Instapaper vs Pocket: 4 Must-Know Facts
- Instapaper and Pocket offer free and premium versions.
- Both apps also offer text-to-speech features.
- Instapaper includes a speed-reading feature for up to 650 words per minute to enhance readability.
- Pocket uses a better text-to-speech engine.
Is your browser overloaded with tabs, bookmarks, and other notes to help you remember articles you want to read? Keeping track of all the fascinating news, excellent deals, and helpful how-to guides can be challenging. Thankfully, both Instapaper and Pocket help you solve this issue. Explore the similarities and differences to discover the pros and cons of Instapaper vs Pocket and find the best overall app for you.
Instapaper vs Pocket: Side by Side Comparison
| Instapaper | ||
|---|---|---|
| What It Is | Freemium read-it-later app for saving articles and reading them later. | Freemium read-it-later app that uses tags to organize articles for a later date. |
| Date Launched | January 2008 | August 2007 |
| Founder | Marco Arment | Nathan Weiner |
| Company | Instant Paper, Inc. | Purchased by Mozilla in 2017 |
| Price | Free; $2.99 per month for Instapaper Premium | Free; $5.00 per month for Pocket Premium |
| Font Choices | Many font options to choose from | Serif or sans serif |
| Text-To-Speech | Uses the text-to-speech engine of your platform | Comes with an original, universal engine that varies between 0.8x and 3x speed |
| Speed Reading | Displays between 200 and 650 words per minute | N/A |
| Student Discount | None | None |
©By Read it Later, Inc. – appadvice.com, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87232762 – License
Instapaper vs Pocket: What’s the Difference?
Both apps offer read-it-later features to help you organize all the articles, recipes, and downloads you wish to read through at a later date. There are, however, key pros and cons of each app. Explore the features of each to see how similarities and each difference may make one the better choice for you. Consider how customization, speed-reading, and text-to-speed features compare between these highly rated apps.
A person reading an online article.
©Antlii/Shutterstock.com
There are several key features that are the same with both apps. They both have strong privacy policies to safeguard your information as you use the apps. Both Instapaper and Pocket offer free and premium versions. A primary difference between the free and premium versions of both apps is the ability to highlight, note, and save articles.
Instapaper Features
Instapaper makes it easy to save and send articles. Both the free and paid versions allow you to download them for later reading. You can create your own organization system in folders, highlight sections, add comments, listen to the article being read to you, and even use a speed-read feature. This speed-read feature is one of the most unique features of Instapaper. There are more customization choices with Instapaper, particularly with font choices.
While Instapaper can be used on many platforms, it doesn’t have the same robust API as Pocket. Instapaper integrates well with Kindle but isn’t as easy for third-party developers to connect to for customization purposes.
Pocket Features
Pocket takes many of the same features and gives them a slight twist. For example, you can still organize articles with Pocket but the difference is that you use tags rather than folders. If you’re performing research, this may be a better organization system.
Pocket uses its own text-to-speech engine to read articles to you at anywhere from 0.8x speed to 2x speed with the free version or 3x speed with Pocket Premium for rapid readability. Compared to many text-to-speech engines, Pocket offers a more natural tone and easy-to-listen-to voice.
While Pocket offers some highlight and search features, the free version is very limited in both respects. You’ll want to upgrade to premium if you use either feature frequently. The premium versions of both offer many similarities, but the Pocket Premium price is higher than Instapaper Premium. Neither, however, offer a student discount.
Instapaper vs Pocket: Best Overall
Read-it-later apps are facing stiff competition. Built-in features, like Safari’s reading list, make it difficult to find unique reasons to download another app. Both Instapaper and Pocket, however, have a few features beyond simply saving reading lists that make them helpful apps for many users.
Consider Instapaper for its speed-reading feature and intuitive folder system. Instapaper also offers many font options for ease of reading. Pocket, however, pulls ahead in terms of integration and text-to-voice functionality.
Since both apps offer free versions, however, there’s no harm in checking them both out to see which offers the best overall read-it-later features and price point for your lifestyle.
Compare readability, customization, and other functionalities as you organize articles to read at a later date.
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The image featured at the top of this post is ©Antlii/Shutterstock.com.
