Burkmak vs PaperSpan

Burkmak is a free, MIT-licensed, self-hosted read-it-later application for saving links, reading articles, highlighting passages, syncing with Kobo, and exporting notes to Obsidian. Its reader extracts articles into a clean view with highlights and notes, while tags, read states, favorites, and search organize per-user libraries. Links can be captured through the web app, Android share sheet, or desktop browser bookmarklet. Kobo support provides an OPDS catalog for EPUB and KEPUB downloads plus native store-protocol synchronization that writes reading state back. An Obsidian plugin transfers article notes, highlights, and metadata through Burkmak’s export API. Docker Compose deployment includes backend and web containers, a data volume, and amd64 and arm64 images; the volume stores the SQLite database, cached articles, images, and EPUBs. Product requirements state that server-fetched content remains on the self-hosted instance and no third-party analytics are used. Native Kobo synchronization requires HTTPS, physical-device support remains pending, and the architecture targets one instance rather than horizontal scaling or high availability.

PaperSpan is a reading service for saving articles and returning to them on iPhone, iPad, Android, the web, Chrome, and Firefox. Browser extensions and a bookmarklet save articles, while offline access lets readers read, listen to, and manage them; changes sync when a connection returns. Readers can highlight passages for later review, listen to articles read aloud, or send articles to a Kindle device or app. Multiple articles can be sent together as a crafted book. The free plan is available on mobile and web. Premium adds full-text, author, notes, and other advanced search options, uninterrupted listening playlists, and reading insights covering read rate, peak reading time, categories, and popular sites. PaperSpan says it has no ads or tracking. Premium costs $8.99 per year through an auto-renewing subscription, with price variation possible by location. It renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the period ends, and cannot be canceled during an active period.