Free Alternative to Readwise for Viewing Your E-Reader Highlights

Readwise is the best-known tool for managing e-reader highlights — and it's genuinely excellent. But at £7.99 a month, it's a subscription many readers find hard to justify, especially if all they really want is to browse, search and revisit the passages they've underlined.

If you read on a Kobo or use KOReader, there's a free alternative that does the browsing and viewing side of things very well: Luminaria. It's private, free to start, and doesn't require an account. This article explains what Readwise does, where it falls short for some readers, and whether Luminaria might be the right fit for you.

What Readwise does

Readwise solves a real problem: most readers highlight things and then never see them again. The app connects to your Kindle, Kobo, Apple Books and other platforms, imports your highlights automatically, and resurfaces them to you daily — via email, a mobile app, or their browser extension. The idea is spaced repetition for your reading: see a highlight again a week later, then a month later, and you're more likely to actually remember it.

Readwise also syncs your highlights into Obsidian, Notion, Roam and other note-taking tools, making it a popular choice for people building a personal knowledge base. In recent years they've also built Readwise Reader, a full read-later app that competes with Instapaper and Pocket.

If you want automatic sync across every platform, daily review emails, and tight integrations with every note-taking app imaginable, Readwise is the benchmark. Nothing else does all of that as seamlessly.

Why readers look for an alternative

Readwise isn't the right fit for everyone, and the reasons readers look for alternatives tend to come down to a few things:

The price adds up

£7.99 a month — or £107.88 a year — is a real commitment. For readers who highlight steadily but don't need daily review emails or automatic sync to every platform, it's hard to justify. The core use case for many people is simple: import my highlights, let me browse and search them. That shouldn't cost £8 a month.

It's more tool than most readers need

Readwise has expanded significantly — it now includes a read-later app, a browser extension, a mobile app and more. For readers who just want their highlights somewhere they can browse them, this can feel like a lot of complexity to maintain. Many users pay for Readwise but only use a fraction of its features.

KOReader and Kobo users have limited options

Readwise has better support for Kindle than for Kobo or KOReader. Kobo sync in Readwise requires a workaround via their companion app, and KOReader integration requires additional setup. Neither is quite as seamless as the Kindle experience.

What to look for in a free alternative

Not all Readwise alternatives are trying to do the same thing. Before looking at specific tools, it's worth being clear on what you actually need:

• Browsing and search — can you find the highlight you're looking for quickly, by book, author or keyword?
• Import from your specific device — does it support Kobo, KOReader, Kindle, or wherever your highlights live?
• Export — can you get your highlights into Obsidian, Notion or a PDF?
• Cost — is there a genuinely useful free tier, or is "free" just a trial?

If you also need daily review emails, spaced repetition, or automatic sync with Kindle, no free tool fully replaces Readwise for those features. But if the main thing you're missing is a good place to view, search and export your highlights, there's a free option that handles this very well.

Luminaria — free highlight viewer for Kobo and KOReader

Luminaria is a free web app built specifically for browsing your e-reader highlights. You import your highlights from Kobo, KOReader, Kindle or Readwise, and they load instantly in your browser — ready to browse, search and export. No account required to get started.

The free tier covers everything most readers actually need day-to-day: import, browse, full-text search, favourites, tagging and Obsidian export. PDF export and Notion export are available on a paid plan, as is automatic WiFi sync from KOReader — but you can use Luminaria meaningfully without ever paying anything.

What makes it particularly good for Kobo and KOReader users

Luminaria was built by a Kobo and KOReader user, so the import experience for those devices is first-class:

• Kobo direct import — connect your Kobo via USB and select the KoboReader.sqlite file directly. No exporting, no workarounds. Your highlights load instantly.
• KOReader markdown export — KOReader's built-in highlight export is a markdown file. Luminaria parses it automatically, preserving chapter headings, page numbers and dates.
• KOReader WiFi sync — with a sync token (free to get), you can sync your KOReader highlights wirelessly via the Luminaria KOReader plugin. Manual sync is free; automatic background sync is a paid feature.

Kindle My Clippings.txt and Readwise markdown exports are also supported, so you're not locked out if you use multiple devices.

The highlights experience

Where Luminaria differs most from Readwise is in how it presents your highlights. Rather than a daily email, the focus is on an always-available, searchable library you can return to whenever you want. The interface is clean and typographic — designed to feel like reading, not managing a database.

A rotating quote from your library appears on the home screen, surfacing random passages from your collection. Full-text search covers every highlight across every book. You can star highlights to save them to a favourites list, add tags and search by tag (type #philosophy to pull up everything you've filed under it), and copy any highlight to the clipboard with a single click.

Feature comparison

Feature	Readwise	Luminaria (free)	Luminaria (premium)
Price	£7.99/month	Free	£2.99/month or £25 lifetime
Kobo import	Via companion app	✓ Direct USB (SQLite)	✓ Direct USB + auto sync
KOReader import	Manual export only	✓ Markdown + manual WiFi sync	✓ Auto WiFi sync
Kindle import	✓ Automatic	✓ My Clippings.txt	✓ My Clippings.txt
Browse & search	✓	✓	✓
Tagging	✕	✓	✓
Favourites	✓	✓	✓
Daily review / spaced repetition	✓	✕	✕
Export to Obsidian	✓ (paid)	✓ Manual zip export (free)	✓ + Obsidian plugin (requires token)
Export to Notion	✓ (paid)	✕	✓
Export to PDF	✕	✕	✓
Account required	Yes	No	No (token only)

How to get started with Luminaria

Getting your highlights into Luminaria takes less than two minutes:

1. Go to luminaria.uk — no account needed.
2. Click Import highlights in the sidebar.
3. Choose your source:
   • Kobo — connect via USB, click "Import from Kobo device", and select KoboReader.sqlite from the hidden .kobo folder on your device.
   • KOReader — go to KOReader's highlight settings and export your highlights as a markdown file, then upload it to Luminaria.
   • Kindle — connect your Kindle, copy My Clippings.txt from the device root, and upload it.
   • Readwise — export your highlights from Readwise as a markdown file and upload it.
4. Your highlights load instantly. Browse, search, star and tag to your heart's content.

Your highlights are saved between sessions automatically — no account needed. If you'd like to set up KOReader WiFi sync or the Obsidian plugin down the line, you can do so with a free sync token.

If you'd like to export to Obsidian, click Export in the sidebar and choose Obsidian. You'll get a zip of markdown files with YAML frontmatter, ready to drop into your vault. That's completely free.