Sensefold vs Omnivore: self-host the repo, or a hosted library your own AI can read and write
Omnivore was the free, open-source darling of the read-later world — newsletters, RSS, PDFs, text-to-speech. ElevenLabs hired the team on October 29, 2024, and the hosted service went offline on November 15, 2024. The AGPL repository did not die: it is community-maintained for self-hosting, with Android builds still shipping in 2026. If you do not want to run PostgreSQL to keep a library, Sensefold is the hosted alternative — but a different one: captures become Markdown with summaries and tags, and Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP client reads and writes that library. Here is the honest comparison, including what happens to your data if we ever shut down.
Last reviewed by Sensefold Editorial.Omnivore facts were checked against github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore on September 3, 2026 (README: “Omnivore is now a completely Self-Hosted application. The Cloud application was deprecated in November of 2024”; latest release android-0.229.0, August 28, 2026; about 10 open issues) plus the 2024 shutdown notices. iOS build status was not verified. More about Omnivore: github.com/omnivore-app/omnivore
Sensefold vs Omnivore, feature by feature
A check marks the side that is stronger on that row; no mark means the two differ without one being better.
| Feature |  Sensefold | Omnivore |
|---|---|---|
| Availability today | Web app, iPhone and iPad app, Chrome extension, and Apple Silicon Mac app. | No hosted service since November 15, 2024. The AGPL repo is community-maintained for self-hosting; Android builds still ship on GitHub Releases (0.229.0, August 2026). |
| Setup required | Sign up and save — nothing to install or maintain. | Self-hosters run PostgreSQL plus several services; the Android APK is published, other clients are built from source. |
| Automatic enrichment on save | Automatic on every capture: summary, tags, OCR for images and PDFs, chapter guides for video. Your own notes are indexed but never rewritten. | Text-to-speech and an experimental digest shipped with the hosted service; the self-hosted repo focuses on reader and Android features, with no hosted AI pipeline. |
| Your own AI, connected | Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, or any MCP client connects at api.sensefold.app/mcp (OAuth or a read_only / edit / full Agent key) and calls search_hub, get_item, save_link, save_note, and update_note; every agent write is versioned and revertible. | None; the self-hosted API serves Omnivore’s own clients and integrations. |
| RSS & newsletters | Not supported. Sensefold is capture-first, not a feed reader. | Newsletter addresses and RSS subscriptions remain in the self-hosted stack. |
| File types | Web pages, PDFs, images (OCR), YouTube pages with transcript and chapter guide, social threads with comments, your own notes, and AI chats captured with the Chrome extension. | Web articles, PDFs, newsletters, and RSS in the self-hosted stack. |
| Export & portability | Export the whole library as a Markdown ZIP from the web app at any time; copy any capture as Markdown from the extension or iOS. | The hosted export window closed in November 2024; exports were ZIPs of sharded metadata_<n>_to_<m>.json files plus HTML. Self-hosters hold their own database. |
| Ongoing development | Actively developed: Chrome extension 1.3.0 and iOS 1.5.0 (September 2026), MCP writes, Markdown ZIP export — hosted by a team you can email. | Community-maintained: about 40 commits in 2026, Android releases, a small open-issue count — no company behind it. |
| Pricing | No free tier: saving is free, AI runs on credits. Starter $16/month ($160/year), Pro $36/month ($396/year), after a 14-day free trial (card required). | Free (AGPL open source), but you pay for and operate your own server. |
Why people pick Sensefold over Omnivore
- No servers: the part of Omnivore that went away is the part Sensefold operates for you.
- A library you can leave: a Markdown ZIP export ships today, so the shutdown risk Omnivore users lived through has an exit built in.
- Your own AI, connected: Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor searches and writes over MCP with versioned, revertible edits.
- Enrichment on every capture — summaries, tags, OCR, transcripts — beyond what Omnivore offered even when hosted.
Moving from Omnivore to Sensefold
Sensefold has no importer. If you exported before the November 2024 deadline, the ZIP holds sharded metadata_<n>_to_<m>.json files plus the article HTML; a self-hosted instance holds the same data in its database. Keep those files.
Re-save the pages that still matter: open each URL and click the Sensefold button in Chrome, or share from iPhone; an edit-tier agent can read the URLs from the JSON and call save_link for each. Each capture is enriched and spends credits, so batch a large archive rather than draining the 800 trial credits. Highlights and labels stay in your export.
Related guides
Sensefold vs Omnivore: frequently asked questions
What happened to Omnivore?
ElevenLabs hired the Omnivore team on October 29, 2024. The hosted service at omnivore.app went offline on November 15, 2024, after a short export window, and remaining user data was deleted. The AGPL code is community-maintained for self-hosting: Android 0.229.0 shipped on August 28, 2026 and the repo saw about 40 commits in 2026.
Should I self-host Omnivore instead of using Sensefold?
If you enjoy running infrastructure and want a free, open-source reader with RSS and newsletters, it is a real option: the community keeps the repo alive and ships Android builds. Expect PostgreSQL plus several services, and clients other than Android built from source. Sensefold is the opposite trade — hosted, enriched automatically, and open to your own AI over MCP, with no operations work.
What happens to my library if Sensefold ever shuts down?
You can export the whole library as a Markdown ZIP from the web app today — text, summaries, tags, and captured chats as plain files — and copy any capture as Markdown from the extension or iOS. That is the exit Omnivore users had to scramble for; we make no promise beyond the export that already ships.
Is Sensefold open source like Omnivore?
No. Sensefold is a hosted product: saving is free, AI runs on credits, and new subscriptions open with a 14-day trial. If open source is a hard requirement, wallabag is the healthiest self-hosted project; we compare it on the Sensefold vs wallabag page.
Can I bring my Omnivore export into Sensefold?
Not with an importer — there is none. Keep the export and re-save the pages you still need with the Chrome extension, the iOS share sheet, or an edit-tier agent calling save_link.