Migration from Pocket and Hatena Bookmark to Raindrop.io (and Creating helm-raindrop.el)

This article is a translation of https://masutaka.net/2025-08-15-1/.

I've migrated from Pocket and Hatena Bookmark (Hatebu), services I had been using for over a decade, to a new bookmarking service: Raindrop.io. I've also created helm-raindrop.el so I can comfortably search from Emacs as before.

What is Raindrop.io?

🔗 https://raindrop.io/

Raindrop.io is a bookmarking service with a modern design and rich features.

• Organize bookmarks with collections

• Tagging and smart filters

• Full-text search (premium plan only)

• Browser extensions, mobile apps

• Integrations with external services like IFTTT and Zapier

• REST API for developers

The backend is proprietary, but everything else is open-source (OSS) and maintained by a single person, Rustem Mussabekov, who lives in Kazakhstan.

Migration Pocket and Hatebu to Raindrop.io

On July 8, 2025, Pocket was discontinued. I had used it as a "read-it-later" service for many years, so I had to find an alternative.

I had also been using Hatebu for a full 16 years since 2009, but since I've been distancing myself from social media in recent years, I decided to switch to a unified service.

Here's why I chose Raindrop.io:

• The free plan is more than enough (unlimited bookmarks)

• I can use it as a "read-it-later" service, just like Pocket

• I can also use it as a persistent bookmarking service, like Hatebu

• The API is public, making it easy to create my own tools

• It has a data export feature, so there's less worry about vendor lock-in

The good things about Raindrop.io

After using it, I found several convenient features.

The free plan is practical

• URLs can be edited - You can correct the URL later even if it changes

• Collections feature - You can organize bookmarks like folders and set them to be public or private individually

• Nested collections - You can set up a hierarchical structure

• Highlighting feature - You can mark important parts of an article

• Mobile app - In addition to the web version, browser extensions, and desktop version, there are also apps for iOS and Android

The paid plan's automated web archiving is convenient

🔗 https://help.raindrop.io/premium-features

• AI-powered suggestions - It suggests appropriate collections and tags when saving and suggests merging or renaming similar tags

• Full-text search - It performs a full-text search on the content of saved articles

• Automated web archiving feature - It permanently saves content even if the site disappears

• Reminder feature - It notifies you of a specific bookmark via the app or email at a specified time

• Annotation feature - You can add notes to highlights

• Detection of duplicate and broken links - Makes maintenance easier (?)

• Automated backup - You can manage versions by linking with Google Drive

• Extended upload limit - You can upload up to 10GB of images, videos, and PDFs per month

I tried the paid plan and found the automated web archiving to be very convenient.

I can't help but fix broken links when I find them. I know some might argue that if you can't find them, you don't have to maintain them...

While fixing them, I realized that many of my past bookmarks were inaccessible. With Raindrop.io's automated web archiving, a new reason is added to "read-it-later" or "bookmark": "it'll be readable forever."

The current paid plan is $33.04 per year (tax included), which is about $3.54 per month (tax included), so it's not a bad price.

The bad things about Raindrop.io

It's not a perfect service, so there are a few points that are difficult to use.

• The app icon is plain - It's difficult to spot in my smartphone's share menu, and I often have to search for it

• The saving process is a bit sluggish - It feels like it takes an extra 1-2 seconds to save a bookmark compared to Pocket

• No archiving feature - If you're looking for a 'mark as read' feature like Pocket's, you'll need to create a dedicated collection and manually move bookmarks to it (which requires two taps)

However, even with these points, it's still a good and very usable service.

I created helm-raindrop.el

For this migration, I created helm-raindrop.el, which allows you to search and browse Raindrop.io bookmarks from Emacs.

I'm not following what's next after Helm, but since the main function of helm-raindrop.el is to create a cache file ~/.emacs.d/helm-raindrop with the REST API, I don't think it will be difficult to migrate later.

Actually, I had a similar tool for Hatebu, and its extreme convenience was one of the reasons I was hesitant to migrate.

Being able to search bookmarks quickly from Emacs is quite comfortable. For example, if I think, "where was that article?", I just press ⌘-b and enter a search word. That's what my init.el does.

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing that I can continue to search for bookmarks from Emacs, but for now, I've managed to maintain the status quo.

Conclusion

Following the discontinuation of Pocket, I migrated to Raindrop.io, including Hatebu, which I had used for a full 16 years. At first, it was a reluctant migration, but after using it, I found it to be a surprisingly good service.

• The free plan is practical, and the paid plan is also reasonably priced at $33.04 per year (tax included)

• The API is public, making it easy to integrate with self-made tools

• It has modern features like AI and automated web archiving

I also created helm-raindrop.el, so I've been able to maintain the ability to search from Emacs.

I recommend it to anyone looking for a bookmarking service. The free plan is very usable, and migrating from Pocket or Hatebu is easy, so it's a good idea to give it a try.

I'll continue to use it and will write another article if I discover anything new.