# Wallabag Reader — Self-hosted read-it-later

> Self-hostable web page saver and reader. (iPhone/iPad app by maxime marinel.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wallabag-reader/id1170800946 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [maxime marinel](https://appshunter.io/developer/595076846)
- Category: Productivity, Utilities
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 3.40/5 from 37 App Store ratings · 77 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 16 MB
- Languages: French (France), German (Germany), American English, Arabic, Chinese (Simplified, China), Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan), Korean, Croatian, Danish, European Spanish and 18 more
- Released: 2016-11-17
- Data updated: 2026-08-21
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wallabag-reader/id1170800946/reviews.md

## What is Wallabag Reader?

Save web articles and read them later—on your terms.

Wallabag Reader is the open-source companion for wallabag. Connect to your self-hosted server or a compatible hosted wallabag account, sync your reading list, and keep your archive available on iPhone and iPad.

SAVE FROM ANYWHERE

• Send pages from Safari and other apps with the Share extension
• Add a URL manually or from your clipboard
• Sync article content to read without an internet connection

READ COMFORTABLY

• Enjoy a clean article reader with adjustable text size and light or dark themes
• Highlight passages and create, edit, or delete annotations
• Listen to articles with built-in text-to-speech
• Open the original page or share it with others

ORGANIZE YOUR ARCHIVE

• Search and filter unread, archived, and starred articles
• Sort by date, reading time, or identifier
• Add and remove tags, mark articles as read, and favorite what matters
• Rediscover short reads, random picks, and tags from the Discover tab

YOUR WALLABAG, YOUR CHOICE

wallabag is free and open source. This app connects to an existing wallabag instance; it does not create or host one for you. Self-host wallabag on your own server or use a compatible hosted provider.

WALLABAG PLUS

Core reading and organization features remain available without Plus. An optional auto-renewing wallabag Plus subscription unlocks AI-powered summaries and tag suggestions. Available plans, duration, price, and renewal terms are shown before purchase and may vary by region. Manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings.

Privacy policy and terms of use:
https://district-web.fr/wallabag-reader/privacy/

## Key features

- Save web pages
- Self-hostable
- Open source
- Free (as in freedom)
- Offline reading

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Wallabag Plus | $2.99 | per month |
| Yearly | $29.99 | per year |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tips | $0.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (10 of 77)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/wallabag-reader/id1170800946/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Good enough and free!

*2026-06-30*

Self hosted freedom :-)

**Developer response:** Thank you for your feedback! We’re glad to hear you’re enjoying the self-hosted features of our app. If you have any tips or suggestions on how we can make your experience even better, feel free to share! Happy exploring!

### 1/5 — Zero support options

*2026-05-14*

No, not for getting it setup — that went fine, thanks. But I updated the app three days ago and since then no saved article will open. They don’t respond to clicking in the app (or, they sometimes kind of flash white as if they’ll open, and I can hold to add to favourites, but they won’t actually open). It was working fine before the update.

But who can I turn to for support? The app here sends me to the original, and now archived, GitHub page. I posted on the new GitHub page and there has been no reply. I would like to actually continue using this app, I do believe you developed it so that if could be used 😒

**Developer response:** We apologize for the inconvenience; we have just released the emergency fix, and everything is back to normal. We sincerely apologize again.

### 1/5 — Application propriétaire

*2026-04-07*

Cette app était le client officiel et était sous licence libre. C'est maintenant une app propriétaire intégrant des services IA. Je ne recommande donc pas, pour toutes les raisons éthiques évidentes.

**Developer response:** Bonjour,

Merci d'avoir pris le temps de partager vos réflexions. Nous comprenons vos préoccupations concernant le changement de statut de l'application et l'intégration de services basés sur l'IA et cela fait plus d’un an si vous suiviez le projet. Votre opinion est importante pour nous, et nous prenons en compte les retours de notre communauté pour améliorer nos services.

### 4/5 — Where is the share?

*2026-02-04*

It is missing from the share menu on iOS 18.7

**Developer response:** Hello and sorry for the disruption. The problem has been identified and corrected in the latest version. Can you confirm that this is resolved for you?

### 4/5 — takes a bit thought...

*2026-01-03, version 7.8.3*

...to set up but seems to work well. let's see how we get along!

### 2/5 — Basic to the point of broken?

*2025-11-06*

1. I can't add articles on iOS via share sheets to my self-hosted instance; it works via browser on Mac/PC

"wallabag can't retrieve contents for this article. Please troubleshoot this issue."

Searching for a fix, it seems that the app's article parsing engine doesn't fail back to the server's parser if there's an error, and instead defaults to the error message. 

2.  The app doesn't let me filter by tags. I hope I'm just missing how to interact with this, but I cannot find it.  The default app is so feature-limited, I've switched to using ReadKit to read my Wallabag articles.

### 5/5 — It Works!

*2025-08-29, version 7.8.0*

The interface is a little weird at first. But it works and I really like it. Keep up the good work

### 1/5 — Barely usable

*2025-08-08*

Shuffles link in arbitrary order. Doesn’t work with many major websites and fallback doesn’t even show titles (eg YouTube or X). Support email completely unresponsive (been 2 weeks now without a reply) even if asking about potentially contributing code fixes to the open source project. I was quite excited to switch from Pocket to an open source project but sadly seems like an abandoned project. If you don’t mind very dated UX and don’t care about reviewing prior links might still work, but would recommend other apps/projects.

**Developer response:** We have not received any email from you, could you go through the support link and directly to our github to help you?

### 1/5 — Continuous reloading

*2025-07-08, version 7.6.3*

Continuous reloading makes the app unusable. This app has one purpose - to display an article and unfortunately fails at it. Whenever you read, after a few minutes the app tries to reload the article. The only other option is to go back and start reading from the top, because the app also loses the reading position. The developer is aware but still can’t fix it for well over a year. That’s very unfortunate

### 4/5 — Great App—But There Are Issues

*2025-06-02*

I like the application and will continue using it. I like and value the independence my own server offers, as opposed to being subject to the caprice of other developers who try to make a subscription business out of web clipping. I'd buy the Wallabag subscription upgrade, if the AI features it delivers were useful to me.

 I’d be wholly enthusiastic were it not for some issues that go beyond just my personal preference.

Installation

The iOS app isn't directly tied to development of the server instance, yet the server must work for iOS to follow. Installation is more complicated than it needs to be. Other reviews suggest that Wallabag is intended for more experienced users. That's as may be, yet it's not an excuse. Setup would be easier for all user if the documentation were better written and bugs were addressed.

Connecting either the web clipper or the iOS app involves using two "keys." Obtaining said keys appears straightforward, excepting that the process doesn't work. In practice, the setup screen fails to obtain the expected "token," even with correct information entered.

A fair bit of research reveals that this is a known issue that seems to have existed for a while. There is a workaround that others have suggested (download the failed setup to a file then reinstall the file)--which also doesn't always work. Considerable fiddling with keys and file produced success (the fiddling was such that it isn't clear to me what eventually made the workaround succeed), but in the end all this is unnecessary. This setup looks fairly easy to script and one questions why this is not done.

Operation

Once the iOS app setup issues are resolved, the app delivers very nice web page clips/reductions. These are typically noticeably better than other clipping tools. The functionality of the server toolbox is also more varied and superior to other products. Yes, I realize that Wallabag are using a third-party toolbox for much of the clipping and simplification infrastructure.

All this is when Wallabag works, that is.

My early experience showed that the app deleted messages unexpectedly. I assume this is because the server could not properly synchronize the multiple devices that were connected to it. I've not encountered this error again, but it points to the need for an easy backup. Backup is possible (more so that with other products) but the process isn't automatic. There also isn't a trash can to recover deleted notes. There should be.

Wallabag clips are beautiful when they work. I don't have an estimated percentage, but the iOS app (and the web clipper) fail to capture some web pages that are not obviously complex, and that other clipping tools handle easily. This makes it impractical for me to wholly abandon my other tool (much as I'd like to). Wallabag also encounters paywall issues that do not really exist. This happens enough to be annoying.

Bottom-line: I appreciate the result and I'm coping with the limitations. Overall, I rate Wallabag a B+.

**Developer response:** Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to share such detailed and constructive feedback. We’re glad you enjoy the quality of the captures and the flexibility of running your own server. We’ve noted your suggestions on setup, documentation, backup, and app reliability, and will use them to keep improving Wallabag.

We truly appreciate your trust and honesty.

## Frequently asked questions about Wallabag Reader

### What does Wallabag Reader do?

Wallabag Reader is an application designed to save web pages for later reading. It functions as a client for a self-hostable wallabag instance, allowing you to store and access articles and web content offline.

### How do I use Wallabag Reader?

To use Wallabag Reader, you need to have a running instance of wallabag. This can be a self-hosted installation on your own web server. The app then connects to this instance to save and retrieve your web pages.

### Is Wallabag Reader free?

The core wallabag application is free and open source. While the reader app itself may have in-app purchases for managing subscriptions, the underlying service is designed to be cost-free to use if you self-host it.

### What are the benefits of using wallabag?

Wallabag offers a free and open-source alternative to proprietary read-it-later services. Its self-hostable nature provides greater control over your data and privacy, and it's free from the restrictions of commercial platforms.

### Can I use Wallabag Reader without a wallabag instance?

No, Wallabag Reader requires a separate, running instance of wallabag to function. It acts as an interface to your personal wallabag server, so you must set up and maintain your own instance to save and read content.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 7.13 — 2026-08-08

- You can now highlight text and create, edit, or delete annotations while reading an article

### 7.12.2 — 2026-05-15

What’s New

This update fixes an issue affecting article opening on some devices.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience while we worked on a fix.

### 7.12.1 — 2026-05-10

- Discover is now available from the main navigation

### 7.12.0 — 2026-05-04

- Discover is now available from the main navigation

### 7.11.0 — 2026-04-21

Performance enhancement

## More apps by maxime marinel

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All apps by maxime marinel: https://appshunter.io/developer/595076846

## Related topics

[wallabag](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/wallabag) · [wallabag reader](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/wallabag-reader) · [article reader web](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/article-reader-web)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-21.*