People look for a Raindrop.io alternative when the useful parts of the service sit behind Pro, when they want their library on a server they control, or when they would rather deal with a company than one named developer. Most move to a self-hosted manager, a yearly-fee service, or a reading app.
Short answer: Linkwarden, Karakeep and Pinboard head the list of Raindrop.io alternatives drawn from our bookmark manager ranking. Our rule for order: vendors outside the big brands go first, and the largest names are not placed in the top three. Linkwarden is the one to try if you want a hosted service today and the option to run the same software yourself later. Below are 11 alternatives, each taken from the Best Bookmark Managers in 2026 ranking, with its main difference from Raindrop.io.
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Pricing: Free tier with unlimited bookmarks; Pro billed monthly or yearly, with amounts not shown on the page
Established in: Kazakhstan
Built for: Individuals and small groups wanting a free, generous home for saved links
Not for: Buyers who need a registered company address in the contract
01
Why buyers look past Raindrop.io
01
Search and archive sit behind Pro
Raindrop's free plan has unlimited bookmarks, collections and devices, but uploads stop at 100 MB a month. Full-text search, the web archive, reminders, the duplicate and broken-link finder and daily backups are listed under Pro. Anyone who saved links for the permanent copy finds that the copy is the paid part.
02
One developer, one hosted service
The footer credits Rustem Mussabekov in Astana, Kazakhstan, and the app is cloud-only, with billing handled by Paddle. That suits many users, yet teams that need a named company, a contract or a copy of the data on infrastructure of their own have no such route here.
03
Backups leave out your files
Export formats are HTML, CSV and TXT, and the help page says a full backup covers bookmarks, collections, tags, highlights and notes but not uploaded files, which download separately as a ZIP. Automatic daily backups, with up to 30 kept, need Pro. If your library includes uploads, the exit is a two-step job.
highlighting and reviewing what you read matters more than filing links
#11
03
What each one does differently
1
Linkwarden
Not stated by the vendor · Published
Linkwarden publishes its code under AGPLv3 and sells one cloud plan, billed yearly per user, with each user held to 30,000 links and a 14-day trial in front. The pricing page also points to a self-hosting guide on GitHub. Choosing it means a cap on links, which Raindrop does not have, in exchange for a rentable or runnable codebase.
Switch from Raindrop.io if you want a hosted service today and the option to run the same software yourself later.
Karakeep searches saved items by full text, keyword, hybrid and semantic modes, reads text out of images with OCR, and applies rules to each new bookmark. It adds AI tags and summaries and an MCP server. Apps exist for iOS, Android and four browsers. You can use the hosted cloud or a Docker install; we could not open its pricing page.
Switch from Raindrop.io if you liked Raindrop's search and AI features and want them without a Pro tier.
Pinboard has been run since 2009 by Maciej Cegłowski full-time, on its own servers with physical backups, and the footer credits Nine Fives Software. Every account pays a yearly fee, higher when archiving is included, with a one-week refund window in place of a trial. Multi-year signups are discounted. It is a plain list, not a visual board.
Switch from Raindrop.io if you prefer paying a small independent operator once a year over a free tier.
Linkding runs as a single Docker container with SQLite inside and a REST API. It fetches page metadata, archives to local HTML or the Internet Archive, edits in bulk, and reads and writes the Netscape HTML bookmark format, the same file Raindrop exports. Several users can share links. Updates and backups are yours to handle, and a public demo instance lets you look first.
Switch from Raindrop.io if you want the lightest self-hosted option and a bookmark file you can import straight in.
Readeck is a server delivered as one executable or a container for Linux, FreeBSD, macOS and Windows. Saved pages can be archived, labelled, searched and grouped into collections. It keeps highlights and video transcripts, exports articles or whole collections as e-books, and has a browser extension for pages the server cannot fetch. Releases are on Codeberg.
Switch from Raindrop.io if you read more than you collect and want e-book export from your own machine.
Shiori is a Pocket-style manager written in Go, shipped as one binary with Docker images, used from the command line or as a web application. It runs on SQLite, PostgreSQL, MariaDB or MySQL, so it can sit on a database you already have. It keeps an offline copy of readable content by default. The repository labels its browser extension beta.
Switch from Raindrop.io if you already run a database server and are comfortable with a command-line tool.
LinkAce checks saved links in the background and notifies you when a site moves or goes down, then archives the page to the Internet Archive. Sign-in works through OAuth or OIDC, and guests can be given access per link, tag or list. It installs by Docker, Kubernetes, one-click cloud deployment or plain PHP. Official hosting is in beta on a waitlist.
Switch from Raindrop.io if dead links worry you more than design and you need single sign-on for a group.
Wallabag turns articles into a clean reading view without ads or tracking and imports from Pocket and Omnivore. Content reaches it from browser extensions, mobile apps, RSS readers, e-readers or an API. You either self-host from the GitHub code or rent wallabag.it, which has a 14-day trial and adds support, upgrades and daily backups.
Switch from Raindrop.io if your saved links are mostly articles and you want a reading queue, not a pinboard.
Anybox is a Swift app for iPhone, iPad and Mac that syncs through iCloud; its page says no personal data is collected. The free plan exports but holds 50 saved links, and Pro removes the cap, in monthly, yearly or lifetime form. Pages can be kept as PDF, Web Archive or screenshot. Siri Shortcuts, AppleScript and an MCP Server are named.
Switch from Raindrop.io if every device you own is made by Apple and you want a one-time purchase option.
GoodLinks is sold through the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac, and syncs links, articles, highlights, tags and reading position over iCloud with no web account. Highlights come in several colours, carry notes and export as Markdown. The one-time purchase includes a year of feature upgrades. Windows and Android users cannot use it.
Switch from Raindrop.io if you want an offline-first reading list on Apple devices without any subscription login.
Readwise Reader is sold by Readwise, Inc., a United States company under Delaware law. Its plans are the full Readwise bundle, Reader alone, Highlights alone and Highlights Lite, billed yearly after a 30-day trial. Reader content is listed as unlimited across articles, PDFs, EPUBs, emails, YouTube, RSS and X threads. It is a reading product first.
Switch from Raindrop.io if highlighting and reviewing what you read matters more than filing links.
Linkding: It is one Docker container with SQLite and reads the Netscape HTML file that Raindrop exports.
02
You want a hosted service with a published self-hosting route
Linkwarden: The cloud plan is billed yearly per user with 30,000 links and a 14-day trial, and a self-hosting guide is on GitHub.
03
You want to pay a small independent operator once a year
Pinboard: Every account pays a yearly fee, with a one-week refund window instead of a trial.
04
You use only Apple devices and prefer buying the app
GoodLinks: It is a one-time purchase with a year of feature upgrades and syncs over iCloud with no web account.
05
You mostly save articles to read later
Wallabag: It strips articles to a reading view, imports from Pocket and Omnivore, and wallabag.it offers a 14-day trial.
04
When Raindrop.io is still the right choice
Raindrop.io stays a good choice if you want a polished, visual library across Mac, iOS, Android and four browsers without running anything. The free plan covers unlimited bookmarks, shared collections and import and export, and Pro costs about 20 percent less on yearly billing, with a 30-day refund. If you only need to find old pages, check what Pro adds before leaving.
05
What moving off Raindrop.io involves
01
Exporting from Raindrop
Use the export option to download an HTML file, the Netscape format that most managers import, and keep the CSV as a second copy. Download uploaded PDFs and images separately as a ZIP, because the backup does not contain them. Do this before you cancel Pro.
02
Rebuilding what the export cannot carry
Check the import in a new tool against twenty bookmarks you know well, looking at tags, folder structure and notes. Permanent copies made by Raindrop's archive will not travel with the file, so the new tool has to fetch and store the pages again, and some may have disappeared by then.
03
Pausing your plan sensibly
Cancelling keeps Pro until the end of the billing cycle, and the vendor offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. Run both tools side by side for a few weeks before you let the subscription lapse.
06
Questions about replacing Raindrop.io
6 answers
Is Raindrop.io free?
Yes. The free plan has unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights and devices, plus import, export and sharing, with 100 MB of uploads a month.
Pro adds full-text search, web archive, daily backups and 10 GB of monthly uploads. Prices vary by billing choice and were not readable on the page we fetched.
Which alternatives can I host myself?
Linkding, Shiori, LinkAce, Readeck, Wallabag and Karakeep can all be installed on your own server, and Linkwarden has a self-hosting guide. Each leaves updates, backups and security with you.
What file does Raindrop export?
The help page lists HTML, CSV and TXT. HTML is recommended because it is a Netscape bookmarks file, and linkding, among others, reads that format. Uploaded files come out separately as a ZIP.
Is there an alternative that charges once instead of monthly?
GoodLinks is a one-time purchase that includes a year of upgrades, and Anybox lists a lifetime option next to monthly and yearly plans. Both work on Apple devices only.
Which options work on Android or Windows?
Karakeep lists Android apps, and the self-hosted web tools work from any browser. GoodLinks and Anybox are limited to Apple hardware.
Does Raindrop let teams share bookmarks?
Yes, the free plan allows collaborators on collections and public pages. Linkding, LinkAce and Linkwarden also support several users, so shared libraries do not require staying put.
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Sources
Checked 7 November 2026
Raindrop.io pricing: Free plan unlimited bookmarks and 100 MB uploads, Pro features, 10 GB uploads, yearly 20 percent, Paddle, 30-day refund.
Raindrop.io Pro FAQ: Full-text search and permanent copies in Pro, cancellation at end of cycle, Rustem Mussabekov, Astana.
Raindrop.io home: Apps and browsers, cloud-based architecture, collaboration, web archive.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Author and fact-checker: Sebastiaan Smits. This page was last reviewed on 7 November 2026; our review process is public.
