Comparison

Readwise Reader vs PodSized

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

Head to head
About

Readwise Reader

This app consolidates all your reading content, including web articles, newsletters, and PDFs, into a single, organized platform. It offers advanced highlighting, text-to-speech, and AI-powered assistance to enhance your reading workflow and knowledge retention.

Highlights
  • Consolidate web articles, newsletters, RSS, Twitter threads, PDFs, EPUBs
  • Import from Pocket, Instapaper, and Feedly
  • Advanced highlighting and annotation tools
  • Text-to-speech narration
  • AI-powered reading assistant (Ghostreader)
  • Full-text search
  • Syncs across all devices, offline access
Features
Read full description

Readwise Reader is the first read-it-later app built specifically for power readers. If you’ve ever used Instapaper or Pocket, Reader is like those except it’s built for 2024 and brings all your reading into one place including: web articles, email newsletters, RSS feeds, Twitter threads, PDFs, EPUBs and more. ______________________ “Reader has completely redesigned the read-it-later app. It’s gorgeous and blazingly fast. In many ways, it’s the Superhuman of reading — you won’t want to read anywhere else.” Rahul Vohra (Founder of Superhuman) “I spend my entire day reading, researching, & writing and Readwise is the reading tool I’ve been waiting for. The perfect complement to my writing workflow. Absolute game changer.” Packy Mccormick (Author of Not Boring) “The Readwise reading app is the first read-it-later app that enables a true workflow for serious readers. As an ex-Pocket /Instapaper power user, it's hard to imagine ever going back.” Fitz Maro (Creative Technology Lead at Pinterest) ______________________ ALL YOUR READING IN ONE PLACE Stop juggling half a dozen reading apps. Reader brings all your content into one place including: • Web articles • Email newsletters • RSS feeds • Twitter threads • PDFs • EPUBs You can even import your existing library from Pocket and Instapaper and RSS feeds from Feedly, Inoreader, Feedbin, etc. POWERFUL HIGHLIGHTING FOR POWER READERS We believe that annotations are the key to getting more out of what you read. So we’ve developed highlighting as a first-class feature inside Reader. Highlight images, links, rich text, and more. On any device. READER WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU READ We’ve reinvented the digital reading experience to apply the power of software to the printed word. This includes TEXT-TO-SPEECH (listen to any document narrated with the lifelike voice of a real human), GHOSTREADER (your integrated copilot of reading enabling you to ask questions, define terms, simplify complex language, and more), and FULL-TEXT SEARCH (find whatever you’re looking for, even if you only remember a single word). FLEXIBLE SOFTWARE TO FIT YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS Your personal interests, your professional projects, your way of doing things — they’re unique. Reader is your home base for the varied documents in your life, customizable to match the way your brain works. PDFs for work, articles for your newsletter, and ebooks for pleasure all live comfortably side-by-side. No more juggling dozens of apps. INTEGRATED WITH YOUR FAVORITE TOOLS Your annotations should flow effortlessly from your reading app into your writing tool of choice. Instead you waste hours reformatting, reorganizing, and repeating. Reader eliminates this hassle. Reader seamlessly connects to Readwise which exports to Obsidian, Notion, Roam Research, Evernote, Logseq, and more READ ANYWHERE, ANYTIME Access all of your content from any of your devices with everything in sync. Even offline. Reader syncs across all platforms, including a powerful, local-first web app and iOS. You can even highlight the open web with the Reader browser extensions. ______________________ If you’re not already a Readwise subscriber, you can get a free 30-day trial with no credit card upfront. At the end of the trial, you will not be charged unless you choose to subscribe. Support: Check out readwise.io/faq or email us at hello@readwise.io Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://readwise.io/privacy

About

PodSized

Condense any podcast into concise summaries, interactive outlines, or 5-minute audio recaps. Ask questions about episodes and get instant, cited answers from transcripts. Access full transcripts and explore content across 34 knowledge categories.

Highlights
  • AI-generated summaries
  • Interactive chapter outlines
  • 5-minute audio recaps
  • Chat with episodes
  • Full transcripts
  • Pre-processed popular podcasts
Features
Read full description

No surprises: cancel Premium anytime, restore purchases in one tap, and every free limit is spelled out below. When nine shows cover the same story, you'll know — Bubbling shows you, and jumps to the minute each one gets to it. Free: your first 3 summaries need no account. Sign up free for 5 new summaries every month. PodSized turns long podcast episodes into structured summaries you can read in about five minutes — then keeps them, organized, so you can come back to what you learned. — WHAT'S FREE, EXACTLY — • 3 summaries with no account at all • With a free account: 5 new summaries every month • Every summary you unlock stays in your library, synced across your devices • The full timestamped transcript and the chapter outline for each summary you unlock • One-tap export to Obsidian, Notion, Logseq, Readwise or NotebookLM • Your Feed and Bubbling • Your first audio summary is on us, so you can hear it before you pay — WHAT PREMIUM ADDS ($4.99/month) — • Unlimited summaries • Audio summaries: a roughly five-minute spoken version of the episode • Radio: your newest audio summaries, back to back, hands-free • Play the thread: one story, stitched together from every show that covered it • AI chat with any episode, or with a show's whole back catalog • CarPlay Cancel anytime from Manage Subscription in the app's account menu, or from your Apple ID settings. Restore Purchases is in Settings and on the Premium screen. Premium is tied to your PodSized account, so it follows you when you sign in on another device. — BUBBLING: THE STORY ACROSS SHOWS — When many independent podcasts pick up the same story, PodSized groups them into one card: how many shows covered it, which ones you follow, and when the whole conversation is happening outside your feed ("9 shows covered this — none in your feed"). Tap in and "Also covered this" lists the shows you don't follow, each with a timecode that drops you straight into the moment it discusses the story. Bubbling is free. — A LEARNING SYSTEM, NOT JUST A PLAYER — CAPTURE Follow the shows you care about. New episodes from popular shows are summarized as they come out. For anything else, unlock an episode yourself; it's usually ready in under a minute. READ THE NOTES Every summary is structured: headers, key points and direct quotes, built for skimming. The timestamped outline shows where each topic lives, and tapping a timestamp jumps you there in the episode. ORGANIZE Your Feed lists the latest summaries from every show you follow, newest first, with a clear end point so you know when you're caught up. Your Library keeps everything you've unlocked, with sort and search. EXPORT Copy any summary as Markdown for Obsidian, Logseq or Notion, or send it to NotebookLM or Readwise from the share sheet. The episode link, outline and quotes come with it. REVISIT Transcripts are timestamped so you can find the exact line again. With Premium, ask the episode a follow-up question, or ask a whole show what it has said about a topic, and get answers that cite the episodes they came from. — FOR BACKLOGS AND COMMUTES — • Triage a backlog in minutes: read the summary, then decide whether the full episode deserves 90 minutes • Every Feed row shows two lengths, the summary's and the full episode's, and plays either one • Premium: Radio plays your audio summaries back to back, and CarPlay puts them on your dashboard — WHO IT'S FOR — PodSized is built for people who listen to learn: business, technology, investing, science, health, news and history. Coverage is deepest in business and technology. Available on iPhone, Android and the web, with one account across all three. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Service: https://podsized.io/tos Privacy Policy: https://podsized.io/privacy

Screenshots

Readwise Reader4 screens
PodSized4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: PodSized at 100% against Readwise Reader's 72%. PodSized also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6). Readwise Reader's advantage is ratings volume (585 vs 9) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Readwise Reader sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per month and PodSized sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

PodSized holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Readwise Reader has 585 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 72% of Readwise Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of PodSized's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Readwise Reader ships an update weekly, PodSized fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Readwise Reader versus PodSized: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReadwise ReaderPodSized
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (585 ratings)5.0 (9 ratings) — better
Positive reviews72.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings585 — better9
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size193 MB88 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperReadwise, IncMichael Halpert

Customer experience

Readwise Reader

All ratings585 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral4.3%
Negative6.8%
Written reviews279 reviews
Positive72.0%
Neutral11.5%
Negative16.5%

PodSized

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Readwise Reader

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Inconsistent sync between devices
  • Unreliable RSS feed updates
  • Frequent crashes on iPad
  • Issues with resuming reading position

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved PDF and ebook support
  • Customizable reading themes and layouts
  • Better integration with note-taking apps
  • Reading progress and statistics tracking
  • Bulk management of saved items

PodSized

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Readwise Reader

Subscriptions4
  • Reader Monthly Plan$8.991 Month
  • Reader Monthly$12.991 Month
  • Reader Annual Plan$95.901 Year
Show 1 more
  • Reader Yearly$119.991 Year
2 purchases

PodSized

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Membership$4.991 Month
  • Premium Membership - Annual$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Readwise Reader free?
Readwise Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PodSized free?
PodSized is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Readwise Reader or PodSized?
PodSized is rated higher. Readwise Reader averages 4.6 out of 5 from 585 ratings, while PodSized averages 5.0 from 9 ratings.
Do Readwise Reader or PodSized have ads?
Neither Readwise Reader nor PodSized shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Readwise Reader or PodSized?
Readwise Reader ships an update weekly, and PodSized fortnightly. Most recently, Readwise Reader was updated on October 22, 2026 and PodSized on October 21, 2026.

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