Karakeep vs Evernote Web Clipper: Which is better? (2026)
The short answer
Evernote wins if you live inside a full note platform and will pay $99+/year for OCR search and an AI assistant; Karakeep wins for anyone who mainly saves and retrieves web content and would rather run Docker than pay a subscription.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Karakeep | Evernote Web Clipper | Marqly |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI auto-tagging | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Semantic search (find by meaning) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI summaries | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| YouTube AI (summary, chat, transcript) | — | — | ✓ |
| Chat with your saves | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web highlighter | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Notes on highlights | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Save page as PDF | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Full-text search | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Save all open tabs | — | — | ✓ |
| Public sharing (boards/collections) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pocket import | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Browser bookmarks import | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Offline reading | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| iOS app | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android app | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Browser extension | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free tier | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Public API | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Self-hostable | ✓ | — | — |
| Price | Free · Self-hosted: free. Karakeep Cloud Pro: $4/month | Free · Evernote Starter $14.99/mo or $99/yr; Advanced $24.99/mo or $249.99/yr | Free · $48/year (≈$4/mo) or $8/month |
- Karakeep
- Free · Self-hosted: free. Karakeep Cloud Pro: $4/month
- Evernote Web Clipper
- Free · Evernote Starter $14.99/mo or $99/yr; Advanced $24.99/mo or $249.99/yr
- Marqly
- Free · $48/year (≈$4/mo) or $8/month
Pricing
- Karakeep: Karakeep has a free tier; paid plans are Self-hosted: free. Karakeep Cloud Pro: $4/month. The self-hosted app is fully free and open source; AI features need your own OpenAI-compatible API key or a local Ollama model. Karakeep Cloud (public beta) has a $0 tier capped at 10 bookmarks and a Pro tier at $4/month — the exact annual price is not published.
- Evernote Web Clipper: Evernote Web Clipper has a free tier; paid plans are Evernote Starter $14.99/mo or $99/yr; Advanced $24.99/mo or $249.99/yr. The clipper extension is free, but it saves into Evernote — and Evernote's free plan is capped at 50 notes, 1 notebook, and 1 device, so sustained use effectively requires a paid plan. Prices have risen repeatedly under owner Bending Spoons.
- Marqly: Marqly has a free tier; paid plans are $48/year (≈$4/mo) or $8/month. 7-day free trial of Pro. Free tier needs no card; Pro unlocks chat with saves and video chat.
About Karakeep
Karakeep is an open-source "bookmark everything" app, launched as Hoarder and renamed in early 2025. It is built for self-hosting: a Docker install stores links, notes, images, videos, and PDFs on your own server, with full-page archiving to guard against link rot. AI does the filing — automatic tagging and summaries run through any OpenAI-compatible API or a local Ollama model, so nothing has to leave your machine. Search is Meilisearch-backed full text, with semantic and hybrid modes added in 2026. Around the core are browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, iOS and Android apps with offline reading, highlights, shareable public lists with RSS feeds, a REST API, and an MCP server for AI agents. Imports cover Pocket, browser bookmark HTML, Omnivore, Instapaper, Linkwarden, and mymind exports. A hosted Karakeep Cloud is in public beta, with a Pro tier at $4 per month.
About Evernote Web Clipper
Evernote Web Clipper is the browser extension for Evernote, the long-running note app now owned by Bending Spoons. Available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera, it clips full pages, simplified articles, selections, or annotated screenshots into your notebooks, with tags and remarks added at save time. The backend is where it earns its keep: Evernote's search reads text inside images and, on paid plans, inside PDFs and documents, and the v11 release in January 2026 added an AI assistant that chats across your notes, semantic search, and AI meeting notes. Apps cover web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, with offline notebooks on paid plans and a public API. The catch is pricing: the free plan is capped at 50 notes, one notebook, and a single device, while paid plans run from $14.99 per month (Starter, $99/year) to $24.99 per month (Advanced, $249.99/year) — among the most expensive in the category.
Which should you choose?
This matchup is a bookmark shelf you build versus a filing cabinet you rent. Karakeep is a free, open-source bookmark manager that runs on your own hardware, auto-tags every save with AI, and archives complete pages — copies, screenshots, PDFs, even video downloads. Evernote Web Clipper is the front door to a heavyweight commercial note platform: capture is superb across five browsers, but the value (and the cost) lives in the Evernote backend behind it.
Choose Karakeep if:
- A subscription for saving links feels wrong — self-hosting costs nothing, and even the hosted Cloud Pro tier is only $4/month.
- You want AI to do the filing: automatic tagging and summaries run through your own API key or a local Ollama model, while Evernote clips still need manual tags.
- Developer hooks matter — REST API, webhooks, CLI, and an MCP server let you wire your library into scripts and AI agents.
Choose Evernote Web Clipper if:
- You need capture depth at clip time: full page, simplified article, selection, bookmark, or annotated screenshot, with tags, remarks, and a destination notebook set before you save.
- Your archive is document-heavy — OCR that reads text inside images and paid-plan search inside PDFs are things Karakeep cannot match.
- You want the v11 AI assistant that chats across everything you have ever clipped, plus semantic search and AI meeting notes.
The honest bottom line: these tools charge in different currencies. Evernote takes money — up to $249.99/year for Advanced, with a free plan capped so tightly (50 notes, one device) that it works only as a demo. Karakeep takes effort — Docker, bring-your-own AI keys, and self-managed backups. Pay with whichever you have more of. If neither a server nor a premium subscription appeals, neither tool is your answer.
The option both sides overlook
If the real problem is finding things again, neither Karakeep nor Evernote Web Clipper fully solves it. Marqly auto-tags and summarizes every save with AI and lets you retrieve any of them by describing what you remember — plus a highlighter, YouTube summaries with transcripts, and save-as-PDF. There's a free tier with no card required.
Karakeep vs Evernote Web Clipper FAQ
Is Karakeep really free where Evernote is not?
Effectively, yes. Karakeep's self-hosted app is fully free and open source; you supply a server and, for AI features, your own API key or a local Ollama model. Evernote's clipper is free to install, but the free plan allows just 50 notes, one notebook, and one device — sustained use realistically means Starter at $99/year or Advanced at $249.99/year.
Which has better search, Karakeep or Evernote?
Different strengths. Evernote's search is best-in-class for documents: OCR reads text inside images, paid plans search inside PDFs, and the v11 AI assistant chats across your notes. Karakeep counters with Meilisearch full-text search plus semantic and hybrid modes added in 2026, applied to fully archived page copies — and it costs nothing.
Should note-takers pick Karakeep or Evernote Web Clipper?
If your clips need to sit inside a broader note system — meeting notes, documents, scanned PDFs — Evernote is the purpose-built option, with mature apps on web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. Karakeep is a bookmark manager, not a notes platform: it excels at capturing, tagging, and archiving web content, with notes attached to saves rather than standalone.