Comparison

NewsBlur vs RSS Mobile

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

Head to head
About

NewsBlur

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
Read full description

NewsBlur is a personal news reader bringing people together to talk about the world. A new sound of an old instrument. NewsBlur is popular for a reason. While also being the oldest surviving RSS news reader, it is used by many news organizations, popular blogs, editors, and individual readers to keep up with the world. Let's talk about major features: * Read an unlimited number of RSS subscriptions * Offline support for stories and images * Full text extracts the whole story and is sticky per-feed * Gestures and long presses for feeds and stories * Share and comment on the news with friends * Meet new people who share the same interests * Autoscrolling of text for hands-free reading * Collapsible folders * Saved stories with tagging * Mark stories as unread * Read by oldest/newest first * Filter by unread/all stories * Search for stories by feed or folder * Send to Facebook/Twitter/Instapaper/Pocket/Evernote/email/etc * Landscape view * Customizable offline sync settings You can also optionally subscribe with a NewsBlur Premium Subscription * Subscribe to an unlimited number of sites * Sites you subscribe to are updated up to 10x more often * Read by folder with the river of news * Search sites and folders * Save stories with searchable tags * Privacy options for your blurblog (shared stories) * Custom RSS feeds for folders and saved stories * Use the Text view which conveniently extracts the full original story The subscription is auto-renewable which means that once purchased it will be auto-renewed every year until you cancel it 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Duration of the subscription is 1 year. Your iTunes Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Manage your Subscription and Auto-Renewal by going to your Account Settings. You may access the privacy policy at https://www.newsblur.com/privacy, and the terms of use at https://www.newsblur.com/tos.

About

RSS Mobile

This app allows you to read news from various channels directly on your device without relying on external web services. It downloads and stores feed updates locally for offline reading and supports easy migration with OPML file import/export.

Highlights
  • RSS, Atom, and JSON feed support
  • Offline feed storage
  • OPML import/export for migration
  • Simplified linked webpage view
  • Feed grouping
  • Post flagging and hiding
  • Safari browser subscription
Features
Read full description

RSS Mobile is a standalone app for reading news channels that does not depend on any third-party web services. It downloads feed updates and stores them on your device for further reading. OPML-file import/export are supported, so you may perform migration easily. RSS Mobile is free and does not contain ads. Features: - RSS, Atom and JSON feeds support - Import / Export of OPML-files - Stores loaded posts locally - Simplified view of linked webpage in Reader - Grouping of feeds - Flagging and hiding of posts - Subscription from Safari browser - Dynamic Type - Pointer and Keyboard support for iPad - VoiceOver Any questions? Feel free to contact us: rssmobileapp@gmail.com

Screenshots

NewsBlur4 screens
RSS Mobile3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: RSS Mobile at none against NewsBlur's 3. RSS Mobile also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 57%) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). NewsBlur's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (509 vs 57). On price, rating, ads and device support 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. RSS Mobile 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 4.6 for RSS Mobile. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: NewsBlur has 509 ratings behind it against 57, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 57% of NewsBlur's written reviews are positive against 81% of RSS Mobile's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

NewsBlur ships an update weekly, RSS Mobile every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
NewsBlur versus RSS Mobile: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNewsBlurRSS Mobile
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (509 ratings) — better4.6 (57 ratings)
Positive reviews56.7% of reviews81.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings509 — better57
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB16 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperNewsBlur, Inc.Elias Panfilow

Customer experience

NewsBlur

All ratings509 ratings
Positive92.7%
Neutral2.9%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews194 reviews
Positive56.7%
Neutral9.8%
Negative33.5%

RSS Mobile

All ratings57 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral3.5%
Negative7.0%
Written reviews75 reviews
Positive81.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative12.0%

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

RSS Mobile

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

NewsBlur

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

RSS Mobile

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is NewsBlur free?
NewsBlur is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RSS Mobile free?
RSS Mobile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, NewsBlur or RSS Mobile?
NewsBlur is rated higher. NewsBlur averages 4.7 out of 5 from 509 ratings, while RSS Mobile averages 4.6 from 57 ratings.
Do NewsBlur or RSS Mobile have ads?
Neither NewsBlur nor RSS Mobile shows ads.
Which is updated more often, NewsBlur or RSS Mobile?
NewsBlur ships an update weekly, and RSS Mobile every 3 months. Most recently, NewsBlur was updated on October 18, 2026 and RSS Mobile on October 17, 2026.

Other comparisons