Unread vs Monocle for Reddit
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Unread
This app is a beautifully designed RSS reader that focuses on a clean reading experience with customizable typography and themes. It offers seamless syncing across devices and integrates with various read-later services, allowing for offline access to cached content.
- Gesture-based navigation
- Customizable color themes
- Cross-device syncing
- Automatic webpage text display
- Offline access with caching
- Integration with read-later services
- Widgets for unread counts
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Rediscover the joy of reading your favorite writers and publications with Unread. Unread is an RSS reader with beautiful typography, comfortable gesture-based navigation, and a variety of color themes. Unread is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Unread won the MacStories Selects 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award. Capabilities include: SYNCING: Our free Unread Cloud service keeps your devices in sync. Unread also syncs with Feedbin, Feedly, Fever, FreshRSS, Gobbler, Inkwell, Inoreader, Miniflux, and NewsBlur. AUTOMATIC WEBPAGE TEXT: For feeds that contain only article summaries, Unread will display the full article text from the webpage. Easily switch between feed text and webpage text for any article, and change the default for individual feeds. WEBSITE ACCOUNTS: For news websites that require an account, sign in and get full webpage text. SUBSCRIBE IN UNREAD: This share sheet extension lets you subscribe to a website’s feeds while visiting that website from Safari or any other web browser. SAVE TO UNREAD: This share sheet extension creates an article in Unread with the contents of the webpage you are visiting from Safari or any other web browser. (Subscription required.) COLOR THEMES: Unread provides a variety of color themes. Choose one theme for light mode and another for dark mode. CACHING: Unread caches webpage text and images for instant loading and offline access. (Subscription required.) READ-LATER SERVICES: Unread can save articles to Anybox, Flyleaf, GoodLinks, Instapaper, Matter, Pinboard, Plinky, Raindrop.io, Readwise, Safari Reading List, and wallabag. On a device with a hardware keyboard, assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each. (Subscription required.) SHORTCUTS: Perform shortcuts on articles and links inside articles. On a device with a hardware keyboard, assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each. (Subscription required.) --- “Most importantly, I should stress again how refreshing it feels to have such a great native experience with Unread. The app is really fast, even when it’s loaded up with hundreds of feeds.” — Niléane Dorffer, MacStories “It’s an RSS reader made with taste. It has great typography, themes, search, and compatibility with the usual suspects. I love having this app on my Mac.” — David Sparks, MacSparky “Unread is focused on eliminating chrome — it is a pure reading app. It’s like reader mode all the time, and the assortment of color themes is nicely curated.” – John Gruber, Daring Fireball --- Unread has full VoiceOver coverage. Every screen and every feature is available to users with vision impairments: • From any screen you can perform a magic tap, a two-finger double tap, to open a menu of options available for that screen. • When on an article list, there are actions available for each article in the list. After selecting an article, invoke the accessibility rotor and then select “Actions”. There is an action to mark the article read or unread, an action to share the article, and many others. • Use the VoiceOver escape gesture, a two-finger “Z”, to back out of the current screen. --- UNREAD SUBSCRIPTION Unread is a free app. Additional functionality is available with a $29.99 (USD)/year auto-renewing subscription: • Article actions for sending articles directly to supported bookmarking and read later services, and for sharing via email or iMessage. • Ability to execute shortcuts on articles and links. • Caching of webpage text and images. • Widget customization options. • Save to Unread share sheet extension. • Custom app icons. • Premium support. A subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your account settings on the App Store after purchase. Unread’s Terms of Use are available at: https://www.goldenhillsoftware.com/unread/terms-of-use/
Monocle for Reddit
Browse and interact with Reddit content in a fast, lightweight, and customizable way. Create personalized feeds, enjoy a powerful media player, and manage multiple accounts with advanced posting and messaging features.
- Customizable Smart Feeds
- Fast media player with Picture-in-Picture and AirPlay
- Multi-account support
- Full Markdown composer
- Multi-window support
- Dark Mode support
- Low Data Mode
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Monocle offers a comprehensive experience browsing and interacting with Reddit. It is lightweight, fast and aims to make content consumption easy. With Smart Feeds you can create your own customized feeds by selecting topics, setting the sort order and adding a variety of filters. You chose what you want to see. And of course you can also post in your favorite topics, engage in discussions and message your friends. Features: - Switch back and forth between multiple topics without losing your scroll position - Customize content feeds by creating Smart Feeds that can also be shared with others - Super fast media player for showing images, videos and GIFs (full-screen mode available) - Video and GIF scrubbing, Picture-in-Picture, AirPlay®, and more! - Full Dark Mode support - Extensive Contextual Menus integration - Multi window support - view multiple topics and post simultaneously or side by side with you favorite apps! - Share and save images, videos and GIFs - Search for any topics or posts - Search for posts in topics - Full Markdown rendering with tappable links - Today widget showing currently trending posts - Low Data Mode support and much more! If you purchase Monocle Pro you also get the following features: - Add one or more Reddit accounts - Fast and easy account switching - Subscribe to your favorite topics - Full Markdown composer for posting, commenting and messaging - Post text, links, images, GIF (selected videos are automatically converted to GIFs) and drawings made directly on the device - Submit replies to posts and comments - Edit your posts and comments - Upvote/downvote posts and comments - Save posts and comments to read later - Message inbox - Message other users Privacy Policy: https://bastian.codes/privacy-policy/monocle Terms And Conditions: https://bastian.codes/terms-and-conditions/monocle
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Unread at 72% against Monocle for Reddit's 20%. Unread also leads on rating (4.6 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (442 vs 14). Monocle for Reddit's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Unread sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Monocle for Reddit sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Unread holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Unread has 442 ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of Unread's written reviews are positive against 20% of Monocle for Reddit's.
Unread ships an update every 8 days, Monocle for Reddit every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Unread | Monocle for Reddit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (442 ratings) — better | 3.7 (14 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 72.4% of reviews — better | 20.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 442 — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | +17 |
| Developer | Golden Hill Software | Bastian Kohlbauer |
Customer experience
Unread
Monocle for Reddit
Bugs and requests
Unread
Reported bugs
3 issues- Occasional article duplication
- Issues with 'Keep Unread' feature
- Text formatting problems in dark mode
Requested features
4 requests- Add support for more RSS providers (e.g., Miniflux, FreshRSS)
- Implement keyboard shortcuts and power-user features
- Improve information density on iPad layout
- Introduce a one-time purchase option
Monocle for Reddit
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Unread
- Unread Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
- Unread Annual Subscription$29.991 Year
- Unread: Free first year$29.991 Year
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- Unread: Discounted first year$29.991 Year
Monocle for Reddit
- Monocle Pro$4.99









