lire vs ReadKit
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
lire
This app transforms partial RSS feeds into full-text articles, eliminating the need to click "Read more" links. It offers offline reading and syncs with various services, providing a seamless news consumption experience.
- Full-text RSS feed conversion
- Offline reading of cached articles
- Syncs with Feedly, Feedbin, and more
- iCloud sync option
- No need to click 'Read more' links
- Standalone feed reader functionality
Read full descriptionHide 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.
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ReadKit at Free against lire's $9.99. lire's advantage is review sentiment (68% vs 56%) and chart position (#6 vs unranked). On rating, ratings volume, 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
ReadKit is free to download; lire costs $9.99 up front. lire sells 5 one-off in-app purchases 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for lire against 4.3 for ReadKit. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 158 and 127 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 68% of lire's written reviews are positive against 56% of ReadKit's.
lire ships an update fortnightly, ReadKit every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.
| Parameter | lire | ReadKit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.4 (158 ratings) — better | 4.3 (127 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 68.3% of reviews — better | 56.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 158 — better | 127 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Best chart rank | #6 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 168 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kunal Sood | Balazs Varkonyi |
Customer experience
lire
ReadKit
User reviews
lire
From 158 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast full-text parsing
- 👍 Highly customizable
- 🔒 No data collection
- 💡 Bionic reading support
- 👍 Excellent accessibility
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🐛 Sync issues
- 🐛 Memory management problems
- 🐛 Buggy after updates
- 🐛 Inconsistent article rendering
ReadKit
From 127 App Store ratingsWhat 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
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 moreShow fewer
- 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 moreShow fewer
- Automatic article categorization
- Sharing options
- PDF export
- Multilingual support
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 moreShow fewer
- 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 moreShow fewer
- 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
lire
- Generous Tip$0.99
- Massive Tip$1.99
- Amazing Tip$4.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Humongous Tip$9.99
- Stupendous Tip$19.99
ReadKit
- Premium Monthly$2.991 Month
- Premium Annual7 Days trial$9.991 Year
- Premium Lifetime macOS$19.99
- Premium Lifetime iOS$19.99
- Premium Lifetime Universal$29.99







