Own what you read.
Keep it forever.
Coffer is a read-later app for iPhone and Mac that saves the articles you care about, reads them offline in a quiet, clean reader, and never asks you to pay again. No subscription. No account. No server that can shut you down.
Free to try with 50 articles. Unlock the full library with one payment.
The read-later apps you trusted keep disappearing.
In 2025 Mozilla shut down Pocket, erasing years of saved reading for millions of people. The lesson is simple: if your library lives on someone else's server, you don't own it.
Pocket was shut down
Tens of millions of saved articles had to be exported in a rush — or lost. Cloud-only means one announcement away from gone.
Subscriptions never stop
Readwise Reader is excellent — and recurring. For a tool you use to keep things, paying forever to keep them feels backwards.
Servers we run
Coffer has no backend. Your articles live on your device and in your own iCloud — so there is nothing for us to shut down.
Everything a serious reader needs. Nothing that phones home.
Save from anywhere
Share Sheet, Safari extension, or paste a URL. Coffer strips the ads, menus and cookie banners, leaving only the article.
Truly offline
Images are archived to your device, so a saved article reads exactly the same on a plane, in the subway, or ten years from now.
Private by architecture
Parsing happens on-device. Sync uses your own private iCloud. We never receive your reading list — there is no account to create.
On-device AI
On Apple Intelligence devices, get a TL;DR and three key points generated locally. No API key, no per-use fee, no text uploaded.
Your data leaves with you
Export the whole library to Markdown, self-contained HTML, or PDF. Open it in Obsidian, Notion, Bear, or a plain text editor.
Pay once
$29 unlocks everything, forever, including future on-device AI features. No tiers, no upsells, no "Pro+" surprises.
How Coffer compares to the read-later apps you know
Prices as of 2026. We list what each tool is genuinely good at — this is not a hit piece.
| App | Price model | Local-first / no server | Monthly AI cost | Export your data | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coffer | $29 once | Yes — device + your iCloud | $0 (on-device) | Markdown · HTML · PDF | Active |
| Readwise Reader | ~$120 / year | Cloud service | Included, but recurring | Yes | Active |
| Free | Cloud only | — | Rushed export | Shut down 2025 | |
| GoodLinks | One-time (Apple only) | iCloud-based | None | Limited | Active |
| Wallabag | Free self-host | Yes (you host it) | None | Yes | Active |
Coffer's niche: the polish of a native Apple app, with the ownership model of a text file.
Three taps from "read later" to "read forever".
Save it
Share any link to Coffer. The article is parsed on your device and saved instantly — no waiting for a server round-trip.
Read it
Open a clean, distraction-free reader with the images already archived. Typos and clutter are gone; the ideas remain.
Keep it
It syncs through your iCloud and stays yours. Export everything to Markdown whenever you want, to any app you trust.
One price. Everything. Forever.
- ✓ Unlimited saved articles
- ✓ Full offline reading with archived images
- ✓ Private iCloud sync across iPhone, iPad & Mac
- ✓ Full-text search & Markdown / HTML / PDF export
- ✓ On-device AI summaries (on Apple Intelligence devices)
- ✓ All future updates included
Free version: up to 50 articles, forever. No trial timer, no card required.
The things people ask before switching
What is the best read-later app without a subscription?
Coffer is built specifically for this: a read-later app you buy once for $29 and keep forever. Unlike Readwise Reader (~$120/year) or Instapaper, there is no recurring fee, no account, and no cloud dependency. Articles sync through your own iCloud and can be exported to Markdown at any time.
Is there a one-time-purchase alternative to Readwise Reader?
Yes — that is exactly what Coffer is. We focus on the core job (save an article, read it cleanly offline, keep it forever) and charge once. Deliberately out of scope for v1: highlights, tags, and cross-library AI chat. Keeping the surface small is how we keep the price honest and the app maintainable by a small team.
What happens to my articles if Coffer shuts down?
Nothing is lost, because your library never lived on our servers. Articles sit on your device and in your own iCloud, and you can export everything to Markdown, HTML or PDF whenever you like. Even if the app vanished tomorrow, your reading would open in any text editor.
Does Coffer use AI? Does it send my articles to the cloud?
On Apple Intelligence devices (iOS 26+ / macOS 26+), Coffer can write a TL;DR and three key points using Apple's on-device Foundation Models. It runs entirely on your device — no API key, no per-use fee, and your text never leaves the phone. On older devices the AI button is hidden and everything else works normally.
Which devices are supported?
iPhone and iPad on iOS 17 or later, and Mac on macOS 14 or later. AI summaries additionally require an Apple Intelligence-capable device on iOS 26 / macOS 26.
Can I import my Pocket or Instapaper archive?
You can paste URLs in bulk, and a dedicated import flow for Pocket's HTML export is on the roadmap. Because Coffer stores everything as portable data, moving in — and out — is never a lock-in.
Save it once. Keep it forever.
Stop renting your reading list from a company that might not exist next year. Coffer is $29, once.