Comparison

News Explorer vs Feedstand

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

Feedstand

This app offers a peaceful and private way to follow websites by displaying articles without algorithmic interference. Customize your reading experience with adjustable fonts, themes, and full-text article fetching. It also includes text-to-speech functionality and customizable filters for a personalized news feed.

Highlights
  • Clean, distraction-free reading interface
  • Full-text article fetching
  • Text-to-speech for articles
  • Customizable filters (mute words, star articles)
  • Quiet notifications
  • Home screen widgets
  • Local data storage and OPML import/export
Features
Read full description

Feedstand is a private RSS and news feed reader for iPhone and iPad. Follow your favourite websites and blogs in one chronological reading list, or save a single webpage to read later. Add any site and Feedstand finds its feed. No algorithm decides what you see, and nothing is ranked, promoted, or injected. You get every article from the sites you chose, newest first, and that is it. What you get: • A clean reader. Articles are stripped back to just the words and pictures, set in a typeface built for reading. Adjust the font, width, and theme to suit you, or switch to sepia for the evening. • Full-text articles. When a feed gives you only a summary, Feedstand can fetch the whole piece so you never have to leave for the browser. • Listen to anything. Tap play and Feedstand reads an article aloud, so you can carry on while you cook, walk, or commute. • Filters that actually help. Mute words you are tired of, keep only what matters from a noisy feed, star matching articles automatically, or get a notification the moment a topic you care about appears. • Quiet by default. Notifications fire only for the feeds and phrases you choose. No badges you did not ask for. • Widgets. Put your unread count, latest headlines, or starred articles on your Home Screen. • Yours to keep. Everything lives on your device. Import and export OPML, back up your whole library, and sync with your own Fever or Miniflux server if you run one. There are no accounts, and no servers of ours in between. Feedstand is a reader, not a feed. Follow what you like, and read it in peace. Questions about Feedstand: Can I save a webpage without subscribing to its feed? Yes. Share the webpage to Feedstand and choose Save just this article. Choose Find and subscribe to feed if you want future articles from that website. Can I read articles offline? Previously downloaded article text is available offline. Adding feeds and fetching new articles require an internet connection. Do I need an account? No. Feedstand stores your library on your device. Connecting your own Fever or Miniflux server is optional.

Screenshots

News Explorer4 screens
Feedstand4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: News Explorer at 79% against Feedstand's 0%. News Explorer also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.0) and ratings volume (640 vs 1). Feedstand's advantage is price (Free vs $4.99) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 3 weeks). 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

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

News Explorer holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: News Explorer has 640 ratings behind it against 1, 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 0% of Feedstand's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, Feedstand every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
News Explorer versus Feedstand: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNews ExplorerFeedstand
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (640 ratings) — better2.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews79.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings640 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#7 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size49 MB14 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperRon ElemansDannyWeb Limited

Customer experience

News Explorer

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

Feedstand

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

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

Feedstand

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

News Explorer

No in-app purchases

None

Feedstand

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is News Explorer free?
News Explorer costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Feedstand free?
Feedstand is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, News Explorer or Feedstand?
News Explorer is rated higher. News Explorer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 640 ratings, while Feedstand averages 2.0 from 1 ratings.
Do News Explorer or Feedstand have ads?
Neither News Explorer nor Feedstand shows ads.
Which is updated more often, News Explorer or Feedstand?
News Explorer ships an update every 3 weeks, and Feedstand every 2 days. Most recently, News Explorer was updated on November 1, 2026 and Feedstand on October 24, 2026.

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