About Readwise Reader
Readwise Reader is the most powerful reader in this group, aimed at people who read for work. It is a subscription product with a free trial, so it only makes sense if you will use the extras. For casual saving, Raindrop or Instapaper cost less.
Reader pulls in more than web pages: PDFs, EPUBs, email newsletters, RSS feeds and YouTube videos, all in one inbox with a queue you triage. The Chrome and Firefox extension, called Readwise Highlighter, sends a page to your account and lets you highlight the open web, with the highlights showing up in the app. Its own page says it can import a Pocket export and imports directly from Instapaper.
The catch is price and lock-in. After a 30-day trial with no card required you need a paid Readwise plan, and the code is closed. The Chrome listing says the extension handles website content, which it needs to save a page. Readwise says Reader also has Safari support, but we only confirmed the Chrome and Firefox store pages. Choose it if you highlight heavily and want one inbox for everything you read.
Pros and cons
- Handles articles, PDFs, EPUBs, newsletters, RSS and YouTube in one place
- Imports a Pocket export, and imports directly from Instapaper
- Highlighting and annotation in the browser and the app
- Official extension, updated in September 2026
- Needs a paid Readwise plan after a 30-day trial
- Closed source
- Chrome rating is 4.1 from about 60 ratings, with no Safari or Edge listing we could confirm
Permissions
On Firefox it asks for the active tab, all tabs, context menus, notifications, storage, unlimited storage and access to every site. It uses these to read the page you save and to show highlights.
