Instapaper vs Raindrop.io
We give Instapaper and Raindrop.io the same GPA: 3.8 out of 4.0. Instapaper grades higher on ease of use. Raindrop.io grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Instapaper
Read-later app that strips articles down to clean text
Raindrop.io
Bookmark manager with collections, tags and highlights
How we grade them
| 3.8GPAInstapaperExcellent | 3.8GPARaindrop.ioExcellent | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPremium is $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year, a little above the middle for reading apps. It adds full-text search, a PDF reader, a permanent archive, unlimited notes, Kindle digests and AI Voices. Fair enough, though we'd have liked search without paying. | APro is $28 a year, or $3 a month. For that you get full-text search, a saved copy of every page, reminders, daily backups, the AI assistant and 10 GB of uploads a month. That's cheaper than most paid reading apps. |
| Free plan and trial | AUnlimited saves, sync across web, iOS and Android, folders, offline reading and even API access, all free. Most people could stay here. The caps are 5 notes a month, and 10 AI summaries and 10 speed-read articles a month, and the website shows ads. | AUnlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights and devices, with sharing and collaboration thrown in. The main limit is 100 MB of file uploads a month. Most people never need to pay. |
| Features | AA clean reading view with your choice of fonts, margins and spacing, offline reading on phones, highlights and notes that export to Markdown, Obsidian, Evernote or Notion, text to speech, AI summaries and delivery to Kindle, Kobo and Boox eReaders. Search, PDFs and the permanent archive are Premium. | ACollections, tags and filters, highlights in web pages, PDFs and EPUBs, shared collections and public pages. Pro adds search through the full text of what you saved, YouTube transcripts included, plus a web archive and an AI assistant that's still in beta. |
| Ease of use | A4.6 from about 3,500 App Store ratings. Save a page and it comes back as clean text, synced to your phone to read offline. That's the whole routine. | B4.49 from 416 App Store ratings. You sort links into collections and tags and pick how they look: grid, headlines, masonry or a plain list. A public collection needs no sign-up from the people you send it to. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWeb, Mac, iPhone, Android and a browser extension, plus Kindle, Kobo and Boox eReaders. Highlights go out to Obsidian, Notion and Evernote, and there's API access on free accounts too. One gap: AI summaries aren't on Android yet. | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and browser extensions, with an API and hooks into Zapier, IFTTT, Make, Notion, Readwise and more. The one gap is Linux, as the desktop apps are macOS and Windows only. |
| Best for | reading saved articles without the clutter | all-round bookmarking on every device |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Instapaper and Raindrop.io. How we grade
Where they differ
- Instapaper starts at $5.99 per month, or $59.99 per year. Raindrop.io starts at $28 per year, or $3 per month.
- Only Raindrop.io lists a Windows app.
- Raindrop.io also covers bookmarks.
At a glance
| Instapaper | Raindrop.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $5.99 per month, or $59.99 per year | $28 per year, or $3 per month |
| Free plan | Unlimited saves, sync across web, iOS and Android, folders and API access. Notes are capped at 5 a month, and AI summaries and speed reading at 10 a month each. | Unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights and devices, with sharing and collaboration included. File uploads are limited to 100 MB a month. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Instant Paper, Inc. | Rustem Mussabekov |
| Price read from | instapaper.com | raindrop.io |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Instapaper
- Saving long articles to read later without ads or page clutter
- Reading saved articles on a Kindle, Kobo or Boox eReader
- Commuters and travelers who read or listen offline
Raindrop.io
- Keeping a large bookmark library organized across browsers and devices
- Sharing link collections with collaborators or on a public page
- People who highlight passages in web pages, PDFs and EPUBs
Worth knowing
Instapaper
- Full-text search, the PDF reader and the permanent archive all require Premium.
- Free accounts get 5 notes a month, and 10 summaries and 10 speed-read articles a month.
- AI summaries are not yet available on Android, according to Instapaper's docs.
- Free accounts see ads on the Instapaper website; Premium removes them.
Raindrop.io
- Full-text search, the web archive, reminders and the AI assistant are limited to Pro.
- Free accounts can upload 100 MB of files a month; Pro raises the limit to 10 GB.
- Notes on highlights require Pro, and each bookmark holds at most 100 highlights.
- The download page lists desktop apps for macOS and Windows only.
Key features
Instapaper
- Decluttered reading view
- Removes ads, navigation and other page clutter from a saved article and reformats it for reading, with adjustable fonts, margins, line spacing and text size.
- Offline reading and sync
- The iOS and Android apps download unread articles so they can be read without a connection, and reading lists stay in sync across devices.
- Highlights and notes
- Highlight passages and attach notes, then export them as plain text, Markdown or HTML or send them to Obsidian, Evernote or Notion.
- Kindle, Kobo and Boox delivery
- Kobo eReaders link directly to an Instapaper account, free accounts included. Scheduled and manual Kindle digests require Premium.
- Text to speech
- The iOS and Android apps read saved articles aloud at 0.5x to 2x speed. AI Voices and multi-article playlists come with Premium.
- Summaries and speed reading
- Generates an AI summary with the key sentences of an article, and can flash text one word at a time. Each is free for 10 articles a month.
Raindrop.io
- Collections, tags and filters
- Bookmarks are grouped into collections and classified with tags, then narrowed by type, tag or domain. Grid, headlines, masonry and list views are available.
- Highlights
- Save passages from web pages, PDFs and EPUBs in several colors, up to 100 per bookmark on any plan. Adding notes to highlights requires Pro.
- Full-text search
- On Pro, search covers the full content of saved pages, PDFs, EPUBs and YouTube transcripts instead of only titles and tags.
- Web archive and backups
- Pro keeps a saved copy of each bookmarked page in case the original changes or disappears, and runs automatic backups of the whole library.
- Sharing and public pages
- Invite members to a collection with per-collection permissions, or publish a collection as a public page that needs no sign-up. Both work on the free plan.
- Stella AI assistant
- A chat assistant, in beta for Pro users, that answers questions about saved content, summarizes it and helps organize collections.
Plans
Instapaper
Free$0
Unlimited saved articles, videos and pages, sync across web, iOS and Android, folders and API access. Notes are limited to 5 a month.
Premium$5.99
per month, or $59.99 per year
Full-text search, PDF reader, permanent archive, unlimited notes, Kindle digests, AI Voices and text-to-speech playlists, and an ad-free website.
Raindrop.io
Free$0
Unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights and devices, sharing and collaboration, and 100 MB of file uploads a month.
Pro$3
per month, or $28 per year (before tax)
AI assistant, full-text search, web archive, reminders, annotations, duplicate and broken-link finder, daily backups and 10 GB of uploads a month.
Ways to pay less
Instapaper
- Annual discount
Save over 15% with the yearly plan
Instapaper's Premium page says the yearly plan saves over 15%: $59.99 a year instead of $5.99 a month.
Raindrop.io
- Annual discount
About 20% off with yearly billing
The pricing page marks yearly billing as 20% off, and the US prices it loads are $28 a year against $3 a month.
