Are you someone who thinks it crucial to find reliable information, review it, and record it for future use? Do you want to use your time more intentionally and be more wisely productive? Do you prefer to read in-depth articles, but don’t always have the time to immediately read with intention and focus when you come across something interesting? Do you work on your second brain, and do you like to save good information for later use? Are you easily distracted in busy environments, and would you rather read your information in a quieter or more inspiring environment, but don’t want to lose the gems you’ve found? Are you serious about the information you take in, and do you want to ensure that you don’t lose potentially important information? Then, a Bookmark / Read it Later application is a great solution. Mozilla offers a solution with its Pocket app, and it is very popular. Unfortunately, Mozilla will be shutting down Pocket on July 8, 2025. In this article, I would like to focus on the Raindrop.io application, which, in my opinion, is a great open-source bookmarking and reading later alternative available on all platforms.
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Content of this article
- Introduction
- What are the advantages of a Bookmark / Read It Later app
- About Raindrop.io
- A first look at how to use Raindrop.io
- How to Download and Install Raindrop.io
- How to migrate from Pocket to Raindrop.io
- Bookmark / Read It Later apps as part of a productivity system
Introduction
I am taking in information in a very different way today than when I was a teenager. I am not referring to the devices or apps that we use daily that I did not have at my disposal in my teenage years, but I am talking about the fact that we seem to be increasingly less able to engage in long-term and intentional focusing on the content of, for example the more longer and more in-depth texts. More and more, I notice that many people are starting to develop a preference for shorter content. I read that many current students have difficulty with reading comprehension and are poorly able to understand and express the underlying message of longer articles or books for themselves. And that may be partly because there is such an abundance of consumable content available today, and many may feel that taking in just headlines is more effective and gives more information than an intentionally selected, limited set of good-quality content. This is the discussion between quality vs quantity. Due to the overload of information, many people scroll through their messages without really taking in the information and seem to mainly take in the headlines and short messages, but much less the deeper underlying information.
“The problem is that our entire digital world is geared toward snackable chunks of low-grade information — photos, tweets, statuses, snaps, feeds, cards, etc. To fight the tide you have to redesign your environment — you have to create affordances.”
Tiago Forte
Source: https://fortelabs.com/blog/the-secret-power-of-read-it-later-apps/
I even notice it at work, where years ago I used to be praised for the thick research and design documents and long written explanations that I produced and shared, while today I am often reminded or notified that my documents are too long and I should keep my information transfer short, because colleagues do not have time or have the attention span to read my longer stretches of text. There is something to be said for both, but in my heart, I prefer to write and also read longer, more in-depth texts.
Like a lot of people, I also like to keep up with my many sources of information. When I go to work by train, I scroll through my RSS feeds, through my news channels, through my list of new podcasts, and so on, looking for items that resonate with me. But I won’t leave it at that, because I would like to read the underlying content of these articles myself. But preferably at a moment and in a setting when I have time for this, when there is room to take in the depth with intention and, if applicable, record parts of the information in my second brain system for later use. I like to do all of this in a distraction-free environment and not an environment such as public transport where I am distracted by sounds, movements, signals, etc.
Splitting these moments, so on the one hand scrolling through a large amount of sources in search of interesting items and on the other hand consuming the underlying information with focus and depth and trying to understand, interpret, relate, and record with intention, can be very well supported by what we call a Bookmark / Read It Later application.
There are many different Bookmark / Read It Later apps available, each with its advantages and disadvantages, price, storage, synchronization options, highlight options, etc. I have been using the Bookmark / Read It Later app Pocket for quite some time, which was once purchased by Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser and the Thunderbird email application. Not so long ago, I came into contact with the open-source application Raindrop.io, which immediately felt good to me as an alternative to Pocket, which will be end of life soon. Let’s explore further below why I think Raindrop.io is a pleasant and powerful application and why I recommend that you at least take a look at it.
What are the advantages of a Bookmark / Read It Later app
Below are several advantages of using a Bookmark / Read It Later app:
- When you are in an environment with many distracting influences, it is often difficult to take in some more difficult, more in-depth information with intention and focus. A Bookmark / Read It Later app makes it possible, for example, to immediately record the articles, news items, or blog posts that resonate with you and to read the items in detail at a later, more convenient time. This allows you, for example, to concentrate on your real work and continue with it, without forgetting or losing the article that came to your attention. Or, as mentioned earlier, to be able to read an article at a less busy time, in a less distracting situation, or simply at a safer time.
- Many Bookmark / Read It Later applications make it possible to read the articles you select in offline mode. Since the articles are often saved on your device, you do not need an internet connection to read them later.
- Many Bookmark / Read It Later apps can sync between different devices. So if you came across an article on your mobile phone on the train that resonated with you, you can pick up the article at home on your tablet, laptop, or workstation and read it in detail. These devices are often more pleasant for reading longer and larger articles than on a small screen on your mobile phone.
- Many Bookmark / Read It Later apps have the option to tailor your user experience to your own needs. This includes layouts, font types, and font sizes. This allows everyone to tailor their reading experience to their preferences.
- Many Bookmark / Read It Later apps offer the option to capture highlights and save them for later use. I firmly believe that developing a second brain and highlighting in texts helps enormously to retain important information with intention, and to give less important information a less prominent place, or to forget it completely.
- Many Bookmark / Read It Later apps offer the option to organize your stored articles using, for example, folders, labels, or tags.
- Some Bookmark / Read It Later apps only show the actual article and remove distractions such as advertisements and pop-ups. This offers a much more pleasant reading experience for many.
About Raindrop.io
As already indicated, there are many different popular Bookmark / Read It Later apps. Think of apps such as Paperscan, Instapaper, Matter, and Raindrop.io. Raindrop.io positions itself as an application that helps you consume distraction-free content. It is privacy-focused and, for many people increasingly important, it is an open-source application, so everyone technical can read and review the source code, but because of it, you can also make a copy without any problem and give your own twist to the application if you are a programmer.
Raindrop.io is developed and managed by just one person, named Rustem Mussabekov from Kazakhstan. I think it is incredible that just one person can create and support a quality application like Raindrop.io. He started Raindrop.io as a personal side project in 2013. But it wasn’t until the end of 2018 that he decided to quit his job and create a small company out of Raindrop.io.
Let’s have a look a the below summary on what you can expect from Raindrop.io (copied from and based on the following sources: https://raindrop.io, and https://help.raindrop.io/about):
- Collect links, images, videos, and books – save anything you come across while browsing or upload from a device.
- Tag and organize items into collections (with the help of AI).
- Highlight and annotate the web – save important passages.
- Search by page content and PDFs.
- Never worry about losing saved content – even if the original web page is deleted or restricted.
- Schedule for later – never miss a thing by adding a reminder to a bookmark.
- Edit collaboratively.
- Sync with 2,000+ apps.
- Your data is securely stored in the cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers located in Frankfurt, Germany.
- Raindrop.io uses AWS for data processing and storage, so it is supported by industry-leading security measures and infrastructure with a dedicated firewall, key-based SSH authentication, and advanced monitoring capabilities.
- To ensure ongoing security, the hosting environment is continuously updated and actively monitored for potential intrusions. All user connections to Raindrop.io are encrypted using HTTPS with RSA 2048-bit keys. The platform’s security configuration supports modern standards, including Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) and SHA-256 digests.
- To protect direct file access, direct file URLs are temporary and expire after 10 minutes. Unauthorized access is prevented unless a collection is explicitly made public.
- Ensuring the safety of your data is a fundamental priority for Raindrop.io. At all times, three copies of your data are maintained across distributed data centers in Germany. In the event of a failure, data restoration is possible to any point in time within the past year, thanks to continuous database backups.
Raindrop.io offers a very generous free plan:
- Unlimited bookmarks
- Unlimited collections
- Unlimited highlights
- Unlimited devices
- More than 2,600 integrations
- Online version can be used in a browser
- Apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
- Extensions for Safari, Firefox, and Chromium-based browsers
- Share and collaborate
- Upload 100 MB of files per month
- All essential features
If you want even more, you can opt for the Pro version, which has everything of the free plan, plus AI Suggestions, Full-text search, Permanent library, Reminders, Annotations, Duplicate and broken links finder, Daily backups, Upload 10 GB of files per month, Priority support by email, Enabled on all platform.
A first look at how to use Raindrop.io
There is a lot to tell, explain, and show about an application like Raindrop.io. In this article, I do not want to go into every specific detail, but simply take you through the basics, in the hope that it gives you enough information to easily start using this app yourself.
When we open Raindrop.io via the browser, we see something that looks like this:
On the left-hand side, we see an organisation area with different options, like your profile and settings, All Bookmarks, an Unsorted folder, Collections, Filters, and Tags. The middle section of the page shows the content area with for example, the bookmarks and articles you collected. The top area provides a collection appearance area, filter options, and an option to manually add bookmarks.
Side bar
In this section, you have an organisation area with different options, like your profile and settings, All Bookmarks, an Unsorted folder, Collections, Filters, and Tags.
Profile and Settings
When you click on your name you have access to your settings. Further, there are some links that give you information on browser extensions, how to download apps, help and support, what’s new, and the option to vote for next features. Oh, and I hope that Twitter link will one day be replaced by Mastodon.
When you select Settings, you will have the below options.
- App: In the App section you can change the language, the theme, the font size, the default view mode, the event when clicking on a bookmark, the buttons you want to show, how to sort the tags, how to handle broken links, nested collections, and by AI suggested collections and tags.
- Account: In the Account section you can change the username, email, password, avatar, sign in options, see the account type, used space, number of bookmarks, user id, and options for logging out, deleting bookmarks and collections and delete account.
- Subscription: Here you get information about the Pro plan.
- Import: Here you can import bookmark files, like from Pocket.
- Integrations: Here you get information about integration options, like integration with Raycase, Alfred, Google Sheet, Youtube, Readwise, Twitter, and a link to IFTTT for many integration options. Further, you will find a developer option to create a new app.
- Backups: Here you will find the backup options.
- 2FA: Here you can add Two Factor Authentication, to activate an extra layer of security.
Collections
Here, you can create different collection folders at multiple levels to organize your collected content.
Filters
In the Filters section you can filter on different file types, like articles and images. The moment you add a new content of a filetype you didn’t store before, the new filter type automatically pops up in this section.
Tags
When you open an article or bookmark in edit mode, you can add one or more tags. Using tags is, in my opinion, a perfect way to organize in a more flexible way than via the collections folder structure, because you can assign only one collection, but you can assign multiple tags. And tags can be on topic level (for example Lifestyle, Technology, Travel) or, for example, on process level (for example To read, Reading, Finished), so it fits your needs best.
Content area
Here you see everything that you collected in the visual style you prefer, like a list view, a card view, a headlines view, and a moodboard view. Further, you can choose what you want to see in each card, like cover, title, note, tags, and highlights. You can collect articles, bookmarks, video files, images, and documents. Collecting items can be done in different ways, like the share function on your mobile device, via the browser extension, or by simply dragging and dropping items in your browser.
Top area
In this area, you have all the tools to sort, view, export, add, upload, and search.
Sort
With the Sort option, you can filter your saved content by date, by name, and by sites.
View
With the View option, you can choose to switch between a list view, a card view, a headlines view, and a moodboard view. Further, you can choose what you want to see in each card, like cover, title, note, tags, and highlights.
Export
With the Export function, you have options to create a backup of your collections, bookmarks, tags, and highlights. With the Download uploaded files function, you can download only your uploaded files, if applicable.
Add / Upload
Here you have the option to add a new bookmark by manually typing a URL or to upload a file.
Search
Within this search area, you can simply search by text, but also by Tag, Type, Date, Title, Description, etc. The search function will remember the ten most recent search queries, and these will synchronize between your different apps.
How to Download and Install Raindrop.io
Raindrop.io can be used in the following ways:
- Linux, macOS, Windows
- iOS, Android
- Web application
- Browser Extension
Here are some details:
Linux
You can install Raindrop.io on Linux as a Snap package.
Make sure Snap support is enabled in the store of your installed distribution.
macOS
You can download Raindrop.io for Intel or Apple silicon-based computers.
https://raindrop.io/r/app/macos
Download Raindrop for macOS (Apple Silicon)
https://raindrop.io/r/app/macos-arm
Windows
You can download Raindrop.io for Windows 10 or later.
https://raindrop.io/r/app/windows
iOS
You can go to the Apple App Store to see the details and the installation option for the Raindrop.io app.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/raindrop-io/id1021913807
Android
You can go to Google Play to see the details and the installation option for the Raindrop.io app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.raindrop.raindropio
Web application
Go to https://app.raindrop.io/account/signup to create a Raindrop.io account. When the account is active, go to https://app.raindrop.io/account/login to sign in to the web application. This option enables users of Linux, macOS, or Windows to use the complete Raindrop.io application and to use it in combination with the browser extension of your choice.
Browser Extensions
You can use a Raindrop.io browser extension to simply add the content of the current browser tab as a new bookmark in Raindrop.io. What is really nice when you have this extension is that you also have a dedicated Raindrop.io side panel. Here you have direct access to your bookmarks, but you can also drag new content from the current browser screen into the side panel to save articles, images, etc.
https://help.raindrop.io/install-extension
How to migrate from Pocket to Raindrop.io
If you are a current Pocket user and are interested in switching to Raindrop.io, you will no doubt want to know how to easily migrate your existing Pocket content to Raindrop.io. Fortunately, there is a solution available. To do so, follow these steps:
1) Open your browser and go to https://getpocket.com/home.
2) Click on Log in and enter your credentials.
3) In the Pocket menu bar, click on Export.
4) Click “Export CSV file” to download your Pocket saves.
Now you will see the following message:
Your export is on the way!
Your export has been requested and will be emailed to the email address associated with your Pocket account.
Please allow up to 7 days to receive your export. If after that time you still have not received an export, please contact support and reference the following ID in your email:
The .csv file you have requested includes the URLs and titles from everything you saved in Pocket. This file can be used to upload your data to Raindrop.io.
5) Log into Raindrop.io and click on your name in the top left corner.
6) Select Settings / Import and click Upload file…
7) Now select your .csv file from Pocket and start the import process.
Bookmark / Read It Later apps as part of a productivity system
People often tell me that I seem to have a very busy life and ask me how I manage this business. Well, I cannot balance my demanding day job, all my different personal interests, and normal life activities and responsibilities in a healthy way without some kind of supporting productivity system. That’s why I implemented a productivity system for myself that is based on a combination of BASB (Building a Second Brain) and GTD (Getting Things Done).
For me, it is about how to use that valuable time effectively and intentionally to make value out of my thoughts, ideas, things that resonate with me from books, articles, or videos, simple actions I need to do, and project-related activities. In this, I don’t believe in trying to remember everything. That’s why I like David Allen’s quote:
“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.“
David Allen
So, immediately if something pops into my head, or something that triggers me, or an assignment I get from someone, or a meeting that needs to be remembered, or something that resonates with me, I record it in one of my available Inboxes. I save an idea for writing a new article in my Projects Inbox, a quote from a book that appeals to me I save in my second brain Inbox, a single action that I have to finish tomorrow I save in my to-do Inbox, and…articles and blog posts that trigger my interests I save in the Inbox of my Bookmark / Read It Later app, which is now Raindrop.io. After this moment of initial capture, I can directly forget about it without being afraid of losing valuable information, and go on with the things that have higher priority at that moment. And because I stored all these things safely in a for me standard location, I can come back to them later, at a more convenient moment, when I have the time, the energy, and the location for more intentional and focused further processing, organizing, or reading. And that is why a Bookmark / Read It Later app is so important to me.
Last week, it was crowded again on the train back from work in Amsterdam to my hometown. I have to walk a bit, then take the subway, then walk to the train, take my train journey, and then walk the last part back home. In principle, I have enough time on the metro and train to read more in-depth or longer articles. But it is always very busy and noisy during my travels, and as an introvert and quite sensitive person like me, it is often difficult to find the right concentration during my commute. So, I mostly stick to browsing and scrolling in the hope of finding potentially interesting and educational articles that I can read later. When I find them, I want to save them for a better moment, with more peace and quiet and more available time to be able to enjoy the content and hopefully learn some new things.
The moment I come across an interesting headline on my mobile phone, I select the share option in my browser and select Raindrop.io from the list of available apps. Here I can add a note, choose my Inbox folder, add tags, and click Save. Now I know that the article has been safely saved for later reading and archiving.
I use Raindrop.io on all my devices: my Samsung A54 mobile phone, my iPad Air 4 tablet, my Linux laptop, and my Linux desktop system. I use Raindrop.io on my phone mainly for my capture step. I use my other devices, because of the larger screen size, mainly for actual reading, but also for organizing, labeling, and recording important highlights and adding extra notes. And when I am doing research on my desktop, I use the Raindrop.io browser extension to easily capture articles.
Final words
There are so many digital applications available that can enrich our lives, but can also disrupt them. I am very critical about which applications I allow into my life. Cal Newport’s book “Digital Minimalism” (affiliate link) has made an important contribution to this for me.
“The goal of digital decluttering is not simply reducing the amount of time you spend staring at screens each week; it’s instead to make sure this time serves something you deeply value instead of unintentionally taking time away from such pursuits.”
Cal Newport
I try to keep social media-related apps out of my life as much as possible, and I try to embrace apps that help me manage my time better, retain knowledge better, and create value. A Bookmark/Read It Later app like Raindrop.io is one such application that adds value to my life, and perhaps to yours as well.
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