tinykoitinykoi vs Linkwarden: hosted simplicity or self-hosted control
· Comparisons · 4 min read
In tinykoi vs Linkwarden, the main question is whether you want to run your own server. Linkwarden can be self-hosted for free and archives pages as a core feature. tinykoi is hosted only, so there is nothing to maintain, but you pay $3 a month for archived copies.
Linkwarden details come from its pricing page and docs, and were checked in October 2026. Where its docs do not say, this post does not guess.
The short version
Choose Linkwarden if you are comfortable with a server, want control over where the data lives, and want archiving without a subscription. Choose tinykoi if you want to sign up and start saving, and would rather not do upgrades, backups or storage yourself.
Both are real options. The rest of this post explains what you trade.
Price
Linkwarden's cloud plan costs $3 a month billed yearly. Self-hosting is free.
tinykoi has a free plan and Pro at $3 a month or $24 a year. tinykoi is hosted only.
The difference to weigh is not the cloud price, which is similar. It is that Linkwarden lets you pay nothing in licence fees by running it yourself, in exchange for your own time and hosting costs. tinykoi's free plan costs nothing too, but the archive, broken link checks and duplicate finder need Pro.
tinykoi vs Linkwarden at a glance
| tinykoi | Linkwarden | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Hosted only | Cloud, or self-hosted for free |
| Browser extension | Chrome only | Yes |
| Archived copy | Pro | Yes |
| Full-text search | Every plan | Yes |
| Highlights | Yes, with notes | Yes |
| Reader view | Yes | Yes |
| AI tagging | Pro | Yes |
| Duplicate handling | Never saves a second copy | Optional setting |
| Tags | Tags plus notes | Tags, no notes |
| Trash | Yes, 30 days | No |
| File uploads | Any file, 100 MB largest on Free, 300 MB on Pro | PDFs and images |
| Largest file | 100 MB Free, 300 MB Pro | 10 MB |
| Export | HTML or CSV | JSON only |
| API | Yes, key-based | Yes |
Where Linkwarden is ahead
Self-hosting. This is the headline. If you want your bookmarks on your own hardware, tinykoi cannot do it and Linkwarden can, free of charge.
Archiving without a paid tier. Linkwarden's docs list archiving as a feature. On tinykoi, the archived copy is a Pro feature. If you self-host Linkwarden, you do not pay for it at all.
AI tagging. Linkwarden lists AI tagging as available. On tinykoi it is Pro.
Where tinykoi is ahead
No server to run. Self-hosting means you handle updates, backups, storage and uptime. With tinykoi, those are ours. For many people that is the entire reason to pick a hosted tool.
Larger files. Linkwarden's largest file is 10 MB, per its docs. tinykoi allows 100 MB on the free plan and 300 MB on Pro, and any file type, not only PDFs and images. Uploads are 100 MB a month on Free and 10 GB on Pro.
A trash. Deleted bookmarks wait in tinykoi's trash for 30 days. Linkwarden has no trash, so a deletion is final.
Export formats. tinykoi exports HTML, which imports into any browser, and CSV, which opens in a spreadsheet. Linkwarden exports JSON only. JSON is not a bookmarks file your browser can import directly.
Notes on tags and bookmarks. tinykoi lets you write a note on any bookmark. Linkwarden's tags come without notes.
Duplicates handled by default. tinykoi will not make a second copy of a link you saved already. Linkwarden has this as an optional setting.
Backups and risk
When you self-host, your data is as safe as your backups. That is a feature if you trust your setup and a risk if you do not. A hosted service has its own risk: it can change, raise prices or close, as Mozilla's Pocket did in 2025 (we covered it in our Pocket alternatives post).
The answer to both is the same: keep an export. tinykoi exports your whole library as HTML or CSV from Settings whenever you like. Uploaded files are not included in the export. If you decide to move, tinykoi's import accepts a Linkwarden JSON export.
How the import treats Linkwarden data:
- Collections become tinykoi collections, nested the way they were.
- Links in Linkwarden's default "Unorganized" collection land in tinykoi's inbox.
- Pinned links become favourites.
- Tags carry over.
- File links (PDFs and images) have no URL, so they are skipped and counted as skipped in the import summary.
Privacy
tinykoi's legal page lists what it stores: your account, what you save and the page text and archived copies it makes. It says there are no ads, no analytics or tracking scripts, and no selling of data. AI features send data to OpenRouter and DeepInfra only if you turn them on, on Pro. If your priority is that nothing leaves your own machine, self-hosting is the only answer, and that is an honest point in Linkwarden's favour.
Which should you pick
Pick Linkwarden if you enjoy running services, want archiving for free, and mostly save web pages and small files.
Pick tinykoi if you want something that works the moment you sign up, you save larger files, you want a trash and a standard export, and $3 a month for archiving is acceptable.
You can see the plan differences on pricing and the full feature list on the features page. If you work with the API, our piece on bookmark managers for developers covers what tinykoi's API offers.
Try tinykoi alongside it
Importing a Linkwarden JSON takes a minute. Start on the free plan, no card needed, and judge it with your own links.