I exported my Pocket library to my Firefox bookmarks when the service shut down in July. That saved the links, but because I was spoiled by Pocket’s excellent reader and management features, I’ve sought an alternative “bookmark-everything” app to store my favorite articles. After a few months of searching, I found Karakeep (formerly Hoarder), and it has finally filled the void Pocket left behind.

There are many reasons for the popularity of Karakeep and other bookmark-everything apps. Compared to browser bookmarks, they usually have a tidier interface, way more organizational features, and many ways to archive bookmarks for long-term preservation. In addition to excelling in all these areas, Karakeep is free, open source, and self-hosted. It perfectly checks all my boxes.

Set it up with Docker

Takes just minutes, even for beginners

If you’re familiar with Docker, then setting up Karakeep takes minutes. If not, there are numerous tutorials to help beginners set it up. None is complicated.

Once the Docker container is running, and I’ve created an account, I’m ready to import my Pocket exports. I wish I had known that Karakeep supports automatic bookmark import before I manually added 30 articles to the archive. Alternatively, it can also sync with browser bookmarks using Floccus. I haven’t used this function yet, since I keep my Karakeep archive separate from my browser bookmarks.

Clean, organized, searchable

Karakeep gets full marks on all fronts

Karakeep’s uncluttered interface facilitates easy reading. The main page only has 11 inconspicuous buttons for sorting bookmarks and changing their layouts. From here, I can arrange my bookmarks in grids or lists, and adjust the column count to expand or limit the number of links I see. It’s focused and intuitive–far more so than messy browser bookmark folders.

Compared to browser bookmarks, Karakeep’s sorting and context features are vastly superior. It lets me group bookmarks into lists, tag them, and edit their properties. If manual tagging isn’t your thing, Karakeep offers AI tagging if you have an existing OpenAI API Platform account. Alternatively, you can opt for the free “Rule Engine” that performs actions like tagging based on event triggers. These features make finding and organizing my rapidly growing archive a breeze.

Whereas Pocket didn’t let users edit their bookmarks’ titles (bizarre, I know), Karakeep lets me edit everything from the title to the banner image. It even has notes, which are useful for quickly recording my thoughts at the moment. And if I ever want to make changes to my bookmarks en masse, I can use the bulk edit function to save some time. So far, I have no qualms about Karakeep’s information editing options.

Karakeep has two methods for persistent data archiving: download the entire webpage, or download a screenshot of the webpage. I’ve been using the former most of the time, as I haven’t found a compelling reason to use screenshots yet.

A built-in reader that works with text and videos

But struggles with social posts

Karakeep’s built-in reader handles most articles just fine. Even for paywalled articles, it does a good job of extracting whatever little snippets are available. There are basic readability settings as well, such as font style, size, and line height. When my eyes get tired, a slightly larger font definitely helps.

Opening the Reader View in its collapsed mode shows the articles’ properties pane, through which I can write brief notes as I read. I can highlight the text in four different colors, but there’s currently no way to annotate notes directly onto passages. Highlighted text resides in its own section accessible from the main menu, though it's all condensed into a single page.

Articles aside, Karakeep also works with video pages. YouTube videos play directly inside the page. Just as it can archive webpages, Karakeep also supports auto-video archiving using yt-dlp.

While texts and videos work great, Karakeep doesn’t play well with social media pages–at least not in its built-in reader. In my testing, it often fails to properly display posts from Instagram and Imgur. Archiving via screenshot is a workaround, but sometimes the website’s splash page and pop-ups get in the way.

Finally, Karakeep can store PDF files and feature a nifty notes app inside its bookmark main page. However, once a note snipped has been created, it can’t be edited, so it may not be suitable as a perpetually growing journal.

A handful of powerful settings

All tucked away but easy to find

Although Karakeep hides unrelated features from the main page, they are still easy to find. Opening the settings page reveals a trove of maintenance tools: the Usage Statistics page provides a fun overview of my entire archive, complete with an activity tracker, tag counter, and top domains; the Broken Links section sniffs out any rotten links in the vault, which will undoubtedly come in handy as my archive ages; and the Managed Assets page is where all my downloaded bookmark assets and images are stored. Finally, this is where RSS subscription configuration options reside, too.

Mobile and mobile extensions

Bookmark everything, everywhere

We spend a good chunk of time reading on our phones, so I really appreciate that Karakeep offers a mobile app on Android and iOS; both are available from their respective app stores. It lets me save articles from almost anywhere by sharing the article link to the Karakeep app. Since it carries the same minimalist interface as its desktop app, searching and reading on it feels natural and effortless. If you’re looking to connect to your home server through the mobile app, please read the security tips posted on Karakeep’s documentation first.

When I’m using my desktop or laptop, I rely on the Karakeep browser extension, available on Chrome and Firefox, to bookmark articles. Now, saving anything takes a single click, and it’s every bit as responsive as Pocket.

Karakeep is one of my favorite services

The minor flaws don't diminish its utility

With its collection of useful features and reading functions, Karakeep has served me well in building a dedicated library for content that has impacted me. The convenience of being able to send bookmarks from mobile devices also encourages me to save articles more often. Despite this, some entries are still staying in my browser bookmarks. For example, I don’t want to clog up the library with billing websites or shortcuts to my email inbox. Of all the self-hosted software I’ve covered at XDA Developers so far, Karakeep is definitely one that I’ll be using the most.