NetNewsWire vs Reeder Classic
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NetNewsWire
This app aggregates articles from your favorite blogs and news sites, offering a faster and more organized way to consume content. It provides control over your news feed, eliminating the need to visit multiple websites or rely on social media algorithms. Enjoy a streamlined reading experience with customizable features and syncing capabilities.
- Direct feed downloading
- iCloud and third-party syncing
- Customizable article themes
- Reader view
- Starred articles
- Smart feeds
- Home screen widgets
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It’s like podcasts, but for reading. NetNewsWire is a free and open source RSS reader. It shows you articles from your favorite blogs and news sites and keeps track of what you’ve read. It’s fast, stable, and accessible. If you’ve been going from site to site in your browser looking for new articles to read — or counting on the unreliable algorithms of corporate social media — let NetNewsWire bring you the news you want. It’s easy and fun. And it puts you, not billionaires, in control of your news. Features: * Direct feed downloading * Syncing via iCloud, Feedbin, Feedly, BazQux, Inoreader, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, and FreshRSS * Multiple accounts * Custom article themes * Reader view * Share sheet * Starred articles * All Unread and Today smart feeds * Folders * Importing and exporting OPML feed lists * Background refreshing * Searching * Hiding read articles * Timeline customization * Keyboard shortcuts * Context menus * Home screen widgets for today, unread, and starred articles * Share extension
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.
- RSS feed reader
- Read later client
- iCloud syncing
- Bionic Reading mode
- Customizable widgets
- Mark as read on scroll
- Reader view
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: NetNewsWire at Free against Reeder Classic's $4.99. NetNewsWire also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.1) and review sentiment (85% vs 61%). Reeder Classic's advantage is chart position (#1 vs #151) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). On ratings volume, 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
NetNewsWire is free to download; Reeder Classic costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
NetNewsWire holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 882 and 821 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of NetNewsWire's written reviews are positive against 61% of Reeder Classic's.
NetNewsWire ships an update monthly, Reeder Classic every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.
| Parameter | NetNewsWire | Reeder Classic |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (882 ratings) — better | 4.1 (821 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 84.7% of reviews — better | 60.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 882 — better | 821 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #151 | #1 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 24 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Brent Simmons | Silvio Rizzi |
Customer experience
NetNewsWire
Reeder Classic
Bugs and requests
NetNewsWire
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
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- Text-to-speech support
In-app purchases
NetNewsWire
No in-app purchases
Reeder Classic
No in-app purchases









