Can You Recommend a Good Bookmark Manager?

kottke.org October 10, 2025 By Jason Kottke

I know I’m opening up a can of bees here, but I am in the market for a bookmark manager. I’ve got a good workflow going for potential KDO fodder, but my, um, system of Chrome bookmarks + memory + pasting links & snippets into the Notes app for other stuff (travel, bikes, design, internet, movies, etc.) is stretched past the breaking point. Here are some thoughts on what I’d like:

  • I’m looking to store lightly annotated URLs. I don’t want to organize links into collections or obsessively tag things — mostly I just want to throw everything into a big bucket and use search to find stuff. (Search should include the text of the original source, not just my annotations)
  • That said, if some AI thinger can organize things into buckets based on topic or, better yet, provide “more like this” for links, I would not be opposed.
  • Keeping backups of URLs in case of linkrot would be a great feature to have.
  • Can be cloud or self-hosted.
  • Happy to pay a reasonable subscription.
  • I’d like whatever I go with to be around for awhile. So probably not some hot new app that’s 3 months old (unless it’s really something special) or a Google app like NotebookLM (the streets still remember Google Reader, cut down in its prime).
  • Should be able to easily add links and access my library from my phone & computer (ideally with apps instead of through a browser) and the web.
  • I’m looking for a bookmark manager, not a read-it-later app (Instapaper) or a note-taking app (Obsidian) or whatever Notion is (I actually don’t know).
  • An API would be nice.

Raindrop.io seems like an obvious choice; what else should I consider? Does the “throw everything in one big bucket” approach even work? What features/needs am I missing? Come on you info nerds, let me have it with both barrels. I’d love to hear your experiences and recommendations on apps that you use & love and others to steer clear of.

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org

I know I’m opening up a can of bees here, but I am in the market for a bookmark manager. I’ve got a good workflow going for potential KDO fodder, but my, um, system of Chrome bookmarks + memory + pasting links & snippets into the Notes app for other stuff (travel, bikes, design, internet, movies, etc.) is stretched past the breaking point. Here are some thoughts on what I’d like:

  • I’m looking to store lightly annotated URLs. I don’t want to organize links into collections or obsessively tag things — mostly I just want to throw everything into a big bucket and use search to find stuff. (Search should include the text of the original source, not just my annotations)
  • That said, if some AI thinger can organize things into buckets based on topic or, better yet, provide “more like this” for links, I would not be opposed.
  • Keeping backups of URLs in case of linkrot would be a great feature to have.
  • Can be cloud or self-hosted.
  • Happy to pay a reasonable subscription.
  • I’d like whatever I go with to be around for awhile. So probably not some hot new app that’s 3 months old (unless it’s really something special) or a Google app like NotebookLM (the streets still remember Google Reader, cut down in its prime).
  • Should be able to easily add links and access my library from my phone & computer (ideally with apps instead of through a browser) and the web.
  • I’m looking for a bookmark manager, not a read-it-later app (Instapaper) or a note-taking app (Obsidian) or whatever Notion is (I actually don’t know).
  • An API would be nice.

Raindrop.io seems like an obvious choice; what else should I consider? Does the “throw everything in one big bucket” approach even work? What features/needs am I missing? Come on you info nerds, let me have it with both barrels. I’d love to hear your experiences and recommendations on apps that you use & love and others to steer clear of.

💬 Join the discussion on kottke.org

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Published on October 10, 2025 by Jason Kottke

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