Which read-it-later app should you choose in 2026?
For more than 13 years now, we have been building a tool to help you save and archive web articles.
In recent years, the landscape has shifted a lot in a short time. Pocket shut down in 2025, preceded by Omnivore a few months earlier. Services we thought were stable just disappeared. A lot of you are wondering where to turn next.
So here is my take on the options available today.
Instapaper
Instapaper has been around since 2008. It is one of the pioneers of the genre. The interface is clean, reading is pleasant. But the service has changed hands several times (acquired by Pinterest, then sold on), and its best features are locked behind a paid subscription, which is fairly expensive.
It works. But the future of the service remains unclear.
Readwise Reader
Probably the most feature-complete tool out there right now: articles, PDFs, newsletters, highlights synced with Obsidian or Notion, AI features… If you have a well-established personal knowledge management workflow, it might be worth it.
But it is expensive (around €96 per year), hosted in the US, and proprietary. If you do not need all of that, you end up paying for features you will never use.
Raindrop.io
Raindrop.io is more of a bookmark manager than a true read-it-later app. It looks nice, but it is not really the same use case.
Matter
A polished iOS app, built as much for newsletters as for articles. If you are in the Apple ecosystem, it can be a good fit. But if you also use Android or an e-reader, you will hit its limits quickly.
And wallabag.it in all of this?
You might have guessed: I am not neutral on this one.
wallabag.it is the hosted version of wallabag, the project I have been maintaining since 2013. What I am trying to build with this service is simple: something reliable, respectful of your data, hosted in Europe, funded only by subscriptions. No investors, no ads, no data reselling.
€11/year. All features included.
The closure of Pocket and Omnivore was a real lesson. Free services or VC-funded ones can shut down overnight. wallabag.it has been running since 2016 and, as long as people use it and subscribe, it will be there.
So which one should you choose?
It depends on what you are looking for.
But if you want something simple to save articles and read them later, on all your devices, with your data hosted in Europe: wallabag.it.
Try wallabag.it
14-day free trial. All features included, no credit card required.
(14-day free trial, no credit card required)
See you soon!
Nicolas