# Alternatives to Shaarli Shaarli is a lightweight, open-source, self-hosted bookmarking tool that runs without a database, making it deployable on very limited hardware (including a Raspberry Pi). It supports tags, full-text search of saved notes/titles, RSS feeds, a bookmarklet/browser extension, a REST API, and public link sharing. It has 3,800+ GitHub stars and was pushed to within the last week. Shaarli ranks #9 of 11 in Bookmark managers, with an Alt Score of 55. It is licensed under zlib/libpng, free from Free and available on the web. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/shaarli/ Category: Bookmark managers ## Where Shaarli stands out - **Self-hostable** — 5 of 10 apps with a verified answer have this ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Individuals and self-hosters who want a personal, single-user bookmarking and link-sharing service on their own server, rather than a hosted third-party bookmark manager. - **What you get**: Bookmarks (called Shaares) with a title, free-text description, tags, and public/private visibility, plus permalinks, RSS/ATOM feeds, a picture wall, HTML import/export, a REST API, and an optional plugin system (e.g. Archive.org linking, Wallabag, QR codes). - **How it works**: Shaarli is a self-hosted, database-free PHP application: bookmark data is stored in flat files on the server rather than a database. Users add or edit Shaares through the web UI, a bookmarklet, third-party browser add-ons/apps, or the REST API, and can organize and filter them with tags and text search over the stored title/URL/description fields. ## Profile - **License**: zlib/libpng (verified 2026-07-30) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-30) - **Platforms**: Web - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-30) ## 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 | [Pinboard](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/pinboard.md) | 68 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension | | 7 | [Servas](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/servas.md) | 64 | GPL-3.0 | Web, Browser extension | | 8 | [mymind](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/mymind.md) | 60 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, macOS | | 9 | [Bookmark Ninja](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/bookmark-ninja.md) | 55 | Proprietary | Web, Browser extension | | 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 | Shaarli | Raindrop.io | Diigo | Linkwarden | LinkAce | Linkding | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Free | Freemium | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | Free | Free | | Starts at | Free | Free | ? | $3/mo | Free | Free | | License | zlib/libpng | Proprietary | Proprietary | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | MIT | | Platforms | Web | iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Web, Browser extension | Web, Browser extension, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android, Browser extension | Web | Web, Browser extension | | Browser extension | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | Full-text search of pages | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | | Tags & collections | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Self-hostable | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Broken-link detection | No | 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 Shaarli. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: No paid tier exists; you self-host it at your own infrastructure cost. - Quote: “Shaarli is [Free Software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software).” - **License**: zlib/libpng — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: COPYING is a debian-copyright-style file; the 'Files: *' stanza (covering the core codebase) is licensed zlib/libpng. A few bundled third-party assets carry other licenses (BSD, CC-BY, Public Domain) - Quote: “Files: * License: zlib/libpng” - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Self-hosted open-source project with no vendor and no paid tier or pricing page. - Quote: “Shaarli is [Free Software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software).” - **Platforms**: Web — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Shaarli is a self-hosted PHP web app reached through a browser; the docs show hosting on Linux/Debian servers but do not claim any specific end-user OS support. - Quote: “open this location your web browser” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Latest release v0.16.3 shipped 2026-06-28; repository commit history shows commits as recent as 2026-07-24. - Quote: “## [v0.16.3](https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli/releases/tag/v0.16.3) - 2026-06-28” - **Browser extension**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: The listed Firefox/Chrome extensions (Shaanti, Add to Shaarli, WebLinks Ext, etc.) are third-party community projects, not an official Shaarli-maintained extension. - Quote: “_Unofficial but related work on Shaarli._” - **Full-text search of pages**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Search covers Shaarli's own metadata fields (title, URL, description, tags) only; Shaarli does not fetch/store the linked page's full body text to index. - Quote: “**Plain text search:** Use `Search text` to search in all fields of all Shaares (Title, URL, Description...)” - **Tags & collections**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: folder" in the bookmarks you imported, a new tag will be created" — Tags (with rename/merge/tag-cloud) are fully supported, but there is no separate folder/collection concept; imported browser folders are flattened into tags. - Quote: “For each ” - **Sharing**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Public/private visibility, permalinks, and RSS/ATOM feeds (per Usage.md) let saved links be shared publicly. - Quote: “Shaarli is a minimalist link sharing service that you can install on your own server.” - **Self-hostable**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “To install Shaarli, simply place the files from the latest release .zip archive under your webserver's document root” - **Broken-link detection**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: Dead-link checking only exists as an unofficial third-party script listed under 'Unofficial but related work'; it is not a built-in Shaarli feature. - Quote: “[Self dead link](https://framagit.org/qwertygc/shaarli-dev-code/blob/master/self-dead-link.php) - Detect dead links on shaarli.” - **Highlights**: No — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: The full list of customizable Shaare attributes has no text-highlighting/annotation capability. - Quote: “For any item posted to Shaarli (called a _Shaare_), you can customize the following aspects: URL to link to, Title, Free-text description, Tags, Public/private status” - **API**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “See the **[REST API documentation](https://shaarli.github.io/api-documentation/)** for a list of available endpoints and parameters.” - **Import from browser**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-30) - Quote: “To **import a HTML bookmarks file** exported from your browser, just use the `Import` feature.” - **Archive page copies**: Partial — (verified 2026-07-30) - Note: The official archiveorg plugin only adds a link to the page's Archive.org snapshot; Shaarli itself does not capture or store its own copies of pages. - Quote: “`archiveorg`: For each Shaare, add a link to the archived page on Archive.org” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/