xotes vs Readwise: two ways to keep what you read
Two apps for people who read a lot, built from opposite ends.
Readwise and xotes start from the same problem. You read something worth keeping, and a month later it is gone.
They solve it from opposite ends.
Readwise is built around highlights. It pulls what you mark in Kindle, Instapaper, Apple Books, and other apps into one library. Then it sends a Daily Review, a short email with a few old highlights, so they come back in front of you.
xotes is built around a book you write in. A quote, an idea, a note from your day, a photo of a page. Each becomes an entry, and one tap gives it a title, category, and tags so you can find it later.
The short version
- Choose Readwise if most of what you keep starts as a highlight in an ebook or article, and you want it resurfaced on a schedule.
- Choose xotes if you want one place for everything worth keeping, including your own thinking and pages from paper books.
- Plenty of readers could use both. They overlap less than you might expect.
At a glance
| xotes | Readwise | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes, unlimited journaling | No, 30-day free trial |
| Paid plans | Core $7/month, Pro $10/month | Lite $5.59/month, Full $9.99/month, billed yearly |
| Starts with | Your own writing, plus scanned pages | Highlights synced from reading apps |
| Kindle sync | Through Readwise on Pro, or a clippings file on any plan | Yes |
| Bringing notes back | revisit, one entry a day in the app, by email, or by push | Daily Review email and app |
| Organizing | One-tap title, category, and tags | Tags and notes on the Full plan |
Where Readwise is stronger
Highlight sync. If you read on a Kindle, every highlight can land in Readwise automatically. xotes can import a Kindle clippings file, but it does not pull from your Kindle on its own.
Scheduled review. The Daily Review is the heart of Readwise. Old highlights show up in your inbox whether you remembered them or not, several at a time. xotes has revisit instead: one of your own entries a day, at the top of your book, with an optional reminder email or push. It is gentler and built around your own words, where the Daily Review is built around volume.
A reading app. The Full plan includes Reader, a read-it-later app for articles, newsletters, PDFs, and more. xotes is not a reader.
Export to other tools. Readwise Full can send highlights to Notion, Obsidian, and other apps.
Where xotes is stronger
Your own words. Readwise centers on what other people wrote. Notes hang off highlights. In xotes, a thought from your commute is a full entry on its own, sitting next to the quote that sparked it.
A free plan that stays free. Journaling is unlimited on every xotes plan, including Free. Only AI use is metered: 15 Sorts and 2 Scans a month on Free.
Paper books. Photograph a page and xotes turns it into text you can edit. On Core and Pro, Split turns one page into a separate entry for each quote or idea on it.
Reading your book. Reading mode lays your entries out like one long article, with every date, category, and source still attached.
Price, side by side
Readwise Lite is $5.59 a month, billed yearly. It covers the Daily Review, your highlight library, and sync. Readwise Full is $9.99 a month billed yearly, or $12.99 month to month. It adds tags, notes, export, and Reader. Students get 50% off.
xotes Free costs nothing. Core is $7 a month for 200 Sorts, 40 Scans, and Split. Pro is $10 a month for unlimited Sorts and Scans, plus automatic Readwise sync. The pricing page has the details.
Using both
A setup that works: let Readwise collect every ebook highlight. Then bring them into xotes. On Pro, xotes syncs your Readwise highlights every day, and each one arrives unsorted with its book and author attached. On any plan, you can import a Readwise export file instead. Keep the ones that earn a place, add a note on why they mattered, and Sort them into your book. Choosing what stays is half the point of a commonplace book.
Which one
Ask where your best ideas start. If they start on a Kindle screen, start with Readwise. If they start in the margins of your day, start with xotes.
Prices checked October 2026. Check each app's pricing page for current details.