# News Explorer vs Tobi

The clearest difference is price: Tobi at Free against News Explorer's $4.99. News Explorer's advantage is chart position (#9 vs unranked) and device support (4 vs 1). On update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

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

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, Tobi every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | News Explorer | Tobi |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $4.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | **[4.7 (640 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/news-explorer/id1032668306/reviews)** | — |
| Number of ratings | **640** | — |
| Positive reviews | 79.0% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | **Every 2 weeks** |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | **#9** | — |
| Size | 49 MB | 10 MB |
| Requires iOS | **18.0** | 27.0 |
| Devices | **iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch** | iPhone |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Ron Elemans](https://appshunter.io/developer/802165890) | [Matteo Dall'Ombra](https://appshunter.io/developer/1116590939) |

## What reviewers say

### News Explorer

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

**Currently charting:** #9 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


### Tobi

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tobi/id6758964812)

**Features:** iPhone Duo support

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is News Explorer free?

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

### Is Tobi free?

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

### Do News Explorer or Tobi have ads?

Neither News Explorer nor Tobi shows ads.

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

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Tobi every 2 weeks. Most recently, News Explorer was updated on November 11, 2026 and Tobi on November 8, 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.*