Batata vs Pocket
Mozilla shut Pocket down in 2025, sending a lot of careful readers looking for a new home — and, understandably, wary of getting burned again. Batata is a save-and-actually-find-it-later library: every page archived, searchable by meaning, answerable with citations, and yours to export anytime.
The honest summary
What you'll miss from Pocket:the polished reading view and the Discover feed. Batata keeps a clean readable copy of each page but isn't a feed-style reader, and it has no recommendations by design.
What you gain:a full-text archive of everything you save, search by meaning, an Ask that answers from your own articles with sources — and a one-click export so your library is never trapped in someone else's shutdown again.
Side by side
| Feature | Batata | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Live and actively built (2026) | Shut down by Mozilla in 2025 |
| Save articles | Yes — bookmarklet, PWA, API | Yes (while it existed) |
| Full-text archive | Every page archived and kept, searchable | Saved a readable copy |
| Search by meaning | Yes — find ideas without exact words | Keyword/tag search |
| Ask your library | Yes — answers from your own articles, each claim cited | No |
| Recommendations / Discover feed | No — no feed, no distraction by design | Yes (the Discover feed) |
| Price | Free up to 100; Pro $36/year | Free + Pocket Premium (discontinued) |
| Your data | One-click JSON export anytime; private by default | Export window closed after shutdown |
Why portability is the whole point
Pocket joins Delicious and Omnivore on the list of beloved tools that simply switched off. The lesson isn't “never trust a tool” — it's “only trust one that lets you leave.” Batata exports your entire library as JSON in one click and speaks the Pinboard API, so your data and your tooling are always yours.
What carries over from how you used Pocket
- Saving is just as quick — a bookmarklet now, browser extension coming, plus an API and mobile PWA.
- Your reading is preserved — Batata archives the full text of each page, so saved articles stay readable even if the original goes down.
- You can finally use the pile— instead of an ever-growing unread list, ask “what have I saved about X?” and get a sourced answer.
Give your saved reading a permanent home
Archived, searchable, askable — and exportable in one click, so it's never trapped again. Free up to 100 bookmarks.
Try Batata free →Free up to 100 bookmarks · Pro is $36/year · export everything anytime
FAQ
- Pocket shut down — what should I use instead?
- If you save articles to find and reference them later, Batata is a strong home: it archives the full text of every page, lets you search by meaning, and can answer questions from your own saved articles with citations. Crucially, you can export everything as JSON at any time, so you won't be stranded again.
- Can I import my Pocket data into Batata?
- Yes, if you saved your Pocket export before the service shut down. Upload either the ril_export.html file or the CSV on Batata's import screen and it detects the format automatically — titles, tags, and save dates carry over. Pocket's official export window closed in late 2025, so you'll need a copy you downloaded earlier.
- Is Batata a read-later app like Pocket was?
- Partly. Batata archives a clean, readable copy of every page you save, so your reading is preserved and searchable. Its focus, though, is retrieval — finding and asking across everything you saved — rather than a polished reading feed. If a distraction-free Discover feed was what you loved about Pocket, Batata intentionally doesn't have one.
- Will Batata disappear too?
- No one can promise forever, which is exactly why Batata is built around portability: a one-click JSON export of your whole library and a Pinboard-compatible API. If Batata ever isn't right for you, your data walks out the door with you.