Pocket alternatives in 2026: what to do with your library
Mozilla switched Pocket off and deleted the data. Here is a straight comparison, with prices verified on 9 November 2026, of the alternatives that actually work today: Raindrop.io, Instapaper, Readwise Reader and lueggo — including an honest note on when each one is the wrong choice.
The short answer
Pocket was the default read-it-later app for close to twenty years and reached more than 10 million people. Mozilla announced the shutdown on 22 May 2025, switched the service off on 8 July 2025 and deleted the data on 8 October 2025. If you still had links in there, there is no official way to get them back: the export closed with the product.
Three replacements cover almost everyone, depending on what you were after. Raindrop.io is the closest swap: an unlimited free plan, nested collections and extensions for every browser. Instapaper is the old-school distraction-free reader, at $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year (verified 9 November 2026). Readwise Reader is the most capable of the three — RSS, PDFs, highlights, AI summaries — but it has no permanent free plan and costs $9.99 a month billed annually or $12.99 a month (verified 9 November 2026).
lueggo is the fourth, and the only one that adds the step the whole category was missing: a weekly plan that turns what you saved into what you actually do. Plus background enrichment, natural-language search and full export to Markdown, JSON and CSV. Pro is €1.99 a month or €9.99 a year, and there is a €49 lifetime plan.
Every price and feature quoted on this page was verified on 9 November 2026 against each product's own site. Plans change: check the current pricing before you decide.
Side by side
Where we could not confirm a detail against an official source, the cell says Not verified. We would rather leave a gap than invent a number.
| What to look at | Pocket (closed) | Raindrop.io | Instapaper | Readwise Reader | lueggo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Status | Off on 08/07/2025; data deleted 08/10/2025 | Active | Active | Active | Private beta (waitlist open) |
| Free plan | No longer exists | Unlimited: bookmarks, collections, devices | Limited (the free-plan details are not verified) | No permanent free plan (30-day trial) | No expiry (30 AI enrichments a month, one synced device) |
| Paid price | Historically ~$4.99 a month and ~$29.99 a year (an estimate from our own competitive map, not confirmed against an official source) | ~$3 a month · $27.99–29 a year | $5.99 a month · $59.99 a year | $9.99 a month billed annually ($119.88 a year) · $12.99 a month | €1.99 a month · €9.99 a year · €49 for life |
| Browser extension | Service gone | Yes (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari) | Yes | Yes | In development |
| iOS / Android apps | Service gone | Yes / Yes | Yes / Yes | Yes / Yes | In development |
| Full-text search | Not verified (service closed) | Yes, on the Pro plan | Not verified | Yes | Yes, locally and offline |
| Export | No longer available: the data was deleted | CSV, HTML and TXT | Limited | Not verified | Markdown, JSON and CSV (on the free plan too) |
| AI | Not verified (service closed) | Yes, on Pro (Stella: AI Assistant and AI Suggestions) | No | Yes (summaries and Ghostreader) | Background enrichment, under 1 cent per link |
| Weekly action plan | No | No (reminders available on Pro) | No | No | Yes: up to 5 items pinned per week |
Prices and features verified 9 November 2026 against the official sites (raindrop.io/pro, instapaper.com/premium, readwise.io/pricing). Raindrop.io does not publish exact amounts on its own pricing page: those come from the App Store and third-party sources, which is why they carry a "~". "Not verified" means we could not confirm the detail against an official source on that date — not that the feature is missing.
What Pocket did well (and why people loved it)
- One button, one inbox. Pocket's promise was always simplicity: save, and that's it. You had to decide nothing at save time, which made it the default choice for almost everyone.
- A genuinely excellent browser integration. It was, by a distance, the most polished extension of its time, and the reason people installed it without thinking.
- Clean reading. For years Pocket was the reference for what a reading view should be: careful typography, the full article, zero noise.
- The de facto standard. With more than 10 million users according to the coverage of the shutdown announcement, it was the read-it-later everyone knew and no other app could ignore.
- Real platforms. It had iOS and Android apps, a browser extension and desktop presence: the product was everywhere, not just on your phone.
Sources: TechCrunch, 22 May 2025 and the project's internal competitive map, verified 9 November 2026.
What Pocket was missing (and why it matters now)
- There was no plan of action. Pocket was a warehouse, not a system: you saved, and the list grew. Across the category, not one of the 27 competitors we reviewed had a weekly plan or anything like "what I saved and never used" (verified 9 November 2026). lueggo adds exactly that: every Monday you keep, drop or reschedule.
- The business model ran against privacy. Data linked to your identity was used for advertising and marketing, which in Europe became a regulatory problem. lueggo does not sell data and does not carry third-party ads.
- Leaving was expensive. There was no clean way to take your library with you. The lesson from Pocket is the one lueggo turned into a product: export to Markdown, JSON and CSV, on every plan, with no limits.
- There was no real multi-platform alternative. Pocket was a web app in wrappers, with no desktop app and no installable PWA. lueggo is one account across browser, mobile and desktop, with offline-first sync.
- Free stopped being free. Pocket was a paid service in its final stretch, and the shutdown left non-paying users without a reader and without an exit. lueggo has a free plan that never expires.
Which one should you pick
| If you… | Then use |
|---|---|
| Want the most faithful Pocket replacement, with a very generous free plan | Raindrop.io |
| Want to read without distractions, with audio, and without fuss | Instapaper |
| Live mainly in RSS, PDFs and highlights, and price is not the constraint | Readwise Reader |
| Want saved links to end up as things you actually do, with a weekly plan and every device | lueggo |
| Want to self-host and don't mind maintaining it | Linkding or Readeck (both free to self-host). lueggo is not that option: it's a service |
| Already paid and do not want to touch anything | Whatever you already use. None of these pages is here to talk you out of something that works |
How to move from Pocket to lueggo
- Rescue whatever is left of Pocket, now. If you still have the export ZIP with the CSVs or the HTML file, put it somewhere safe: it is the only copy that exists. After 8 October 2025 the data is gone and there is no official way to recover it (verified 9 November 2026).
- Upload the file to lueggo's importer. The importer understands Pocket's formats (the export link, the CSV in a ZIP and the HTML) and separates articles, favourites, lists and notes. It is in development and opens with the private beta — which is why this page does not promise a date.
- Check the preview before you import. Every link comes across with its URL, its title and its date. Dead links are flagged, and background enrichment tells you which ones those are.
- Lists become folders; favourites become a special folder. Notes and highlights stay attached to their link instead of floating loose.
- Capture new things from the site itself. The flow is the one you used with Pocket's extension: one click and a tag. From there, new saves land in lueggo.
No ZIP left? Then start clean. That is what happened to most people looking for a Pocket alternative in 2026, and it is not the dramatic part.
What lueggo does differently
- A weekly plan. What you saved turns into a dated decision: every Monday you keep, drop or reschedule. It is the one step that turns an archive into a plan.
- Background enrichment. Title, summary, tags, type (article, video, recipe, product, place) and price — no friction, and the AI can never block a save. Under a cent per link.
- Full export, always. Markdown, JSON and CSV, on every plan, with no limits. If you ever leave, you leave with everything.
- Natural-language search and chat with citations. "A salmon-with-honey recipe from one specific creator" finds what you saved, and every answer points at the link it came from.
- One account, every device. Browser, phone, tablet and desktop on the same account (multi-device sync is part of Pro), with offline-first sync: you can save and search with no signal.
lueggo pricing
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | €0, forever | Saving, folders, tags, search, capture, offline use, the basic weekly plan, natural-language search and full export |
| Pro monthly | €1.99 a month | All of the above with no AI cap, sync across all your devices, integrations, API and price alerts |
| Pro yearly | €9.99 a year | The same, with two months free compared with paying monthly |
| Lifetime | €49 once | Pro, forever, with no renewals |
lueggo prices set on 9 November 2026. In this category, the cheapest subscription that includes AI and sync runs about $3 a month (Raindrop.io) and the most expensive reaches $12.99 a month (Readwise Reader). All verified 9 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Is Pocket coming back?
There is no announced revival. Mozilla announced the shutdown on 22 May 2025, switched the service off on 8 July 2025 and deleted the data on 8 October 2025 (verified 9 November 2026). If you join the lueggo waitlist, what you get is the lueggo beta — not a resurrected Pocket. They are different products solving different problems.
Can I recover my Pocket links if I no longer have the export?
Not through Pocket. The data was deleted on 8 October 2025 and the export went away with the service (verified 9 November 2026). If you still have the ZIP with the CSVs or the HTML, keep it: the lueggo importer understands Pocket formats. If you do not have it, the only route left is opening the original URL of each link, if it still resolves.
Which Pocket alternative is the closest thing to Pocket?
Raindrop.io: one-click capture, an unlimited free plan, apps and extensions on every platform. Instapaper, if what you actually wanted was distraction-free reading with audio. And lueggo, if beyond archiving you want to act on what you saved: the weekly plan is the step Pocket never had (verified 9 November 2026).
How much do Pocket alternatives cost?
Raindrop.io runs about $3 a month and $27.99–29 a year; the exact figures are not shown on its own pricing page and come from the App Store and third-party sources. Instapaper is $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and Readwise Reader is $9.99 a month billed annually or $12.99 a month, with no permanent free plan. Verified 9 November 2026. lueggo Pro: €1.99 a month, €9.99 a year or €49 for life.
Can I try an alternative before moving everything?
Yes. Raindrop.io has an unlimited free plan and lueggo has a free plan that does not expire (30 AI enrichments a month and one synced device), so you can import, use it for a month and decide. Readwise Reader offers a 30-day trial only (verified 9 November 2026). And moving is not a one-way door: you can export from lueggo again whenever you want.
Does lueggo replace Pocket?
Not exactly. Pocket was a reader: you saved, then you read. lueggo is a link manager that turns captures into actions: on top of saving and searching, every week you decide what to do with what you saved. For distraction-free reading, Instapaper is still better. For unlimited free bookmarking, Raindrop.io. For turning saved links into a plan, lueggo.
Join the lueggo beta
We open in small groups, starting in Spanish, in the order people sign up. No sales sequences, no newsletters you did not ask for: we email you once, when there is a spot.
Keep reading
Trust and sources
- Prices verified 9 November 2026 against each product's own site.
- Your data is exportable to Markdown, JSON and CSV, on every plan, with no limits.
- No ads, no third-party pixels, no selling of data. This page has no tracking cookies and no affiliate links.
- Company: lueggo (legal name and registered address pending incorporation; they will be published before launch).
Sources for the data quoted here
- Pocket shutdown: TechCrunch, 22 May 2025 and Wikipedia (shutdown and data-deletion dates).
- Raindrop.io: raindrop.io/pro and help.raindrop.io/premium-features.
- Instapaper: instapaper.com/premium.
- Readwise Reader: readwise.io/pricing.
- lueggo pricing: the project's internal monetisation model, 9 November 2026.
This page was reviewed by the lueggo content team on 9 November 2026. Correct this page: if a price or a feature looks out of date, write to hola@lueggo.com and we will fix it. The page updates at the same URL, with no link changes.