Pocket vs Readwise Reader: Which is better? (2026)
Executive verdict & bottom line
Readwise Reader — Pocket stopped working in July 2025, so Reader wins unopposed. It's the power-user upgrade: articles plus RSS, newsletters, PDFs, and YouTube with AI built in, but at $9.99/month with no free tier.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Readwise Reader | 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 | $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $12.99/month billed monthly (Full plan) | Free · $72/year (≈$6/mo) or $9/month |
- See site
- Readwise Reader
- $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $12.99/month billed monthly (Full plan)
- 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.
- Readwise Reader: Readwise Reader costs $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $12.99/month billed monthly (Full plan). 30-day free trial. No permanent free tier — after the 30-day trial you must subscribe. Reader is only included in the Full plan; the cheaper Lite plan ($5.59/month billed annually) covers classic Readwise highlight syncing without the Reader app. EDUCATION: Readwise offers 50% off to students and other members of academia — email hello@readwise.io before subscribing, then subscribe via the Readwise website. Verified verbatim on readwise.io/pricing 2026-10-29.
- 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 Readwise Reader
Readwise Reader is the read-it-later app from the team behind Readwise, the popular highlight-syncing service. Launched in public beta in 2022, Reader combines saved articles, RSS feeds, email newsletters, PDFs, ePubs, Twitter threads, and YouTube videos into a single triage-oriented inbox available on the web, iOS, Android, and via browser extensions. Its Ghostreader assistant uses AI to summarize documents, define terms, and answer questions against the text, and YouTube videos come with synced transcripts you can highlight like an article. Everything feeds the core Readwise loop: highlights and notes sync to Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, and other tools, with spaced-repetition review built in. Reader is bundled exclusively with the Readwise Full plan at $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $12.99/month billed monthly, after a 30-day free trial; there is no permanent free tier. A documented API and active development round out a distinctly power-user product.
Which should you choose?
Pocket was casual by design — a pleasant, free place to stash articles and read a few on the weekend. Readwise Reader is a professional reading pipeline: a triage inbox that swallows articles, RSS feeds, newsletters, PDFs, ePubs, Twitter threads, and YouTube videos, then feeds every highlight into Notion, Obsidian, or Roam with spaced-repetition review on top. Pocket stopped working in July 2025, so the only question left is whether Reader’s ambition fits the way you actually read.
Choose Pocket if
- Impossible — Mozilla discontinued it, the export window ended November 12, 2025, when Mozilla says deletion of remaining data began (see Mozilla’s Pocket closure notice).
- No fork, mirror, or archive of the service exists.
Choose Readwise Reader if
- You read in volume and want one keyboard-first inbox for every content type, not just saved web articles.
- You’ll use the AI: Ghostreader summarizes, defines terms, and answers questions against the text, and YouTube videos arrive with synced transcripts you can highlight like prose.
- Your highlights need to go somewhere — the Readwise loop into Notion and Obsidian is the best in the business.
The catch is money and weight. Reader has no free tier at all: after a 30-day trial it’s $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $12.99 monthly, and the interface is dense enough that casual readers routinely bounce off it. A Pocket user who saved five articles a week will find that both overpriced and overbuilt — Instapaper’s free tier is a gentler landing. But a Pocket power user who always wished for more gets dramatically more here than Pocket ever offered. Migration is painless if you exported before the 2025 deadline: Reader ingests Pocket files directly, and its own exit doors — continuous exports and a documented API — mean you’ll never face a Pocket-style data lockout again.
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 Readwise Reader FAQ
Can former Pocket users move to Readwise Reader?
Yes, if they exported in time. Readwise Reader imports Pocket export files directly, so anyone who downloaded their archive before Mozilla's November 12, 2025 deadline in [Mozilla’s Pocket closure notice](https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/future-of-pocket) can bring their saves across. Reader then adds what Pocket never had: RSS feeds, newsletters, PDFs, ePubs, YouTube transcripts, and AI assistance, all in one triage-style inbox.
How does Readwise Reader's price compare with what Pocket cost?
Pocket had a free tier; Reader has none. After a 30-day trial, Reader requires the Readwise Full plan at $9.99/month billed annually ($119.88/year) or $12.99/month billed monthly, which also includes Readwise highlight syncing. Casual savers who never paid Pocket a cent will feel that jump; heavy readers tend to consider it justified.
Is Readwise Reader more powerful than Pocket was?
Considerably. Ghostreader AI summarizes documents, defines terms, and answers questions about what you're reading; YouTube videos come with synced transcripts you can highlight; and highlights export to Notion, Obsidian, and Roam with daily review built in. Pocket offered saving, a clean reader, offline sync, and manual tags — a much smaller footprint.
