# Shortform vs Unearthed Shortform records 847,045 monthly visits with -4.5% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. Unearthed records 527 monthly visits with -84.1% growth and Freemium pricing. | Metric | [Shortform](https://openaitools.app/tool/shortform) | [Unearthed](https://openaitools.app/tool/unearthed) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://www.shortform.com | https://unearthed.app | | Categories | AI Book Summarizer, AI Summarizer, AI Article Summarizer | AI Knowledge Management, AI Book Summarizer, AI Chatbot, AI Question Generator | | Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium | | Monthly Visits | 847,045 | 527 | | MoM Growth Rate | -4.5% | -84.1% | | Primary Market | United States | Germany | | Direct Visits | 146,136 | 214 | | Review Score | 4.3 | 4.5 | | Saved Count | 0 | 0 | | Supported Platforms | Website | Website | ## Shortform Shortform is a subscription learning platform built around one idea: dense non-fiction is more useful when someone has already done the heavy lifting. It publishes long-form guides to popular non-fiction books, plus article and topic guides that synthesise reporting from outlets like The New Yorker and The Economist. The library is large — Shortform quotes more than 12,000 books and over a thousand articles and topic guides — and it grows every week with bestsellers and news-driven guides. What separates Shortform from a plain summariser is the commentary layer. Each guide walks through the book's main arguments, then adds analysis, comparisons with related research and practical exercises, so you can judge the ideas rather than just absorb them. Every guide also ships with a full audio narration and a PDF download, and the mobile apps support offline listening, which makes the platform work as a commute-friendly learning habit as well as a desk reference. The product is operated by shortform.com out of Chicago and is available in English, Spanish, German and Brazilian Portuguese on desktop, iOS and Android. Access is by subscription, with a free trial up front so you can sample guides before committing. **Pricing & Plans:** Subscription-based with a free trial. Annual billing is about $16.42/month ($197 billed yearly) and monthly billing is $24.00/month, with the same library and features on both plans. - **A deep non-fiction library:** More than 12,000 book guides, 1,000+ article and topic guides, and podcast breakdowns, with new titles added weekly. - **Commentary, not just condensation:** Guides are written with smart analysis and opinionated commentary, so you engage with ideas rather than skim a trimmed abstract. - **Read or listen anywhere:** Every guide has full audio narration and supports offline listening, so commutes and workouts are study time. - **Cross-device progress and notes:** Follow your subscription on desktop, iOS or Android, with highlights, notes, PDF downloads and reading lists that travel with you. - **Exercises and community discussion:** Test your grasp with built-in exercises and discuss ideas with other readers in community threads. **Strengths:** Guides go beyond summary to include analysis and commentary; Every title has audio narration plus PDF download; 12,000+ books and 1,000+ articles, with new guides weekly; Mobile apps with offline reading and listening [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/shortform.md) ## Unearthed Unearthed is a reading memory tool. It focuses on the problem that highlights are easy to save and hard to find again: you remember an idea but not the book it came from. By collecting Kindle and KOReader highlights into one library, it lets you search a few words and jump back to the passage, with notes kept alongside it in your existing note-taking app. The project deliberately offers multiple editions so you can match it to where you read and where your notes live. Unearthed Local is a one-time-purchase desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that stores your library on your own computer, exports Markdown to an Obsidian vault and connects to Craft, and also saves articles and RSS feeds. Unearthed Online is a $5/month browser edition that is open source under GPL-3.0 and connects to Obsidian and Notion while sending daily reflections to Supernotes. Unearthed Mobile is a paid phone app for reading articles and capturing passages on the go. Beyond books, Unearthed supports your own sources so that quotes, ideas and facts that did not come from a book still live in the same system, and daily reflections bring saved passages back for another look. It is positioned as a Readwise alternative with a strong open source and self-hosting story, though AI summaries and book chat are limited to the Online subscription and the Capacities integration is still pending. **Pricing & Plans:** Free/open source core with paid editions. Unearthed Online costs $5 per month. Unearthed Local for Windows, macOS and Linux is a one-time purchase, and Unearthed Mobile is a separate one-time purchase app, with no Obsidian plugin required for Local exports. - **Kindle and KOReader sync:** Import Kindle and KOReader highlights into a single searchable library, so you can find a passage without reopening every book. - **Notes app integrations:** Send books, highlights and daily reflections to Obsidian, Craft, Notion and Supernotes, with Capacities support in the works. - **Custom sources for your own ideas:** Create your own sources for quotes, ideas and facts so short-form inspiration sits beside your book highlights. - **Articles and RSS feeds:** Save web articles and follow RSS feeds in Unearthed Local and Mobile so new posts appear next to your reading highlights. - **Open source and self-hostable:** Unearthed Online is GPL-3.0 open source, with the browser extension, Obsidian plugin and KOReader plugin published on GitHub. **Strengths:** Consolidates Kindle and KOReader highlights into one searchable library; Connects to Obsidian, Craft, Notion and Supernotes; Open source (GPL-3.0) with self-hosting options; Local edition keeps your library on your own computer **Limitations:** AI summaries and book chat are only on the Online subscription, and Capacities support is not yet available; Local and Mobile editions are separate paid apps, not one purchase for everything; Core focus is Kindle and KOReader, so other e-readers get less coverage; Online edition depends on a monthly subscription for continued web access [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/unearthed.md) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do Shortform and Unearthed compare in monthly traffic? Shortform has 847,045 monthly visits, while Unearthed has 527. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality. ### How do their growth rates compare? Shortform has a month-over-month growth rate of -4.5%; Unearthed has -84.1%. ### How does pricing compare? Shortform: Freemium. Subscription-based with a free trial. Annual billing is about $16.42/month ($197 billed yearly) and monthly billing is $24.00/month, with the same library and features on both plans. Unearthed: Freemium. Free/open source core with paid editions. Unearthed Online costs $5 per month. Unearthed Local for Windows, macOS and Linux is a one-time purchase, and Unearthed Mobile is a separate one-time purchase app, with no Obsidian plugin required for Local exports. ## Alternatives | # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | [ChatGPT](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4) | 6,048,022,723 | +2.2% | Freemium | OpenAI's flagship multimodal assistant powered by GPT-6 and GPT-5.6 for reasoning, coding, and deep research. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4.md) | | 2 | [Blinkist](https://openaitools.app/tool/blinkist) | 1,633,056 | +19.3% | Freemium, Free Trial, Paid | Bite-sized book and podcast insights you can finish in 15 minutes | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/blinkist.md) | | 3 | [SoBrief.com](https://openaitools.app/tool/sobrief-com) | 726,812 | +12.2% | Freemium, Free Trial | Read more books, easier — key ideas from thousands of titles. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/sobrief-com.md) | | 4 | [Capacities](https://openaitools.app/tool/capacities) | 339,396 | +5.7% | Freemium, Paid | A studio for your mind: object-based notes that stay connected | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/capacities.md) | | 5 | [BeFreed](https://openaitools.app/tool/befreed) | 285,675 | -17.5% | Freemium | Converts books into personalized audio micro-lessons, but focuses more on bite-sized learning than deep conceptual study guides. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/befreed.md) | | 6 | [Scholarcy](https://openaitools.app/tool/scholarcy) | 195,058 | +4.6% | Freemium | Turn research papers and articles into interactive summary flashcards | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/scholarcy.md) | | 7 | [Snipd](https://openaitools.app/tool/snipd) | 111,446 | +13.8% | Freemium, Free Trial | Turn podcast listening into lasting knowledge | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/snipd.md) | | 8 | [Paper Digest](https://openaitools.app/tool/paper-digest) | 97,202 | -7.1% | Freemium | AI-powered platform to read, write, and stay current with research | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/paper-digest.md) | | 9 | [OpenRead](https://openaitools.app/tool/openread) | 27,098 | -51.6% | Freemium, Paid, Contact for Pricing | AI research workspace for searching, reading and connecting papers | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/openread.md) | | 10 | [Recall](https://openaitools.app/tool/active-recall) | 25,950 | -31.9% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | Your AI knowledge base that remembers everything you save | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/active-recall.md) | --- Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/shortform-vs-unearthed More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)