Pocket is gone. Mozilla shut it down in 2025 — the app went offline on July 8th, and the export window closed a few months later. If you were one of the millions of people who used Pocket to save articles for later, you've spent the last year looking for somewhere to land.
The good news: read-later is having a renaissance. The apps that replaced Pocket are better than Pocket ever was — but they split cleanly by how you actually read. Some want you to read deeply and take notes. Some want you to listen. One wants you to read less and finally finish. Pick by the reader you actually are, not the feature list.
Here are the seven worth your time, sorted by what each one is genuinely best at.
Quick comparison
| App | Best for | Free tier | Price | AI summaries | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gisto | Reading less & finishing | 7-day trial | Monthly / annual | Yes — on save | iOS, Android |
| Readwise Reader | Power readers & note-taking | 30-day trial | ~$10/mo | Yes | iOS, Android, web |
| Matter | Listening to articles | Yes | $60/yr | Yes | iOS-first, Android |
| Instapaper | Best free plain reader | Yes | $60/yr | No | iOS, Android |
| Raindrop.io | Organizing & collecting | Yes | $28/yr | No | All platforms |
| GoodLinks | No subscription, ever | Trial | $10 once | No | Apple only |
| Wallabag | Owning your data | Self-host | Free / ~€11/yr | No | All + e-readers |
If you want to read less and actually finish: Gisto
Gisto
Best for the reading list that never got read
Full disclosure — this is our app, so weigh the pitch accordingly. Every other app on this list helps you save more. Gisto is built for the opposite problem: the four-hundred-item list you feel guilty every time you open. The moment you save a link, Gisto reads it and hands you the point in three lines. You decide in seconds whether the full piece earns your evening — and when you're done, it archives itself, so the list stays light instead of becoming a graveyard.
- Summarized on save — get the gist before you commit
- Auto-archive: finished items clear themselves
- Two verbs only — read and star. No folders, no tags to manage
- No permanent free tier — 7-day trial, then a subscription
- Newer and smaller than the veterans here
If you read deeply and take notes: Readwise Reader
Readwise Reader
Best for power readers & personal knowledge management
The most powerful reader on this list. It handles articles, PDFs, ebooks, newsletters, RSS, and even YouTube transcripts in one inbox, with an AI assistant (Ghostreader) and highlight sync straight into Obsidian or Notion. If reading is research and your highlights are the point, nothing else comes close.
- Everything-in-one-inbox: articles, PDFs, ebooks, RSS, YouTube
- Best-in-class highlighting and note export
- The priciest option, at around $10/month
- No permanent free tier, and a steeper learning curve
If you'd rather listen: Matter
Matter
Best for turning articles into audio
Matter's text-to-speech is genuinely good — natural, ElevenLabs-quality voices that make it easy to "read" a queue on a walk or commute. The reading experience is polished, gesture highlighting is lovely, and the free tier is generous.
- Excellent, natural text-to-speech for listening
- Polished, iOS-first reading experience with a real free tier
- Still iOS-first; Android trails
- The paywall keeps growing as features are added
If you just want a clean, free reader: Instapaper
Instapaper
Best free distraction-free reader
The veteran (it's been around since 2008) and the closest thing to "Pocket, but it still works." The free tier is the best on this list for pure reading: unlimited saves, offline reading, Send to Kindle, and the cleanest plain-text rendering anywhere — no upsell inside the article view.
- Genuinely useful free tier with unlimited saves
- Cleanest plain-text reader; Send to Kindle
- Advanced features (full-text search, notes) are paywalled
- No summaries or AI
If you collect more than you read: Raindrop.io
Raindrop.io
Best visual bookmarking & collections
Technically a bookmark manager, but many ex-Pocket users land here because it's beautiful and free forever. Nested collections, tags, and visual layouts make it the right tool if your problem is finding links later, not reading them tonight.
- Free forever tier; every platform
- Visual collections, nested folders, strong search
- A bookmark manager first — the reader is secondary
- Can encourage hoarding, the exact Pocket trap
If you never want another subscription: GoodLinks
GoodLinks
Best one-time purchase (Apple users)
A single $10 payment, no monthly bill, ever. Fast, native, iCloud-synced, with deep Shortcuts support. It does one thing — save and read — and does it cleanly.
- Pay once, own it — no subscription
- Native Apple app with iCloud sync and Shortcuts
- Apple-only — no Android, no web
- No AI, no newsletters (by design)
If you want to own your data: Wallabag
Wallabag
Best open-source & self-hosted
Open-source and self-hostable, so your saved articles live on your server, not a vendor's — the surest way to never get "Pocket'd" again. There's a low-cost managed option if you don't want to run it yourself.
- Own your data; MIT-licensed and self-hostable
- Cheap managed hosting; works with e-readers
- Self-hosting needs some technical comfort
- Functional, not beautiful
How to actually pick
Skip the feature checklist and answer one question: what went wrong with Pocket for you?
- "I saved hundreds of things and read none of them." That's not a storage problem, it's a finishing problem — try Gisto.
- "I want to highlight and keep notes." Readwise Reader.
- "I'd rather listen than read." Matter.
- "I just want a free, clean reader." Instapaper.
- "I want to organize and find links." Raindrop.io.
- "I hate subscriptions." GoodLinks.
- "I never want to lose my data again." Wallabag.
FAQ
Is Pocket really shutting down?
Yes — it already has. Mozilla discontinued Pocket in 2025; the app went offline on July 8, 2025 and the data-export window closed later that year.
What's the best free Pocket alternative?
Instapaper for reading, Raindrop.io for organizing. Both have real free tiers close to what Pocket free offered.
Which one summarizes articles for me?
Gisto summarizes every link the moment you save it — the gist in three lines, before you decide to read. Readwise Reader and Matter include AI features too.
Can I import my Pocket export?
Instapaper, Raindrop, and Readwise Reader all accepted Pocket's export. With Gisto, we'd gently suggest starting fresh instead of rebuilding a backlog you were never going to finish.