Best Readwise alternatives (2026)

Readwise is a highlight aggregator and spaced repetition resurfacing tool launched in 2017. It automatically collects highlights and reading notes from Kindle, Apple Books, Instapaper, Pocket, and Twitter, and organizes them in one searchable library. Its signature feature is the Daily Review — a daily spaced-repetition email and mobile session that brings past highlights back into memory. Readwise connects directly with Notion, Obsidian, Roam Research, Logseq, and Evernote, keeping markdown notes in sync as you read. Readwise offers a 30-day free trial but no permanent free tier; the Lite plan costs $4.49/month billed annually ($53.88/year) or $5.59/month, while the Full plan costs $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $12.99/month and bundles the Readwise Reader reading app. Readwise is not a bookmark manager and cannot store full web pages or links. Below are the strongest alternatives in 2026, ranked honestly: each covers a different mix of jobs, and the right one depends on yours.

The best Readwise alternatives, ranked

1. #1

   Marqly

   The AI bookmark manager — save once, find it instantly

   Marqly covers the core job — save, organize, retrieve — and adds AI auto-tagging, semantic search (find by meaning), AI summaries that Readwise doesn't offer. Every save is auto-tagged and summarized, and semantic search finds things by meaning. Free tier, no card required.

   • Semantic search finds saves by meaning — describe what you remember, no exact titles needed
   • 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. 7-day free trial of Pro. Free tier needs no card and stores up to 2,000 bookmarks with search across your whole library; every AI feature is Pro — auto-tagging, summaries, semantic search, AI Q&A over saves and video chat.

   Try Marqly free →
2. #2

   Glasp

   Social highlighter that turns your reading into a public knowledge profile

   The clear pick if the social angle appeals; think twice if your highlights need to stay private on a budget. Learners who want to highlight in public — building a shareable knowledge profile and discovering what smart people underline — with strong YouTube AI on the side.

   • The social layer is genuinely unique — public profiles and a community feed let you learn from what others highlight
   • Core highlighting is free and unlimited; only privacy and AI features sit behind the paywall
   • Best-in-class YouTube AI — Glasp makes the hugely popular YouTube Summary extension, with transcripts and channel tracking

   Pricing: Glasp has a free tier; paid plans are Pro $15/month or $150/year; Unlimited $36/month or $360/year. Free plan includes unlimited public highlights only — private highlights require Pro. Free AI caps are tight (3 YouTube summaries/day, 20 PDF chat messages/month). Prices rose ~20-25% in May 2026; subscriptions are non-refundable. Student discount on Pro yearly with an academic email.

   Marqly vs Glasp →
3. #3

   LINER

   Citation-backed AI search suite that grew out of a web highlighter

   Compelling 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. #4

   Weava

   Web and PDF highlighter built for student research

   Still 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 $3.99/month billed annually or $7.99/month billed monthly. Free tier includes unlimited highlights and notes but caps storage at 100 MB, blocks sub-folders, and shows ads. Students get 70% off Premium via an education email. No trial advertised. Pricing page appears untouched since ~2022, so verify billing before subscribing.

   Marqly vs Weava →
5. #5

   Raindrop.io

   The all-in-one bookmark manager

   The best traditional bookmark filing cabinet — organization is world-class, but finding things still depends on your own tags and keywords. 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 up to 3 highlights per bookmark
   • 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). The free plan offers unlimited bookmarks, collections, and devices, with up to 3 highlights per bookmark and 100 MB/month uploads. Pro adds full-text search, Stella AI save-time tag and collection suggestions, permanent page copies, reminders, annotations (unlimited highlights in 4 colors with notes), and daily backups. Yearly billing is about 20% cheaper than monthly.

   Marqly vs Raindrop.io →
6. #6

   Instapaper

   The original read-it-later app, saving articles since 2008

   Still 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 Readwise, feature by feature

See the full Marqly vs Readwise comparison → · How to migrate to Marqly with zero data loss →