Ziner vs Heartfeed RSS Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ziner
Stay updated with your favorite content through a streamlined RSS reader. Enjoy offline access, smart image preloading, and customizable themes. Share articles easily with various third-party services.
- List and Magazine view
- Offline feed access
- Smart image preloading
- Search starred articles
- Customizable themes
- Auto readability view
- Third-party sharing
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No ads for the first 5 days. The most interesting features: - List view & Magazine view. - Always updated feeds. - Works smoothly when offline. - Preloads images smartly. - Search in starred articles. - Themes: Day, Sunset, Night. - Auto readability view for partial feeds. - Add/Delete/Rename feed. (Setting -> Feedly Manager) - No prompt for rating. - Fast support within 12 hours. 3rd-party services: - Send articles/images via AirDrop. - Open articles in Safari, Chrome. - Share to lots of 3rd-party services. (Constantly adding new services) Important things to know: - App Badge can be turned off: Setting -> Show/Hide UIs - Feedly account is required to use Ziner. - Article tagging is not supported yet. - You can turn ON/OFF Readability for entire feed by long press on Readability button. - When in magazine mode, you can exit article by double tapping on an article. Support: We can not respond to App Store reviews, if you need to report any bugs/feature requests, please use Setting -> Contact Support. You will receive a reply within 12 hours. Follow Ziner on Twitter: @ZinerRSS
Heartfeed RSS Reader
This app offers an efficient, no-nonsense way to read news from RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds without requiring account setup or server reliance. It features a compact grid view, background feed refreshing, and seamless syncing across iOS devices via iCloud.
- Compact grid view for feeds
- Internal browser with content blocker support
- Automatic iCloud sync for feeds and read status
- Quick pick list for selecting news items
- Background feed refresh and caching
- Bookmark management with iCloud sync
- Night mode theme
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Do you want to read your news using RSS/Atom/JSON feeds in the most efficient, no-nonsense way, and with no requirement to setup an app-specific user account or relying on a server? If you do, Heartfeed might be the app for you. Features: - A compact grid view for your feeds, making it easy to check all of them at once - When reading news in the internal browser, full support of your configured content blockers, saved passwords, etc. - Automatic synching of subscribed feeds and read status between iOS devices (requires an iCloud account) - Quick pick list: Easily select which news items from different feeds you want to read - Background refresh of feeds: Some feeds refresh often and you then risk missing news in case the app is not used frequently. Background refresh, together with caching of the last 50 news items in each feed, prevents this from happening - Bookmarks, including reading them from either inside Heartfeed or from any iOS or macOS browser (requires an iCloud account) - Night mode theme - Subscribing to feeds from the current Heartfeed top list, from files, or directly from the web - Full support for split views and multi-tasking on iPads - No tracking of usage or personal data; optionally, you can anonymously share which feeds you subscribe to for improving the builtin top list of recommended feeds The app is 100% free and without ads. If you want to tip me somethings as thanks for the app, you can do so within the settings. I hope you'll enjoy using Heartfeed!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Heartfeed RSS Reader at 4.8 against Ziner's 3.7. Heartfeed RSS Reader also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and review sentiment (89% vs 66%). Ziner's advantage is update cadence (every 11 days vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (7.1 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Ziner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Heartfeed RSS Reader sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Heartfeed RSS Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 38 and 90 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 66% of Ziner's written reviews are positive against 89% of Heartfeed RSS Reader's.
Ziner ships an update every 11 days, Heartfeed RSS Reader every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ziner | Heartfeed RSS Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (38 ratings) | 4.8 (90 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.0% of reviews | 89.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 38 | 90 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 11 days — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 7.1 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | 建寅 赵 | Ozymandias |
Customer experience
Ziner
Heartfeed RSS Reader
User reviews
Ziner
From 38 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and responsive performance
- 👍 Clean, minimalist interface design
- 📖 Excellent Readability integration for full article text
- 🎨 Beautiful visual presentation with magazine-style layout
- ⚙️ Intuitive gesture-based navigation
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and instability
- ⚠️ No updates for years (abandoned development)
- 🔐 HTTPS/SSL login authentication errors
- 📱 Poor compatibility with newer iOS versions
- 🔄 Auto-refresh interrupts article reading
Heartfeed RSS Reader
From 90 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎯 Perfect Pulse replacement with grid/tile layout
- 👍 Simple, intuitive, and streamlined interface
- ⚡ Fast and efficient news consumption
- 🔄 Reliable syncing across devices
- 📱 Clean, uncluttered design without bloat
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes on opening and usage
- 💰 Paywall for unlimited feeds ($2.99)
- 🔍 No search functionality across feeds
- 📸 Limited thumbnail/image display options
- 🌍 No multi-language or RTL script support
Bugs and requests
Ziner
Reported bugs
18 issues- App crashes on startup with iOS 8+
- Cannot login to Feedly via Google authentication
- HTTPS error message preventing login
- App crashes when selecting Feedly as source
- Crashes when sharing to Twitter or Facebook
Show 13 moreShow fewer
- Keyboard input not showing when posting to Twitter
- Badge icon not updating correctly
- Menu disappeared in some versions
- Articles display with missing portions or blocked content
- App freezes when loading large feed collections
- Sync fails after a week of usage
- Video playback stops when rotating device
- Edge swipe gestures behave erratically
- Articles marked as read automatically
- App loses article being read after refresh
- Readability feature stops working
- Feedbin login failures
- Slow performance with large RSS collections
Requested features
15 requests- Customizable sync interval settings
- Support for additional services (Inoreader, Feedbin, Old Reader)
- Background refresh for offline reading
- Adjustable font sizes in article view
- iOS share sheet integration
Show 10 moreShow fewer
- Push notifications
- OneNote integration
- Search functionality across feeds
- Ability to organize folders/categories manually
- Tag support for starred items
- Default folder/feed selection on app open
- Offline full article caching
- Mercury web parser support
- Per-feed readability/web-view choice
- Text selection and dictionary support
Heartfeed RSS Reader
Reported bugs
6 issues- App crashes on launch
- Crashes after adding feeds
- Multiple crashes during normal usage
- App fails to start after recent updates
- iCloud syncing issues (requires troubleshooting)
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Bright reader screen conflicts with dark mode setting
Requested features
13 requests- Search functionality with highlighting across feeds
- Individual mark-as-read buttons per feed
- Thumbnail images in grid view
- Apple Watch app support
- Offline reading capability
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- Multi-language support including RTL scripts
- Integration with Feedly and other accounts
- Preserve feed groups on OPML import
- Dark mode for reader screen
- Feed discovery page with popular feeds index
- Ability to save/bookmark articles
- Variable font sizes in grid view
- Apple News+ integration
In-app purchases
Ziner
- Ziner Pro Remove Ads$2.99
Heartfeed RSS Reader
- Tipping the developer$0.99
- Unlimited feeds$2.99
- Tipping the developer$2.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Even more tip to the developer$9.99
- Maximum tip to the developer$24.99







