ |
| CLI tool | × | × | ✓keep npm package |
| Claude Code skill | × | × | ✓ |
| AI summaries | × | ✓Ghostreader | ✓AI summary and AI tagging on every saved article |
| Public API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Import and export |  |  |  |
| OPML import / export | × | ✓ | ✓Import from and export to any OPML-compatible reader |
| Pocket import | × | ✓ | ✓ZIP, CSV, and legacy HTML exports |
| Instapaper import | ✓ | ✓ | ✓CSV export with folders, archive, and starred state |
| CSV / JSON export | ✓ | ✓Via API | ✓Export to CSV or JSON. Import plain CSV/TSV plus Omnivore, Raindrop.io, Pinboard, and Wallabag export files. |
| Send to Kindle | × | ✓ | ✓EPUB delivered to your Kindle email |
| Import Kindle highlights | × | ✓Via Readwise Kindle sync (Amazon account login) | ✓From My Clippings.txt, no Amazon login required |

## Pricing

Pocket Premium was $4.99/mo and is no longer sold. Readwise Reader is $9.99/mo billed annually or $12.99/mo monthly, included in the Readwise Full plan.

### 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

### Readwise Reader

Free

30-day trial of Readwise Full (includes Reader). No card required.

Free

Readwise (Full)

$9.99/mo billed annually or $12.99/mo monthly. Includes Reader, highlights sync, and export to Notion/Obsidian.

$9.99/mo

### Keep

Starter

Bookmark saves from the web app and browser extension, plus a limited note library.

Free

Personal

Full-content Markdown, search, sources, automations, MCP, CLI, API, and export. Also available as a one-time lifetime purchase.

$10/mo

X bookmark sync

Optional add-on. Automatic private X bookmark sync. Requires Personal.

$5/mo

## Strengths and weaknesses

Reader's edge is density and integrations. Pocket's were simplicity and distribution, which no longer matter.

### 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

### What Readwise Reader does well

-   Fastest, most polished app in the read-later category
-   Rich highlighting with Readwise sync to note apps
-   Handles articles, PDFs, newsletters, tweets, YouTube in one inbox
-   Ghostreader AI summarises and explains highlights

### Where it falls short

-   Expensive compared to simpler read-later apps
-   Dense UI can overwhelm casual readers
-   API returns HTML, not markdown (no AI-agent-ready export)
-   No MCP server or Claude Code skill

## Which one should you pick?

### Pocket is no longer an option

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

### Pick Readwise Reader if…

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.

## 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.

## About Readwise Reader

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.

## Frequently asked questions

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.

## Try Keep instead of Pocket or Readwise Reader

Save articles, posts, videos, feeds, files, and notes as Markdown your AI agents can search and reuse.

[Start for free](https://app.keep.md/signup?utm_source=keep.md&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=compare-pocket-vs-readwise-reader)

[Browse alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives)

## Keep exploring

### More Pocket comparisons

-   [Pocket vs Keep](https://keep.md/compare/keep-vs-pocket)
-   [Pocket vs Instapaper](https://keep.md/compare/instapaper-vs-pocket)
-   [Pocket vs Raindrop](https://keep.md/compare/raindrop-vs-pocket)

### More Readwise Reader comparisons

-   [Readwise Reader vs Keep](https://keep.md/compare/keep-vs-readwise-reader)

### Browse alternatives

-   [Pocket alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives/pocket-alternatives)
-   [Readwise Reader alternatives](https://keep.md/alternatives/readwise-reader-alternatives)