Linkwarden vs Wallabag: Which to Self-Host?
Quick Verdict
Linkwarden is for bookmark management and archival — save links, organize them, preserve pages. Wallabag is for read-later — save articles, strip the clutter, read them in a clean format. Different tools for different problems. Most users want one or the other, not both.
Overview
Linkwarden is a collaborative bookmark manager that archives pages and provides full-text search via Meilisearch. Wallabag is a read-later app that extracts article content for distraction-free reading. Both save web content, but their approach and audience are different.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Linkwarden | Wallabag |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Bookmark management + archival | Read-later / article reader |
| Content display | Archived page snapshots | Extracted article text (clean reader) |
| Collections/folders | Yes (nested) | Yes (tags only) |
| Full-text search | Yes (Meilisearch) | Yes (built-in) |
| Multi-user | Yes (teams, sharing) | Yes (individual accounts) |
| Browser extension | Chrome, Firefox, Safari | Chrome, Firefox (Wallabagger) |
| Mobile app | No native app (PWA) | Native Android + iOS |
| Offline reading | No | Yes (mobile apps) |
| RSS feed output | No | Yes |
| E-reader integration | No | Yes (Kindle, Kobo) |
| Import from Pocket | Yes | Yes |
| API | REST | REST (OAuth2) |
| SSO/OIDC | Yes | No |
| Docker services | 3 (app, PostgreSQL, Meilisearch) | 3 (app, PostgreSQL, Redis) |
| RAM usage | ~600 MB total | ~450 MB total |
Installation Complexity
Both require PostgreSQL plus an additional service. Linkwarden needs Meilisearch for search. Wallabag needs Redis for caching.
Linkwarden requires 3 environment variables that must match between services plus NEXTAUTH_SECRET. Setup is straightforward but first-run can be slow as Meilisearch indexes.
Wallabag uses Symfony-style environment variables (SYMFONY__ENV__*) which are more verbose. The default credentials (wallabag/wallabag) must be changed immediately.
Winner: Comparable complexity. Neither is hard.
Performance and Resource Usage
| Metric | Linkwarden | Wallabag |
|---|---|---|
| RAM (idle) | ~600 MB (with Meilisearch) | ~450 MB (with Redis) |
| Archival | Screenshots + PDFs + HTML | Article text extraction |
| Search speed | Fast (Meilisearch) | Good (PostgreSQL full-text) |
| Storage growth | High (archived pages) | Low (article text only) |
Linkwarden uses more resources because Meilisearch is memory-hungry and page archiving stores full page copies. Wallabag is lighter because it only stores extracted article text.
Community and Support
| Metric | Linkwarden | Wallabag |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | 9K+ | 10K+ |
| Project age | 2023+ | 2013+ |
| Maturity | Growing rapidly | Mature and stable |
| Mobile apps | PWA only | Native Android + iOS |
| Documentation | Good | Good |
Wallabag is the more mature project with native mobile apps. Linkwarden is newer but growing fast with active development.
Use Cases
Choose Linkwarden If…
- You manage large collections of bookmarks
- You need page archival (links that survive even if the site dies)
- You share bookmarks with a team
- You want visual organization with collections
- Preserving the original page appearance matters
Choose Wallabag If…
- You want a read-later app (like Pocket)
- You read articles on mobile/offline
- You want Kindle/Kobo integration
- You prefer clean, distraction-free reading
- You need RSS feed output of saved articles
Final Verdict
They solve different problems. Linkwarden is a bookmark manager with archival — it preserves links and pages for long-term reference. Wallabag is a read-later app — it saves articles for comfortable reading. If you read a lot of long-form articles, use Wallabag. If you curate bookmarks and want to ensure they never break, use Linkwarden.
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