Comparison

ReadKit vs RSS

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

Head to head
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

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

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

ReadKit4 screens
RSS4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ReadKit ships an update every 2 weeks, RSS weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
ReadKit versus RSS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReadKitRSS
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating4.4 (124 ratings)4.5 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews56.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings124 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#153 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBalazs VarkonyiVolker Koch

Customer experience

ReadKit

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

RSS

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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
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

RSS

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

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
1 purchases

RSS

One-time1
  • One-Time Unlock$4.99

Questions

Is ReadKit free?
ReadKit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RSS free?
RSS costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ReadKit or RSS?
RSS is rated higher. ReadKit averages 4.4 out of 5 from 124 ratings, while RSS averages 4.5 from 2 ratings.
Do ReadKit or RSS have ads?
Neither ReadKit nor RSS shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ReadKit or RSS?
ReadKit ships an update every 2 weeks, and RSS weekly. Most recently, ReadKit was updated on September 29, 2026 and RSS on September 14, 2026.

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