A Readwise Alternative for Your Own Notes

You have probably highlighted hundreds of sentences. Lines from Kindle, a paragraph from an article, a quote from a podcast. Some of them are great. But here is a question worth asking: when was the last time you saw something you wrote come back to you? If you're looking for a Readwise alternative that brings back your own notes, this is for you.

Highlights are other people's words. They are useful, and they are a good start. But the ideas that change how you work usually show up later, when you write down what a line meant to you, or how it connects to something you saw last month.

If highlights are all you need, Readwise may still be the right tool, and we will say so.

What Readwise does well

Readwise is built around highlights, and it does that job well.

• It collects highlights from many places. Readwise syncs highlights from Kindle, Apple Books, Instapaper and other sources. You can also snap a photo of a page in a paper book, or type a passage in by hand.
• It brings them back every day. The Daily Review shows a set of highlights in the app and by email. Readwise uses spaced repetition: each time a highlight is shown, it is less likely to come back soon, and you can tune how often a book or source type appears.
• It helps you ask and read. Ghostreader lets you ask questions and answers with the source highlights. The Reader app saves articles, PDFs and videos.
• It sends your highlights elsewhere. Readwise can export to tools like Obsidian, Notion and Evernote, and it offers an MCP connection for AI tools such as Claude and ChatGPT.

You can add a note to a highlight in Readwise. But the center of the product is the highlight. Your own thinking lives on the side of someone else's sentence.

Where a highlights tool stops

A highlight answers "what did this author say?" A note answers "what do I think?"

The second one is harder to get back. Your thoughts are scattered: a line in a notes app, a voice memo on a walk, a comment you wrote under a video. They rarely sit next to the quote that started them, and they almost never come back on their own.

So if you feel like you read a lot but remember little of your own conclusions, more highlights will not fix it. You need a place where your own words are the main thing, and where they come back.

How Linko works

Linko is a notes app. Its idea is simple: connect everything you learn, and bring it back when it matters.

You write and save. Write a note on the web or in the app on iOS and Android. Save articles, videos and podcasts from your phone's share sheet or the Linko web extension, and add books by title. See Save links from your phone and your browser.

Linko files it for you. Each note gets tags and topics automatically, so you don't have to build folders first. Notes connect across books, articles and videos, so a thought about a podcast can sit next to a note about a book on the same idea. See Tags and topics.

Your notes come back. Daily review gives you one set of your own notes each day. Linko turns a note into a question, you try to recall the answer, then you see your note again. You can lean toward recent or older notes, and pick which tags and topics to include.

You can ask your notes. Ask Linko answers from what you saved and shows the notes it used, so you can check the answer against your own words.

Your AI tools can use them too. With Linko MCP, Claude or ChatGPT can search your notes while you chat and cite the notes they used. See everything that changed in Linko's latest update.

Readwise and Linko, side by side

• Main unit — Readwise: Highlights from what you read; Linko: Your own notes, plus the resources they came from
• Where content comes from — Readwise: Syncs from Kindle, Apple Books, Instapaper and more; photos of paper pages; Reader app for articles, PDFs and videos; Linko: You write notes; you save links and books from your phone or the web extension
• Bringing things back — Readwise: Daily Review of highlights, with spaced repetition; Linko: Daily review of your own notes, turned into questions
• Organizing — Readwise: Tags and themed reviews you set up; Linko: Tags and topics added automatically
• Asking questions — Readwise: Ghostreader answers with source highlights; Readwise MCP for AI tools; Linko: Ask Linko inside the app, with cited notes; Linko MCP for Claude and ChatGPT
• Platforms — Readwise: Web, iOS, Android; Linko: Web, iOS, Android, web extension

Which one should you pick?

Pick Readwise if most of your learning comes from Kindle and long articles, and you mainly want the best lines to come back. It is very good at that.

Pick Linko if you want your own thoughts to come back: the note you wrote after a podcast, the lesson you took from a chapter, the idea you had on a walk. Linko is built for people who write a little about what they learn, and want those notes to connect and return.

Use both if you love your highlights and also write your own notes. Plenty of people keep highlights in one place and their thinking in another. The question is only which one you want to see every morning. (More on that split in Read-it-later vs note-taking vs my learning approach.)

FAQ

Is Linko a Readwise replacement?

Not one to one. Readwise centers on highlights from books and articles. Linko centers on your own notes. If you want your own words to come back to you, Linko is the closer fit.

Does Linko have something like Readwise's Daily Review?

Yes. Daily review brings back one set of your notes a day, as questions you answer from memory.

Can I bring my Readwise highlights into Linko?

Not yet. Importing from other apps is coming soon.

Can I save articles and videos in Linko?

Yes. Save links from your phone's share sheet, from the web extension, or by pasting them. Linko keeps the resource and links your notes to it.

Do I have to organize my notes myself?

No. Linko adds tags and topics automatically. You can still make your own tags and change anything it picks.

Can I use my notes in Claude or ChatGPT?

Yes. Connect Linko MCP once, and your AI tool can search your notes and cite them in its answers.

Try it

Write three notes this week about things you read or watched. Then open Daily review and see what it feels like when your own words come back.

Start with Linko in two minutes →