# NewsBlur vs lire

The clearest difference is price: NewsBlur at Free against lire's $9.99. NewsBlur also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.4) and update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). lire's advantage is chart position (#4 vs unranked) and review sentiment (69% vs 57%). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.

NewsBlur is free to download; lire costs $9.99 up front. NewsBlur sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $29.99 per month and lire sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

NewsBlur holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 513 and 157 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 57% of NewsBlur's written reviews are positive against 69% of lire's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

NewsBlur ships an update weekly, lire fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | NewsBlur | lire |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | **Free** | $9.99 |
| Rating | **[4.7 (513 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/newsblur-rss-news-reader/id463981119/reviews)** | [4.4 (157 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lire-rss-reader/id1531976425/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **513** | 157 |
| Positive reviews | 56.7% of reviews | **68.5% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Weekly** | Fortnightly |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | **#4** |
| Size | 32 MB | 164 MB |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | **15.6** |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | [NewsBlur, Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/463981122) | [Kunal Sood](https://appshunter.io/developer/542137548) |

## What reviewers say

### NewsBlur

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/newsblur-rss-news-reader/id463981119)

This app is a personal news reader that allows users to follow unlimited RSS subscriptions, share stories with friends, and discover new people with shared interests. It offers offline reading, full text extraction, and customizable reading preferences.

**Highlights:** Unlimited RSS subscriptions, Offline story and image support, Full text story extraction, Share and comment on news, Meet people with shared interests, Autoscrolling for hands-free reading, Saved stories with tagging

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (3)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| NewsBlur Premium Pro | $29.99 | per month |
| NewsBlur Premium | $35.99 | per year |
| NewsBlur Premium Archive | $99.99 | per year |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Fast and reliable
- 👍 Excellent news reader
- 🔒 Great privacy policy
- 💡 Useful training and filtering features
- 👍 Seamless sync across devices

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Crashes and bugs, especially on iPad
- 👎 Paywall for basic features
- 👎 Outdated and cluttered UI
- 👎 Difficult to manage feeds and folders

**Reported bugs**

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

**Requested features**

- Customizable font sizes
- Offline reading mode
- Improved sharing options
- Ability to delete feeds and folders


### lire

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lire-rss-reader/id1531976425)

**Currently charting:** #4 Top Paid · News (US App Store)

This app provides full-text RSS feeds, converting partial feeds into complete articles. Read content offline after initial caching. It offers standalone use or syncs with iCloud and various popular RSS services.

**Highlights:** Full-text RSS feed conversion, Offline reading of cached feeds, Standalone feed reader, iCloud sync, Sync with multiple RSS services

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (5)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Generous Tip | $0.99 | one-time |
| Massive Tip | $1.99 | one-time |
| Amazing Tip | $4.99 | one-time |
| Humongous Tip | $9.99 | one-time |
| Stupendous Tip | $19.99 | one-time |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Fast full-text parsing
- 👍 Highly customizable
- 🔒 No data collection
- 💡 Bionic reading support
- 👍 Excellent accessibility

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🐛 Sync issues
- 🐛 Memory management problems
- 🐛 Buggy after updates
- 🐛 Inconsistent article rendering

**Reported bugs**

- Crashes on launch
- Incorrect feed display
- Articles not opening
- Overlapping UI elements
- Sync errors with FreshRSS and Wallabag

**Requested features**

- Bulk unsubscribe option
- Ability to add multiple feeds at once
- Custom keyword filtering
- Highlight/annotate articles
- Embedded video support


## Frequently asked questions

### Is NewsBlur free?

NewsBlur is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Is lire free?

lire costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.

### Which has better reviews, NewsBlur or lire?

NewsBlur is rated higher. NewsBlur averages 4.7 out of 5 from 513 ratings, while lire averages 4.4 from 157 ratings.

### Do NewsBlur or lire have ads?

Neither NewsBlur nor lire shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, NewsBlur or lire?

NewsBlur ships an update weekly, and lire fortnightly. Most recently, NewsBlur was updated on October 30, 2026 and lire on October 29, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*