Pocket vs Instapaper
Pocket and Instapaper grew up together — two apps, one idea: save now, read later, beautifully. With Pocket gone since July 2025, Instapaper is the most direct place to continue the habit, and its free tier covers almost everything Pocket's did.
The short version
Pick Instapaper if you want Pocket back with the least change: one-tap saving from any browser or share sheet, a clean typographic reader, folders, offline reading and sync — all free with unlimited saves. Premium ($5.99/mo or $59.99/yr) adds the things Pocket also charged for: full-text search, a permanent archive, unlimited notes, Kindle delivery and text-to-speech playlists. If your reading feeds a knowledge system instead, look at Readwise Reader.
How they compare
| Instapaper | ||
|---|---|---|
| Status | Shut down Jul 8, 2025 | Active (since 2008) |
| Cost | Was free · Premium $44.99/yr | Free · Premium $5.99/mo · $59.99/yr |
| Free saves | Was unlimited | Unlimited |
| Offline reading | Was ✓ | ✓ |
| Full-text search | Was Premium | Premium |
| Permanent archive | Was Premium | Premium |
| Notes | Was Premium (unlimited) | 5/mo free · unlimited Premium |
| Text-to-speech | Was ✓ (Listen) | Premium (mobile) |
| Kindle support | Limited | ✓ (Premium) |
| Pocket CSV import | — | ✓ |
When Instapaper wins
- You want the same habit, new home — saving, reading and archiving work the way Pocket users expect on day one.
- Reading comfort matters — Instapaper's typography and tilt-scrolling reader have always been the best-in-class "just reading" experience.
- You read on Kindle — Premium sends digests straight to it.
- You exported your Pocket data in time — the CSV imports directly, tags included.
When to pick something else
- You highlight heavily and sync notes out — Readwise Reader does highlights, RSS, newsletters and Obsidian/Notion export far better.
- You collect links more than you read them — Raindrop.io's free plan is the better organizer.
- You never want a shutdown to matter again — Wallabag or Karakeep, self-hosted.
- You listen more than you read — Matter's text-to-speech is noticeably better.