Comparison

WatchFeed vs lire

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

Head to head
About

WatchFeed

This app brings the Feedly RSS reader experience to your Apple Watch. Access your feeds, mark articles as read, and save them to boards directly from your wrist. It also offers customizable complications for quick access to top stories or unread counts.

Highlights
  • Feedly integration
  • Access All and Favourites feeds
  • Mark as Read functionality
  • Save to Board feature
  • Top Story complication
  • Unread Count complication
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

WatchFeed brings the beloved news reader Feedly to the Apple Watch. With many features similar to those that the iPhone app provides like Feeds, the All feed, the Favourites feed, Mark as Read and Save to Board, WatchFeed is the best RSS reader with Feedly integration available for the Apple Watch. WatchFeed also supports all complications. There is a Top Story complication that shows a popular article on the Graphic and Modular Watch faces and an Unread Count complication on all Watch faces.

About

lire

This app provides full-text RSS feeds, converting partial feeds into complete articles. Read content offline after initial caching. It offers standalone use or syncs with iCloud and various popular RSS services.

Highlights
  • Full-text RSS feed conversion
  • Offline reading of cached feeds
  • Standalone feed reader
  • iCloud sync
  • Sync with multiple RSS services
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Love RSS feeds? So do we!! RSS feeds are a great way to follow updates on your favorite website. However, some sites set up their feeds to only show a portion of each entry, you know, to get you to click through to their actual website. We find that really annoying, and we're sure you do too. Which is why, unlike other RSS feed readers, that either push you into a browser (in-app or otherwise), or depend on third party text parsing services and require you to be online to fetch the full text of one article at a time (which makes it no different from having to click/tap through to a website), in lire, you get your favorite RSS feeds as they should've been. You don't need to click through to any website (though, you do still have the option to, if you really wanted). It takes your favorite partial feeds, does its magic, and converts them in to full feeds, so you don't have to click/tap on those annoying 'Read more' or 'Continue reading' links. Once they're cached, you don't even need to be connected to read your full-text feeds. Use as a standalone feed reader, sync with iCloud, or, sync with any of the several services: Feedly, Feedbin, FeedHQ, The Old Reader, Inoreader, BazQux Reader, Newsblur, Feed Wrangler, FreshRSS, Miniflux, Nextcloud News, Tiny Tiny RSS.

Screenshots

lire4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: WatchFeed at 5.0 against lire's 4.4. WatchFeed also leads on price ($0.99 vs $9.99) and in-app purchases (none vs 5). lire's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (155 vs 5). On review sentiment, ads, chart position 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

WatchFeed costs $0.99 and lire $9.99 up front. lire sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. WatchFeed asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

WatchFeed holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: lire has 155 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 67% of WatchFeed's written reviews are positive against 69% of lire's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

WatchFeed ships an update every 4 months, lire fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
WatchFeed versus lire: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWatchFeedlire
Price$0.99 — better$9.99
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better4.4 (155 ratings)
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews68.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5155 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#16#14 — better
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB164 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperNienhuis DevelopmentKunal Sood

Customer experience

WatchFeed

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

lire

All ratings155 ratings
Positive80.6%
Neutral7.7%
Negative11.6%
Written reviews178 reviews
Positive68.5%
Neutral13.5%
Negative18.0%

Bugs and requests

WatchFeed

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

lire

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Crashes on launch
  • Incorrect feed display
  • Articles not opening
  • Overlapping UI elements
  • Sync errors with FreshRSS and Wallabag
Show 2 more
  • Revert to old articles after sync
  • VoiceOver issues after update

Requested features

9 requests
  • Bulk unsubscribe option
  • Ability to add multiple feeds at once
  • Custom keyword filtering
  • Highlight/annotate articles
  • Embedded video support
Show 4 more
  • Automatic article categorization
  • Sharing options
  • PDF export
  • Multilingual support

In-app purchases

None

WatchFeed

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

lire

One-time5
  • Generous Tip$0.99
  • Massive Tip$1.99
  • Amazing Tip$4.99
Show 2 more
  • Humongous Tip$9.99
  • Stupendous Tip$19.99

Questions

Is WatchFeed free?
WatchFeed costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is lire free?
lire costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, WatchFeed or lire?
WatchFeed is rated higher. WatchFeed averages 5.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while lire averages 4.4 from 155 ratings.
Do WatchFeed or lire have ads?
Neither WatchFeed nor lire shows ads.
Which is updated more often, WatchFeed or lire?
WatchFeed ships an update every 4 months, and lire fortnightly. Most recently, WatchFeed was updated on October 14, 2026 and lire on October 19, 2026.
Which is more popular, WatchFeed or lire?
WatchFeed currently peaks at #16 in the App Store charts, and lire at #14. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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