Comparison

News Explorer vs Reams

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

News Explorer

This app aggregates news from various sources including RSS, Reddit, and podcasts. It offers robust synchronization across Apple devices, smart filtering, and automatic reader view for full article text. Users can also add notes, tags, and comments to articles.

Highlights
  • iCloud sync across Apple devices
  • Smart filters for news customization
  • Automatic Reader View for full articles
  • Read and add article comments
  • Create rich text notes for articles
  • Customizable feed settings and prefilters
  • Article inspector for metadata and tags
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

News Explorer is a full-featured yet easy-to-use RSS, JSON, Atom, Reddit, YouTube, Podcast, Bluesky and Mastodon news reader with iCloud synchronization between Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. Full iCloud Sync • News Explorer syncs your feeds, filters, folders, articles including statuses, notes and tags, across all your Apple devices. • Synchronization is based on iCloud, so there is no need to login or to sign up into any other service, it just works out of the box. Smart Filters • Filter your news according your own conditions and preferences, easily accessible from the feeds list. • Filters customizations are synced across all your devices. Automatic Reader View • Use automatic Reader view to download and read the full text version of truncated articles from supported sources. • News Explorer makes use of multiple parsers to offer the best Reader view results. Article Comments • Read article comments from other readers directly in the app. • Works with RSS feeds that has comment feeds per article, YouTube feeds, Reddit feeds and Hacker News feeds. • Also works with most feeds from websites that use Open Web comments. Article Notes • Create rich text notes, directly in the context of the article. • Notes are synced via iCloud together with the related article. Feed Settings • All aspects of a feed like title, source link or icon, can be adjusted in the Feed settings dialog. • Disable the feed temporarily or permanently. • Override app settings for syncing, downloading comments and reading articles. Feed Prefilters • Prevent the app from downloading articles you don’t want to see or read. • Prefilters are synced via iCloud, and can be easily configured on feed level in the Feed settings dialog. Article Inspector • Inspect metadata, tags, media, notes and comments of articles in the Inspector panel. • View and add custom tags in the Metadata panel. • Browse and download media, including podcasts, in the Media panel. Article Tags • Article categories of RSS articles are displayed in the Inspector panel as tags. • Can be extended with your own tags. • Custom tags are easily recognizable, and are synced via iCloud. • Tags can be used as conditions in filters. Local Account • Add feeds to News Explorer that only exists on your device by activating the Local account option. • The local account option can be used in addition to or instead of syncing with iCloud. Reading Features • Mark items as favorite for later reading. • Navigate with one click to the original content. • Full keyboard navigation. • Full text search in the List and Timeline view. • Mark as read while scrolling option. • Image viewer to browse through all images of articles or feeds. • Built-in sharing to Instapaper, Raindrop and Readwise. • Share news items via Email, Messages and other services. Configuration Features • Countless settings to tweak layout, fonts, behaviors and more. • Import and export feeds via OPML. • Add new feeds via the Search new feeds or Add feed dialogs. • Organize your feeds by assigning them to folders. • Multiple themes, tint colors and app icons. System Features • Create automations with News Explorer actions in the Shortcuts app. • Option to index articles with Spotlight. • Local notifications for feeds selected in the Feeds Manager. • Widgets with adjustable sources and fonts. Multi Platform You only need to buy two apps to cover all Apple platforms: • News Explorer for Mac is available on the Mac App Store. • News Explorer for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV is a universal purchase app, available on the App Store of the mentioned devices. On visionOS you can use the iPadOS edition of News Explorer. Support • News Explorer has an extensive help page on https://betamagic.nl/support/newsexplorer/help.html. • If you still have questions or need support, email us at support@betamagic.nl. If you like News Explorer then feel free to leave a review or a rating in the App Store, it helps us a lot!

About

Reams

This app transforms newsletters, RSS feeds, and saved web articles into beautifully designed, immersive reading experiences. It offers automatic synchronization across devices, organization tools like tags and notes, and a simple RSS discovery feature.

Highlights
  • AI-driven algorithmic layouts
  • Automatic device synchronization
  • Tagging, notes, and highlights
  • Painless newsletter integration
  • Simple RSS feed discovery
  • Full text article view
  • Automatic dark mode
Read full description

Reams is a serious, joyful and open app for readers. It works with newsletters, RSS and articles that you save manually from the web. Reams brings each one of your articles to life with an eye-popping, AI driven, algorithmic layout engine. Add delightful interactions and thoughtful features, and you get an app that lets you focus on the immersive pleasures of text and image. Terms: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula • BEAUTIFUL LAYOUTS: Reams uses finely wrought algorithms and a sprinkling of AI to turn your articles into an immersive magazine: every story has a unique layout. • STAY SYNCHRONIZED: Automatic sync between your devices, plus a browser-based UI coming very soon. • STAY ORGANIZED: tags, notes and highlights mean you never lose track of things. • REMEMBER WHAT YOU'VE READ: every article looks different, so they stay in your memory. • PAINLESS NEWSLETTERS: use your reams.app email address and get newsletters out of your inbox and into the perfect reading environment. • SIMPLE RSS DISCOVERY: Reams scours websites for feeds and lets you easily subscribe to them. • FULL TEXT VIEW: Load the full text for any story, even if the feed only shows you an extract. • AUTOMATIC DARK MODE: So that you can read at night without burning your retinas. • And so much else besides…

Screenshots

News Explorer4 screens
Reams4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Reams at Free against News Explorer's $4.99. Reams also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 79%) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). News Explorer's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Reams is free to download; News Explorer costs $4.99 up front. Reams sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $2.99 per month. News Explorer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

News Explorer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: News Explorer has 640 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of News Explorer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Reams's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, Reams every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard10 real differences · 1 level
News Explorer versus Reams: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNews ExplorerReams
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (640 ratings) — better4.0 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews79.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings640 — better7
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFreemium — better
Best chart rank#14 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB142 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperRon ElemansAdam Butler

Customer experience

News Explorer

All ratings640 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral3.0%
Negative3.8%
Written reviews281 reviews
Positive79.0%
Neutral8.2%
Negative12.8%

Reams

All ratings8 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

News Explorer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Issues with iCloud sync reliability
  • Freezing and crashes on certain devices
  • Inconsistent behavior when marking articles as read
  • Rendering problems with some websites in Reader mode

Requested features

8 requests
  • Ability to add custom RSS feeds
  • Improved support for newsletters
  • Option to translate articles
  • Bionic reading mode
  • Annotation and highlighting tools
Show 3 more
  • Tagging and advanced organization features
  • Text-to-speech playback
  • Improved Apple Watch app experience

Reams

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

News Explorer

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Reams

Subscriptions1
  • Premium$2.991 Month

Questions

Is News Explorer free?
News Explorer costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Reams free?
Reams is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, News Explorer or Reams?
News Explorer is rated higher. News Explorer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 640 ratings, while Reams averages 4.0 from 7 ratings.
Do News Explorer or Reams have ads?
Neither News Explorer nor Reams shows ads.
Which is updated more often, News Explorer or Reams?
News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Reams every 2 months. Most recently, News Explorer was updated on October 24, 2026 and Reams on October 10, 2026.

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