SHSelfHostIndex

Shaarli 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.

Not the right match-up?
Shaarli Personal, minimalist link-sharing bookmark app VS SH Shiori Simple bookmark manager built with Go
FeatureShaarliShiori
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score88 · Excellent81 · Excellent
CategoryBookmarks & Read-It-LaterBookmarks & Read-It-Later
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePHPGo
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 3,899★ 11,650
First released20132017
ReplacesPocket, DeliciousPocket, Raindrop.io

What are Shaarli and Shiori?

Shaarli

Shaarli is a personal, minimalist, database-free bookmarking application that can also act as a microblog of links. It targets individuals wanting a lightweight link log. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.

  • No database, flat-file storage
  • Public and private links
  • Tagging and RSS feed
  • Plugin support

Read the full Shaarli guide →

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

Shaarli vs Shiori: key differences

Shaarli is written in PHP, while Shiori is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Shaarli versus MIT for Shiori. Shaarli is the more established project (first released 2013), while Shiori arrived in 2017. Shiori has the considerably larger community, at 11,650 GitHub stars versus 3,899.

Why pick each one

Choose Shaarli if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Easy to back up
  • Can be public or private

Watch out for

  • Dated default theme
  • Single-user only
Shaarli details

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
Shiori details

Frequently asked questions

Is Shaarli 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 Shaarli and Shiori free and open-source?

Yes. Shaarli is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Shiori under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Shaarli and Shiori with Docker?

Shaarli: yes. Shiori: yes.

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