Comparison

Later vs ReadKit

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

Head to head
About

Later

Save articles, videos, and shopping items from across the web to read later on your own terms. This private, ad-free tool offers seamless saving across devices and organizes your content with tags and notes. Enjoy offline access and robust import/export options.

Highlights
  • Private link saving
  • Ad-free experience
  • Save from any app
  • Organize with tags and notes
  • Offline reading
  • Import/export from other services
  • Reminders for links
Features
Read full description

Too many open tabs and links you sent yourself? Later is one calm place for everything you want to read: articles, videos, recipes, anything with a link. Save it in a tap and read it when you're ready, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. No account. No ads. No tracking. Your links live on your devices and in your iCloud, never on our servers. Downloaded over 500,000 times and named one of the Best Read Later Apps by Apple. SAVE FROM ANY APP • Tap Share in any app and choose Later • Save with Siri, Shortcuts or the Action Button • On the Mac, save in one click with the Safari, Chrome and Firefox extensions READ WITHOUT DISTRACTIONS • Reader mode shows just the article: no ads, no pop-ups, no clutter • Keep offline copies for flights, trains and spotty connections • Offline copies sync to all your devices ORGANIZE YOUR WAY • Colorful tags, flags and smart folders • Add a note to remember why you saved something • Set a reminder to read it at the right time • Archive what you've read to keep your Inbox clear • Find any link with search, even from Spotlight PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Trackers are stripped from your links as you save them • Lock Later with Face ID or Touch ID • Daily backups to iCloud Drive BRING YOUR LIBRARY • Import from Pocket, Instapaper, Raindrop or GoodLinks • Export everything anytime. You're never locked in. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://xavimoll.com/legal/privacy-policy

About

ReadKit

This app consolidates your news feeds and saved articles into a single, distraction-free reading experience. It offers robust organization, offline access, and advanced customization for a personalized way to consume content across devices.

Highlights
  • All-in-one reading hub
  • Cross-platform sync (iOS/macOS)
  • Offline article access
  • Advanced organization with smart folders
  • Enhanced reader mode
  • Customizable interface
  • Powerful search and filtering
Features
Read full description

Your All-in-One Reading Companion ReadKit is a powerful, all-in-one read-later and RSS client that brings together your favorite news, articles, and feeds. With major providers and built-in iCloud RSS and Read Later sync, ReadKit lets you save and read articles later, providing a distraction-free reading experience anytime and anywhere. KEY FEATURES • All-in-One Reading Hub: Access all your accounts in one place with multi-account support. • Cross-Platform: Universal app with full feature parity on iOS and macOS. • iCloud RSS and Read Later: Built-in services with iCloud sync. • Flexible Syncing: Sync with major RSS aggregators and read-later services. • Advanced Organization: Manage feeds, folders, tags and automatically updated smart folders. • Smart Folder Actions: Mark items read or starred and filter content. • Offline Access: Read articles offline with cached images. • Enhanced Reading Experience: Built-in reader mode extracts full article content, with options for automatic activation. • Wide Gesture Support: Navigate, mark articles read and perform quick actions. • In-App Browser: View links and references without leaving the app. • App Badge Preferences: Customize the badge to display the count of unread items. • Mark as Read Options: Mark articles read while scrolling, by pulling up, or in one tap. • Contextual Marking: Quickly mark articles as read above or below directly from the context menu. • Customizable Interface: Choose themes, light or dark mode, and app icons to suit your style. • Powerful Search: Search articles by content, title, or source. • Filter Articles: Easily filter articles by read or starred status. • Background Syncing: Always stay updated with background sync. • Content Sharing: Use the share extension to save articles from Safari and other apps for later reading. • Email Articles: Send articles directly via email to share with others. • Share via Apps and Services: Share articles through the share sheet. • YouTube Channel Support: Subscribe to YouTube channels and playlists through RSS feeds. • Full Keyboard Support: Optimized for hardware keyboards on macOS and iPad. • Feed Import/Export: Import or export subscriptions via OPML files. • Application Settings Export: Export and import appearance, reading, general behavior and gesture preferences. Enjoy ReadKit’s essential features completely free — no ads, no data mining. Unlock additional features with ReadKit Premium, available via a universal subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase for iOS, macOS, or both. A free trial is also available. PREMIUM FEATURES • Multi-Account Support: Manage multiple accounts simultaneously. • Unlimited Smart Folders: Create and customize more than one smart folder per account. • Enhanced Reader Mode: Extract full-text content from articles, even when missing from the feed source. • Article Summary: summarize articles using AI on supported devices (requires ReadKit Premium, Apple Intelligence and iOS 26). • Unlimited Feeds: Remove the 20-feed limit for the built-in RSS service. • Advanced Organization Tools: Organize feeds and articles into folders or tags. • Image Caching: Enjoy offline reading with cached images. • Themes & Custom Icons: Unlock exclusive themes and choose custom app icons. • Full OPML Support: Import and export feed subscriptions with ease. • Account and Smart Folder Export: Export account settings with smart folders and import them individually. • Early Access: Enjoy upcoming premium features as they're released. SUPPORTED SERVICES • Built-in RSS and Read Later services with iCloud sync. • News Reader Services: BazQux, Feedbin, Feedly, Fever, FreshRSS, Inoreader, Miniflux, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, Tiny Tiny RSS • Read Later & Bookmarking Services: Instapaper, Wallabag and Pinboard Privacy Policy: https://readkit.app/privacy Terms of Use: https://readkit.app/terms-of-use

Screenshots

Later4 screens
ReadKit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Later at 79% against ReadKit's 56%. Later also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 weeks) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). ReadKit's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ratings volume, 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. Later sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and ReadKit sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Later holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 173 and 127 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Later's written reviews are positive against 56% of ReadKit's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Later ships an update every 5 days, ReadKit every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Later versus ReadKit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLaterReadKit
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (173 ratings) — better4.3 (127 ratings)
Positive reviews79.3% of reviews — better56.3% of reviews
Number of ratings173 — better127
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB44 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperXavi MollBalazs Varkonyi

Customer experience

Later

All ratings173 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.0%
Negative7.5%
Written reviews116 reviews
Positive79.3%
Neutral8.6%
Negative12.1%

ReadKit

All ratings127 ratings
Positive84.3%
Neutral3.1%
Negative12.6%
Written reviews128 reviews
Positive56.3%
Neutral19.5%
Negative24.2%

User reviews

Later

From 173 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and responsive app performance
  • 🔒 Strong privacy protection with local data storage
  • 👍 Simple, clean, and intuitive user interface
  • 🔄 Seamless syncing across iOS, iPadOS, and macOS via iCloud
  • 💰 Reasonable pricing with one-time purchase option

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Subscription prompt appears even for paid members
  • 😤 10-link free tier limit not clearly communicated upfront
  • 🔄 Recent update forces navigation to app instead of staying in share sheet
  • 📖 Lacks integrated reader view for articles
  • 🖼️ Missing image preview functionality

ReadKit

From 127 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Stunning modern design with excellent customization options
  • 📱 Great iOS platform citizen with robust state restoration
  • 🚀 Fast and reliable performance across devices
  • ✨ Apple Intelligence AI summary feature implementation
  • 🔄 Excellent gesture controls and natural navigation

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Persistent toolbars that cannot be hidden in reading view
  • 🔄 Inconsistent sync functionality across devices
  • 💾 No iCloud sync support for local feeds
  • 🔒 OPML import/export locked behind paywall
  • 📊 Mac version feels like iPad port, not native macOS app

Bugs and requests

Later

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • macOS app crashes on scroll and when adding links from share menu
  • Subscription restoration button doesn't work for paid members
  • Images not loading for bookmark previews
  • App gets stuck on subscription page preventing further saves
  • Long press sneak preview feature not functioning
Show 5 more
  • Duplicate link removal option not detecting duplicates
  • Data loss after phone update/migration
  • Tag order changes unexpectedly after updates
  • Loading times increased significantly in recent version
  • iOS 17 requirement breaks updates for older devices

Requested features

15 requests
  • Custom folders with icons for better organization
  • Ability to create and search tags from share menu
  • Bulk editing and multi-tag selection
  • Offline article content saving
  • Integrated reader view with distraction-free reading
Show 10 more
  • Image preview thumbnails in list view
  • Ability to mark articles as read/unread
  • Advanced filtering by location (Inbox/Archive) and read status
  • Support for multiple browser selection (Firefox, etc.)
  • Shared link collections with other users
  • Pinboard and other import format support
  • Annotation and highlighting within articles
  • Selective offline saving by tag
  • Grid view with thumbnails
  • Notes feature for links

ReadKit

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • Persistent toolbars blocking distraction-free reading
  • Background refresh not working reliably
  • Wallabag sync errors and failures
  • App crashes when integrating multiple services
  • Reading articles not marking as read automatically
Show 7 more
  • Embedded tweets not displaying in web view
  • Favicon and headline display issues in article list
  • Thumbnail images not showing in article list
  • Text overlap with underline formatting
  • Inconsistent behavior between iOS and iPadOS versions
  • Sync errors preventing account setup
  • Partial feature support without clear disclosure

Requested features

19 requests
  • iCloud sync support for feeds and data
  • Raindrop read-later service integration
  • Sepia background option for light mode
  • Widgets support
  • Automatic reader view option
Show 14 more
  • Push notifications for new articles
  • Import Smart Folders from previous versions
  • Sync Smart Folders across all devices
  • Additional read-later service integrations (GoodLinks, etc.)
  • Mark all as read button
  • Pinboard API key login support
  • Article position sync for read-later services
  • More article list view customization options
  • Highlight and annotate text functionality
  • Built-in annotation and newsletter management
  • Podcast playing capability
  • Automatic full article text loading
  • Quick article opening in Safari
  • Image zoom and preview functionality

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Later

Subscriptions2
  • Later Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Later Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$11.991 Year
One-time1
  • Later Pro (Forever)$49.99
5 purchases

ReadKit

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time3
  • Premium Lifetime macOS$19.99
  • Premium Lifetime iOS$19.99
  • Premium Lifetime Universal$29.99

Questions

Is Later free?
Later is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ReadKit free?
ReadKit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Later or ReadKit?
Later is rated higher. Later averages 4.5 out of 5 from 173 ratings, while ReadKit averages 4.3 from 127 ratings.
Do Later or ReadKit have ads?
Neither Later nor ReadKit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Later or ReadKit?
Later ships an update every 5 days, and ReadKit every 2 weeks. Most recently, Later was updated on November 3, 2026 and ReadKit on November 3, 2026.

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