What are the best read-it-later apps?

13

Options
Considered

122

User
Recs.

Dec 11, 2018

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

13 Options Considered

Best read-it-later apps	Price	Platforms	Software Type
89 Instapaper	-	web, Android, iOS	-
86 Pocket	-	Android, iOS, Kobo, web, macOS, Windows	Google Chrome extension, desktop app
-- Raindrop.io	-	-	-
-- Wallabag	-	-	-
-- PaperSpan	-	iOS, Android, Web, Chrome	-

Instapaper

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Annotation tools

Allows leaving notes attached to articles and highlighting certain part of the text. Free version of the app is limited to 5 highlights a month. See More

Top Con

Became a paid service again

Most functions became premium. See More

SincereKrotos's Experience

Stopped working for me. Not available in Europe due to RGPD régulations. See More

Specs

Platforms:web, Android, iOS

Top Pro

Pagination

Allows for pagination, not just scrolling. See More

Top Con

Tags not implemented

Danil Kutkevich's Experience

imho best offline reader See More

Top Pro

Can be set to switch to dark mode based on time of day

Instapaper includes a dark theme and allows switching to it after a set period in time or gradually over the course of the day. See More

Top Con

Only supports English

It only supports English, and not Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages. See More

SpiritedPramzimas's Experience

They removed fundamental functionality like searching after going Premium again. See More

Top Pro

Excellent typography choices

Instapaper allows you to choose from 14 different fonts, some of which have been designed specifically for the application. You can manually adjust spacing between lines, padding around text and font size to fit your preferences. See More

Top Con

Search functions return random articles

The search function is very slow and does not provide accurate results. The user can not filter or reorder the search results, or search the archive or annotated articles. See More

Tom Barron's Experience

Instapaper is the one I've used and I've been happy with it. See More

Top Pro

Has a font designed for readers with Dyslexia

Instapaper includes Dyslexie a font that helps people with reading problems understand the text better. See More

Top Con

Embedded images and videos are sometimes ignored

Instapaper sometimes saves articles without images or videos. See More

Top Pro

Allows listening to articles

Instapaper comes with a build in text-to-speech feature that will read out loud articles. Premium version of the app allows creating playlists. See More

Top Pro

Can look up words in a dictionary and Wikipedia

Top Pro

Awesome offline mode

Top Pro

Includes optional social features

If you set your Instapaper profile to be public, your friends will be able to see articles you've liked. See More

Top Pro

Articles can be emailed to Instapaper

You can add articles to Instapaper by sending them to a unique email address associated with your account. See More

Top Pro

Rarely seen organization options

In addition to allowing you to sort articles by when you saved them, you can also order articles by length or read progress and popularity. See More

Top Pro

Can playback inline video

Instapaper will play videos from YouTube, Vimeo and other sources that are embedded in articles, but you have to be online for playback to work. See More

Pocket

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Saves progress

Pocket lets you know where you left off reading an article. Great for long reads. See More

Top Con

Correct and open export of bookmarks and tags are not possible

This means that Pocket is (currently) a total lock-in. This is very sad, unfortunate and creates a no go decision for any seasoned user. Too many bookmarking and tagging companies have stopped or have gone bankrupt these last years (e.g. Kippt, Spingpad, Delicious (to some extent), etc.). So, if you are going to invest a lot of your personal time and energy in curating your Internet findings (i.e. your bookmarks and tags), it is essential that a total, fair and open export (including all tags) functionality is provided. Personally tested the export "feature" and the resulting .html file that Pocket generates currently included only the URLs themselves, i.e. no save dates nor any of your personally curated tags, nor any other useful meta-data. This is deplorable, because otherwise, Pocket is a very polished and well-functioning piece of multi-platform and multi-device software/app/web service, with a very easy and well-designed and implemented user interface. These days of open and inter-operable web services, users are only attracted by valuable functionality, clean UX design and no lockins. See More

Raghu Ranganathan's Experience

It syncs all your bookmarks EVERYWHERE. I bet it works on my toaster oven. I've used pocket a lot before, and it becomes a habit to store things on pocket. It's quick and easy to setup and works anywhere. I've had no problems with this. It's an excellent service. See More

Specs

Platforms:Android, iOS, Kobo, web, macOS, Windows

Software Type:Google Chrome extension, desktop app

Top Pro

Tag-based organizational system

Top Con

Only the paid version allows to search by tag

Daniel Naron's Experience

Although I haven't tried anything else, Pocket is well polished and very comfortable to use 👍 See More

Top Pro

Allows listening to saved articles

Pocket comes with a built-in text-to-speech feature that will read out loud saved articles. See More

Top Con

Can't rename the title of links

If the page title isn't correct/good for a link, there is no way for you to fix it. See More

Top Pro

Integrates with over 500 apps

A key advantage of Pocket is that it is integrated in over 500 apps as a way to save the link, including Twitter, Flipboard, Pulse and Zite. See More

Top Pro

Allows reading saved content in offline mode

Instead of only saving the link, the content is saved for offline use. See More

Top Pro

Can playback inline video

Pocket will play videos from YouTube, Vimeo and other sources that are embedded in articles, but you have to be online for playback to work. See More

Top Pro

Available on the web and mobile devices

Pocket is available on iOS, Android, Kobo eReader and on the web. See More

Top Pro

Allows setting offline storage limits

If your device does not have enough space to store offline articles, Pocket allows users to set the maximum size for the app to store offline articles. Priority of the offline articles will be based on newest first or oldest first, based on the users preferences. See More

Top Pro

Suggests new reads

Curates suggested reads based on usual read topics. Mostly through ads in-app and email subscription. See More

Top Pro

Included in Firefox

Pocket is now integrated into the Firefox web browser, and you can login using your Firefox/Mozilla login, instead of having to create a separate account. This login method can even be used natively on their website, regardless what browser is being used. See More

Top Pro

Well-finished GUI and UX

Top Pro

Recommendations for friends

If you've read an exceptional article you can share it to your followers or you can see what your friends are recommending to read. See More

Top Pro

Ability to filter by content type

Top Pro

Works well across Google Chrome on macOS and iOS

Top Pro

Allows tagging bookmarks

Bookmarks can be tagged for search accuracy later on. See More

Top Pro

The Pocket plugin for Google Chrome is very stable

Top Pro

Code snippets display correctly

Gemsmark

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

Available for Web, iOS and Android

Top Pro

Clean, beautiful design

EmailThis

Add Video or Image

Top Pro

PDF snapshots & notes

Lets to save PDF snapshots of all web pages. EmailThis also lets you add notes and keywords for faster searching. See More

katz's Experience

Works great! With one-click, the whole page gets saved to my email. Great way to quickly capture important content so you can read and explore later. See More

Top Pro

Available on the web and mobile devices

Extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. Bookmarklet for Safari & IE. Also includes a 'mail to self' feature for Android and iOS devices. See More

Top Pro

Allows reading saved content in offline mode

Web pages are cleaned up and sent to your email inbox. They can be accessed even offline from mobile devices. See More

Top Pro

One-click save

The Chrome extension allows you to save articles with a single click. See More

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