Comparison

NewsBlur vs NetNewsWire

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

Head to head
About

NewsBlur

Consolidate all your favorite news sources, blogs, and newsletters into one personalized feed. Customize your reading experience with themes, text adjustments, and offline access. Train the app to highlight important stories and hide irrelevant ones.

Highlights
  • Personalized RSS news feed
  • Offline reading
  • Customizable themes and text
  • Story filtering and training
  • Home screen widgets
  • Article summarization with AI
  • Text-to-speech for articles
Features
Read full description

Follow the sites you care about with NewsBlur, a personal RSS news reader that brings your reading together. Keep up with news, blogs, newsletters, and more, with your subscriptions and reading progress synced across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the web. READ YOUR WAY Browse stories from individual sites or bring a folder together in one reading list. Choose a comfortable theme, adjust the text, and use gestures to move through your stories. Download stories for offline reading and pick up where you left off. STORIES AT A GLANCE Add widgets to your Home Screen. Each widget can show All Site Stories, a folder, or one site. Choose its source with Edit Widget. FIND YOUR FOCUS Train NewsBlur on authors, tags, and words in headlines to highlight stories you want and hide ones you don't. You decide what matters. DISCOVER AND KEEP Find new sites, preview their latest stories, and try reading before subscribing. Save stories for later, organize them with tags, and search your reading. Share stories with comments on your NewsBlur blurblog and follow what friends are reading. LISTEN TO YOUR STORIES Turn articles into audio with voices in 21 languages. Follow highlighted paragraphs, tap to jump ahead, adjust playback speed, and queue stories in Up Next. Keep listening with the screen locked. Full listening is included with Premium Archive and Premium Pro. Free and Premium accounts can try 30-second previews. GO DEEPER Use Text view to read an extracted article. Ask AI for a summary, background, or answers to questions about a story. Availability and usage limits depend on your account plan. IN YOUR LANGUAGE Use NewsBlur's interface in 21 languages, including right-to-left layouts for Arabic and Hebrew. Choose your language in Preferences or follow your device settings. Stories stay in the language they were published in. A NewsBlur account is required. Free accounts and optional paid subscriptions are available. Some features require a paid plan. SUBSCRIPTIONS If you purchase a subscription through the App Store, payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings. Terms of use: https://www.newsblur.com/tos Privacy policy: https://www.newsblur.com/privacy

About

NetNewsWire

This app aggregates articles from your favorite blogs and news sites, offering a faster and more organized way to consume content. It provides control over your news feed, eliminating the need to visit multiple websites or rely on social media algorithms. Enjoy a streamlined reading experience with customizable features and syncing capabilities.

Highlights
  • Direct feed downloading
  • iCloud and third-party syncing
  • Customizable article themes
  • Reader view
  • Starred articles
  • Smart feeds
  • Home screen widgets
Currently charting
Read full description

It’s like podcasts, but for reading. NetNewsWire is a free and open source RSS reader. It shows you articles from your favorite blogs and news sites and keeps track of what you’ve read. It’s fast, stable, and accessible. If you’ve been going from site to site in your browser looking for new articles to read — or counting on the unreliable algorithms of corporate social media — let NetNewsWire bring you the news you want. It’s easy and fun. And it puts you, not billionaires, in control of your news. Features: * Direct feed downloading * Syncing via iCloud, Feedbin, Feedly, BazQux, Inoreader, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, and FreshRSS * Multiple accounts * Custom article themes * Reader view * Share sheet * Starred articles * All Unread and Today smart feeds * Folders * Importing and exporting OPML feed lists * Background refreshing * Searching * Hiding read articles * Timeline customization * Keyboard shortcuts * Context menus * Home screen widgets for today, unread, and starred articles * Share extension

Screenshots

NewsBlur4 screens
NetNewsWire4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: NetNewsWire at none against NewsBlur's 3. NetNewsWire also leads on review sentiment (84% vs 57%) and chart position (#124 vs unranked). NewsBlur's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs monthly). On price, rating, ratings volume 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

Both are free to download. NewsBlur sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $29.99 per month. NetNewsWire asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for NewsBlur against 4.7 for NetNewsWire. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 513 and 890 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 57% of NewsBlur's written reviews are positive against 84% of NetNewsWire's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

NewsBlur ships an update weekly, NetNewsWire monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
NewsBlur versus NetNewsWire: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNewsBlurNetNewsWire
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (513 ratings)4.7 (890 ratings) — better
Positive reviews56.7% of reviews83.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings513890 — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
Best chart rank—#124 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB27 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperNewsBlur, Inc.Brent Simmons

Customer experience

NewsBlur

All ratings513 ratings
Positive92.8%
Neutral2.9%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews194 reviews
Positive56.7%
Neutral9.8%
Negative33.5%

NetNewsWire

All ratings887 ratings
Positive93.7%
Neutral2.4%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews330 reviews
Positive83.9%
Neutral7.9%
Negative8.2%

Bugs and requests

NewsBlur

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes on launch for some users
  • Incorrect feed display and article loading issues
  • Syncing problems between web and mobile apps

Requested features

4 requests
  • Customizable font sizes
  • Offline reading mode
  • Improved sharing options
  • Ability to delete feeds and folders

NetNewsWire

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

NewsBlur

Subscriptions3
  • NewsBlur Premium Pro$29.991 Month
  • NewsBlur Premium$35.991 Year
  • NewsBlur Premium Archive$99.991 Year
None

NetNewsWire

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is NewsBlur free?
NewsBlur is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is NetNewsWire free?
NetNewsWire is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, NewsBlur or NetNewsWire?
NetNewsWire is rated higher. NewsBlur averages 4.7 out of 5 from 513 ratings, while NetNewsWire averages 4.7 from 890 ratings.
Do NewsBlur or NetNewsWire have ads?
Neither NewsBlur nor NetNewsWire shows ads.
Which is updated more often, NewsBlur or NetNewsWire?
NewsBlur ships an update weekly, and NetNewsWire monthly. Most recently, NewsBlur was updated on November 1, 2026 and NetNewsWire on November 3, 2026.

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