Are.na alternatives
Are.na is a calm, ad-free place to collect things in public. The alternatives if you want a private work library, better search, or more than links and images.
TLDR
- Are.na is one of the good ones: no ads, paid for by members, and a community of people collecting thoughtfully in public. If you like that, stay.
- People leave when they need a private work library, want to search inside what they saved, or save things that aren’t links and images.
- For a private reference library, try Savepad. For notes with links between them, try Obsidian. For pure bookmarks, try Raindrop.
What Are.na is
Are.na lets you collect blocks (links, images, text, files) into channels, and connect blocks to other channels, including other people’s. It feels like a slow, thoughtful Pinterest for researchers, artists, and designers. No ads, no algorithm, paid for by its members. Honestly, it’s one of my favourite corners of the internet.
Why people look elsewhere
- It’s social by nature. You can make channels private, but the place is built around collecting in public. For client work and competitor research, that’s not the vibe.
- Search knows titles and descriptions. Not the text on the page you linked, or the words in a screenshot.
- Work references are awkward. An onboarding email sequence, a PDF you need to search, a font you want to test.
Savepad
Savepad is private first. Nothing goes public until you switch on a space, a folder, or a tag, one at a time, and then it lives at my.savepad.app/@yourname. Every save opens as what it is: a page with a full-page snapshot and reading copy, a PDF that opens on the page that matched, an email as an email. Search reads the text inside all of it.
There’s no social side at all. No following, no feed. If that’s what you loved about Are.na, Savepad will feel lonely. The knowledge base use case shows how people set it up for research.
Obsidian
If what you were really doing was thinking, with notes connected to other notes, Obsidian is the classic. Local Markdown files, links between them, a graph view. It’s a notes app, so saving a web page means clipping it into a note.
Raindrop.io
If your Are.na was mostly links, Raindrop is cheap, fast, and everywhere. It doesn’t have the connections, and its Pro plan now leans on AI.
Notion
A database with a web clipper. Flexible, and loads of teams already have it. It gets messy around 500 rows, which the swipe file in Notion post goes into.
Side by side
| Tool | Social | Private by default | Searches inside saves | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Are.na | Yes | No | No | Free with limits, Premium monthly |
| Savepad | No | Yes | Yes, including screenshots | Free, €4.99 or €9.99 a month |
| Obsidian | No | Yes, local | Your notes | Free, paid sync |
| Raindrop.io | No | Yes | Pro only | Free, Pro a few dollars a month |
| Notion | Team | Per page | Titles and pasted text | Free, then per seat |
Moving out of Are.na
Are.na lets you export channels. Get the links into a CSV, one URL per row with the channel name in a folder column, and import that into Savepad. Each link gets fetched again with a fresh preview and a full-page snapshot, and channels become folders.
The full comparison is on the Are.na alternative page.
FAQ
Is Are.na free?
Are.na has a free plan with a limited number of blocks, and a paid Premium plan for unlimited blocks and private channels. Check their site for the current numbers.
Is Are.na private?
Channels can be public, closed, or private. Public is the default spirit of the place, which is why people looking for a private library tend to look elsewhere.
What's a good Are.na alternative for work?
Savepad is built for work references: ads, pages, emails, PDFs, and screenshots, private by default and searchable by the text inside them.