# NFB vs lire

The clearest difference is price: NFB at Free against lire's $9.99. NFB also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 5) and ratings volume (500 vs 157). lire's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 8 months) and chart position (#11 vs unranked). On rating, review sentiment, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

NFB is free to download; lire costs $9.99 up front. lire sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. NFB asks for nothing beyond the download.

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for NFB against 4.4 for lire. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 500 and 157 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 60% of NFB's written reviews are positive against 68% of lire's.

NFB ships an update every 8 months, lire fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | NFB | lire |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | **Free** | $9.99 |
| Rating | [4.3 (500 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nfb-newsline-mobile/id530470425/reviews) | **[4.4 (157 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lire-rss-reader/id1531976425/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **500** | 157 |
| Positive reviews | 60.4% of reviews | **68.3% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | **Fortnightly** |
| Monetization | **Free** | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | **#11** |
| Size | 3 MB | 168 MB |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | **15.6** |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | **iPhone, iPad, iPod** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | [National Federation of the Blind](https://appshunter.io/developer/530470428) | [Kunal Sood](https://appshunter.io/developer/542137548) |

## What reviewers say

### NFB

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nfb-newsline-mobile/id530470425)

This app provides free access to over 500 publications, including newspapers, magazines, and retail ads, for individuals who are blind, visually impaired, or print-disabled. It also features text recognition for instant print access and localized weather alerts.

**Highlights:** Access to 500+ newspapers and magazines, Breaking news sources, Retail advertisements, Television listings, Localized weather alerts, Text recognition with camera, Braille device compatibility

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- ♿ Fully accessible for blind and visually impaired users
- 📰 Wide variety of newspapers and magazines available
- 🆓 Free service with no complex downloads required
- 📱 Convenient mobile access on-the-go
- 🎙️ Excellent VoiceOver support

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 App crashes frequently
- 😤 Recent updates made app tedious and cumbersome
- 📍 Difficult to change location settings
- ❌ Incomplete articles from some publications
- 🔐 Data privacy concerns

**Reported bugs**

- App crashes on search functionality
- App crashes regularly during use
- Unable to open individual articles
- Global news search server communication errors
- Articles display partially instead of in full

**Requested features**

- Line-by-line article reading capability
- Improved favorites section functionality
- Better page navigation and position memory
- Remove KNFB reader integration from app
- Simplify weather forecast display without unnecessary decimals


### lire

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

**Currently charting:** #11 Top Paid · News (US App Store)

This app transforms partial RSS feeds into full-text articles, eliminating the need to click "Read more" links. It offers offline reading and syncs with various services, providing a seamless news consumption experience.

**Highlights:** Full-text RSS feed conversion, Offline reading of cached articles, Syncs with Feedly, Feedbin, and more, iCloud sync option, No need to click 'Read more' links, Standalone feed reader functionality

**Features:** Vision Pro support, iPhone Duo 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 NFB free?

NFB is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is lire free?

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

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

lire is rated higher. NFB averages 4.3 out of 5 from 500 ratings, while lire averages 4.4 from 157 ratings.

### Do NFB or lire have ads?

Neither NFB nor lire shows ads.

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

NFB ships an update every 8 months, and lire fortnightly. Most recently, NFB was updated on November 1, 2026 and lire on November 11, 2026.

---

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