Mozilla announced earlier this week that it will be discontinuing its Pocket service, the read-it-later web bookmarking platform. The service, which has been a staple for storing articles and links, will cease operations in July, giving users several months to export their data before it is permanently erased. While some features of Pocket will continue to be integrated into Mozilla’s Firefox browser, users who have relied on the standalone app will need to transition to alternative services as the shutdown date approaches.
Timeline for Pocket’s Shutdown
According to a newly released Mozilla support document, Pocket will officially shut down on July 8. Users have less than two months left to utilize the service. After this date, Pocket will remain accessible for an additional three months, limiting functionality to previously bookmarked links only.
Current Pocket users are encouraged to export their saved links in a comma-separated values (CSV) file prior to October 8. Following this date, Mozilla plans to permanently delete all user data, rendering it impossible to recover any information. Additionally, Pocket Premium subscribers who paid for annual services will automatically receive a refund after the July shutdown.
Reasons Behind Pocket’s Closure
As part of its strategic changes, Mozilla stated that it will be channeling its resources into enhancing the bookmarking capabilities of Firefox. The company noted that “the way people save and consume content on the web has evolved.” Although Pocket will be discontinued, Firefox users will continue to benefit from curated content recommendations powered by Pocket, along with new features such as enhanced bookmarks and tab groups to facilitate content organization.
Noteworthy Alternatives to Pocket
With the impending shutdown of Pocket, users should consider exporting their data and exploring alternative services. While some of these options are free, others operate on a freemium model, requiring payment for premium features. Here are four leading alternatives that provide cross-platform functionality.
Raindrop.io
Photo Credit: Raindrop
For avid users, Raindrop.io offers extensive organization and customization features. Apart from saving article links, users can also store images, documents, and various web content. The freemium service grants unlimited bookmarks, collections, and highlights on the free plan, along with access to over 2,600 integrations.
Raindrop.io is accessible on multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Users who subscribe to the Pro plan gain additional benefits such as full-text search capabilities, AI suggestions, and file upload support of 10GB per month, increasing from the 100MB limit of the free plan.
Instapaper
Photo Credit: Instapaper
Instapaper serves as a user-friendly alternative to Pocket, enabling users to save articles, websites, and videos, with all content synced across Android, iOS, and the web app. It also supports third-party service sharing and allows users to organize articles into folders.
Premium users of Instapaper benefit from features like full-text search, a permanent archive of articles, unlimited highlights and notes, and text-to-speech playlists available on both iOS and Android. Additionally, subscribers can deliver articles directly to their Kindle using a bookmarklet or the mobile apps, and won’t encounter ads on the Instapaper website.
Wallabag
Photo Credit: Wallabag
Users looking for a self-hosted option may find Wallabag appealing, as it offers greater control and privacy for managing bookmarks. This self-hosted platform provides unlimited bookmark storage and cross-platform syncing, while also allowing users to view articles in a simplified format for easier reading.
If users prefer not to self-host, Wallabag also provides a paid hosting option complete with daily backups. The service is available across various platforms, including Android, iOS, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, PocketBook, Kobo, and Kindle, and it supports several feed aggregators like Tiny Tiny RSS, FreshRSS, and Fiery Feeds.
Linkwarden
Photo Credit: Linkwarden
Linkwarden, an open-source and self-hostable service, allows users to save articles, web pages, and documents, organizing links into collections and sub-collections using tags. An AI feature is available to automatically generate tags for saved links. Users can also capture web pages as screenshots or save entire pages in HTML format, ensuring access even if a webpage is no longer available.
Linkwarden includes collaboration features, enabling users to set up shared collections with permissions. Subscribers can manage up to 30,000 links and create an unlimited number of collections and tags. Promoting a privacy-focused design, technically proficient users can review the service’s code on GitHub, which offers transparency lacking in proprietary options.
