Comparison

lire vs ReadKit

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

Head to head
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.

About

ReadKit

This app consolidates your favorite news, articles, and feeds into a single, distraction-free reading hub. Save articles to read later, organize content with smart folders, and enjoy offline access. Customize your reading experience with themes and gestures.

Highlights
  • All-in-one reading hub
  • Cross-platform support
  • Flexible syncing options
  • Advanced organization with smart folders
  • Offline article access
  • Enhanced reader mode
  • Customizable interface
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. Supporting all major providers and featuring a built-in RSS engine, 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. • Flexible Syncing: Sync with major RSS aggregators and read-later services, or use the built-in RSS engine. • Advanced Organization: Manage feeds, folders and tags, and create smart folders with automatic updates based on your criteria. • Smart Folder Actions: Apply actions to items in smart folders, such as marking them as read or starred, and use them for advanced content filtering. • 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: Intuitive gesture controls for effortless navigation, marking articles as read, or performing 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: Automatically mark articles as read while scrolling, use a pull-up gesture, or mark all with a single 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 with apps, social media platforms, and other services 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. 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. • Early Access: Enjoy upcoming premium features as they're released. • Support Development: Your subscription helps sustain ReadKit’s ongoing improvements. SUPPORTED SERVICES • News Reader Services: BazQux, Feedbin, Feedly, Fever, FreshRSS, Inoreader, Miniflux, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, Tiny Tiny RSS and Built-in 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

lire4 screens
ReadKit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ReadKit at Free against lire's $9.99. lire's advantage is chart position (#2 vs unranked) and review sentiment (68% vs 57%). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for lire against 4.4 for ReadKit. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 151 and 124 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 68% of lire's written reviews are positive against 57% of ReadKit's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

lire ships an update fortnightly, ReadKit every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
lire versus ReadKit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterlireReadKit
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.4 (151 ratings)4.4 (124 ratings)
Positive reviews68.4% of reviews — better56.7% of reviews
Number of ratings151 — better124
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
Best chart rank#2 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size160 MB30 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperKunal SoodBalazs Varkonyi

Customer experience

lire

All ratings151 ratings
Positive80.1%
Neutral7.9%
Negative11.9%
Written reviews177 reviews
Positive68.4%
Neutral13.6%
Negative18.1%

ReadKit

All ratings124 ratings
Positive85.5%
Neutral3.2%
Negative11.3%
Written reviews127 reviews
Positive56.7%
Neutral19.7%
Negative23.6%

User reviews

lire

From 151 App Store ratings

What 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 124 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

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

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

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
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 lire free?
lire costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is ReadKit free?
ReadKit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, lire or ReadKit?
lire and ReadKit are both rated 4.4 out of 5 on the App Store, from 151 and 124 ratings respectively.
Do lire or ReadKit have ads?
Neither lire nor ReadKit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, lire or ReadKit?
lire ships an update fortnightly, and ReadKit every 2 weeks. Most recently, lire was updated on September 23, 2026 and ReadKit on September 24, 2026.

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