# News Explorer vs Linkstacks

The clearest difference is price: Linkstacks at Free against News Explorer's $4.99. Linkstacks also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and review sentiment (100% vs 79%). News Explorer's advantage is ratings volume (640 vs 3) and chart position (#17 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Linkstacks is free to download; News Explorer costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Linkstacks holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: News Explorer has 640 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of News Explorer's written reviews are positive against 100% of Linkstacks's.

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, Linkstacks every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | News Explorer | Linkstacks |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $4.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | [4.7 (640 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/news-explorer/id1032668306/reviews) | **[5.0 (3 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/linkstacks/id1307607864/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **640** | 3 |
| Positive reviews | 79.0% of reviews | **100.0% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Every 3 weeks** | Every 5 weeks |
| Monetization | Paid | **Free** |
| Best chart rank | **#17** | — |
| Size | 49 MB | 26 MB |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | **11.0** |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch** | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Ron Elemans](https://appshunter.io/developer/802165890) | [Poul Nielsen](https://appshunter.io/developer/625331720) |

## What reviewers say

### News Explorer

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/news-explorer/id1032668306)

**Currently charting:** #17 Top Paid · News (US App Store)

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:** Apple Watch app, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Great app
- 👍 Fantastic RSS reader
- 🔒 Respects privacy
- 🚀 Smooth and fast
- 👍 Customizable

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🔍 Needs better search and filtering options
- 🔍 Limited theme and color options
- 🔍 Inconsistent behavior when marking articles as read
- 🔍 Needs better support for Mastodon and other platforms

**Reported bugs**

- 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**

- Ability to add custom RSS feeds
- Improved support for newsletters
- Option to translate articles
- Bionic reading mode
- Annotation and highlighting tools


### Linkstacks

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/linkstacks/id1307607864)

An open-source bookmarking tool offering a clean, ad-free, and minimalist interface for organizing and sharing your favorite links. It prioritizes user privacy and a straightforward experience.

**Highlights:** Open-source bookmarking, Ad-free interface, Minimalistic design, Link organization, Link sharing

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is News Explorer free?

News Explorer costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.

### Is Linkstacks free?

Linkstacks is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Which has better reviews, News Explorer or Linkstacks?

Linkstacks is rated higher. News Explorer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 640 ratings, while Linkstacks averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.

### Do News Explorer or Linkstacks have ads?

Neither News Explorer nor Linkstacks shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, News Explorer or Linkstacks?

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Linkstacks every 5 weeks. Most recently, News Explorer was updated on November 2, 2026 and Linkstacks on November 4, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*