Alternatives to Shaarli
Minimalist, no-database self-hosted bookmarking and link-sharing platform
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Where Shaarli stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave Shaarli
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.
Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Servas is an open-source, self-hosted bookmark manager built on Laravel/Inertia with a Svelte frontend, organizing bookmarks into nested groups filterable by tags.
mymind is a save-everything bookmarking tool that uses AI to automatically classify and tag saved links, screenshots, quotes and notes so users don't have to manually sort them.
Bookmark Ninja is a browser-based bookmark manager aimed at individuals and teams, offering tagging, a customizable multi-column dashboard, duplicate detection, a dead-link finder, and optional passwo.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Bookmark managers checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Bookmark managers checklist | Shaarli | Raindrop.io | Diigo | Linkwarden | LinkAce | Linkding |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Browser extension | ||||||
| Full-text search of pages | ||||||
| Tags & collections | ||||||
| Sharing | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| Broken-link detection | ||||||
| Highlights | ||||||
| API | ||||||
| Import from browser | ||||||
| Archive page copies |
Every fact and feature listed for Shaarli is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Starts at Free verified 2026-07-30
No paid tier exists; you self-host it at your own infrastructure cost.
Shaarli is [Free Software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software).
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/README.md -
License zlib/libpng verified 2026-07-30
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)
Files: * License: zlib/libpng
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/COPYING -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-30
Self-hosted open-source project with no vendor and no paid tier or pricing page.
Shaarli is [Free Software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software).
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/README.md -
Platforms Web verified 2026-07-30
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.
open this location your web browser
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Installation.md -
Status active verified 2026-07-30
Latest release v0.16.3 shipped 2026-06-28; repository commit history shows commits as recent as 2026-07-24.
## [v0.16.3](https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli/releases/tag/v0.16.3) - 2026-06-28
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/CHANGELOG.md -
Browser extension No verified 2026-07-30
The listed Firefox/Chrome extensions (Shaanti, Add to Shaarli, WebLinks Ext, etc.) are third-party community projects, not an official Shaarli-maintained extension.
_Unofficial but related work on Shaarli._
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Community-and-related-software.md -
Full-text search of pages No verified 2026-07-30
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.
**Plain text search:** Use `Search text` to search in all fields of all Shaares (Title, URL, Description...)
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Usage.md -
Tags & collections Partial verified 2026-07-30
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.
For each
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Usage.md -
Sharing Yes verified 2026-07-30
Public/private visibility, permalinks, and RSS/ATOM feeds (per Usage.md) let saved links be shared publicly.
Shaarli is a minimalist link sharing service that you can install on your own server.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/README.md -
Self-hostable Yes verified 2026-07-30
To install Shaarli, simply place the files from the latest release .zip archive under your webserver's document root
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Installation.md -
Broken-link detection No verified 2026-07-30
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.
[Self dead link](https://framagit.org/qwertygc/shaarli-dev-code/blob/master/self-dead-link.php) - Detect dead links on shaarli.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Community-and-related-software.md -
Highlights No verified 2026-07-30
The full list of customizable Shaare attributes has no text-highlighting/annotation capability.
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
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Usage.md -
API Yes verified 2026-07-30
See the **[REST API documentation](https://shaarli.github.io/api-documentation/)** for a list of available endpoints and parameters.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/REST-API.md -
Import from browser Yes verified 2026-07-30
To **import a HTML bookmarks file** exported from your browser, just use the `Import` feature.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Usage.md -
Archive page copies Partial verified 2026-07-30
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.
`archiveorg`: For each Shaare, add a link to the archived page on Archive.org
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shaarli/Shaarli/master/doc/md/Plugins.md
FAQ
Yes. Raindrop.io, Diigo and LinkAce have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Linkwarden, LinkAce and Linkding — every license claim links its source.