ReadKit vs Mlem for Lemmy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- All-in-one reading hub
- Cross-platform support
- Flexible syncing options
- Advanced organization with smart folders
- Offline article access
- Enhanced reader mode
- Customizable interface
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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
Mlem for Lemmy
Experience the Fediverse through a native iOS app designed for seamless interaction with all major Lemmy instances. Enjoy powerful features like swipe actions, quick account switching, and extensive customization for an optimized mobile experience.
- Native iOS Swift development
- Lemmy instance compatibility
- Swipe actions
- Account quick-switching
- Customization options
- Optimized backend
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Mlem for Lemmy is beautiful, smooth, and compatible with all major Lemmy instances. Written fully in iOS' native Swift, Mlem lets you experience Lemmy while taking advantage of the best your device has to offer. With powerful, easy-to-use features such as swipe actions and account quick-switching, a robust set of customizations, and a highly optimized backend, Mlem offers the mobile Lemmy experience you deserve!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Mlem for Lemmy at none against ReadKit's 5. Mlem for Lemmy also leads on review sentiment (80% vs 56%) and rating (4.6 vs 4.3). ReadKit's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. ReadKit sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Mlem for Lemmy asks for nothing beyond the download.
Mlem for Lemmy holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 127 and 84 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 56% of ReadKit's written reviews are positive against 80% of Mlem for Lemmy's.
ReadKit ships an update monthly, Mlem for Lemmy every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ReadKit | Mlem for Lemmy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (127 ratings) | 4.6 (84 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 56.3% of reviews | 80.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 127 — better | 84 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 71 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Balazs Varkonyi | Eric Andrews |
Customer experience
ReadKit
Mlem for Lemmy
User reviews
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
Mlem for Lemmy
From 84 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ High quality and thoughtfully made app
- 👍 Joy to use
- 🌟 On par with Apollo for Reddit
- 🚀 Seamless Lemmy experience
- ✅ Mostly stable now
Room to improve
- 🐛 Cannot sign up/validate username
- 🐛 Annoying bug: loses progress when switching apps
- 🐛 Bouncing back to feeds list is irritating
- 🐛 Minor bugs introduced with updates
- 🐛 Embedded content shows as links, not playable
Bugs and requests
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
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- 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
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- 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
Mlem for Lemmy
Reported bugs
19 issues- Cannot validate username for account creation
- Loses progress when switching to another app while composing a post/reply
- App bounces back to the subscribed feeds list in various situations
- New bugs introduced with each update
- Embedded content (videos) only show as links
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- Changing font size via iOS Accessibility settings breaks drag and drop functionality
- Media type label in the lower left corner covers parts of the image
- App crashes frequently
- Jittery scrolling on ProMotion enabled iPhones
- Cannot log out of an account without deleting it
- Requires signing back into the instance every time an external link is followed
- No way to change font size
- Timeline is a mess
- Unable to save images
- Unable to zoom in on images
- Unable to load images on their own without comments
- Bad app icon (furry)
- No full screen for pictures, always goes to post
- Login required from the start for some users
Requested features
19 requests- Customizability for each feed type (e.g., bold headlines)
- Larger card view option
- Compact view option
- Option to customize gestures
- Fix embedded content to be playable
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- Fix font size breaking drag and drop
- Option to not display media type label or hide it
- Mark inbox as read automatically
- Hide post option
- Customizable swipe options on posts
- Cross-post functionality
- Set Reader mode as default for links
- Ability to zoom out on pictures
- Ability to save images
- Search for posts within a community
- Block communities from post options menu
- Filter instances option
- Collapse all comments by default
- Up/Down votes on the right side
In-app purchases
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
Mlem for Lemmy
No in-app purchases









