Linkwarden vs Karakeep: Which is better? (2026)
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Executive verdict & bottom line
The two strongest open-source bookmark managers, split cleanly: Linkwarden for collaboration and a stable, cheap managed cloud; Karakeep for deeper AI — summaries and semantic search — if Docker doesn't scare you.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Linkwarden | Karakeep | Marqly |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 · Cloud: $3/month per user billed yearly (25% off) or $4/month billed monthly | Free · Self-hosted: free. Karakeep Cloud Pro: $4/month | Free · $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month |
- Linkwarden
- Free · Cloud: $3/month per user billed yearly (25% off) or $4/month billed monthly
- Karakeep
- Free · Self-hosted: free. Karakeep Cloud Pro: $4/month
- Marqly
- Free · $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month
Pricing
- Linkwarden: Linkwarden has a free tier; paid plans are Cloud: $3/month per user billed yearly (25% off) or $4/month billed monthly. 14-day free trial of Cloud, cancel anytime. Self-hosting is free — Linkwarden is fully open source (AGPL-3.0) with all features included. The Cloud plan has no free tier beyond the trial and supports up to 30,000 links per user (expandable via support).
- Karakeep: Karakeep has a free tier; paid plans are Self-hosted: free. Karakeep Cloud Pro: $4/month. The self-hosted app is fully free and open source; AI features need your own OpenAI-compatible API key or a local Ollama model. Karakeep Cloud (public beta) has a $0 tier capped at 10 bookmarks and a Pro tier at $4/month — the exact annual price is not published.
- Marqly: 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.
About Linkwarden
Linkwarden is an open-source, self-hostable bookmark manager focused on preservation and collaboration. Every saved link is automatically archived as a screenshot, a PDF, and a readable text copy — and can be pushed to the Wayback Machine — so bookmarks keep working even after the original page changes or disappears. Links are organized into nested collections with tags, optional AI-generated tags (including via local models for privacy), highlights and annotations, and full-text search across archived content. Collections can be shared publicly or edited collaboratively with per-user permissions. The project is AGPL-3.0 licensed with all features available when self-hosting for free; the official Cloud service costs $3/month per user billed yearly (or $4 billed monthly) after a 14-day trial and supports up to 30,000 links per user. Browser extensions cover Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, a REST API enables integrations, and official iOS and Android apps arrived in late 2025 with share-sheet saving and offline caching.
About Karakeep
Karakeep is an open-source "bookmark everything" app, launched as Hoarder and renamed in early 2025. It is built for self-hosting: a Docker install stores links, notes, images, videos, and PDFs on your own server, with full-page archiving to guard against link rot. AI does the filing — automatic tagging and summaries run through any OpenAI-compatible API or a local Ollama model, so nothing has to leave your machine. Search is Meilisearch-backed full text, with semantic and hybrid modes added in 2026. Around the core are browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, iOS and Android apps with offline reading, highlights, shareable public lists with RSS feeds, a REST API, and an MCP server for AI agents. Imports cover Pocket, browser bookmark HTML, Omnivore, Instapaper, Linkwarden, and mymind exports. A hosted Karakeep Cloud is in public beta, with a Pro tier at $4 per month.
Which should you choose?
This is the closest matchup in self-hosted bookmarking. Both are open source with free, fully featured self-hosting. Both archive saved pages against link rot. Both offer AI tagging that can run on local models, browser extensions, mobile apps, and REST APIs. The differences live at the edges — and the edges are where you’ll spend your time. Linkwarden leans social and stable: nested collections with per-user permissions, public sharing, and a mature Cloud at $3/month. Karakeep (formerly Hoarder, renamed in early 2025) leans intelligent and tinkerable: AI summaries, semantic and hybrid search via Meilisearch, webhooks, a CLI, and an MCP server for AI agents.
Choose Linkwarden if:
- You share libraries — collaborative collections with permissions are its distinctive feature.
- You want managed hosting that isn’t a beta: $3/month per user billed yearly, 14-day trial, up to 30,000 links.
- Preservation is the goal — every link stored as screenshot, PDF, and readable copy, with Wayback Machine push.
Choose Karakeep if:
- You want the fuller AI stack: auto-tagging plus summaries plus semantic search, all runnable on a private Ollama model.
- You automate — webhooks, CLI, MCP server, and yt-dlp video archiving reward the tinkerer.
- Safari matters: Karakeep has an extension for it; Linkwarden covers Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
The hosted comparison is lopsided for now. Linkwarden Cloud is an established product; Karakeep Cloud remains a public beta whose free tier allows just 10 bookmarks, with Pro at $4/month. Both projects shipped mobile apps recently — Linkwarden’s arrived in late 2025 and are still catching up to the web experience, while Karakeep added offline reading in 2026. Neither offers AI Q&A over your saves. Teams and anyone wanting a dependable hosted service should take Linkwarden today; solo self-hosters who want their bookmarks to file and summarize themselves should take Karakeep.
Sources checked (October 6, 2026): Linkwarden on GitHub for product scope, licence and release cadence; docs.karakeep.app and the Karakeep repository for the AI stack, search modes and the rename from Hoarder. Pricing lines above match what those pages and each project’s cloud sign-up state on that date; prices move — check the source before committing.
Migrating between them (or toward a hosted tool): both are open archives by design — Linkwarden’s UI exports its collections and Karakeep’s settings export the library — and both accept the browser-style bookmark HTML that most tools produce, so the reliable cross-tool path is bookmark HTML or CSV with a URL column rather than a vendor-locked JSON. What survives any move: URLs, titles, folders (flattened one level or two) and tags. What does not, anywhere: original save dates — the import stamps the destination date, so keep the export file if chronology matters. If the reason you are moving is retrieval rather than custody, that is the one axis where a hosted AI manager is ahead of both (see Marqly vs Linkwarden and Marqly vs Karakeep) — and see what we measured about import fidelity in the bookmark-export study.
The managed alternative: Zero-setup cloud with AI retrieval
If you want the power of AI retrieval without configuring Docker containers, managing local models, or dealing with unsearchable link graveyards, Marqly delivers a complete managed solution. Marqly provides whole-library search, web highlights, and distraction-free reading on the Free tier, with Pro adding automated AI tagging, summaries, and semantic search by meaning.
Linkwarden vs Karakeep FAQ
Which has better search, Linkwarden or Karakeep?
Karakeep. Its Meilisearch-backed engine covers full text and added semantic and hybrid modes in 2026, so you can find saves by meaning as well as keywords. Linkwarden's search is keyword and full-text only — thorough across archived page content, but with no semantic layer, no summaries, and no chat.
How do their cloud plans compare?
Linkwarden Cloud is the mature option: $3/month per user billed yearly or $4 monthly, a 14-day trial, and support for up to 30,000 links per user — but no permanent free tier. Karakeep Cloud is still in public beta with a free tier capped at 10 bookmarks and a Pro plan at $4/month.
Do both need my own AI keys for tagging?
Self-hosted, yes in Karakeep's case: AI tagging and summaries require an OpenAI-compatible API key or a local Ollama model you run yourself. Linkwarden's AI tagging is optional and also supports local models, keeping auto-organization private. Either way the AI is opt-in — both work fine as plain archiving bookmark managers without it.
