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GoodLinks vs Instapaper vs Matter vs Daily Dash
With Pocket gone since July 2025 and Omnivore since November 2024, a lot of people are picking a new read-later app for iPhone. These four take different approaches to accounts, sync and price. Below is a fair comparison based on each app's own website and App Store listing as of September 2026. Prices and plans change, so check before you buy.
The short answer
- Pick GoodLinks if you want a dedicated, polished read-later app on Apple devices with no account and a one-time price.
- Pick Instapaper if you need Android or a web app alongside your iPhone, or want a free plan with unlimited saves.
- Pick Matter if you like to listen to articles, follow newsletters in the same place, and don't mind a subscription for the extras.
- Pick Daily Dash if you want saved links next to your calendar, reminders, notes and news in one app, with no account.
Side by side
| GoodLinks | Instapaper | Matter | Daily Dash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account | None | Instapaper account | Matter account (email sign-in) | None |
| Sync | Your iCloud | Instapaper's service | Matter's service | Your iCloud |
| Offline reading | Yes | Yes | Yes, by default | Yes, text and a few images per link |
| Pricing model | One-time purchase, optional yearly feature upgrade | Free, plus Premium subscription | Free, plus Premium subscription | Not yet on sale |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, web | iPhone, iPad, Mac, web | iPhone, iPad, Mac (links); Watch for Today |
| Text-to-speech | Not covered here | Premium | Premium | No |
| Import from other apps | Yes, incl. Pocket, Instapaper, Omnivore | Not covered here | Not covered here | No |
| Summaries | Not covered here | Not covered here | Not covered here | Short on-device summary per link |
| Also does | Highlights, tags, Markdown highlight export | Folders, notes, highlights, Kindle (Premium) | Newsletters, highlights, tags | Calendar, reminders, notes, RSS news |
“Not covered here” means we couldn't confirm it from the app's own pages, so we've left it out rather than guess.
Accounts and where your list lives
This is the question that matters most after Pocket and Omnivore. When a service closes, a library stored on its servers can go with it. Our post on read-later apps without an account goes into why.
GoodLinks and Daily Dash both sync through your own iCloud, so there's no separate account and the list doesn't depend on the developer running a server. The flip side is that they only work on Apple devices.
Instapaper and Matter use their own accounts. That's what makes their web apps possible, and for Instapaper, Android too. If you move between an iPhone and a Windows or Android device, an account-based app is the practical choice.
Reading, listening and highlights
All four offer a clean reader view and offline copies. Beyond that they diverge.
- GoodLinks focuses on reading well: highlights, tags, and highlight export in Markdown.
- Instapaper is the long-running classic. The free plan includes unlimited saves; Premium (US$5.99 a month or US$59.99 a year on its site) adds full-text search, a permanent archive, text-to-speech and more.
- Matter leans into audio and newsletters, with natural-sounding text-to-speech and a unique email address for subscriptions. Its free tier includes an unlimited library; Premium adds more.
- Daily Dash keeps it simple: a clean reader, a short summary written on your device, and a note you can add to each link. There are no highlights or text-to-speech.
Platforms
GoodLinks and Daily Dash are Apple-only. Instapaper covers the most ground, including Android and the web. Matter has a web app but no Android app. If you read on a work PC, that alone may decide it.
Where Daily Dash fits
Daily Dash isn't a dedicated read-later app. Links is one tab in an app that also holds your day: calendar, reminders, notes and RSS news. That makes sense if you want fewer apps. It's less compelling if reading is your main hobby and you want highlights and audio.
To save, tap + in Links and paste a URL, or save a story from the News reader. There's no share extension yet, so saving from Safari means copying the link first. Each link's text and a few images are saved on the device for offline reading, and recent links get a short summary written on your device. Add a note, tags, and connections to related notes or reminders, so the article about standing desks sits next to your “Home office” page.
There's no import, so if you're coming from Pocket or Omnivore, paste in the links you still want and let the rest go. Our Pocket alternative guide has a routine for keeping the list short.
Read later, next to your day
Daily Dash is coming soon to the App Store for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch (iOS 26 and later). No account, no ads, no tracking. See how Links works →
FAQ
Which read-later apps work without an account?
GoodLinks and Daily Dash. Both sync through your own iCloud. Instapaper and Matter use their own accounts.
Which is best for listening to articles?
Matter and Instapaper, which both offer text-to-speech in paid plans.
Can I move my old Pocket or Omnivore library?
GoodLinks lists importers for Pocket, Instapaper, Omnivore and others. Daily Dash has no import; paste in the links you still want.
Do all four work offline?
Yes. In Daily Dash each device fetches its own offline copy, so every device can read offline.