Pocket vs Readwise Reader
Reader isn't a Pocket clone — it's what many Pocket power users wished Pocket had become: one inbox for articles, RSS, newsletters, PDFs, EPUBs and YouTube transcripts, with highlighting that flows into your notes. The catch is simple: there's no free tier.
The short version
Pick Readwise Reader if reading is part of how you work — research, writing, a Zettelkasten, an Obsidian or Notion vault. It replaces Pocket and your RSS reader and your newsletter inbox, and its highlights sync out automatically. It costs $9.99/month billed annually ($12.99 monthly) after a 30-day trial with no card required. If you just want casual save-and-read, that's overkill — Instapaper free does that job.
How they compare
| Readwise Reader | ||
|---|---|---|
| Status | Shut down Jul 8, 2025 | Active |
| Cost | Was free · Premium $44.99/yr | $9.99/mo annual · $12.99/mo monthly |
| Free tier | Was ✓ | ✗ (30-day trial) |
| Save articles | Was ✓ | ✓ |
| RSS & newsletters | ✗ | ✓ built in |
| PDFs & EPUBs | ✗ | ✓ |
| Highlights | Was Premium | ✓ + sync to Obsidian/Notion/… |
| Text-to-speech | Was ✓ (Listen) | ✓ |
| AI assist | ✗ | ✓ (Ghostreader) |
| Pocket CSV import | — | ✓ |
When Reader wins
- Highlights feed your notes — automatic sync to Obsidian, Notion, Roam, Logseq and Evernote is the killer feature.
- You're consolidating tools — read-later + RSS + newsletter reading in one app can replace two or three subscriptions.
- You read PDFs and papers — Pocket never handled them; Reader treats them as first-class.
- You want keyboard-first triage — inbox-zero for reading, with archiving and tagging at typing speed.
When to pick something else
- You won't pay a subscription — Instapaper free or Raindrop.io free cover casual reading; GoodLinks is $9.99 once on Apple devices.
- $120/yr is real money — wallabag.it does hosted read-later for €11/yr, a tenth of the price, if you don't need the power features.
- You want out of hosted services entirely — self-host Wallabag or Karakeep.