What is Shaarli used for?

Shaarli is a personal, minimalist, database-free bookmarking and link-sharing service for a single user that you install on your own server. It is a good fit for personal bookmark collection and sharing interesting links publicly.

Is Shaarli open source?

Yes. Shaarli is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shaarli/Shaarli and is written mainly in PHP.

Yes. Shaarli is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host Shaarli?

Yes. Shaarli can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Shaarli an alternative to?

Shaarli is an open-source alternative to Pinboard and Raindrop.io. Other open-source alternatives to Pinboard include Wallabag, LinkAce and Karakeep.

Is Shaarli actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Shaarli was on 30 September 2026, and the latest release is v0.16.8, published on 29 September 2026. The project has 3.9k stars on GitHub.

Shaarli: open-source alternative to Pinboard, Raindrop.io

About Shaarli

Shaarli is a minimalist link-sharing and bookmarking service that you install on your own server. It is designed to be personal, with a single user, as well as fast and handy, and it works without a database.

The project describes itself as a way to share the links you discover. It is written in PHP, with documentation on Read the Docs, a change log, an issue tracker for bugs, feature requests and discussion, and a public demo instance that runs the latest development version and is reset daily.

Shaarli is free software, and its COPYING file lists the contributors and licenses of each individual component. Its topics identify it as a self-hosted bookmarks manager, and it fits people who want a lightweight alternative to cloud bookmarking services.

Key features

Single-user bookmarking and link sharing
Database-free storage
Minimalist, fast interface
Self-hosted on your own server
Public demo and online documentation

Good fit for

→Personal bookmark collection
→Sharing interesting links publicly

Built with: PHP
Tags: bookmarks; bookmarking; link-sharing; self-hosted; php; minimalist; single-user

Shaarli: questions and answers

What is Shaarli used for?: Shaarli is a personal, minimalist, database-free bookmarking and link-sharing service for a single user that you install on your own server. It is a good fit for personal bookmark collection and sharing interesting links publicly.
Is Shaarli open source?: Yes. Shaarli is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shaarli/Shaarli and is written mainly in PHP.
Is Shaarli free?: Yes. Shaarli is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host Shaarli?: Yes. Shaarli can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Shaarli an alternative to?: Shaarli is an open-source alternative to Pinboard and Raindrop.io. Other open-source alternatives to Pinboard include Wallabag, LinkAce and Karakeep.
Is Shaarli actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Shaarli was on 30 September 2026, and the latest release is v0.16.8, published on 29 September 2026. The project has 3.9k stars on GitHub.