Raindrop.io

Overview

Raindrop.io is a bookmark manager for people who want to keep browsing finds organized across devices, rather than leave them in a pile of saved links. It suits readers building a searchable personal library or sharing collections with others. Its free plan is unusually open on bookmark and device counts; deeper search and durable page copies require Pro.

Key features

Organizing and finding saved items

Collections, tags, and filters by type, tag, or domain give a growing library more structure than a browser’s basic bookmark list. Grid, Headlines, Masonry, and List views let users choose how to scan it, while article and video previews add context. Duplicate detection is also included, which can help keep a large collection from accumulating repeat links.

Pro’s full-text search reaches into saved web pages and PDFs, as well as YouTube videos, including spoken words. That makes it more useful for retrieving a passage or topic than relying on titles and tags alone. Pro also archives page copies, preserving access when an original is changed or removed. These are meaningful upgrades for research-heavy or reference libraries, but users who only need to save and sort links can remain on Free.

Sharing, integrations, and data handling

Free users can collaborate, set permissions for collections, and publish collections that visitors can view without signing up. That is a practical sharing setup for groups that do not need every reader to create an account. Integrations include Apple Shortcuts, IFTTT, Make, Zapier, ChatGPT, Claude, Notion, Readwise, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive; glue apps can connect Raindrop.io to more than 1,000 other apps.

The maker says data is stored on AWS servers in Frankfurt, with three copies maintained across distributed data centers in Germany. Collections are private by default; file links require authentication and expire after 10 minutes. The maker also says it does not advertise, track, or sell user data. Continuous backups can be restored to a point within the past year, while daily backups are a Pro feature.

Pricing

Raindrop.io uses a freemium model. Free costs nothing, billed Free indefinitely, and allows 100 MB of file uploads per month. It includes unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights, and devices, plus collaboration. This is the sensible starting point for personal collections and lightweight sharing, though the monthly upload allowance can constrain users who save many files.

Pro is billed yearly, with a roughly 20% yearly discount, and custom pricing. Its upload quota rises to 10 GB per month, and it adds an AI assistant and suggestions, full-text search, web archive, reminders, annotations, daily backups, and priority email support. It is better suited to people who need to search within saved material or preserve pages, but the upload quota and feature set do not remove the need to assess whether a paid plan fits your use.

Platforms

Raindrop.io is available on the web, Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows, with browser extensions and an API. The download page requires iOS 17.4 or later, Android 7.0 or later, macOS Monterey 12 or later, and Windows 10 or later. Those minimum versions matter for users on older devices. The maker is headquartered in Astana, Kazakhstan, and describes the product as independent and bootstrapped, with no investors or corporate parent.

Who it's for

Choose Raindrop.io if you want generous bookmark, collection, highlight, and device allowances at no cost, with room to upgrade for full-text retrieval and archived pages. Its collection permissions and public sharing also suit people who want to curate links for others without requiring visitors to sign up. It is less compelling if your priority is a clearly stated Pro price or if your devices fall below the listed operating-system requirements.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Free supports unlimited bookmarks, collections, highlights, and devices, so the core library need not be trimmed to fit a count cap.
• Pros: Pro search covers pages, PDFs, and spoken words in YouTube videos, while its archive keeps copies of changed or deleted pages.
• Pros: Free collaboration, collection permissions, and public collections make sharing useful without imposing sign-up on visitors.
• Cons: Free file uploads stop at 100 MB per month, a meaningful ceiling for users saving files regularly.
• Cons: Full-text search, archiving, reminders, annotations, and daily backups are reserved for Pro.
• Cons: Pro's yearly price amount is not provided, making the cost harder to compare before choosing it.

Alternatives

Bookmark Managers is a useful place to compare more options. Choose Diigo if its free allowance of 1,000 bookmarks or notes and 200 highlights better fits a capped library; it also limits free users to 50 screenshots or images, five outliners, and one private group with three members, with no PDF annotation.

Karakeep may suit someone who wants self-hosted as an option, though its free hosted plan is limited to 10 bookmarks and 20 MB of storage. Delinqs is worth considering for a small group: its free plan supports up to three users with unlimited bookmarks and all features, while its Team plan costs $9.99 a month per seat.

Choose LinkAce for a self-hosted bookmark archive, or its hosting plan at €4 a month. Shiori is another self-hosted option, offered as MIT-licensed software in a single binary. Start.me is aimed at start pages, with three pages and basic widgets on its ad-supported free tier, or unlimited pages on PRO for $25 a year.

floccus is a free and open-source bookmark option from a creator who works on it in free time alongside employment at Nextcloud GmbH. BibSonomy is a free option for readers looking for a web-based service with an API.

Verdict

Raindrop.io is a strong fit for anyone building a cross-device bookmark library who values unlimited saved items on a free plan and useful sharing controls. Its strongest reasons to upgrade are full-text search and web archiving; the main reason to look elsewhere is the monthly upload ceiling on Free or the absence of a stated Pro price amount.