Comparison

Unread vs Fluent Reader Lite

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

Fluent Reader Lite

A simple, open-source RSS client that supports various self-hosted and commercial services. It offers features like dark mode, content filtering, and article organization. Optimized for multitasking on iPad.

Highlights
  • Supports Fever, Google Reader, Inoreader, and Feedbin APIs
  • Dark mode for UI and reading
  • Configure content loading (full or webpage)
  • Dedicated subscriptions tab with article titles
  • Search and filter local articles
  • Organize subscriptions with groups
  • Two-pane view and multitasking on iPad
Features
Read full description

Fluent Reader Lite is a simplistic, cross-platform, and open-source RSS client. The following self-hosted and commercial RSS services are supported. * Fever API (TT-RSS Fever plugin, FreshRSS, Miniflux, etc.) * Google Reader API (Bazqux Reader, The Old Reader, etc.) * Inoreader * Feedbin (official or self-hosted) Other key features include: * Dark mode for UI and reading. * Configure sources to load full content or webpage by default. * A dedicated subscriptions tab organized by latest updates with article titles. * Search for local articles or filter by read status. * Organize subscriptions with groups. * Support for two-pane view and multitasking on iPad. The following features from the desktop app are *NOT* present: * Local RSS support and source / group management. * Importing or exporting OPML files, full application data backup & restoration. * Regular expression rules that mark articles as they arrive. * Fetch articles in the background and send push notifications. * Keyboard shortcuts.

Screenshots

Unread4 screens
Fluent Reader Lite4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Unread at 4.6 against Fluent Reader Lite's 3.6. Unread also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 6 months) and review sentiment (72% vs 47%). Fluent Reader Lite's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Unread sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Fluent Reader Lite asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Unread holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Unread has 442 ratings behind it against 10, 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 47% of Fluent Reader Lite's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Unread ships an update every 8 days, Fluent Reader Lite every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Unread versus Fluent Reader Lite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnreadFluent Reader Lite
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (442 ratings) — better3.6 (10 ratings)
Positive reviews72.4% of reviews — better47.1% of reviews
Number of ratings442 — better10
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB23 MB
Age rating17++17
DeveloperGolden Hill SoftwareHaoyuan Liu

Customer experience

Unread

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

Fluent Reader Lite

All ratings10 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive47.1%
Neutral17.6%
Negative35.3%

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

Fluent Reader Lite

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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

Fluent Reader Lite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Unread free?
Unread is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Fluent Reader Lite free?
Fluent Reader Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Unread or Fluent Reader Lite?
Unread is rated higher. Unread averages 4.6 out of 5 from 442 ratings, while Fluent Reader Lite averages 3.6 from 10 ratings.
Do Unread or Fluent Reader Lite have ads?
Neither Unread nor Fluent Reader Lite shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Unread or Fluent Reader Lite?
Unread ships an update every 8 days, and Fluent Reader Lite every 6 months. Most recently, Unread was updated on September 21, 2026 and Fluent Reader Lite on September 15, 2026.

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