Best Glasp alternatives (2027)
Glasp is a social web highlighter founded in San Francisco in 2021 by Kazuki Nakayashiki and Kei Watanabe. Its extension highlights text on web pages and PDFs, attaches notes, and — the distinctive part — publishes highlights to a public profile where a community feed lets people learn from each other's reading. The company also makes the popular YouTube Summary extension, and paid plans add advanced YouTube summaries, channel tracking, PDF chat, audio transcription, and an AI clone that answers questions from your highlights. AI-suggested tags help organize saves, and imports cover Pocket, Instapaper, Medium, Readwise, and Kindle. Exports are strong: Markdown, CSV, HTML, and JSON, plus Notion auto-sync, an Obsidian plugin, and a developer API with an MCP connector. Extensions ship for Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox alongside iOS and Android apps rebuilt in 2026. Highlighting is free and unlimited but public; private highlights require Pro at $150 a year, with an Unlimited tier at $360. Below are the strongest alternatives in 2027, ranked honestly: each covers a different mix of jobs, and the right one depends on yours.
Why users leave and switch from Glasp
While Glasp has loyal users, power bookmarkers frequently switch due to common limitations:
Folder fatigue & filing friction
Manual categorization into collections becomes unsustainable as your library grows into thousands of saves.
Keyword search limits
When you forget the exact title or tags, keyword search comes up empty. AI semantic search finds bookmarks by meaning.
Missing AI workflows
No automatic summaries, no YouTube transcript indexing, and no conversational chat across your library.
The best Glasp alternatives, ranked
- #1
Marqly
The AI bookmark manager — save once, find it instantlyMarqly covers the core job — save, organize, retrieve — and adds semantic search (find by meaning), full-text search, save all open tabs that Glasp doesn't offer. On Pro, every save is auto-tagged and summarized, and semantic search finds things by meaning. Free plan available to start with up to 100 bookmarks, no card required.
- Semantic search finds saves by meaning — describe what you remember, no exact titles needed
- On Pro, AI tags and summarizes every save automatically, so nothing needs manual filing
- YouTube AI card puts summaries, transcript, and Q&A right on the watch page
Pricing: Marqly has a free tier; paid plans are $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month. Free tier needs no card and stores up to 100 bookmarks with search across your whole library; every library AI feature is Pro — auto-tagging, summaries, semantic search, AI Q&A over saves and video chat (YouTube summaries have a 3-per-month free allowance). Offline reading is Pro on web and iOS.
- #2
Readwise
The highlight aggregator that syncs your reading notes and resurfaces them via spaced repetitionThe gold standard for book highlight syncing and spaced repetition — but expensive and not a tool for saving or organizing web bookmarks. Avid book readers and PKM enthusiasts who want spaced-repetition highlight review and automatic sync to Notion or Obsidian.
- Syncs highlights automatically from Kindle, Apple Books, Pocket, Instapaper, and Twitter/X
- Exports formatted markdown directly to Obsidian, Notion, Logseq, and Roam Research
- Daily review email and mobile app use proven spaced repetition to resurface key ideas
Pricing: Readwise costs Readwise Lite $5.59/mo billed annually ($53.88/yr) or $5.59/mo; Readwise Full $9.99/mo billed annually ($119.88/yr) or $12.99/mo. 30-day free trial. No permanent free tier — after 30 days you must subscribe. Readwise Lite syncs highlights; Readwise Full adds the Reader reading app. 50% student discount available. EDUCATION: 50% discount for students and other members of academia — not self-serve: email hello@readwise.io BEFORE subscribing, then subscribe via the Readwise website. Verified verbatim on readwise.io/pricing 2026-10-29. NOTE: Lite is $5.59/month billed yearly per readwise.io and per readwise-reader.json; an earlier "$4.49" figure in this file was unreproducible and has been corrected.
Marqly vs Readwise → - #3
LINER
Citation-backed AI search suite that grew out of a web highlighterCompelling as a citation-first AI research assistant; hard to recommend as a highlighter, which is now an afterthought. Researchers and students who want AI search answers they can verify line by line, with academic agents on tap — more than they want a highlighting library.
- Accuracy-focused AI search with line-by-line citations — every claim in an answer links to its source
- Unlimited AI search even on the free plan; the core search isn't credit-gated
- Serious academic tooling in Liner Scholar: literature review, citation recommendation, and hypothesis agents
Pricing: LINER has a free tier; paid plans are Pro $17.99/month or $14.99/month billed annually; Max $35.99/month or $29.99/month billed annually; Team $26.99/seat/month (annual). Free tier includes unlimited highlighting and unlimited AI search, but shows ads inside answers and grants 0 agent credits. A card-required trial exists but its length isn't published. Agent credits don't roll over month to month.
Marqly vs LINER → - #4
Weava
Web and PDF highlighter built for student researchStill the most student-shaped free highlighter, but the stalled development makes it hard to recommend for anything you can't afford to lose. Students on a budget who need to highlight PDFs and web pages side by side and generate citations — and can tolerate an aging, minimally maintained tool.
- Highlights both web pages and PDFs in one tool — still rare among highlighters
- Automatic citation generation in APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard formats, built for essay and paper workflows
- Folder and sub-folder organization with color-coded filtering suits structured literature reviews
Pricing: Weava has a free tier; paid plans are Premium $3.99/month (the pricing page shows $7.99/month struck through as the former price). Free tier includes unlimited highlights and notes but caps storage at 100 MB, blocks sub-folders, and shows ads; the site states it "is free and always will be". EDUCATION (students): "We offer an 70% discount on premium plans for students. Please contact education@weavatools.com from your student email address." EDUCATION (educators): NO published percentage — "special offers and packages for classes" via a contact form. Verified verbatim on weavatools.com/premium/ 2026-10-29. DOMAIN NOTE: the site is weavatools.com (plural); weavatool.com does not resolve and is not the vendor. Maintenance-risk signals stand: Chrome extension not updated since Feb 2024, copyright 2022, former iOS app delisted, reports of disappearing highlights.
Marqly vs Weava → - #5
Raindrop.io
The all-in-one bookmark managerA visual bookmark library with generous free collections and highlights. Pro adds full-text search and Stella AI beta for meaning-based retrieval, summaries, and library chat. Collectors and visual organizers who file thousands of bookmarks into structured collections and want polished apps everywhere without paying.
- One of the most generous free plans anywhere: unlimited bookmarks, collections, and unlimited highlights
- Polished apps on every platform — web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and all major browser extensions
- Strong visual organization with covers, nested collections, and multiple view modes
Pricing: Raindrop.io has a free tier; paid plans are $28/year or $3.25/month (Pro; App Store pricing $27.99/year, $2.99/month). Free includes unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights, and devices, plus 100 MB/month uploads. Pro includes full-text search, Stella AI beta chat and summaries, AI suggestions, web archive, annotations, reminders, and daily backups. Feature details checked October 6, 2026 at https://raindrop.io/pro/buy and https://help.raindrop.io/stella; price amounts retain their September 12 verification.
Marqly vs Raindrop.io → - #6
Instapaper
The original read-it-later app, saving articles since 2008Still the purest reading experience in the category; choose it for distraction-free reading, not for organizing or resurfacing a large library. Long-form readers who want a quiet, beautifully typeset queue of articles — especially Kindle owners and anyone migrating a Pocket export.
- The cleanest, most typography-focused reading view in the category, refined since 2008
- Reliable offline reading on iPhone, iPad, and Android
- Send-to-Kindle delivery and a PDF reader for Premium subscribers
Pricing: Instapaper has a free tier; paid plans are $5.99/month or $59.99/year (Premium). Premium doubled in price in late 2023 (from $3/month, $30/year). The free tier covers unlimited saving and offline reading; Premium adds full-text search, a permanent archive, unlimited notes, text-to-speech playlists, speed reading, and send-to-Kindle.
Marqly vs Instapaper →
Marqly vs Glasp, feature by feature
| Feature | Marqly | Glasp |
|---|---|---|
| AI auto-tagging | ✓ | ✓ |
| Semantic search (find by meaning) | ✓ | — |
| AI summaries | ✓ | ✓ |
| YouTube AI (summary, chat, transcript) | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Q&A over your saves | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web highlighter | ✓ | ✓ |
| Notes on highlights | ✓ | ✓ |
| Save page as PDF | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full-text search | ✓ | — |
| Save all open tabs | ✓ | — |
| Public sharing (boards/collections) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pocket import | ✓ | ✓ |
| Browser bookmarks import | ✓ | — |
| Offline reading | ✓ | — |
| iOS app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android app | ✓ | ✓ |
| Browser extension | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free tier | ✓ | ✓ |
| Public API | — | ✓ |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Price | Free · $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month | Free · Pro $12.50/month billed yearly ($150/year) or $15/month billed monthly; Unlimited $30/month billed yearly ($360/year) |
- Marqly
- Free · $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month
- Glasp
- Free · Pro $12.50/month billed yearly ($150/year) or $15/month billed monthly; Unlimited $30/month billed yearly ($360/year)
See the full Marqly vs Glasp comparison → · 2027 Bookmark Manager Index → · How to migrate to Marqly →
Glasp alternatives FAQ
Is Glasp free?
Highlighting is free and unlimited — but public. The free plan also includes 3 basic YouTube summaries a day, 30 PDF uploads, and 20 PDF chat messages a month. Private highlights, advanced YouTube summaries, and Notion auto-sync require Pro at $15/month or $150/year; a heavier Unlimited tier runs $36/month or $360/year. Students get a discount on Pro yearly with an academic email.
Is Glasp still maintained?
Yes, actively. In 2026 alone Glasp rebuilt its iOS and Android apps from the ground up, shipped AI auto-tag suggestions, and updated pricing — all documented on its official blog. The site claims over a million users. The caveat is team size: Glasp is run by its two co-founders, so support bandwidth and long-term velocity depend on a very small crew.
What is the best Glasp alternative?
If you want private highlighting without a subscription, LINER and Weava both offer it in some form, with trade-offs. Marqly is a strong option when highlights are part of a bigger save-and-find workflow: six-color private highlights that persist on the page, plus AI auto-tagging, summaries, and semantic search across everything you save. Readwise Reader fits best for heavy read-it-later use.
Does Glasp work on iPhone?
Yes, well. Glasp has a native iOS app — rebuilt in 2026 with a reader and widgets — plus a Safari extension that highlights inside mobile Safari, which almost no competitor offers. Everything syncs with the desktop extensions and web app. There's also an Android app, making Glasp one of the most mobile-complete highlighters available.
Can I export my data from Glasp?
Yes — export is one of Glasp's strengths. Highlights and notes export as Markdown, CSV, HTML, or JSON, and integrations push them automatically to Notion (paid, daily sync), Obsidian via an official plugin, Readwise, Roam, and Logseq. Kindle highlights export as TXT, CSV, or Markdown. A developer API and MCP connector cover programmatic access.
