Comparison

Unread vs Next Level News

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

Next Level News

Consolidate your news from various sources into a single, organized feed. This reader offers advanced customization, bulk actions, offline saving options, and seamless iCloud synchronization across devices.

Highlights
  • Organize feeds into custom categories
  • Save articles as PDF, Webarchive, or .webloc
  • Multi-selection for bulk actions
  • Undo/redo functionality
  • iCloud sync across devices
  • Advanced search with bulk actions
  • Background feed updates with notifications
Features
Read full description

Gather your news in one place and organize it the way you like; Next Level News is a one of a kind news reader with modern iOS features, powerful bulk actions, undo/redo support, iCloud sync, advanced search, multi-selection support, save for offline reading, and so much more.  YOUR NEWS, YOUR WAY Customize article previews for each feed and group feeds into your own custom categories. A NEW KIND OF NEWS READER Next Level News provides advanced features you won’t find in other apps; you can apply bulk actions not just to entire feeds, but also to entire sections of content and to custom categories you create.  SAVE FOR LATER, SAVE FOREVER -Save news articles as PDF files and view them in your favorite PDF reader app or in the Files app. -Save news articles as Webarchive files and view them in Safari offline. -Save news articles and web links as Web Internet Location Files (.webloc). MULTI-SELECTION Want to act on several articles but not the entire list? Multi-selection is supported. Most news readers allow you to either act on one article at a time or the entire list. With Next Level News, select as many articles as you want. UNDO/REDO Made a mistake? Next Level News supports undo/redo (even for bulk actions). FEATURES: •Follow the news from your most trusted sources. •Group news feeds into custom categories. •Subscribe to RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds. •Customize article previews for each feed. •Apply powerful bulk actions to an entire feed, an entire custom category, and even to an entire section of content by using the context menu shown when you long press on screen. •Apply bulk actions to all articles that appear above or below a particular article. •Add articles to your Favorites or send them to the Trash. •Share articles using the iOS Share Sheet. •Save articles as PDF files. •Save articles as Webarchive files. •Save news articles and links as Web Internet Location Files (.webloc). •Print RSS articles and web pages opened within the app (printing can be initiated through the Share Sheet or by using the Command+P keyboard shortcut on an iPad with an attached keyboard). •Undo and redo is fully supported, even for bulk actions (use either a shake gesture or the standard iOS three finger tap to bring up the undo/redo menu). •Sync articles on all your iOS devices via iCloud (iCloud can be disabled in the Settings app). •Take advantage of powerful search. •Apply bulk actions to search results. •Fast select multiple articles using the standard iOS two finger drag gesture on the timeline (this allows you to apply an action only to the selected articles). •Update feeds while the app is in the background and get notifications in the Notification Center. •Import and export OPML feed lists. •Choose your preferred text size with Dynamic Type. •Supports multiple windows on iPad. •Dark Mode is fully supported. •Open the Comments page of an article directly within the app (if a Comments page is provided by the feed author). •And more! --- Next Level News Pro offers a 7 day risk free trial. Cancel anytime before the trial period ends at no cost to you. If you choose to subscribe to Next Level News payment will be charged to your iTunes account. By default your subscription automatically renews and your account is charged 24 hours before the current subscription period ends. Cancel your subscription anytime in the App Store app to disable autorenew.

Screenshots

Unread4 screens
Next Level News4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Next Level News at 5.0 against Unread's 4.6. Next Level News also leads on iOS requirement (14.7 vs 18.0). Unread's advantage is ratings volume (442 vs 3). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Unread sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Next Level News sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Next Level News holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Unread has 442 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Unread ships an update every 8 days, Next Level News weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Unread versus Next Level News: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnreadNext Level News
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (442 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews72.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings442 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.014.7 — better
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB52 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperGolden Hill SoftwareApp Tyrant Corp

Customer experience

Unread

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

Next Level News

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Next Level News

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
3 purchases

Next Level News

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly Plan7 Days trial$2.997 Days
  • Monthly Plan$8.991 Month
  • Next Level News Yearly$64.991 Year

Questions

Is Unread free?
Unread is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Next Level News free?
Next Level News is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Unread or Next Level News?
Next Level News is rated higher. Unread averages 4.6 out of 5 from 442 ratings, while Next Level News averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Unread or Next Level News have ads?
Neither Unread nor Next Level News shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Unread or Next Level News?
Unread ships an update every 8 days, and Next Level News weekly. Most recently, Unread was updated on September 21, 2026 and Next Level News on September 12, 2026.

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