Pocket, formerly known as Read It Later, is a social bookmarking service for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks. Mozilla is shutting down Pocket’s services on July 8, 2025. At that time users will no longer be able to access the Pocket website, apps and API.
As Pocket is not open source software, users will need to migrate away. In this article, we focus on open source text-based bookmark managers. Most of the tools featured in this article let you manage your bookmarks for websites, but there are also a few tools that let you bookmark other things such as commands. Some of the tools are sophisticated with tons of features. Others are very simple tools. Hopefully, there’s something here to meet your specific requirements.
If you’re looking for GUI and/or web-based tools, we cover our picks in separate articles.
Here’s our verdict captured in a legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. Only free and open source software is eligible for inclusion.
Click the links in the table below to learn more about each bookmark manager.
| Text-Based Bookmark Managers | |
|---|---|
| nb | CLI and local web note‑taking, bookmarking, archiving, and knowledge base |
| Shiori | Simple bookmarks manager written in Go |
| buku | Bookmark management utility written in Python |
| Tbmk | Commands bookmark for shells |
| IntelliShell | Like IntelliSense, but for shells |
| GoSuki | Local-first bookmark manager that tracks multiple browsers in real time |
| bmm | Fast local bookmark manager with CLI and TUI interfaces |
| Bookmark | Save your favourite URLs without leaving the terminal |
| Tempesta | Billed as the fastest and lightest command-line bookmark manager |
| star | Unix command line bookmark manager |
| Marcador | Minimal bookmark manager |
| bkmr | Manage bookmarks, snippets, notes, commands and other knowledge |
| crumbs | Store commands under a meaningful name in a hierarchy |
| bookmarkmenu | Bookmark storage using the menu back end |
| book | Simple bookmark manager |
| bmk | Go bookmark tool |
This article has been updated to reflect the changes outlined in our recent announcement.
 Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |
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