Comparison

Hackery vs An Otter RSS Reader

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

Head to head
About

Hackery

A fast and clean client for browsing Hacker News stories, complete with scores, comments, and authors. Save articles for later reading with iCloud syncing and engage in discussions with nested, threaded comments. Features on-device comment moderation for a focused reading experience.

Highlights
  • Card-based story layout
  • Save stories for later
  • iCloud sync for bookmarks
  • Nested threaded comments
  • On-device comment moderation
  • Dark theme support
Features
Read full description

A clean, fast Hacker News client for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro. Stay in the Loop Browse the latest Hacker News stories in a clean, card-based layout. See scores, comment counts, and authors instantly. Tap any story to read in Safari's reader mode. Never Lose a Story Swipe to save stories for later. Your bookmarks sync across all your devices via iCloud, so you never lose track of what you want to read. Follow the Conversation Follow conversations with nested, threaded comments. Links are tappable and underlined. Discussions load in pages so the app stays fast, even on long threads. Keep It Civil On-device comment moderation powered by Apple Intelligence lets you filter out noise and focus on quality discussions. Adjust the sensitivity to your comfort level. Easy on the Eyes Easy on the eyes, day or night. Hackery follows your system appearance with a carefully crafted dark theme. https://hackery.timshim.com

About

An Otter RSS Reader

A minimalistic RSS reader that synchronizes your subscribed feeds across Apple devices via iCloud. It allows for automatic feed discovery, organization into folders, and reading articles in a standard web view. Integrates with Shortcuts and offers home screen widgets for unread counts.

Highlights
  • iCloud feed synchronization
  • Auto-discover RSS feeds
  • Group feeds into folders
  • Read articles in web view
  • Shortcuts integration
  • Home screen widgets
  • Import/Export with OPML
Features
Read full description

An Otter RSS Reader is a simple RSS reader for following news, blogs, and personal sites without another account. Subscribe to feeds, organize them into folders, and let iCloud keep everything in sync across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Otter keeps the experience intentionally calm: quick refreshes, native navigation, readable article views, and just enough personality to make checking your feeds feel pleasant. New in 2.0, the iPad edition grew up. The Front Page opens to today's stories while native adaptive columns keep feeds and the story list side by side when there’s room, then collapse cleanly on smaller screens. Articles set in a real serif with a comfortable reading measure, on iPad and iPhone alike. Features: - Subscribe to RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, and XML feeds - Sync subscriptions and reading state with iCloud - The Front Page: a daily opening spread across iPhone and iPad - Smart Folders that fill themselves — long reads, quick reads, podcasts, videos - A serif reading view with adjustable typography - Reading Insights: streaks, reading calendar, and when-you-read patterns - Organize feeds into folders - Import and export subscriptions with OPML - Keyboard shortcuts and menu commands on iPad - Refresh feeds in the background or manually - Shortcuts actions, Home Screen widgets, and alternate app icons Otter Pro, the optional subscription, adds ad-free reading, custom Smart Folders, TL;DR article summaries, and the full Reading Insights dashboard. Otter is not trying to be a social network, inbox, or power-user dashboard. It is a practical little RSS reader for people who still like the open web. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://anotterrss.com/privacy

Screenshots

Hackery4 screens
An Otter RSS Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: An Otter RSS Reader at 60% against Hackery's 0%. An Otter RSS Reader also leads on rating (4.1 vs 3.0) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 4 months). Hackery's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Both are free to download. Hackery sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and An Otter RSS Reader sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

An Otter RSS Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: An Otter RSS Reader has 73 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Hackery's written reviews are positive against 60% of An Otter RSS Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hackery ships an update every 4 months, An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Hackery versus An Otter RSS Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHackeryAn Otter RSS Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (4 ratings)4.1 (73 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews60.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings473 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision ProiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB45 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperTim ShimJosh Holtz

Customer experience

Hackery

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral66.7%
Negative33.3%

An Otter RSS Reader

All ratings73 ratings
Positive75.3%
Neutral8.2%
Negative16.4%
Written reviews111 reviews
Positive60.4%
Neutral9.9%
Negative29.7%

Bugs and requests

Hackery

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

An Otter RSS Reader

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • It does not work
  • Articles flicker in and out of existence and about 30 of them don't show at all
  • The list views are messed up with many black spaces where a feed item should appear but is completely black
  • Reader mode seems to not work
  • Articles show up in duplicated often, articles had been marked as read will show up again as unread
Show 5 more
  • Feeds disappear after closing the app
  • Feeds don't refresh
  • Crashes when importing OPML files
  • Crashing when importing opml files
  • Crashes when trying to import an OPML file

Requested features

13 requests
  • Encripted iCloud backups would be welcome
  • Mark articles read on scrolling past them
  • Option to hide read articles by default instead of manually hiding all the time
  • When clicking on a top level folder it expands the folder clicking the arrow should expand the folder
  • Needs swipe gestures example swipe right mark read/unread swipe left add to favorite
Show 8 more
  • Need to add an option to sort by oldest and newest first
  • If in reader mode hitting the safari button should open in the in app browser instead of leaving the app
  • Under notifications there should be an option to show badge count with unread articles
  • Should be an option to see favicons to the left of the headline to quickly see at a glance which site posted the story as well as an option to enable images if there is one in the story
  • MiniFlux Sync would be nice
  • Offline reading?
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Hackery

One-time1
  • Buy me a coffee$4.99
7 purchases

An Otter RSS Reader

Subscriptions2
  • Otter Pro Monthly$0.991 Month
  • Otter Pro Annual7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time5
  • Small Tip2 variants$0.99
  • Medium Tip2 variants$2.99
  • Large Tip2 variants$5.99
Show 2 more
  • Mega Tip2 variants$12.99
  • Otter Pro Lifetime$19.99

Questions

Is Hackery free?
Hackery is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is An Otter RSS Reader free?
An Otter RSS Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Hackery or An Otter RSS Reader?
An Otter RSS Reader is rated higher. Hackery averages 3.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while An Otter RSS Reader averages 4.1 from 73 ratings.
Do Hackery or An Otter RSS Reader have ads?
Neither Hackery nor An Otter RSS Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hackery or An Otter RSS Reader?
Hackery ships an update every 4 months, and An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. Most recently, Hackery was updated on November 2, 2026 and An Otter RSS Reader on October 24, 2026.

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