Marqly vs Pinboard: Which is better? (2026)
The short answer
- Choose Marqly — Anyone who saves more than they can organize — researchers, students, and heavy readers who want to find things again by describing them. It adds AI auto-tagging, semantic search (find by meaning), AI summaries, YouTube AI (summary, chat, transcript) that Pinboard doesn't offer.
- Choose Pinboard — Text-oriented power users who want fast, durable, no-frills bookmarking with an API, and who value longevity over modern features. It offers public API, which Marqly doesn't.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Marqly | Pinboard |
|---|---|---|
| AI auto-tagging | ✓ | — |
| Semantic search (find by meaning) | ✓ | — |
| AI summaries | ✓ | — |
| YouTube AI (summary, chat, transcript) | ✓ | — |
| Chat with 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 · $48/year (≈$4/mo) or $8/month | $22/year, or $39/year with archiving and full-text search |
- Marqly
- Free · $48/year (≈$4/mo) or $8/month
- Pinboard
- $22/year, or $39/year with archiving and full-text search
Pricing
- Marqly: Marqly has a free tier; paid plans are $48/year (≈$4/mo) or $8/month. 7-day free trial of Pro. Free tier needs no card; Pro unlocks chat with saves and video chat.
- Pinboard: Pinboard costs $22/year, or $39/year with archiving and full-text search. No free tier — Pinboard has been paid-only since 2009, which is how it has outlived its free competitors. The $39/year archival account stores a full copy of every page you bookmark and unlocks full-text search across those copies. Multi-year discounts available.
About Pinboard
Pinboard is a deliberately minimalist bookmarking service run by one person, Maciej Ceglowski, since 2009 — "social bookmarking for introverts." For $22 a year you get fast, text-dense bookmarking with tags, descriptions, privacy controls, and saved tab sets; a $39-a-year archival account additionally crawls and stores a full copy of every page you save, enables full-text search across those copies, and flags dead links. There are no AI features, no highlighting, and no official mobile apps — a stable, well-documented API fills that gap, powering third-party clients like Pins and Pinkt. Imports cover browser bookmark HTML exports plus legacy Pocket, Instapaper, and Delicious files, and exports are always available in HTML, JSON, or XML. The service still runs and accepts signups, but development is famously slow: the official browser extensions date to 2021 and the blog can go years between posts. It remains one of the web's oldest independent subscription products.
Where Pinboard wins
- Seventeen years of uninterrupted service — one of the web's oldest independent subscription products
- Archival accounts store a full copy of every bookmarked page and flag dead links, defeating link rot
- Famously solid, well-documented API with a rich ecosystem of third-party apps
- Fast, text-dense interface with tags, privacy controls, and saved tab sets
- Cheap at $22/year, with no ads, tracking, or investors
- Easy in and out: imports browser HTML, Pocket, and Instapaper files; exports HTML, JSON, and XML anytime
Where Pinboard falls short
- No free tier, and zero AI — no auto-tagging, summaries, or semantic search
- Deliberately spartan 2009-era interface that has barely changed
- No official mobile apps; iPhone and Android access relies on third-party clients
- One-person operation with famously slow maintenance — official extensions date to 2021, and outages draw public complaints
- Full-text search requires the pricier $39/year archival account
About Marqly
Marqly is an AI bookmark manager built around a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari, plus a web app and an iOS app. Every save is tagged and summarized automatically, and semantic search lets you retrieve any bookmark by describing what you remember instead of matching exact keywords. On YouTube, an AI card next to the player adds a streaming summary, a playback-synced transcript, and transcript-grounded chat. A built-in highlighter marks up any website in six colors with notes that persist across visits, boards collect links and highlights into shareable public pages, and any page can be captured as a clean PDF locally in the browser. Imports from Pocket, Raindrop, and standard browser bookmark exports make switching quick. A free tier requires no card; Pro is $48/year or $8/month with a 7-day trial.
Where Marqly wins
- 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
- Highlights in 6 colors persist on the page itself and sync to your library
- Screen-faithful save-as-PDF handled locally in the browser
- One-click imports from Pocket, Raindrop, and browser bookmark files
Where Marqly falls short
- No Android app yet (the web app works in Android browsers)
- No offline reading mode
- No public API or self-hosting option
- Chat with saves and video chat require Pro
Marqly vs Pinboard FAQ
Which is better, Marqly or Pinboard?
It depends on the job. Pinboard is a better fit if you need public API. Marqly wins when finding saves again matters most: it adds AI auto-tagging, semantic search (find by meaning), AI summaries on top of standard bookmarking, so you can retrieve any save by describing it.
Is Pinboard free?
Pinboard costs $22/year, or $39/year with archiving and full-text search. No free tier — Pinboard has been paid-only since 2009, which is how it has outlived its free competitors. The $39/year archival account stores a full copy of every page you bookmark and unlocks full-text search across those copies. Multi-year discounts available.
Can I switch from Pinboard to Marqly?
Yes. Export your data from Pinboard (most tools export standard bookmark HTML or CSV), then import the file into Marqly — AI tags everything automatically and semantic search works across all of it.
Does Pinboard have AI search?
Pinboard does not offer AI organization features — saving, tagging, and finding content is manual. That gap is exactly what AI-first tools like Marqly automate.
Is Marqly free?
Yes — Marqly has a free tier with no card required. Pro is $48/year (about $4/month billed annually) or $8/month, with a 7-day free trial. Pro unlocks chat with your saves and chat with YouTube videos.