Comparison

NewsAtomic vs An Otter RSS Reader

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

Head to head
About

NewsAtomic

Features
Read full description

NewsAtomic is developed and maintained by Zelacom Electronic Publishing, with great local content provided by area newspapers, magazines and a variety of local writers and reporters. Zelacom is an internet development company with over two decades of experience and a unique perspective of where media, technology and business meet. Based in the Mid-Hudson Valley in Ellenville, NY, Zelacom creates custom web, software & application solutions for businesses across the street and across the country. Our partners and staff have varied backgrounds and experience in health care, insurance, real estate, publishing, local government, fine art, retail — even animal husbandry — all of which contributes to the diverse sensibility we bring to our work. Our first contributing publication is the Shawangunk Journal — the "home town" weekly newspaper for the communities of New York's Shawangunk Ridge. Locally owned and locally produced by dozens of area writers, the Shawangunk Journal is read and loved by thousands of loyal readers every week.

About

An Otter RSS Reader

A minimalistic RSS reader that synchronizes your subscribed feeds across Apple devices via iCloud. It allows for automatic feed discovery, organization into folders, and reading articles in a standard web view. Integrates with Shortcuts and offers home screen widgets for unread counts.

Highlights
  • iCloud feed synchronization
  • Auto-discover RSS feeds
  • Group feeds into folders
  • Read articles in web view
  • Shortcuts integration
  • Home screen widgets
  • Import/Export with OPML
Features
Read full description

An Otter RSS Reader is a simple RSS reader for following news, blogs, and personal sites without another account. Subscribe to feeds, organize them into folders, and let iCloud keep everything in sync across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Otter keeps the experience intentionally calm: quick refreshes, native navigation, readable article views, and just enough personality to make checking your feeds feel pleasant. New in 2.0, the iPad edition grew up. The Front Page opens to today's stories while native adaptive columns keep feeds and the story list side by side when there’s room, then collapse cleanly on smaller screens. Articles set in a real serif with a comfortable reading measure, on iPad and iPhone alike. Features: - Subscribe to RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, and XML feeds - Sync subscriptions and reading state with iCloud - The Front Page: a daily opening spread across iPhone and iPad - Smart Folders that fill themselves — long reads, quick reads, podcasts, videos - A serif reading view with adjustable typography - Reading Insights: streaks, reading calendar, and when-you-read patterns - Organize feeds into folders - Import and export subscriptions with OPML - Keyboard shortcuts and menu commands on iPad - Refresh feeds in the background or manually - Shortcuts actions, Home Screen widgets, and alternate app icons Otter Pro, the optional subscription, adds ad-free reading, custom Smart Folders, TL;DR article summaries, and the full Reading Insights dashboard. Otter is not trying to be a social network, inbox, or power-user dashboard. It is a practical little RSS reader for people who still like the open web. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://anotterrss.com/privacy

Screenshots

NewsAtomic3 screens
An Otter RSS Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: An Otter RSS Reader at every 3 days against NewsAtomic's monthly. NewsAtomic's advantage is iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. NewsAtomic sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and An Otter RSS Reader sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

NewsAtomic ships an update monthly, An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
NewsAtomic versus An Otter RSS Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNewsAtomicAn Otter RSS Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.1 (73 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—60.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—73 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS14.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB45 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperZelacom Electronic Publishing, LLCJosh Holtz

Bugs and requests

NewsAtomic

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

An Otter RSS Reader

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • It does not work
  • Articles flicker in and out of existence and about 30 of them don't show at all
  • The list views are messed up with many black spaces where a feed item should appear but is completely black
  • Reader mode seems to not work
  • Articles show up in duplicated often, articles had been marked as read will show up again as unread
Show 5 more
  • Feeds disappear after closing the app
  • Feeds don't refresh
  • Crashes when importing OPML files
  • Crashing when importing opml files
  • Crashes when trying to import an OPML file

Requested features

13 requests
  • Encripted iCloud backups would be welcome
  • Mark articles read on scrolling past them
  • Option to hide read articles by default instead of manually hiding all the time
  • When clicking on a top level folder it expands the folder clicking the arrow should expand the folder
  • Needs swipe gestures example swipe right mark read/unread swipe left add to favorite
Show 8 more
  • Need to add an option to sort by oldest and newest first
  • If in reader mode hitting the safari button should open in the in app browser instead of leaving the app
  • Under notifications there should be an option to show badge count with unread articles
  • Should be an option to see favicons to the left of the headline to quickly see at a glance which site posted the story as well as an option to enable images if there is one in the story
  • MiniFlux Sync would be nice
  • Offline reading?
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

In-app purchases

3 purchases

NewsAtomic

One-time3
  • Credit 4.99$4.99
  • Credit 9.99$9.99
  • Credit 24.99$24.99
6 purchases

An Otter RSS Reader

Subscriptions2
  • Otter Pro Monthly$0.991 Month
  • Otter Pro Annual7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time4
  • Small Tip2 variants$0.99
  • Medium Tip2 variants$2.99
  • Large Tip2 variants$5.99
Show 1 more
  • Mega Tip2 variants$12.99

Questions

Is NewsAtomic free?
NewsAtomic is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is An Otter RSS Reader free?
An Otter RSS Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do NewsAtomic or An Otter RSS Reader have ads?
Neither NewsAtomic nor An Otter RSS Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, NewsAtomic or An Otter RSS Reader?
NewsAtomic ships an update monthly, and An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. Most recently, NewsAtomic was updated on October 1, 2026 and An Otter RSS Reader on October 16, 2026.

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