Comparison

News Explorer vs Inlet

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

Inlet

Features
Read full description

Your feed. No algorithm. Inlet is a quiet RSS reader for people who are done letting platforms decide what they read. Add the sources you trust. Read what they publish, in the order they publish it. No suggested posts. No engagement loops. No noise. Just the writers, publications, and voices you actually chose - delivered cleanly to a beautiful, minimal feed. Read on your terms Inlet fetches the full article and renders it in a calm, distraction-free reader. No pop-ups, no cookie banners, no dark patterns. Just the text. Save for later Swipe to save any article. Your saved pieces live in their own space, ready when you are. Your sources, your call Add any RSS or Atom feed by URL. Paste and go. Inlet even detects URLs you've copied to your clipboard. It stays clean Read articles quietly disappear after 24 hours. The feed refreshes itself. No housekeeping required. Inlet is made by an independent developer who was tired of beautiful reading experiences being buried inside bloated apps.

Screenshots

News Explorer4 screens
Inlet4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Inlet at Free against News Explorer's $4.99. Inlet also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks). News Explorer's advantage is chart position (#7 vs unranked) and device support (4 vs 1). On ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, Inlet every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
News Explorer versus Inlet: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNews ExplorerInlet
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (640 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews79.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings640 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#7 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB1 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperRon ElemansLongspaces Limited

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

Inlet

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

News Explorer

No in-app purchases

None

Inlet

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is News Explorer free?
News Explorer costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Inlet free?
Inlet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do News Explorer or Inlet have ads?
Neither News Explorer nor Inlet shows ads.
Which is updated more often, News Explorer or Inlet?
News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Inlet every 5 days. Most recently, News Explorer was updated on October 29, 2026 and Inlet on October 24, 2026.

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