PagePocket vs Perma.cc
Perma.cc is the gold standard for permanent legal citations — built and supported by libraries. PagePocket is a private, searchable archive for everyday professional research. Different jobs; here is the honest breakdown, with sources.
What Perma.cc is great at
Perma.cc helps scholars, journals, courts, and others create permanent records of the web sources they cite — so citations never rot [3]. It is built and supported by libraries, with records preserved by the Harvard Law School Library, and it is free for courts and for academic communities affiliated with a Perma registrar [2]. When a citation must not break, Perma.cc is the recognised choice.
- Purpose-built for legal and scholarly citations — 'Websites change. Perma Links don't.' [3]
- Built and supported by libraries; records preserved by the Harvard Law School Library [2]
- Free unlimited service for affiliated academics and for courts [1]
Feature comparison
| Feature | PagePocket | Perma.cc |
|---|---|---|
| Saves the full page — text, layout, images | Included | Included |
| Perma.cc creates a permanent record of the cited page, preserved in its registry [3]. | ||
| Purpose-built for legal and scholarly citations | Not included | Included |
| Perma.cc is built and supported by libraries and used by courts and law reviews — the recognised choice when a citation must not break [2][3]. | ||
| Keeps your archive private | Included | Not included |
| Perma Links are permanent public records, meant to be cited and viewed by others [3]. PagePocket pages are private to your account unless you share a link. | ||
| Full-text search across everything you save | Included | Not included |
| Perma.cc is organised around cited links rather than a searchable personal library. | ||
| Where your archive lives | Your private library on PagePocket | Perma.cc's registry, preserved by the Harvard Law School Library [2] |
| Third-party institutional preservation is Perma's core value: your records outlive you, independent of any account you hold. | ||
| Share with a clean link | Included | Included |
| Sharing a permanent public record is the core of Perma.cc [3]. PagePocket links are private-by-default, with optional expiry and revocation. | ||
| Works offline | Not included | Not included |
| Both are online services. For fully offline copies, a tool like SingleFile is the better fit. | ||
| Price | Free plan: 50 pages/mo · 500 MB. Pro: $2/mo (billed yearly). | 10 free trial links, then from $10/mo for 10 links/mo; free unlimited via many libraries and courts [1] |
| Perma.cc individual subscriptions: 10 links/mo $10, 100 links/mo $25, 500 links/mo $100; one-time link packs also available [1]. | ||
Sources
- [1] Perma.cc Docs — Accounts and Usage Plans
- [2] Perma.cc — individual sign-up
- [3] Perma.cc — homepage
PagePocket claims on this page come from our own features and pricing pages.
Straight talk
When Perma.cc is the better choice
Perma.cc is the better tool in real situations. If any of these describe you, use it with confidence — we mean it.
You are citing sources in legal or academic work
Perma.cc exists so citations in court opinions and law reviews do not rot, with records preserved by the Harvard Law School Library [2][3]. For that job it is the recognised standard — PagePocket will not pretend otherwise.
Your institution provides it
Many academic libraries and courts are Perma registrars, and affiliated students, faculty, and staff get free unlimited service [1]. If you qualify, use it.
You need third-party institutional permanence
Perma records are hosted and preserved by an independent institution [2] — a guarantee that matters for citations with legal weight and that a self-serve cloud archive cannot honestly replicate.
The PagePocket angle
Where PagePocket fits
For legal citations, Perma.cc is the right tool. PagePocket is built for the broader research workflow around it: privately archiving sources at working volume, keeping them organised in collections, finding anything again with full-text search, and sharing with expiring links — all at $2/mo on Pro.
They also differ in visibility: Perma records are public by design [3], while PagePocket pages are private until you deliberately share a link. If you archive material that should not be public, that distinction matters. Start on the Free plan (50 pages/mo) to see the workflow.