Wallabag

TAS Score: S3/3 — D5/5 — A3 / T2

Brief Description

Self-hosted read-it-later service. Save articles from the web, strip ads and clutter, read offline. Browser extensions, mobile apps, and RSS feed export. Replaces Pocket, Instapaper, and browser bookmarks for articles.

Architectural Role

Applications layer: personal article archive. Save articles you want to read later, annotate, tag, and search. Content is extracted and stored permanently — articles survive even if the original website goes down.

Technical Autonomy

✅ Works without internet (reads saved articles offline)
✅ Stores data locally (articles, tags, annotations in database)
✅ Does not require external accounts
✅ Allows data export (JSON, CSV, EPUB, PDF, plain text)
⚠️ Needs internet to save new articles from URLs

Philosophical Assessment (whose.world criteria)

Criterion	Status	Comments
Pause	✅	Stop container, all saved articles remain.
Exit	✅	Full export in multiple formats. Import into any other service.
Recoverability	✅	Database backup. Articles stored as full text, not just links.
Visibility	✅	MIT license, fully auditable.
External Dependencies	✅	Fully self-hosted. No third-party dependency.

Configuration (Minimal)

services:
  wallabag:
    image: wallabag/wallabag
    container_name: wallabag
    ports:
      - "8090:80"
    volumes:
      - ./data/wallabag/images:/var/www/wallabag/web/assets/images
      - ./data/wallabag/data:/var/www/wallabag/data
    environment:
      - SYMFONY__ENV__DOMAIN_NAME=https://read.example.com
      - SYMFONY__ENV__DATABASE_DRIVER=pdo_sqlite
      - SYMFONY__ENV__DATABASE_NAME=wallabag
    restart: unless-stopped

Privacy-First Homelab

Alternatives

Alternative	Autonomy	Notes
Pocket	A0 / T0	Cloud-only, owned by Mozilla/Fakespot. Tracks reading habits.
Instapaper	A0 / T0	Cloud-only, proprietary.
Omnivore	A0 / T0	Was open source, acquired and shut down in 2024.
Linkding	A3 / T2	Bookmark manager, not full article archiver. Simpler.

Trajectory

Direction: stable.

Wallabag has been consistently maintained since 2013. French open-source project with steady development. No signs of commercialization. The hosted service (wallabag.it) funds development without restricting self-hosting.

Signal assessment:

Signal	Status	Evidence
License	✅	MIT, unchanged since inception.
Feature gating	✅	No paid tier for self-hosted. Hosted service is optional.
Self-hosting	✅	Docker, native PHP, well documented.
Governance	✅	Community-driven, multiple maintainers. Healthy project.

Signal key: ✅ opening · ➖ neutral · ⚠️ closing

Sources

Website: wallabag.org
Repository: github.com/wallabag/wallabag
Docker image: wallabag/wallabag