Comparison

Speak News vs Really Simple Reader

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

Head to head
About

Speak News

This app reads news stories from various sources aloud using text-to-speech. It offers hands-free listening, offline access, and customizable display options. Seamlessly integrate with Siri for voice commands and enjoy a personalized news experience.

Highlights
  • Text-to-speech news reading
  • Siri integration for hands-free control
  • Offline story access
  • Customizable display styles
  • iCloud bookmark syncing
  • Background feed updating
  • Media controls on lock screen
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Speak News reads stories from RSS/Atom news feeds, web pages, Wikipedia pages, or Google News queries to you using text-to-speech. Speak News app is built for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Use Siri to open Speak News and listen to news stories hands-free using the earphones remote control. Just say “Hey Siri, Open Speak News” and the app will start reading your current news stories. Complete Features • Use Siri to open the app and listen to stories. • Use Siri Shortcuts to perform several common activities with voice commands. • Bookmarks can be RSS/Atom news feeds, web pages, Wikipedia pages, Google News queries, or Speak News keyword queries. Speak News queries can be created and performed while offline, searching the stories cached on the device. • iCloud bookmark syncing • Import bookmarks from a Feedly OPML feed library URL. • Multitasking allows updating news feeds in the background while reading or listening to news in the foreground. • Automatically selects appropriate international speech voices based on story language. • Toolbar functions in a feed view include Play/Pause, Stop, Previous, Next, Update All Feeds, View Mode, Share, Settings. • Share news headlines and links, or entire news feeds through the standard iOS Share social media activities view, including Message, Mail, Notes, Reminders, Twitter, Google+, Flipboard, Facebook, Evernote, etc. • Current story info and Play/Pause, Previous, Next functions are available in the media player controls in the device's lock screen and Control Center. • Speak News automatically rotates through available voices for the current language for each story. This gives more variety and distinction in the sequence of spoken news stories. For instance, in English, this gives U.S. , U.K. Ireland, New Zealand, and Australian voices. • All stories are saved on your device for later reading and listening while offline. • Efficient text-only story display makes loading and reading faster, and saves money on your cell phone plan by downloading minimal data. • Display Styles include White, Light Gray, Sepia, Dark Gray, Dark Red, and Black. The "dark mode" Black and Dark Red styles are ideal for reading in dark environments. • All text is responsive to the user's preferred text size as set in Settings > Display & Brightness > Text Size, and Settings > General > Accessibility > Larger Text. • Toolbar functions in the Bookmarks view include New Bookmark, Go To Section, Find, Settings, Library, and Edit. • Today Widget displays scrolling list of stories from current feed. • Use the remote control on earphones to speak and pause stories, move to next or previous stories, or select a new RSS feed from your bookmarks. • Create your own bookmarks and bookmark sections. • Import bookmarks from Imaja’s Speak News RSS Feeds Library featuring a broad selection of essential and informative news feeds. • Settings includes many controls for news story display, auto-reload, speech and auto-scrolling behavior, and user-interface sounds. • Keyboard shortcuts are supported for Speak News functions for use with external Bluetooth keyboards. • RSS feed details are viewable in the Edit Bookmark view. • Word Usage action displays statistics on word frequencies in a story or a complete feed. • Speak News supports a custom URL scheme for adding bookmarks. Remote Control with Earphones Tap the center button: • One time to play or pause the speech. • Two times to skip to the next story. • Three times to skip to the previous story. • Five times to enter Bookmark Selection Mode. In Bookmark Selection Mode, listen for the desired bookmark name and tap one time to open and start speaking the feed. Settings Use the Settings view to configure the text display, graphic style and behavior of Speak News. Visit imaja.com/speaknews for more details and screenshots. Follow @SpeakNewsApp on Twitter.

About

Really Simple Reader

Features
Read full description

A feed reader that doesn't take itself more seriously than your articles. Really Simple Reader shows you what you've subscribed to – chronological, clear, no algorithm, no banner ads, no forced sign-up. As simple as it sounds: Enter a feed URL, done. Really Simple Reader stores everything locally on your device – no account needed. No login, no email address, no cloud requirement. Everything a feed reader needs: • A combined timeline for all feeds – or filtered by folder • A clean article view with no distractions, with Safari Reader as a fallback • Folders to organize your sources • "Read Later" for articles that don't fit right now • Notifications for new articles (optional) • Import/export your feed list (OPML) • Automatic cleanup of old articles, fully adjustable Your data stays your data. Everything is stored locally on your device. If you want, you can optionally enable sync across multiple devices – a deliberate extra feature, never a requirement. Really Simple Reader is for anyone who wants to use RSS the way it was meant to be: a calm, reliable way to keep track of your own sources – without an app getting between you and your articles.

Screenshots

Speak News4 screens
Really Simple Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Really Simple Reader at Free against Speak News's $9.99. Really Simple Reader also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 months). Speak News's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and chart position (#58 vs unranked). On ads 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

Really Simple Reader is free to download; Speak News costs $9.99 up front. Really Simple Reader sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Speak News asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Speak News ships an update every 2 months, Really Simple Reader every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Speak News versus Really Simple Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpeak NewsReally Simple Reader
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#58 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB11 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperImajaEnrico Weinhold

In-app purchases

None

Speak News

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Really Simple Reader

One-time1
  • Full Access$2.99

Questions

Is Speak News free?
Speak News costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Really Simple Reader free?
Really Simple Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Speak News or Really Simple Reader have ads?
Neither Speak News nor Really Simple Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Speak News or Really Simple Reader?
Speak News ships an update every 2 months, and Really Simple Reader every 5 days. Most recently, Speak News was updated on September 22, 2026 and Really Simple Reader on September 18, 2026.

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