Comparison

NewsFlash RSS 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

NewsFlash RSS

A fast, modern RSS reader designed for a clean, distraction-free news experience. Organize articles with tags, filter content, and search your entire feed. Offers custom push notifications and developer-friendly features.

Highlights
  • Clean, distraction-free reading experience
  • Customizable tags and filtering
  • Full-text search across articles
  • Keyword blocking for unwanted topics
  • Custom push notifications
  • iCloud Sync for private data backup
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Stay in control of your news. NewsFlash is a beautifully designed RSS reader that brings all your favorite sources into one fast, clean, distraction-free feed. Why NewsFlash? Fast & Minimal: A clean reading experience without clutter, ads, pop-ups, or algorithmic noise. Read Your Way: Open articles directly in Safari or use the built-in Reader view. Get the full web experience you prefer. Stay Organized: Tag articles with custom labels, filter your feed instantly, and navigate with smooth, scrollable tag chips. Never Lose Track: Clear read/unread indicators and one-tap bookmarking keep important stories in sight. Find Anything: Full-text search across all articles, tags, and feeds. Control Your Feed: Block keywords to automatically remove topics you don’t care about. Perfect For • News lovers following dozens of sites • Professionals staying current in tech, design, finance, science, etc. • Anyone tired of algorithmic feeds and wanting real control again Power Features • Custom Push API: Send rich push notifications via simple HTTP requests • Developer-Friendly: Great for monitoring services, CI/CD pipelines, personal automations, and more Privacy First • iCloud Sync for private, encrypted syncing • No accounts, no tracking, no ads • Your data stays entirely on your device NewsFlash combines elegant design with powerful tools. Simple enough for casual reading. Powerful enough for serious users. Take back control of your information flow. Download NewsFlash today.

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

NewsFlash RSS4 screens
An Otter RSS Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: An Otter RSS Reader at Free against NewsFlash RSS's $0.99. An Otter RSS Reader also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (73 vs 6). NewsFlash RSS's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.1) and chart position (#90 vs unranked). On review sentiment, 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

An Otter RSS Reader is free to download; NewsFlash RSS costs $0.99 up front. NewsFlash RSS sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and An Otter RSS Reader sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

NewsFlash RSS holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: An Otter RSS Reader has 73 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of NewsFlash RSS's written reviews are positive against 60% of An Otter RSS Reader's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

NewsFlash RSS ships an update monthly, An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
NewsFlash RSS versus An Otter RSS Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNewsFlash RSSAn Otter RSS Reader
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (6 ratings) — better4.1 (73 ratings)
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better60.0% of reviews
Number of ratings673 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#90 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB45 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperMichael SteurerJosh Holtz

Customer experience

NewsFlash RSS

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral33.3%
Negative0.0%

An Otter RSS Reader

All ratings73 ratings
Positive75.3%
Neutral8.2%
Negative16.4%
Written reviews110 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative30.0%

Bugs and requests

NewsFlash RSS

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

NewsFlash RSS

One-time3
  • Espresso$0.99
  • Cappuccino$2.99
  • Specialty Coffee Aeropress$4.99
4 purchases

An Otter RSS Reader

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 NewsFlash RSS free?
NewsFlash RSS costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is An Otter RSS Reader free?
An Otter RSS Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, NewsFlash RSS or An Otter RSS Reader?
NewsFlash RSS is rated higher. NewsFlash RSS averages 4.8 out of 5 from 6 ratings, while An Otter RSS Reader averages 4.1 from 73 ratings.
Do NewsFlash RSS or An Otter RSS Reader have ads?
Neither NewsFlash RSS nor An Otter RSS Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, NewsFlash RSS or An Otter RSS Reader?
NewsFlash RSS ships an update monthly, and An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. Most recently, NewsFlash RSS was updated on September 23, 2026 and An Otter RSS Reader on September 23, 2026.

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