When I find an interesting article or inspiration for my next post, I simply bookmark it using Raindrop. It’s worked great so far, with minor issues where the mobile extension failed to add the link to my profile. However, the unpredictability of anything on the Internet is such that things keep getting updated, censored or removed entirely, and bookmark managers can’t fix this problem of link rot.
Raindrop does have a permanent save feature, but only with the Pro version. Instead, I opted for a self-hosted solution, Readeck. An open-source read-later cross-platform app that turned out to be the most underrated productivity app of 2025 I’ve tested this year.
What’s Readeck
An open-source read-later solution that’s completely free
I stumbled upon Readeck looking for a better way to save interesting reads online so I could access them even if they went offline. But the bigger draw was having a place to organize my articles from various publications with tags. So when I needed an article for research, to create internal links, or even look for images to reuse, I wouldn’t need to sift through hundreds of pages to find relevant work. This was also a great way to preserve my work, again, from the unpredictability of the Internet.
Initially, I thought of giving Omnivore a chance because it is an excellent alternative to Pocket. It’s open source and still deployable, but betting on a project with no active development didn’t make much sense. Now the only viable option was Readeck. Honestly, I wasn’t very keen on adding another self-hosted solution to my stack, but it turned out to be a revelation.
Now I use Readeck’s tagging system to organize everything I save. My articles are tagged with my name and relevant topics like “Windows,” “Android,” or “productivity,” so I can find them later without hunting through an endless list. The interface is minimal, almost too minimal, but that’s what I like about it. The defaults just work, without needing a 20-minute initial setup and guided tour.
Readeck also handles modern content types surprisingly well. It pulls in Mastodon threads cleanly and even grabs YouTube transcripts, making videos text-searchable inside your archive. The sidebar shows all the links found in an article at a glance, which is handy when you want to explore what an author was referencing without scrolling through the whole piece.
Setting up Readeck
Using Docker to set up Readeck
Readeck is available as a standalone installer for Linux, macOS, and Windows. But I installed it in a Docker container since I already had Docker running on my machine. If you don’t have Docker installed, download Docker Desktop for Windows, run the installer with default options, and reboot if prompted. Once installed, launch the app once to initialize the service and make sure Docker Desktop shows “Docker Desktop is running” before proceeding.
Next, open PowerShell and create a folder for Readeck in your user directory. Avoid system folders like C:\Program Files since Windows blocks file creation inside protected directories. Run mkdir $env:USERPROFILE\readeck to create the folder, then cd $env:USERPROFILE\readeck to navigate into it.
Next, create the docker-compose.yml file in Notepad and paste the Readeck configuration below. The key settings are the image path (codeberg.org/readeck/readeck:latest), port mapping (8000:8000), and a volume to store your data.
services:
readeck:
image: codeberg.org/readeck/readeck:latest
container_name: readeck
ports:
- "8000:8000"
volumes:
- ./data:/data
environment:
- READECK_DATABASE_PATH=/data/readeck.db
- READECK_LOG_LEVEL=info
restart: unless-stoppedSave the file and make sure it’s not saved as docker-compose.yml.txt. Back in PowerShell, run Docker compose up -d to start the container. Once it shows “Container readeck Started,” open localhost:8000 in your browser and create your admin account with a username and password.
The browser extension is what makes Readeck practical for daily use. Install it from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons, then enter your server address (localhost:8000 for local setups) to connect it with your Readeck instance. Now you can save articles directly from any webpage, like you would with Raindrop or the built-in bookmark tools.
Readeck also has apps on F-Droid for Android and the App Store for iOS. To connect the app to your self-hosted instance, you’ll need your computer’s local IP address. Open Command Prompt, type ipconfig, and copy your LAN address.
In the Readeck app, go to Menu > Settings > Account, type the IP address with port 8000, enter your credentials, check “Allow unencrypted connection,” and log in. Everything syncs between your phone and PC from there.
Using Readeck
Add a URL, click Save link, and read it later
Once you’ve set up the extension, you have two ways to save the articles. First, using the extension: click the Readeck icon while reading something interesting, add your labels, and save. The entire article gets archived locally, complete with images and formatting.
You can also save just a section of an article. Highlight the text you want to keep, right-click, and select Readeck > Save this section. This is useful when you only need a specific paragraph or code snippet rather than the whole page. Alternatively, you can copy any URL, paste it into Readeck’s web interface, click Save link, and it gets added to your library.
When you’re ready to read, you can find all the articles in the Library. You can also adjust the font, width, text size, and line height to match your preferences. The multi-colour highlighting feature lets you mark important passages and categorise them by colour, with all your highlights collected in a sidebar and also aggregated globally, so you can review them without reopening each article.
Once you finish an article, you can mark it as read, share it via a link that expires in 24 hours, download it as an EPUB, or send it to the archive. As your Library grows, you can use filters to search by author, sort by date or title, and switch between list and card views. If you’ve ever wanted to actually read through your read-it-later list, Readeck makes it incredibly easy to view and find what you saved.
What’s missing
PDF support, hosting, PKM app integration
A few things I noticed missing were PDF support and integrations with personal knowledge management apps like Obsidian or Logseq. If you use those tools as part of your workflow, Readeck won’t sync with them out of the box. There’s also no built-in text-to-speech or RSS ingestion like Omnivore.
That said, these gaps don’t affect my use case. I needed a reliable way to save and organize articles, and Readeck does that well. For power users who want deep integrations, the API looks simple enough that building custom tools seems feasible.
- OS
-
Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS
- Price model
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Free, Self-Hosted
ve, organize, and archive web articles with tags, full-text search, and offline access.
Readeck is the most underrated productivity app of 2025
Readeck is a no-nonsense read-later solution that’s completely free to use. The interface is simple, the syncing is reliable, and I haven’t encountered any major bugs in my time using it. For anyone willing to host their own instance, it’s hard to beat.
If self-hosting feels intimidating because you’ll be responsible for your data and backups, Readeck plans to launch a paid tier with company-hosted servers in 2026. Until then, the self-hosted version offers everything you need without spending a dime.
