An Otter RSS Reader vs LunarCast
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
LunarCast
This app offers a straightforward podcast listening experience, focusing on user-curated feeds without algorithmic suggestions. Enjoy offline downloads, fast playback, and instant updates for your favorite shows. It's designed for those who prefer a clean, no-nonsense approach to podcasts.
- User-curated podcast feeds
- No algorithmic suggestions
- Instant feed updates
- Offline downloads
- Fast playback
- Ad-free experience
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Lunarcast – Podcasts Your Way, No BS I'm just a guy who loves these shows: Moonshots, Lex Fridman, Innermost Loop... but I hate algorithm spam. So I built this app for myself—simple, clean, zero suggestions. Only the feeds you pick, updated instantly. It starts with: • Moonshots (Peter Diamandis' big ideas) • Lex Fridman (deep, no-fluff talks) • Innermost Loop (Alex Wissner-Gross' AI speedruns) • Bonus: Every Elon Musk podcast interview out there—in one place, no hunting. Offline downloads, fast playback, no ads. It's a labor of love—started as my own fix, now friends use it too. Not here to get rich; just wanna share something useful. If you dig podcasts without the noise, grab it. Got bugs? Feature ideas? Hit me up—I'll tweak it if folks care. Your feed. Your rules.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: LunarCast at 5.0 against An Otter RSS Reader's 4.1. LunarCast also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 60%) and in-app purchases (none vs 11). An Otter RSS Reader's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly) and ratings volume (73 vs 2). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. An Otter RSS Reader sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. LunarCast asks for nothing beyond the download.
LunarCast holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: An Otter RSS Reader has 73 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of An Otter RSS Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of LunarCast's.
An Otter RSS Reader ships an update every 3 days, LunarCast fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | An Otter RSS Reader | LunarCast |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (73 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.4% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 73 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 45 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Josh Holtz | Darcy Menard |
Customer experience
An Otter RSS Reader
LunarCast
Bugs and 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
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- 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
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- 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
LunarCast
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
An Otter RSS Reader
- Otter Pro Monthly$0.991 Month
- Otter Pro Annual7 Days trial$9.991 Year
- Small Tip2 variants$0.99
- Medium Tip2 variants$2.99
- Large Tip2 variants$5.99
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- Mega Tip2 variants$12.99
- Otter Pro Lifetime$19.99
LunarCast
No in-app purchases









