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Bredbox vs Wallabag

Wallabag is open-source software you run on your own server or rent from wallabag.it. Bredbox is a reading library with nothing to install or maintain, PDFs that keep their original pages, and search that finds what you meant, not just what you typed.

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Which one fits you?

Both keep a readable copy of what you save, with highlights, notes, and full-text search. They differ in who runs the service and what it does beyond your own library.

Choose Bredbox if you…

Want nothing to install, update, or keep running
Read PDFs and Word documents with their original pages, not extracted text
Search for an idea in your own words, not only an exact phrase
Like finding new reads in topic feeds and community picks
Want official iOS and Android apps, with Send to Kindle built in
Want webhooks, a CLI, and an MCP server without extra setup

Choose Wallabag if you…

Want free, open-source software you control
Prefer to keep your library on your own server
Want a hosted service for about €1 a month
Tag new articles automatically with rules you write
Follow RSS feeds from your library, on wallabag.it
Read on a Kobo or PocketBook e-reader

Built for reading, from the first plan.

Articles and recipes open in a clean reader, PDFs and documents keep their original pages, and Bredbox stores its own copy of each, so they stay readable whether or not the original page survives.

A saved article open in the Bredbox reader, with its title, author, tags, and a link to the original above clean, readable text

A copy that’s yours

Bredbox keeps its own copy of the articles, recipes, images, and documents you save. Export your library and all of them come with you.

Search that reads

Full-text and semantic search cover every article and PDF, so a half-remembered phrase or idea is enough to find it.

Read your way

Highlight and comment, listen with text-to-speech, or send an article to your Kindle with its pictures.

Try Bredbox free for 30 days

No credit card required.

Plans side by side

Bredbox Basic and Pro vs Wallabag and wallabag.it

Both services keep a readable copy of what you save. Wallabag gives you open-source software to host yourself, or an inexpensive hosted service in wallabag.it. Bredbox is a hosted library that adds original-layout PDFs, search by meaning, new reads to discover, and developer tools that need no setup.

Features of Bredbox Basic, Bredbox Pro, self-hosted Wallabag, and wallabag.it
Feature	Bredbox Basic $5/month	Bredbox Pro $7/month	Wallabag, self-hosted Free	wallabag.it €11/year
Pricing and hosting
Price	$5/month	$7/month	Free, plus the cost of your server	€11/year or €4 for 3 months
Try before you pay	30-day trial, no card	30-day trial, no card	Free to install	14-day trial, no card
Hosting and updates	Handled for you	Handled for you	You install, update, and back it up	Handled for you
Open source
Saving and organizing
Unlimited saves
Collections
Tags
Tagging rules Tag new saves automatically by title, site, or content
Browser extension
iOS and Android apps			Android, plus a third-party iOS app	Android, plus a third-party iOS app
Save emails and newsletters
Follow RSS feeds
Reading
Saved copies of what you save Readable even after the original changes or disappears	Articles, recipes, images, and documents	Articles, recipes, images, and documents	Article and PDF text, plus images if you turn it on	Article and PDF text
Read saved PDFs	Original pages, with zoom	Original pages, with zoom	Extracted text	Extracted text
Highlights
Notes on highlights
Listen with text-to-speech			In the mobile apps	In the mobile apps
Send to Kindle
Finding things again
Full-text search Searches the saved text, not just titles and tags
Search by meaning Finds a save when you don’t remember the exact words
Discovering new reads
Community picks Good reads from across the web, drawn from what other readers save
Topic feeds Recent reads about cooking, science, technology, and more
Personalized recommendations A feed built from up to five topics you choose, and you can turn it off
Trending stories Articles several readers have saved in the past week
Sharing and your data
Export your library
Export all saved copies Every saved article and file in one download, not just the links
Download a single saved copy Right from the page you’re reading	PDF, EPUB, Markdown, Word, and more	PDF, EPUB, Markdown, Word, and more	PDF, EPUB, and plain text	PDF, EPUB, and plain text
Developers and automation
REST API
MCP server for AI assistants			Community server	Community server
Command line interface (CLI)			Community tool	Community tool
Webhooks
n8n		Community node	Community node	Community node

Bredbox prices in US dollars; wallabag.it prices in euros. Wallabag details are from wallabag.org, Wallabag’s documentation, and wallabag.it’s pricing, checked November 10, 2026. Self-hosted Wallabag doesn’t download images unless its administrator turns that on, and its iOS app is made by a third party. Wallabag and wallabag.it belong to their owners; Bredbox is not affiliated with them.

Bring your Wallabag library with you.

Export your Wallabag articles as JSON, zip the file if it’s large, and import it in Bredbox. Your articles arrive with their titles, tags, save dates, and starred and archived states, and your annotations become highlights with their notes. Bredbox then fetches a readable copy of every article, recipe, image, and document that’s still online.

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Switching questions

Do my tags and annotations come over?: Yes, from Wallabag’s JSON export. Your tags, starred and archived states, and save dates come with each article, and every annotation becomes a highlight with your note attached. Tags keep their letters and numbers, so “machine-learning” arrives as “machine learning” and “café” as “cafe”. Wallabag’s CSV export has no starred, archived, or annotation columns, so use JSON if you can.
My Wallabag export is too big to upload. What can I do?: Zip it. Wallabag puts the full text of every article in its export, so a large library can pass the 5 MB upload limit, but that text compresses well. Bredbox reads a ZIP file that holds a single Wallabag JSON or CSV export, up to 100 MB once unzipped.
What about articles that have disappeared from the web?: Bredbox saves its own copy of each article, recipe, image, and document that’s still online. Pages that are gone arrive as links, so keep Wallabag’s JSON or EPUB export, which holds the text of every article.
Can I try Bredbox before I shut down Wallabag?: Yes. Every new account starts with a 30-day trial, with no credit card required. Keep your Wallabag server or wallabag.it subscription running while you decide.
What if I import the same links twice?: Nothing breaks. When a link is already in your library, Bredbox keeps the save you have instead of making a second one.