Comparison

Unread vs Reeder Classic

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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/

About

Reeder Classic

This app combines an RSS reader and a read-later client, offering iCloud syncing for your news feeds and saved articles. It features a focus-enhancing reading mode, customizable widgets, and the ability to mark items as read while scrolling. Enjoy a clutter-free reading experience with its reader view.

Highlights
  • RSS feed reader
  • Read later client
  • iCloud syncing
  • Bionic Reading mode
  • Customizable widgets
  • Mark as read on scroll
  • Reader view
Currently charting
Read full description

Keep control of your news reading with Reeder Classic, RSS reader and read later client in one app, now with support for iCloud syncing. FEEDS Sync all your feeds and articles with iCloud. Reeder Classic comes with a built-in RSS/Feeds service which will keep everything in sync on all your devices. Of course, this is optional. You can still just use one of the many third-party services supported by Reeder or just RSS (without sync). READ LATER This is Reeder's built-in read later service which stores all your data securely in iCloud. A sharing extension allows you to add links from outside of Reeder. BIONIC READING A higher dimension of reading. With Bionic Reading you read texts with more focus, awareness, and sustainability. Read more about Bionic Reading at bionic-reading.com. WIDGETS View most recent articles, configurable to only show items from feeds, folders, searches (for services that support searches) or tags (for read later services). MARK AS READ ON SCROLL With version 5, Reeder finally supports marking items as read while scrolling. Off by default, this can be enabled on a per-account basis. READER VIEW Enter Reader View (for feed items and read later links that support this) for a clutter-free reading experience directly in Reeder's article viewer. You can enable "Automatic Reader View" on a per-feed basis to always load items of a feed with Reader View. SUPPORTED THIRD-PARTY SERVICES Feedbin, Feedly, FeedHQ, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, Inoreader, BazQux Reader, FreshRSS, Instapaper and Pocket.

Screenshots

Unread4 screens
Reeder Classic4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Unread at Free against Reeder Classic's $4.99. Unread also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.1) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks). Reeder Classic's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and chart position (#2 vs unranked). On ratings volume, 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

Unread is free to download; Reeder Classic costs $4.99 up front. Unread sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Reeder Classic asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Unread holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 442 and 821 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of Unread's written reviews are positive against 61% of Reeder Classic's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Unread ships an update every 8 days, Reeder Classic every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Unread versus Reeder Classic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnreadReeder Classic
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating4.6 (442 ratings) — better4.1 (821 ratings)
Positive reviews72.4% of reviews — better60.7% of reviews
Number of ratings442821 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#2 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB24 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperGolden Hill SoftwareSilvio Rizzi

Customer experience

Unread

All ratings442 ratings
Positive89.8%
Neutral2.7%
Negative7.5%
Written reviews170 reviews
Positive72.4%
Neutral8.2%
Negative19.4%

Reeder Classic

All ratings821 ratings
Positive75.9%
Neutral5.7%
Negative18.4%
Written reviews517 reviews
Positive60.7%
Neutral11.6%
Negative27.7%

User reviews

Unread

From 442 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Elegant and intuitive UI
  • 🚀 Fast and responsive
  • 🔒 Secure login integration
  • 📚 Excellent article formatting and readability
  • 💡 Automated full-text article retrieval

Room to improve

  • 💰 Subscription model seen as too expensive
  • 🔀 Inconsistent experience between iOS and iPad versions
  • 🔍 Difficult to discover certain features
  • 🔠 Lack of customization options (e.g., font, theme)

Reeder Classic

From 821 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth and fast
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 🔒 Secure with iCloud sync
  • 💡 Useful read later feature
  • 👍 Minimalist and clean design

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sync issues with iCloud
  • 🐛 Background refresh not working
  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • 🐛 Compatibility issues with older devices
  • 🐛 Slow sync for large feed counts

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

Reeder Classic

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Articles not loading properly
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between articles
  • Unreliable background sync
  • Issues with Twitter integration

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to filter feeds by keywords
  • Option to change app icon
  • Support for more languages
  • Tighter integration with Matter app
  • Offline reading mode
Show 1 more
  • Text-to-speech support

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Unread

Subscriptions4
  • Unread Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
  • Unread Annual Subscription$29.991 Year
  • Unread: Free first year$29.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Unread: Discounted first year$29.991 Year
None

Reeder Classic

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Unread free?
Unread is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Reeder Classic free?
Reeder Classic costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Unread or Reeder Classic?
Unread is rated higher. Unread averages 4.6 out of 5 from 442 ratings, while Reeder Classic averages 4.1 from 821 ratings.
Do Unread or Reeder Classic have ads?
Neither Unread nor Reeder Classic shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Unread or Reeder Classic?
Unread ships an update every 8 days, and Reeder Classic every 3 weeks. Most recently, Unread was updated on September 21, 2026 and Reeder Classic on September 23, 2026.

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