Starting in about 2011, Storify dominated the niche of tools to harvest, collect, and organize social media and related content into meaningful collections or “stories.” But by early 2018, when Storify announced it would be closing, the market was wide open for a replacement and Wakelet came to the forefront. My colleague, emerging technologies librarian Patricia Anderson (who co-authored this post), and I were both big Storify users. But we’ve since moved, quite happily, to Wakelet. Below is a table with a quick overview of the tool’s pros and cons. You can take a deep dive and read all the details in our full Wakelet review.
| Pros | Cons | |
| Access | Runs properly on modern computers/browsers | Possible problems accessing shared content on older computers |
| Accessibility | No known problems via AChecker | Drag and drop, infinite scroll, and issues for users with sight and fine motor control limitations |
| Browser extension | Save and organize links to articles, videos, tweets, & more. Available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. | Links to extensions are difficult to locate, as they are in a collection and not a page on their website. |
| Collaboration | Paid, commercial accounts may create group registered users | Only available for paid accounts and very limited information on these accounts is available |
| Content | Supported: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud, Google Maps, Spotify, Amazon, Slideshare, Meetup, Tumblr, YouTube, Behance, Flickr, Medium, & Dribble | Some content must be manually added via URL |
| Display controls | Customizable banner and background images supported by Unsplash | — |
| Mobile | App available for iOS & Android | — |
| Reordering | Drag and drop individual items or move to top/bottom | Cannot auto-sort after adding content |
| Saving | Auto-saves drafts and can save privately before publishing | — |
| Search | Available | No advanced search: can only search by keyword |
| Social media | Very present, active, & responsive | — |
| Update cycle | Rapid–
iOS: 17 updates in past year. New feature alerts via Twitter and collection. |
— |
| URLs | Unique URLs for each collection and profile | No descriptive URLs for collections |
Have a cool app, tool, or tech tip you’d like to share? Contact Chase Masters. Please note that Tech Tips are personal recommendations and might not be officially endorsed or supported by U-M.
