Tools for
Conviviality

Home / Collecting & research / Are.na

Are.na

A quiet place to collect things and connect ideas over time.

Instead of Pinterest, Google Keep boards

M · ToolNo adsNo algorithmic feed
www.are.na
Screenshot of the Are.na website

Screenshot from www.are.na, taken 2026-10-23, shown to help you recognise the tool. It belongs to its maker. Ask us to remove it.

Everybody has a folder called something like Stuff, and Are.na is a place to give that folder some manners. Designers, artists and researchers keep what they find and arrange it into channels, with no ads, no likes to chase and no feed tuned to keep you there. People have built their own tools on its public API.

Are.na scores a 5 on self-direction, a 4 on footprint, power and delivery and a 3 on lock-in and longevity.

The app is closed source and free with a paid membership, and we have not yet checked the company's size and funding, so the Longevity score is cautious. We will update this review when we have.

    What stands out

  • A calm place to collect things and arrange them into channels
  • No ads, no likes and no feed tuned to keep you there
  • A public API that people have built their own tools on
Visit Are.na
Do you make Are.na? Get the badge for your site

This badge reports a dated review. It is not a certification and it costs nothing. Link it to this page and leave the numbers alone: the image always shows the current score.

For dark backgrounds, use arena-dark.svg in place of arena-light.svg.

For comparison, we also reviewed Pinterest (13/30) as a benchmark.

Other tools for “collect and connect ideas”