Battle of the read later apps - Instapaper vs Raindrop

For the last month I’ve been trialling both Instapaper and Raindrop to determine which is the better read later apps for my needs. I’ve put them both through their paces and came to a final conclusion because just like in Highlander, “There can only be one!”?

First you might be asking what's a read later app? A read later app is used to capture articles on the internet to read later. Most of these apps will create their own version of the article stripping out ads and other distractions. They can also capture links to video and podcasts. Until recently the two main competitors in this space have been Instapaper and Pocket. However, when I logged into my old pocket account, I found a home screen full of “recommended content” and ugly thumbnails.

To me this beats the very purpose of a read later app which is to capture quality content that can be read you have time to read it properly away from distractions. I already have social media pushing rubbish in my direction I don’t need anymore. For that reason, I ruled out pocket and started using Instapaper which by comparison is a beautiful minimalist app.

In addition to capturing articles read later apps generally let the user highlight articles, annotate their own notes and should have a powerful search feature. Instapaper ticks all these boxes and is lightning fast. The team at Instapaper seem to know their business and who their users are. As far as I can tell the Instapaper has had few new features over the years instead focusing on delivering a best possible minimalist product.

While beautiful, I quickly found Instapaper a little too minimalist for my needs. Unlike Pocket, Instapaper doesn't support tagging. It has a basic folder feature which according to Instapaper only 20% of their users use. The target Instapaper user seems to be someone who wants to capture articles throughout the day while working their computer and then read them at a convenient time on their mobile device or iPad.

My needs are a little different. My goal is to build a personal knowledge management system (A second brain). Previously, I was capturing everything in OneNote using the web capture tool, but I was finding that this wasn't ideal. Unless something related to an ongoing project I was working on I really didn't want it in my notetaking system. Enter Raindrop.

Raindrop unlike Instapaper and Pocket describes themself as a bookmarking app. However, like the other apps it does capture simplified versions of articles and allows me to highlight text and take notes. But Raindrop also allows me to use both folders and tagging plus has a powerful search functionality. Unlike Instapaper captured articles are only considered "previews" and a lot of content needs to opened in a web browser.

Paywalled Content

I did find a lot of paywalled content was not captured in full. However, I did find Instapaper to be a little better at this. Unfortunately, there were still many times when neither app was successful in capturing the full app. This is where raindrops focus on being a bookmarking app shine. I could click on the link open the article in my web browser adding highlights and annotations on screen.

Medium article capture in Instapaper

Medium article viewed in web browser with highlights and notes from Raindrop

Premium plans

Both Instapaper and Raindrop have free plans but to get the full benefit of both apps I'd recommend paying the $5AUD a month to get the full features.

On Instapaper paying for premium gets you full text search, unlimited notes, text to speech playlists on mobile, speed reading, ad free and the ability to send articles to a Kindle device.

Raindrop premium users get full text search, permanent library, nested collections, annotations, autosuggested tags, duplicate and broken link finder and 10gb of uploads. (Raindrop can be used to store pdfs and other documents).

Conclusion

Instapaper and Raindrop are both great apps. Instapaper is beautiful and fast. Its target audience is for people who want to capture articles and Youtube videos and revisit them at a later date. Raindrop is not as refined as read later app but shines as a knowledge management system giving users lots of options for organising. However, I think for many users who are interested in content consumption Instapaper is the better choice. Since I was paying for the premium version of both apps and workflow wise it doesn't make sense to use both apps, I choose Raindrop.