Espial
Web-based bookmarking server that supports multiple user accounts.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Partly: no commits in 90 days, but v0.0.42 shipped in Jul 2026.
Also an alternative to Pocket.
At a glance
Espial quick facts
- Health score
- 47/100 SLOWING
- Stars
- 924
- Last commit
- 4 days ago (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- v0.0.42, Jul 2026
- Licence
- AGPL-3.0
Top alternatives to Espial
Full rankings: Pocket alternatives
In its own words
The project's README opens: "It supports multiple user accounts and is primarily intended for self-hosted deployments."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
Espial scores 47/100, #17 of 19 in Bookmarks and Link Sharing: 0 commits in the last 90 days earn 0.0 of 35 points, the latest release (v0.0.42, 3 months ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 924 stars add 11.9 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and no advertised Docker image leaves the final 10 unclaimed. That places it in the slowing band (40 to 69). The biggest shortfall is commit activity, worth 35.0 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity biggest shortfall 0.0 / 35
0 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
v0.0.42 released 3 months ago
- Stars 11.9 / 20
924 stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 0.0 / 10
No Docker support advertised
Commit activity
- 0
- Last 90 days
- 27
- Last 12 months
- 4 days ago
- Last push
Ranked #17 of 19 tools in Bookmarks and Link Sharing by health , between Betula (#16) and Slash (#18) .
Details
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 |
| Platforms | Haskell |
| Latest release | v0.0.42 · 3 months ago |
| Stars | 924 |
| Open issues | 5 |
| Docker | Not advertised |
| Repository | jonschoning/espial ↗ |
Espial vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a comparison page or a category with Espial (Bookmarks and Link Sharing), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Karakeep | 98 | 30k | AGPL-3.0 | yesterday |
| LinkWarden | 97 | 20k | MIT | 4 days ago |
| linkding | 96 | 11k | MIT | 4 days ago |
| LinkAce | 94 | 3.4k | GPL-3.0 | 4 days ago |
| Readeck | 92 | 1.2k | AGPL-3.0 | 7 days ago |
| Espial (this tool) | 47 | 924 | AGPL-3.0 | 4 days ago |
Espial: common questions
What does Espial replace?
Repoly lists Espial as an open-source alternative to Pocket. Each comparison page ranks every alternative by the same health score, so you can see where Espial stands against the others.
Is Espial still maintained?
Espial had 0 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 4 days ago; the latest tagged release, v0.0.42, is from 3 months ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.