Hoarder: Self-hostable bookmark-everything app

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overview & Use Cases

  • Hoarder is viewed primarily as a self-hosted “read-it-later” / bookmark-and-archive tool, not a full Evernote replacement.
  • Some users are considering or have used it to escape bloated note apps, but many still rely on separate tools for long-form notes and PKM (e.g., Obsidian, Joplin, OneNote).

Comparisons & Alternatives

  • Other self-hosted bookmarkers mentioned: Linkwarden, Shaarli, LinkAce, Linkding, Wallabag, Shiori, Archivebox.
  • Hosted/paid alternatives: Pocket, Instapaper, Readwise Reader, Raindrop, Anybox, Memex.
  • Several users explicitly replaced Pocket with Hoarder; Evernote is often replaced with Joplin or other note apps, not Hoarder.

Offline Access & Archiving

  • Offline reading is a major requirement for many; Wallabag is praised here, especially when paired with a third-party offline client.
  • Hoarder supports full-page archival and content retrieval (including videos via yt-dl). “Offline reading” in the README actually refers to offline mobile app use, which is not yet supported.
  • Broader concern: bookmarks alone are fragile; users want automatic snapshots (PDFs, webarchives, Archive.org / Archive.is uploads).

Tagging, Organization & AI

  • Hoarder uses flat tags plus nested lists. AI-driven auto-tagging (configurable with custom prompts, and can run via local LLMs like Ollama) is a key feature and generally liked.
  • Some argue for hierarchical tags; others note hierarchies become complex and flat tags scale better.
  • Roadmap includes embeddings and clustering to suggest list membership.
  • Mixed reactions to “AI”: some see it as useful and optional; others are turned off by the branding alone.

Self-Hosting, Backup & Upgrades

  • Users expect to handle backups at the server/volume level (e.g., rclone to S3), but some wish Hoarder had built-in backup/export to cloud storage.
  • One user reports upgrade pain; maintainer states all releases have been backward compatible and that full-text search over archived content should work, implying any failures are bugs.

UX, Integration & Misc

  • Browser extensions exist; there’s demand for sending full page HTML from the extension to handle JS-heavy or authenticated sites.
  • Desired features: public/non-login viewing mode, better discovery of previously saved items during web search, imports from browsers/Notion, and robust PDF handling (which Hoarder claims to support).
  • Mobile apps are praised for privacy (“data not collected”), but lack offline viewing.