Pinboard review

Pinboard is a personal archive for things you find online, run by an independent developer since July 2009. It is deliberately plain: a text-based design with high information density, no ads, no trackers and no third-party scripts for logged-in users, and it stays fast with tens of thousands of bookmarks or tags. Each bookmark has a title, URL, a description of unlimited length and tags, and any bookmark or tag can be private, with tags that start with a period hidden automatically. A read later status and a silent bookmarklet act as a simple reading queue, and you can save open tabs. For research, the archiving account matters most: it crawls and stores a copy of every bookmark, turns on full-text search and checks for dead links. Everything is available as RSS, and a full API supports third-party clients. The basic service costs $27 a year and archiving $44 a year. There is no free plan, reader view or highlighting.

Who it is for

privacy-minded researchers with large tag libraries

Price

$27 a year for the basic service; archiving accounts $44 a year.

Pinboard costs $27/year for a basic service. Archiving accounts cost $44/year.
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 13, 2026.

Key features

• Bookmarks with title, URL, a description of unlimited length and tags
• Private bookmarks and private tags that start with a period
• Read later status with a bookmarklet that saves silently
• Archiving account stores a copy of every bookmark with full-text search
• Full API, RSS feeds for everything and imports in many formats

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: No ads, trackers or third-party content for logged-in users
• Strength: Fast even with tens of thousands of bookmarks or tags
• Strength: Running since July 2009
• Weakness: No free plan
• Weakness: Text-based design with no reader view or highlights
• Weakness: Archiving and full-text search cost $44 a year instead of $27

Key facts

• Free plan: No
• Price: $27 a year, archiving $44 a year
• Founded: 2009
• Active users: About 25,000, according to Pinboard

Where it ranks

Pinboard is No. 7 in our Best Bookmark Managers verdict.