Readeck vs Shiori
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted bookmarks & read-it-later options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Readeck | Shiori |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Bookmarks & Read-It-Later | Bookmarks & Read-It-Later |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,100 | ★ 11,650 |
| First released | 2023 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Pocket, Instapaper | Pocket, Raindrop.io |
What are Readeck and Shiori?
Readeck
Readeck is a self-hosted application that lets you save web articles and pages into a clean, searchable personal reading library. It targets readers who want a simple read-it-later tool. It is deployed via Docker or a binary.
- Clean article reading view
- Highlights and labels
- E-book export
- Lightweight single binary
Shiori
Shiori is a simple bookmark manager that lets you save and organize web pages with offline archiving. It is distributed as a single portable binary with both a web UI and a CLI.
- Single portable binary
- Offline page archiving
- Web UI and CLI
Readeck vs Shiori: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Readeck versus MIT for Shiori. Shiori is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Readeck. Shiori is the more established project (first released 2017), while Readeck arrived in 2023. Shiori has the considerably larger community, at 11,650 GitHub stars versus 1,100.
Why pick each one
Choose Readeck if…
- Simple and lightweight
- Nice reading experience
- Easy to deploy
Watch out for
- Younger project
- Smaller community
Choose Shiori if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 11.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Readeck or Shiori better?
Neither is universally better. Shiori has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Readeck and Shiori free and open-source?
Yes. Readeck is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Shiori under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Readeck and Shiori with Docker?
Readeck: yes. Shiori: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Readeck or Shiori?
Shiori has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Readeck. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.