# Alternatives to Pinboard

Fast, no-nonsense, one dev.

Pinboard ranks #6 of 11 in Bookmark managers, with an Alt Score of 68. It is proprietary, sold by subscription from $22/year and available on Web and Browser extension. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pinboard/
Category: Bookmark managers

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Power users and researchers who accumulate large numbers of bookmarks and want a fast, no-nonsense, privacy-respecting archive rather than a social or algorithm-driven bookmarking tool.
- **What you get**: A personal archive for saving URLs with titles, descriptions, and tags, with support for tag filtering, tag bundles, notes, and a 'read later' queue. It has no ads, tracking, or algorithmic feed, and offers strong privacy controls, including private bookmarks and private tags. An optional paid add-on caches full copies of saved pages so links survive even if the original site disappears. It also provides full data export, an API, RSS feeds, and auto-syncing from services like Twitter and Instapaper.
- **How it works**: You save pages via a bookmarklet, browser extension, or API call, tag them, and optionally add notes or mark them private; later you retrieve items by searching or filtering on tags, dates, or source. Pinboard is a paid service with a small annual fee, positioning it as a stable, non-ad-supported alternative to free bookmarking tools.

## Profile

- **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-07-08)
- **Pricing model**: Subscription (verified 2026-07-08)
- **Starts at**: $22/year (verified 2026-07-08)
- **Platforms**: Web, Browser extension
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-08)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Raindrop.io](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/raindropio.md) | 91 | Proprietary | iOS, Android, macOS, Windows |
| 2 | [Diigo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/diigo.md) | 82 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension, iOS, Android |
| 3 | [Linkwarden](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/linkwarden.md) | 82 | AGPL-3.0 | Web, iOS, Android, Browser extension |
| 4 | [LinkAce](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/linkace.md) | 73 | GPL-3.0 | Web |
| 5 | [Linkding](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/linkding.md) | 73 | MIT | Web, Browser extension |
| 6 | [Servas](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/servas.md) | 64 | GPL-3.0 | Web, Browser extension |
| 7 | [mymind](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mymind.md) | 60 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, macOS |
| 8 | [Bookmark Ninja](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/bookmark-ninja.md) | 55 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension |
| 9 | [Shaarli](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/shaarli.md) | 55 | zlib/libpng | Web |
| 10 | [Linkinize](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/linkinize.md) | 50 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Bookmark managers checklist | Pinboard | Raindrop.io | Diigo | Linkwarden | LinkAce | Linkding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Subscription | Freemium | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | Free | Free |
| Starts at | $22/year | Free | ? | $3/mo | Free | Free |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Platforms | Web, Browser extension | iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Web, Browser extension | Web, Browser extension, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android, Browser extension | Web | Web, Browser extension |
| Browser extension | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Full-text search of pages | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Tags & collections | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Broken-link detection | Partial | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No |
| Highlights | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Import from browser | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes |
| Archive page copies | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for Pinboard. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: Proprietary — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Note: Commercial paid service; no open-source license.
  - Quote: “Pinboard costs $22/year for a basic service. Archiving accounts cost $39/year.”
- **Pricing model**: Subscription — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “Pinboard costs $22/year for a basic service. Archiving accounts cost $39/year.”
- **Starts at**: $22/year — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “Pinboard costs $22/year for a basic service.”
- **Platforms**: Web, Browser extension — <https://pinboard.in/resources> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Note: Official platforms are Web + browser extensions; iOS/Android are third-party only.
  - Quote: “Browser Extensions are available for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox ... I don't make an iPhone or Android app for Pinboard, but encourage any third-party apps”
- **Status**: active — <https://pinboard.in/tour> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “The site has been around since July 2009 and has about 25,000 active users.”
- **Browser extension**: Yes — <https://pinboard.in/resources> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “Browser Extensions are available for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox”
- **Full-text search of pages**: Partial — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Note: Full-text search only with the paid archival account ($39/year).
  - Quote: “Archiving also turns on full-text search for your account. You'll be able to search all your bookmarks based on any word or phrase that appeared anywhere on the page.”
- **Tags & collections**: Yes — <https://pinboard.in/tour> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “A Pinboard bookmark can have any number of tags ... you can organize them into tag bundles”
- **Sharing**: Yes — <https://pinboard.in/tour> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “Any bookmark can be marked private, making it invisible to other users”
- **Self-hostable**: No — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “Pinboard runs on its own servers, and makes its own physical backups.”
- **Broken-link detection**: Partial — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Note: Dead-link detection only for paid archival accounts.
  - Quote: “You can if you have an archival account. Your profile page will show you how many bookmarks you have with various error codes”
- **Highlights**: No — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “Right now, each bookmark has just a single description field. People want to highlight multiple sections ... and we're exploring how to make that happen.”
- **API**: Yes — <https://pinboard.in/api> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “The Pinboard API is a way to interact programatically with your bookmarks, notes and other Pinboard data.”
- **Import from browser**: Yes — <https://pinboard.in/faq> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Quote: “You can import bookmarks from Delicious, Google Bookmarks, Safari, Firefox, Diigo, and most other online services that use the standard Netscape-style export format.”
- **Archive page copies**: Partial — <https://pinboard.in/tour> (verified 2026-07-08)
  - Note: Page archiving is a paid add-on ($39/year).
  - Quote: “Pinboard offers a bookmark archiving service for an annual fee of $39. The site will crawl and store a copy of every bookmark in your account”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/