Folo vs Readwise

Folo

• Readers who want AI summaries and translation inside their feed reader
• People following sites that have no feed through RSSHub routes
• Anyone who needs one reader across web, desktop and mobile, Linux included
• People who prefer open-source software

Readwise

• Kindle and ebook readers who want to see their highlights again
• People who send reading notes to Notion, Obsidian or a similar app
• Readers who want articles, RSS, newsletters and PDFs in one app

Folo

• The Free plan allows 150 feed subscriptions and 3 AI summaries a day, with no AI translation.
• Integrations, private subscriptions and the secure image proxy start on Basic; AI model selection, bring your own key and AI tasks start on Plus.
• Paid plans offer a free trial, but the pricing page does not say how long it lasts.
• The download page offers Linux only as a direct AppImage download.

Readwise

• There is no free plan: a paid subscription is needed once the 30-day trial ends.
• Readwise Lite leaves out tags and notes, exports to note-taking apps, and the Reader app.
• Reader is not sold on its own; it comes with the full Readwise plan at $9.99 per month billed annually.
• Desktop apps are listed for Mac and Windows only, with no Linux app mentioned.

Folo

Feeds, RSSHub routes and inboxes

Subscribe to any RSS, Atom or JSON feed, or follow sites without a feed through RSSHub routes. OPML import and export are supported, and an inbox with its own email address receives newsletters.

AI summaries and translation

Summarizes an article on demand or automatically and shows a translation in English, Chinese, Japanese or French beside the original. Daily caps apply on the Free and Basic plans.

Folo AI

Ask questions about one article, a feed, a folder or everything you follow, and connect MCP services. Choosing the AI model and bringing your own API key start on the Plus plan.

Timeline summary and AI tasks

A timeline summary condenses new entries into one digest. Scheduled AI tasks write daily or weekly briefings and deliver them to chat or email; they are included from Plus.

Layouts for each format

Articles, social posts, pictures, videos and podcasts each get their own layout, a reader view fetches full article text, and text-to-speech reads articles aloud.

Actions and integrations

Rule-based Actions filter, star, rewrite, notify or summarize new entries. Articles can be sent to Obsidian, Readwise, Instapaper, Zotero and other tools on paid plans.

Readwise

Daily Review

A daily selection of past highlights, delivered by email and in the app and timed with spaced repetition so older passages come back around.

Highlight import

Syncs highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, Instapaper and other listed sources, and captures passages from paper books by photographing the page.

Export to note-taking apps

Sends highlights to Notion, Obsidian, Evernote, Roam, Logseq and other listed apps, or to Markdown and CSV. Exports are part of the full plan.

Reader

A read-later app for web articles, RSS feeds, email newsletters, PDFs, EPUBs, YouTube transcripts and X threads, with highlighting, full-text search and text to speech.

Ghostreader and chat with highlights

Ghostreader answers questions about a document, defines terms and simplifies passages. Chat answers show the highlights they were drawn from.

MCP server, CLI and API

An MCP server connects Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or another MCP-compatible assistant to the library, alongside a command-line tool and an API.

Folo

• Free$0

  150 feed subscriptions, 30 RSSHub subscriptions, 1 list, 1 inbox, 1 action, 3 AI summaries and 1 text-to-speech a day.

• Basic$4.17

  per month, billed yearly ($49.99); $4.99 billed monthly

  1,000 feed subscriptions, 5 lists, 10 inboxes, 5 actions, 30 AI summaries and 300 AI translations a day, private subscriptions and integrations.

• Plus$8.33

  per month, billed yearly ($99.99); $9.99 billed monthly

  2,500 feed subscriptions, unlimited AI summaries, translations and text-to-speech, curated AI models, bring your own key, AI tasks and 5M AI credits.

• Pro$83.33

  per month, billed yearly ($999.99); $99.99 billed monthly

  25,000 feed subscriptions, 100 lists, 200 inboxes, 100 actions, all high-end AI models and 50M AI credits.

Readwise

• Readwise Lite$5.59

  per month, billed annually ($67.08), or $6.99 billed monthly

  Daily Review by email and app, a searchable highlight library, and syncing of new highlights from all sources.

• Readwise$9.99

  per month, billed annually ($119.88), or $12.99 billed monthly

  The full plan: everything in Lite, plus tags and notes, exports to Notion, Obsidian and other note apps, and the Reader app.

Folo

• Annual discount

  Save 17% with yearly billing

  Folo's pricing page labels yearly billing as saving 17%: Basic is $49.99 a year against $4.99 a month, and Plus is $99.99 a year against $9.99 a month.

Readwise

• Annual discount

  Save 21% to 24% with yearly billing

  The pricing page shows a 21% saving on Readwise Lite ($5.59 instead of $6.99 a month) and 24% on the full plan ($9.99 instead of $12.99) when billed yearly.

• Education

  50% off for students and academics

  Students and other members of academia get 50% off by emailing Readwise before subscribing, then subscribing through the Readwise website.

• Nonprofit

  50% off for nonprofits

  The Reader page lists the same 50% discount for nonprofits, educators, military and first responders, requested by email.