Comparison

Matter vs Crew

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

Head to head
About

Matter

Consolidate articles, newsletters, and PDFs into a single, elegant reading experience. Enjoy features like natural text-to-speech, fluid highlighting, and offline access. Sync your highlights to popular knowledge management tools.

Highlights
  • Save articles, newsletters, PDFs, and YouTube
  • Natural text-to-speech for articles
  • Fluid highlighting and note-taking
  • Sync highlights to Notion, Obsidian, Readwise
  • Send articles to Kindle
  • Unified inbox for subscriptions
  • Offline reading
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Finally, a better reading app. The internet is full of things you want to read – articles, newsletters, Twitter threads, PDFs. Matter brings them together in one place and gives you modern tools, like natural text-to-speech and fluid highlighting, to help you read more comfortably and effectively. "Matter improves vastly on earlier read-later apps like Pocket and Instapaper" – The Wall Street Journal Save anything: - Save full articles if you're within the paywall (eg. Bloomberg, NYT, WSJ) - Podcast transcriptions & synced playback - Save PDFs and YouTube Read across devices, including Kindle: - iPhone, iPad, Web - Send any article to Kindle in 2-taps Unified inbox for your subscriptions: - Sync your newsletters by connecting Gmail - Follow individual writers for their latest posts - Add any RSS feed The most elegant reading experience: - Best-in-class article parsing + readability - Available offline by default - Gorgeous night mode - Human-like text-to-speech - Fluid highlighting and note-taking Export your knowledge: - Sync your highlights to Notion, Obsidian, Roam, Readwise, and others Matter offers a free service and a Premium service. The free version of Matter includes: - Uncapped read-later library - Mobile & web extensions to save all types of content - Best-in-class parsing and readability - Unlimited tags - Full-text search - Customizable themes and fonts In addition to the free features, Matter Premium offers: - HD text-to-speech for all your articles - Seamless AI Co-Reader - Sync your newsletters, subscribe to writers, and add RSS feeds - Unlimited highlighting, note-taking, and integrations - Send to Kindle Payment for Matter Premium will be charged to your iTunes Account when you subscribe. Annual and monthly subscriptions automatically renew unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Auto-renewal may be turned off at any time by going to your settings in the iTunes Store after purchase. Manage your Matter Premium subscription by going to Matter's Settings page. Terms of Use: https://hq.getmatter.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://hq.getmatter.com/privacy

About

Crew

This app provides a native iOS experience for browsing Stack Overflow content. It offers a clean, ad-free interface with powerful navigation and filtering tools for questions, answers, and comments. Enjoy a streamlined way to engage with the developer community.

Highlights
  • Native iOS design
  • Ad-free browsing
  • Powerful question filters
  • Dark mode
  • Real-time question previews
  • Gesture navigation
Features
Read full description

#PH daily pick 29/01/2020 "Crew brings the web service to a native app with a beautiful UI that makes browsing Stack Overflow much nicer than on the web." - MacStories "Crew isn't just an app, though. It's been designed with iOS guidelines in mind, making it look and feel every bit the native iPhone and iPad experience in a way the Stack Overflow website just can't match." - iMore Crew is a beautiful StackOverflow app built for fast navigation with powerful set of features. The delightful interface is coupled with extensive features that feel part on your device, whilst elevating your Stack Overflow experience. It’s created specifically with iOS design guidelines in mind, so it fits right at home on your device. Browse question without distraction or ads, use filter, add comments, or visit specific website areas like tags profile or badges section. You can quickly view list, tabs, inbox, notifications and more using gestures and context menu. Crew is an unofficial app, and side effects may include an incredible browsing experience. EXCITING FEATURES: - Trends and search support - All questions,answers and comments from Stack Overflow in your hands. - Search support - Rich rendering of questions - Dark mode - Beautiful iOS centric Ui - Universal app for iPhone and iPad. - Compose question with real time previews. - Powerful question filters (month, week, votes and more) It’s constatly evolving. If you have anything you’d specifically like to see, come to the Settings section and text me, I’d love to hear it! This app is not affiliated with or endorsed by Stack Overflow. Terms Of Use: https://www.danieljamestronca.com/crew/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.danieljamestronca.com/crew/privacy-policy

Screenshots

Matter4 screens
Crew4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Matter at 1.2K against Crew's 64. Matter also leads on chart position (#139 vs unranked). Crew's advantage is review sentiment (67% vs 54%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Matter sells 20 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and Crew sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Matter holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Matter has 1.2K ratings behind it against 64, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 54% of Matter's written reviews are positive against 67% of Crew's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Matter ships an update weekly, Crew every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Matter versus Crew: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMatterCrew
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (1.2K ratings) — better4.4 (64 ratings)
Positive reviews54.0% of reviews66.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.2K — better64
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#139 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size113 MB59 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDig Wells, Inc.Daniel James Tronca

Customer experience

Matter

All ratings1,233 ratings
Positive89.9%
Neutral2.7%
Negative7.4%
Written reviews367 reviews
Positive54.0%
Neutral15.3%
Negative30.8%

Crew

All ratings64 ratings
Positive82.8%
Neutral7.8%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews36 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative16.7%

Bugs and requests

Matter

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Subscription issues and inability to cancel
  • Delayed or missing newsletter delivery
  • Syncing problems across devices
  • Crashes and freezes on certain content

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to manually add blogs and RSS feeds
  • Customizable highlighter colors
  • Offline mode for audio playback
  • Integration with more note-taking apps
  • Improved search and filtering capabilities

Crew

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

20 purchases

Matter

Subscriptions18
  • Matter Pro Weekly$2.997 Days
  • Matter Premium (Monthly)$7.991 Month
  • Matter Premium (Monthly)$9.991 Month
Show 15 more
  • Matter Pro (Monthly)$12.991 Month
  • Matter Premium (Monthly)$13.991 Month
  • Matter Premium (Monthly)$14.991 Month
  • Matter Premium (Monthly)$15.991 Month
  • Matter Premium (Monthly)$19.991 Month
  • Matter Pro (Annual)1 Year trial$59.991 Year
  • Matter Pro (Annual)7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Matter Pro (Annual)$59.991 Year
  • Matter Premium (Annual)$69.991 Year
  • Matter Premium (Annual)$79.991 Year
  • Matter Premium (Annual)7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Matter Premium1 Month trial2 variants$79.991 Year
  • Matter Pro (Annual)$79.991 Year
  • Matter Premium (Annual)$99.991 Year
  • Matter Premium7 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time2
  • Matter Patron Tier$149.99
  • Matter Premium (3 years)$149.99
7 purchases

Crew

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time5
  • Smoothie-sized Tip$0.99
  • Sandwich-sized tip$2.99
  • Buffet-sized Tip$7.99
Show 2 more
  • Deluxe-sized tip$16.99
  • Lifetime Subscritpion$39.99

Questions

Is Matter free?
Matter is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Crew free?
Crew is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Matter or Crew?
Matter is rated higher. Matter averages 4.6 out of 5 from 1.2K ratings, while Crew averages 4.4 from 64 ratings.
Do Matter or Crew have ads?
Neither Matter nor Crew shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Matter or Crew?
Matter ships an update weekly, and Crew every 10 days. Most recently, Matter was updated on October 11, 2026 and Crew on October 2, 2026.

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