Burkmak
Burkmak is a self-hosted read-it-later app for saving links, reading articles, marking passages, and sending reading notes to Obsidian.
What Burkmak is
Burkmak is a self-hosted read-it-later app for saving links, reading articles, marking passages, and sending reading notes to Obsidian. Its searchable libraries are per user and let people sort links with tags, read states, and favorites. The reader extracts article content into a focused view where users can add highlights and notes. Links can be saved through the web app, Android share sheet, or desktop browser bookmarklet; an iOS share extension is listed as a future follow-up. Kobo readers can access an OPDS catalog for EPUB and KEPUB downloads, or use native store-protocol sync that writes reading state back. That native sync requires HTTPS, and a pass with a physical Kobo device is still pending. The Obsidian plugin moves article notes, highlights, and metadata into a vault through Burkmak’s export API. Deployment uses Docker Compose with backend and web containers, with SQLite data, cached articles, images, and EPUBs held in a data volume. The self-hosted plan is free for a single instance and a small number of accounts.
Good
- Searchable per-user libraries with tags and favorites
- Captures links from web, Android, or bookmarklet
- Exports article notes and highlights to Obsidian
- Kobo catalog supports EPUB and KEPUB downloads
Watch out
- Native Kobo sync requires HTTPS
- Physical-device Kobo pass is still pending
- Designed for a single instance, not high availability
Who it suits
Burkmak suits self-hosters, Kobo readers, and note-takers who want to collect articles and keep highlights in Obsidian. Its single-instance design is aimed at a limited number of accounts, not multi-instance high availability.
Verdict
Burkmak brings link saving, reading, highlighting, Kobo access, and Obsidian export into a self-hosted setup. Its pending physical-device check and single-instance scope are worth weighing before deployment.
Plans and prices
From Burkmak's own pricing page, checked 9 Oct 2001.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted | Free | single instance · small number of accounts |
The facts
Each one read from Burkmak's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Architecture limit
- The product requirements specify a single self-hosted instance and list horizontal scaling and multi-instance high availability as non-goals.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Capture
- Links can be saved from the web app, Android share sheet, or desktop browser bookmarklet; an iOS share extension is listed as a follow-up.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Data storage
- The deployment stores its SQLite database, cached articles, images, and EPUBs in the burkmak-data volume.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Deployment
- The maker provides a Docker Compose deployment with backend and web containers, a data volume, and published amd64 and arm64 images.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Full-text search
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2001
- Highlight export
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2001
- Highlighting
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2001
- Intended users
- The product requirements describe self-hosters, Kobo readers, and note-takers who want highlights in Obsidian as target users.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Kobo integration
- Kobo support includes an OPDS catalog with EPUB/KEPUB downloads and native store-protocol sync with reading-state write-back.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Kobo limitation
- Native Kobo sync requires HTTPS, and the physical-device pass is still pending.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Library
- Users can organize saved links with tags, read states, favorites, and searchable per-user libraries.checked 9 Oct 2001
- License
- The repository identifies the project as MIT licensed.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Obsidian integration
- An Obsidian plugin syncs article notes, highlights, and metadata into a vault through Burkmak’s export API.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Privacy
- The product requirements state there are no third-party analytics and that content fetched server-side stays on the self-hosted instance.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Purpose
- Burkmak is a self-hosted, multi-user read-it-later app for saving links, reading articles, highlighting text, syncing with Kobo, and exporting notes to Obsidian.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Reader
- The app extracts articles into a clean reader view and supports highlights and notes.checked 9 Oct 2001
Where it runs
- Browser extension
- Nochecked 22 Sep 2001
- Mobile apps
- Yeschecked 22 Sep 2001
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