ReadKit vs RSS
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. 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
RSS
This news reader allows you to control your content with advanced filtering options. Blacklist, whitelist, or graylist terms to ensure you see what matters without wasting time. Enjoy a clutter-free experience with no ads or data sharing.
- Advanced filtering (blacklist, whitelist, graylist)
- Content control
- Clutter-free reading
- No ads, account, or data sharing
- iCloud syncing
- One-time in-app purchase for unlimited filters
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A clutter-free reader app with easy-to-use but advanced filtering options, including a blacklist, a whitelist, and a graylist. You control what reaches you. Miss less while wasting less time. No ads. No account needed. No data sharing. No subscriptions. Effective Filtering: Add terms quickly to a filter list by selecting text. You can manage entire topics by selecting parts of a website link, such as '/crosswords/'. Articles containing a blacklisted term are automatically trashed. If no whitelisted term is present, articles containing a graylisted term are also automatically trashed. You can review the trash occasionally to verify your settings. Transparent And Fair Purchase Model: Start with up to 100 filter entries, then unlock unlimited filters with a one-time in-app purchase (5 USD)—no subscriptions or recurring fees. This lets you scale up to thousands of filter terms effortlessly.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ReadKit at Free against RSS's $4.99. ReadKit also leads on ratings volume (124 vs 2) and device support (4 vs 2). RSS's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 57%) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 weeks). On rating, 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
ReadKit is free to download; RSS costs $4.99 up front. ReadKit sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and RSS sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 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 ReadKit against 4.5 for RSS. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ReadKit has 124 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 57% of ReadKit's written reviews are positive against 100% of RSS's.
ReadKit ships an update every 2 weeks, RSS weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ReadKit | RSS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.4 (124 ratings) | 4.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 56.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 124 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #153 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Balazs Varkonyi | Volker Koch |
Customer experience
ReadKit
RSS
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
RSS
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
RSS
- One-Time Unlock$4.99








