Comparison

Unread vs Readfold

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 offers a beautiful and intuitive way to read your favorite news and blogs. It features customizable themes, automatic full-text article retrieval, and seamless syncing across devices. Enjoy offline access and integration with various read-later services.

Highlights
  • Beautiful typography and color themes
  • Gesture-based navigation
  • Automatic full-text article retrieval
  • Cross-device syncing with Unread Cloud
  • Offline access to cached content
  • Integration with read-later services
  • Share sheet extensions for subscribing and saving
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 Birchfeed, 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, Quick Reads, 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.) --- “Just a gorgeous app.” – John Gruber, Daring Fireball “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 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

Readfold

Features
Read full description

Readfold takes the sites you choose and lays them out like a newspaper front page — headlines in different sizes, arranged so your eye can move. Not one more endless vertical list. WHAT PEOPLE USE IT FOR - Scanning headlines from several business papers on one page - Following tech news and engineering blogs in one place - Reading world news in the original language - Keeping favourite blogs and newsletters together (where they offer RSS) WHY IT FEELS DIFFERENT A list treats every article the same. A front page does not. Readfold gives bigger space to some stories and smaller space to others, so you can take in twenty headlines in the time a list gives you five. START WITHOUT HUNTING FOR FEEDS 251 recommended sources, across 7 languages and 8 topics — news, tech, business, science, sports, culture, design and more. Choose the languages you read, tap a few sources, and your first front page is ready. You can still paste any RSS or Atom address by hand, and Readfold will find the feed from a plain site address too. WHAT YOU GET - A front page that rebuilds itself as new articles arrive - Folders to keep your sources in order - Save for later and favourites, kept on your device - Search across everything you subscribe to - Read inside the app or jump to the original page - Quiet notifications: new articles, and a nudge if you have been away - Dark and light, and a text size that respects your system setting - Seven interface languages: English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, German, French NO ALGORITHM, NO ADS There is no feed ranking deciding what you should see. You subscribed to it, so it shows up. There are no ads anywhere in the app, and no advertising ID is collected. YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS STAY YOURS Signing in is optional — every feature works without an account. Sign in only if you want the same subscriptions on more than one device. If you do, your subscription list is stored in Korea (Seoul region), because what you choose to read is the most personal thing this app touches. Article titles, what you read, and your searches are never sent to a server. Delete your account any time from Settings, and everything on the server goes with it. Readfold is a quiet reader for people who still want to choose their own news. ■ Readfold Pro (optional) The front page, the keyword page, the standard morning brief and interest packs stay free. Pro is for people who want things faster and their own way. - Instant keyword alerts — when a keyword shows up in your sources, you hear about it right away. Sign in and our server checks every 15 minutes even while your phone rests (free: one keyword, checked when your phone fetches new articles) - Make your brief — morning and evening, keyword stories first, only the folders and sources you pick, up to 10 headlines - Ad-free, for good — neither plan has ads now; if ads ever come to the free version, Pro stays clear Monthly $2.99 (first month discounted) or yearly $19.99 (7-day free trial); prices vary by country. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends, and you can cancel anytime in your store account's subscription settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://koat.co.kr/terms/privacy_policy.html

Screenshots

Unread4 screens
Readfold4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Readfold at 15.5 against Unread's 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Unread sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Readfold sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Unread ships an update every 8 days, Readfold every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Unread versus Readfold: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUnreadReadfold
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (443 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews72.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings443 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB62 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperGolden Hill SoftwareKorea Analytics Technology

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

Readfold

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
2 purchases

Readfold

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly14 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Pro Yearly14 Days trial$17.991 Year

Questions

Is Unread free?
Unread is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Readfold free?
Readfold is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Unread or Readfold have ads?
Neither Unread nor Readfold shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Unread or Readfold?
Unread ships an update every 8 days, and Readfold every 4 days. Most recently, Unread was updated on November 6, 2026 and Readfold on November 6, 2026.

Other comparisons