Background
Instapaper and Readability are two similar services that provide an uncluttered reading experience of web pages. They are both available as iOS apps and directly on the web. Instapaper is developed by Marco Arment and Readability by Arc 90. There is a third contender, Read it Later, but I have never been able to stand it for long enough to form an opinion.
I have been using both web services since at least early 2010 and first installed the Instapaper app on iOS in March 2010. In March 2012 Readability launched their iOS app and I have been using it for a couple of weeks.
There seems to be a lot of animosity between these two camps behind the scenes. I am not in a position to comment on that so I won't. Many voice the opinion to favor the little guy (i.e. Marco) and support small shops. I buy most of my hardware and some of my software from the largest company in the world and do not understand why this is an important argument. I will try to compare the apps on their merit, not who made them.
Most of my reading is nowadays done on my third generation iPad, which will be the focus of this comparison. The versions compared are Instapaper 4.1 and Readability 1.0.3. Both apps are universal and work on the iPhone/iPod Touch as well.
Price
Instability is $4.99 in the App store. The Readability app is free with a murky business model.
You can subscribe to both in which case Instapaper adds search to archived items and Readability funnels 70% of your money to writers that have opted in to their scheme.
Startup
Marco has written in some detail on his dilemma on the startup.png. I believe it is much more jarring to have a bright screen when in dark mode than going from a darker startup image to a bright UI. Although a minor point, it is a negative one.
Readability has a dark splash screen which is much nicer, especially when in dark mode.
Services
Instapaper sharing is currently available in more iOS apps than Readability sharing. In particular the official Twitter app and Flipboard does not support sharing to Readability (yet?). Thankfully the excellent RSS reader Reeder supports both as does Tweetbot. You can also send articles from Google Reader to both services.
You can share links from both Instapaper and Readability. Instapaper shares the link to the original web page. Readability shares the link to their parsed web page which is questionable to say the least.
Instapaper can send all your saved articles to your Kindle whereas Readability can send individual articles.
Instapaper offers "The Feature", a selection of articles to read. Readability has a partnership of some sort with Longform. I don't use either.
Parsing
During the short time I've used both apps in parallel Readability has typically given better results. See e.g. All the Lights to the Kingdom (Readability version on top, Instapaper below).
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| Readability |
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| Instapaper |
Readability correctly parses the page, whereas Instapaper not only throws away the image caption but also strips out all paragraph breaks.
Layout
Readability flows text around images whereas Instapaper uses a one column layout. Here is PayPal's Astonishing Arrogance as an example (again with Readability on top and Instapaper below). Readability also correctly skips the ReadWriteWeb logo.
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| Readability |
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| Instapaper |
Some other differences are that Readability has rounded corners and keeps the iOS status bar visible. Instaper has a gradient on both sides of the text whereas Readability uses a plain background.
Both apps have beautiful third party fonts to choose from.
Support
I contacted both Readability and Instapaper with a page that was not parsed correctly.
Readability immediately sent an automated reply that they had received my issue. Within 24 hours they had also fixed their parsing of the page and added it to their test suite.
After 9 days I am yet to receive any form of response from Instapaper, automated or not.
In August 2010 I reported to Instapaper that The Secret History of Star Wars did not parse correctly. In March 2012 it still renders the page as a bunch of Chinese (?) characters. Readability parses this correctly, and the Readability bookmarklet did so already in 2010.
In August 2010 I reported to Instapaper that The Secret History of Star Wars did not parse correctly. In March 2012 it still renders the page as a bunch of Chinese (?) characters. Readability parses this correctly, and the Readability bookmarklet did so already in 2010.
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| Instapaper |
Conclusion
Many of the differences between these apps are a matter of taste. Do you like the faux gutters of Instapaper or not? Do you prefer a one column layout over text that flows? Is it important what business model your supplier has? Do you do all of your browsing in Flipboard?
Although I am a long time Instaper user I am switching to Readability for now.
The downsides for Readability are the lack of Flipboard and Twitter integration and the bad practice of sharing links to Readability instead of the original web page.
In return I get a better page layout on a plain background, I don't get blinded by the startup screen at night, and a company that responds and fixes problems reported on its support address.
Although I am a long time Instaper user I am switching to Readability for now.
The downsides for Readability are the lack of Flipboard and Twitter integration and the bad practice of sharing links to Readability instead of the original web page.
In return I get a better page layout on a plain background, I don't get blinded by the startup screen at night, and a company that responds and fixes problems reported on its support address.
