Zo vs Matter
Matter is a modern read-it-later app that rose to prominence as an alternative to Pocket. It offers a beautiful reading experience, AI features, and integrations with note-taking apps. Many former Pocket users migrated to Matter when Mozilla announced Pocket's shutdown in 2025.
But Matter has the same fundamental limitation as every read-it-later app: you're still depending on someone else's service to keep your content safe.
The Pocket Lesson
Pocket operated for 18 years before Mozilla shut it down on July 8, 2025. Users had until October 8, 2025 to export their data before everything was permanently deleted.
18 years of saved articles. Gone unless you acted fast.
This isn't a Pocket-specific problem. It's the read-it-later model. Your content lives in someone else's database. When the service changes or shuts down, you scramble to export.
What Matter Does Well
Matter has genuinely nice features:
Clean reading experience: Strips away ads and clutter
Text-to-speech: HD audio for articles (Premium)
AI Co-Reader: Interactive reading assistance (Premium)
Newsletter integration: Subscribe and read in one place
Highlighting and notes: Capture key passages
Integrations: Sync with Notion, Obsidian, Roam, Readwise
For $8/month (or $60/year), Matter Premium is a polished reading app.
The Underlying Problem
According to a 2024 Pew Research study, 25% of web pages that existed between 2013 and 2023 are now gone. An Ahrefs study found 66.5% of links over a nine-year period were dead.
Matter caches content, which is better than a simple bookmark. But:
The cache lives on Matter's servers
You don't control the format
Export options are limited
If Matter shuts down, you're back to scrambling
We wrote about this in detail: How to save a webpage forever.
How Zo Approaches This Differently
When you save an article on Zo:
Zo fetches the page
Extracts the content
Converts to clean markdown
Saves it as a file on your server
The article now exists as a file you own. Not cached in a database – saved as an actual file in a standard format. It will still be readable in 20 years, regardless of what happens to any company.
Feature Comparison
Save articles
Matter: Yes (cached)
Zo: Yes (as files you own)
Reading experience
Matter: Excellent
Zo: Good (markdown viewer)
Text-to-speech
Matter: Yes (Premium)
Zo: Via AI
AI features
Matter: Co-Reader (Premium)
Zo: Full AI (ask questions, summarize, research)
Newsletter integration
Matter: Yes
Zo: Via agents
Data format
Matter: Proprietary database
Zo: Markdown files
Export
Matter: Limited
Zo: Already files – just download
Automation
Matter: No
Zo: Yes (agents)
Offline access
Matter: Yes
Zo: Via local sync
Beyond Reading
The bigger difference: Zo is a computer, not just a reading app.
With your saved articles on Zo, you can:
Ask questions: "What did that article say about X?"
Research across your archive: Find connections between articles
Build automations: Auto-save from newsletters, RSS feeds, specific authors
Generate summaries: Get key points without re-reading
Create tools: Build custom apps to explore topics
Your archive becomes queryable knowledge, not just a reading list.
Other Alternatives
If you're evaluating read-it-later apps after Pocket's shutdown, here are other options:
Readwise Reader: Comprehensive reading app with highlight sync ($12.99/month)
Instapaper: Classic read-it-later with clean interface
Raindrop.io: Bookmark manager with reading features ($33/year)
Wallabag: Open-source, self-hosted option (€11/year hosted)
Plinky: Apple-focused link saver ($3.99/month)
Each has trade-offs. But all share the same fundamental model: your content lives in their system.
Pricing
Matter:
Free: Basic features
Premium: $8/month or $60/year
Zo:
Plans start at $18/month
Includes AI, storage (100GB), automation, and everything else
Get Started
Ready to own your reading archive? Try Zo Computer and save articles as files you control forever.