# Are.na review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> Save and connect images, links and notes in shared channels

Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA.

Are.na is a platform for saving photos, notes, files and web pages as blocks inside channels that can be private, closed or open to anyone. It carries no ads or personalized recommendations and says it is sustained by its members' paid subscriptions.

- **Category:** Read Later & Bookmarks
- **Made by:** Are.na
- **Website:** https://www.are.na
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android, Browser extension
- **Who should skip it:** Tight if you stay free: 200 blocks, and one block in several channels counts for each.
- **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026

## Pricing

As of Nov 12, 2026, Are.na has a free plan, and paid plans start at $7 per month, or $70 per year.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Guest plan: up to 200 blocks, open, closed or private channels, and collaborators on channels.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Guest | $0 | Up to 200 blocks, with channels that are open, closed or private and collaborators invited to channels. |
| Premium | $7 per month, billed monthly ($70 billed yearly) | Unlimited blocks, table view, presentation mode, advanced search filters, full-text extraction and priority support. |
| Supporter | $120 per year | Everything in Premium plus higher API rate limits, bulk operations, import from other services and a custom profile URL. |

Read from https://www.are.na/about on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Are.na before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **50% off Premium for students** (Education): The about page says students get 50% off any Premium plan for two years; teachers can ask for custom discounts for a class. Source: https://www.are.na/about
- **Save 17% on Premium with yearly billing** (Annual discount): The pricing section shows Premium at $7 a month or $70 a year and labels the yearly option a 17% saving. Source: https://www.are.na/about

## Key features

- **Blocks and channels:** Anything saved is a block, and blocks live in channels you can edit, rearrange and search. One block can be reused in many channels.
- **Browser extensions:** Chrome, Firefox and Safari extensions save pages, selected text and images to a channel; screenshots work on Chrome and Firefox.
- **Channel privacy and collaboration:** Channels can be open to anyone, closed to collaborators only, or private. Inviting collaborators is included on every plan.
- **Open API:** A public API and developer library are available on all plans; Supporter raises the rate limits.
- **Table view and presentation mode:** Premium adds a table view of a channel and a presentation mode, along with advanced search filters.
- **No ads:** The site says there are no ads and no personalized recommendations; what you see comes from the network you follow.

## Good for

- Designers and researchers collecting references over a long time
- Groups building a shared collection in a channel
- People who want to build their own tools on an open API

## Worth knowing

- The free Guest plan stops at 200 blocks, and saving one block to several channels counts once per channel.
- Table view, presentation mode and full-text extraction of saved articles need Premium.
- Import from other services and bulk operations are Supporter-only.
- Priority support is a Premium feature; the free plan has no priority line.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.2 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Are.na saves images, links and notes into channels that you can keep private or share, with a browser extension and apps. The free Guest plan stops at 200 blocks, and table view, presentation mode and full-text extraction need Premium at $7 a month.

- **Value for money: C.** Premium is $7 a month or $70 a year, around $5.83 a month, between the middle of $3.99 and the dearer quarter at $7.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** Guest plan allows up to 200 blocks, and saving a block to several channels counts once per channel.
- **Features: C.** Blocks, channels, browser extensions, collaboration, an open API and no ads. Table view, presentation mode and full-text extraction are Premium.
- **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. Channels and connections take learning before they feel natural.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, a browser extension, iOS and Android, with an open API. No desktop app.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Are.na's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among read-later and bookmark apps

- Are.na's GPA of 2.2 is higher than 1 of the 52 other read-later and bookmark apps we grade, and level with 5.
- It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 17 of 52) and worst on features (C, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $5.83 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $3.33 for the category: 24 of the 32 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 20 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/reading

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Are.na you would be making a library of papers and sources to search. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 46 of the 52 other read-later and bookmark apps grade higher. It costs $70 a year.

- You could make: Bookmarks and web clipper: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: A library of papers and sources to search.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: Several people working in it at the same moment.
- You could not: An API that other software can build on.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

**Tags:** Bookmarks, Web clipper, Research, Real-time collaboration, Public API

## Alternatives

- [Raindrop.io](https://toolgpa.com/tools/raindrop-io): Bookmark manager with collections, tags and highlights. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/arena-vs-raindrop-io)
- [Pearltrees](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pearltrees): Visual collections for organizing links, files and notes. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/arena-vs-pearltrees)
- [Wakelet](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wakelet): Visual collections for saving, sharing and presenting links. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/arena-vs-wakelet)
- [Pinboard](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pinboard): Paid bookmarking site with tags, privacy and page archiving. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/arena-vs-pinboard)
- [Glasp](https://toolgpa.com/tools/glasp): Social web highlighter with AI summaries of videos and articles. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/arena-vs-glasp)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026:

- https://www.are.na/about
- https://www.are.na/
- https://help.are.na/docs/getting-started/browser-extension

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/arena
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).