Pocket vs Raindrop.io: Which is better? (2026)
Executive verdict & bottom line
Raindrop.io wins by default — Pocket shut down on July 8, 2025 and no longer exists. If you kept your Pocket export file, Raindrop's unlimited free plan and built-in Pocket import make it the natural home for a large link library.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Raindrop.io | 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 | See site | Free · $28/year or $3.25/month (Pro; App Store pricing $27.99/year, $2.99/month) | Free · $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month |
- See site
- Raindrop.io
- Free · $28/year or $3.25/month (Pro; App Store pricing $27.99/year, $2.99/month)
- Marqly
- Free · $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month
Pricing
- Pocket: Pocket has shut down and no longer accepts new users. Mozilla shut down Pocket on July 8, 2025. Export access and the API were disabled on November 12, 2025, and data deletion began then. Source: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket (verified 2026-10-06). Premium subscribers received prorated refunds.
- Raindrop.io: 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: 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 Pocket
Pocket was one of the most popular read-it-later services on the web. Launched in 2007 as Read It Later and acquired by Mozilla in 2017, it let people save articles, videos, and links from any browser or app, then read them later in a clean, distraction-free view — online or offline — on iOS, Android, and the web. A free tier covered core saving and reading, while Pocket Premium added a permanent article archive, full-text search, and suggested tags. Pocket was built into Firefox and grew a large audience around its editorial Discover recommendations. In May 2025 Mozilla announced it was discontinuing the service: Pocket stopped working on July 8, 2025, export access and the API were disabled on November 12, 2025, and data deletion began then. Source: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket (verified 2026-10-06). Anyone who kept a Pocket export ZIP can still import those saves into most modern bookmark managers and read-it-later apps.
About Raindrop.io
Raindrop.io is a bookmark manager that has been in continuous development since 2013 and is widely treated as the benchmark for organizing links at scale. Bookmarks live in nested collections with cover art, tags, and several view modes, and the free plan is unusually generous: unlimited bookmarks, collections, unlimited highlights, and devices, plus import and export. Apps cover the web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android, with extensions for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and other major browsers. The Pro plan — about $28 a year ($3.25/mo direct) — adds full-text search across saved pages and PDFs, Stella AI beta chat and summaries, plus AI suggestions, permanent archived copies of pages, annotations, reminders, a duplicate finder, and daily backups. Collections can be shared publicly or used collaboratively, and a documented API plus thousands of integrations make it easy to wire into other tools. Raindrop imports from Pocket, browser bookmark HTML files, and most competing services.
Which should you choose?
Pocket and Raindrop.io solved different problems even when both were alive. Pocket was a reading queue: save an article, open it later in a stripped-down view, archive it, move on. Raindrop.io is a filing cabinet — nested collections, cover art, tags, and multiple view modes built for keeping thousands of links organized indefinitely. Since July 8, 2025, only one of them solves anything at all: Mozilla shut Pocket down, closed exports on November 12, 2025, when deletion of remaining data began (see Mozilla’s Pocket closure notice).
Choose Pocket if
- You can’t. The apps and extensions stopped working in July 2025, they have been removed from every store, and no workaround revives a deleted account.
- You’re here out of nostalgia — the comparison is now historical.
Choose Raindrop.io if
- You kept your Pocket export and want those saves organized rather than just queued; Raindrop’s importer accepts Pocket’s HTML export, even on the free plan.
- You want unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights, and devices for $0, with a $28/year Pro upgrade for full-text search, permanent page copies, and daily backups.
- You save more than articles — Raindrop handles any kind of link, shares collections publicly, and runs natively on web, Mac, iOS, Android, and every major browser.
The migration caveat is about reading, not collecting. Raindrop has no true offline mode and its reader is deliberately basic, so if Pocket was primarily where you read long-form on the train, Instapaper or Matter will feel closer to home. If Pocket was where links went to be found again someday, Raindrop is the strongest free landing spot left — assuming you exported in time. If you didn’t, there is nothing to migrate; Mozilla’s export shutdown is final; its notice says deletion of remaining data began November 12, 2025 (see Mozilla’s Pocket closure notice).
Raindrop feature check, October 6, 2026: Stella’s official documentation confirms meaning-based retrieval, library chat, article and YouTube summaries, and user-approved organization in the Pro beta.
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.
Pocket vs Raindrop.io FAQ
Is Pocket still available in 2026?
No. Mozilla discontinued Pocket on July 8, 2025. The apps and extensions stopped working, exports were available only until November 12, 2025, and Mozilla says deletion of the remaining user data began then (see [Mozilla’s Pocket closure notice](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket)). Premium subscribers received prorated refunds. Anyone weighing Pocket against Raindrop.io today is really choosing between Raindrop and other living alternatives.
Can I import my Pocket saves into Raindrop.io?
Yes — provided you downloaded your export before the November 12, 2025 deadline. Raindrop.io's dedicated Pocket importer accepts the Pocket HTML export, and importing is available on the free plan. If you never exported, Mozilla says deletion of remaining data began when the window closed (see [Mozilla’s Pocket closure notice](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket)).
Is Raindrop.io free like Pocket was?
Raindrop's free plan is arguably more generous than Pocket's ever was: unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights, and devices, plus import and export. The $28/year Pro tier adds full-text search, permanent page copies, annotations, daily backups, and the Stella beta for meaning-based retrieval, summaries, library chat, and user-approved organization.
