magpie vs pocket
A Pocket alternative that can't be switched off.
In 2025 Mozilla shut Pocket down. Subscriptions stopped in May, the apps went read-only on 8 July, and on 8 October the saves were deleted for good. Years of things people meant to keep lived in someone else's database — and then the database went away. That's the risk with any cloud saver, and it's the whole reason Magpie exists.
Magpie keeps what you save as files on your machine. No account, no server behind the free product, nothing to switch off. Here's the honest comparison — including the part of Pocket that Magpie doesn't try to replace.
pocket details reflect Mozilla's public shutdown notices — service ended 8 October 2025. checked 24 July 2026.
credit first
What Pocket got right.
Pocket earned a decade of loyalty for a reason. One button, and the thing you found was saved — a clean reading view, tags, full-text search across your saves, text-to-speech, and apps on every platform. For read-it-later, it set the bar. Millions of people built a real habit around it.
The lesson wasn't that saving is a bad idea. It's that where your saves live decides whether they survive. Pocket's did not.
the difference
Where Magpie differs, by design.
A cloud saver keeps a copy on someone else's computer, on terms they can change or end. Magpie keeps the thing on yours. That single choice is what a Pocket shutdown can't touch.
- files, not rowsEvery board is a real folder on your disk with real files in it. Uninstall Magpie, cancel a plan, or watch the company disappear — the bytes stay put. Nothing lives only in a server you don't control.
- the thing itself, keptPocket saved links to pages. Magpie saves the image, the screenshot region, the X or Instagram post — media, author, caption and canonical link in one clip. When the source rots or the link expires, what you caught is still yours.
- no account, no lock-inThe free product never asks you to sign in. There's no login to lose access to, no export deadline, no "download your data before this date." Export is a zip, any time, forever.
- search made for what you keepColor words and hex codes ("dark green", #0f5e68) work because every image's palette is read locally. Turn the optional AI on and the text inside your screenshots becomes searchable too.
side by side
Magpie and Pocket, plainly.
| magpie | ||
|---|---|---|
| status | Actively developed | Shut down by Mozilla — deleted 8 October 2025 |
| the object | The thing itself — image bytes, screenshot regions, snippets, posts; links as visual cards | Articles and links saved to read later |
| where it lives | Your machine — local database + optional file mirror; cloud only with paid sync | Their cloud — and their cloud went away |
| account | None needed — sign in only for paid sync | Required |
| reading mode | None — a collector, not a reader | Reader view, text-to-speech (its core) |
| capture | Right-click, screenshot regions, batch image picking, paste/drag, page link cards, X/Instagram posts | Save button on a page or article |
| search | Titles, notes, color words & hex, text inside screenshots and meaning (with optional AI) | Full-text search of saves (Premium) |
| ownership | Files on disk, zip export/import, survives shutdown | Export before the deadline, then deleted |
| price | Free forever locally · Plus $5.99/mo or $59/yr (sync, web app, managed AI, 10 GB) · Pro $12.99/mo (100 GB) | Was free with paid Premium — both ended |
| platforms | Chrome (side panel) · web app + Android share on paid plans | Was apps and extensions for every platform |
pocket cells reflect Mozilla's public shutdown notices as of 24 July 2026; the service is no longer available.
the honest part
If it was the reading you loved.
Magpie doesn't try to be a read-it-later reader, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise. If what you miss about Pocket is the clean reading view, the queue of long articles, or text-to-speech, a dedicated reader will serve you better — Instapaper for the classic experience, or Wallabag if you liked Pocket but want it open-source and self-hostable so it can't be shut down on you either.
Choose Magpie if the things you save are visual and worth owning outright — images, screenshots, references, posts, the odd link — and the Pocket shutdown taught you that they belong on your machine, findable by color and content, free forever without an account.
try it
Save the next thing somewhere it can't be deleted.
Install Magpie, right-click an image, and the image is yours — on a board, on your machine, no account. This time, nobody can switch it off.
questions
Fair questions.
Is Magpie a replacement for Pocket?
For the part of Pocket that mattered most — a place to save the things you find so you don't lose them — yes, and it does it local-first, so it can't be switched off the way Pocket was. It is not a read-it-later reader: there is no reading mode and no text-to-speech. If you mostly saved long articles to read later, a dedicated reader like Instapaper or the open-source, self-hostable Wallabag is a closer fit for that specific job.
Why wouldn't Magpie just shut down too, like Pocket did?
Because your collection isn't rows in our database — it's files on your machine. The free local product needs no account and no server: boards live on your disk, mirror to a real folder, and export as a zip. If Magpie the company vanished tomorrow, what you saved would still be sitting on your computer. That's a structural fact about where the bytes live, not a promise we're asking you to trust.
Can I import my Pocket export into Magpie?
Pocket let you export an HTML file of your saves before it deleted data on 8 October 2025. A Magpie importer for that HTML is on the list but isn't shipped yet, so today you'd re-save the ones that still matter. If you still have your Pocket export file, hang on to it — an importer is coming.
Does Magpie have a reading mode like Pocket?
No. Magpie saves a page as a visual link card and can keep the images or screenshot regions from it, but it doesn't reformat articles into a clean reader view or read them aloud. It's a visual collector, not a read-it-later app — honest about which job it's for.
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