HackerPillar vs Clear Reader ™
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HackerPillar
This app offers a streamlined and focused reading experience for Hacker News. It features a clean feed, readable comment threads, and a reader mode for articles. Users can save stories, read offline, and track discussions.
- Fast Hacker News feed
- Readable comment threads
- Focused Reader Mode
- Saved stories and offline library
- Thread tracking
- Advanced search (Pro)
- Home screen widget
Read full descriptionHide full description
HackerPillar helps you read Hacker News with less friction and more focus. Browse top stories in a clean, high-performance feed, open deep discussions with readable comment threads, and switch to Reader Mode for long-form articles. Save stories, read offline, and track threads you care about. Key features: - Fast, modern Hacker News feed - Readable comments with thread controls - Focused Reader Mode - Saved Stories + Offline Library - Thread tracking and activity checks - Advanced search and custom feeds (Pro) - Home screen widget support - Share extension for quick imports HackerPillar Pro unlocks: - HN account actions (login, vote, reply) - Advanced search and custom feeds - Extended reader and tracking features - Additional power-user tools across the app Subscription details: - Title: HackerPillar Pro - Length: Monthly and Yearly - Price: Pricing varies by region and is shown in-app before purchase - Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase - Subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period - Manage or cancel in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions Privacy Policy: http://smartcodeapps.tech/hackerpillar-privacy-policy/ Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Built for people who read Hacker News every day.
Clear Reader ™
This app offers a calm and focused way to read curated news feeds offline. It provides tools for managing articles, adjusting the reading experience, and searching cached content, promoting deliberate reading over scrolling.
- Calm, minimal RSS feed interface
- Offline article caching
- Search cached articles
- Save articles for later
- Filter articles by keywords
- Customizable themes and text size
Read full descriptionHide full description
Clear Reader is a calm native reading app for deliberate news reading. It gives you a quieter way to follow a thoughtfully curated feed, with local tools that make reading more useful than simply opening articles in a browser. Clear Reader is designed to help you read with more focus and less urgency. Features: - Read a curated RSS feed in a calm, minimal interface - Cache articles on device for offline access - Search cached articles by title and summary - Save articles for later reading - Mark articles as read and optionally hide read items - Filter articles with your own blocked keywords - Adjust theme, article text size, and reading density - Browse saved items and archive/history - Open source articles in an in-app web view or browser Clear Reader is built around clarity over urgency, reading over scrolling, and a more thoughtful relationship with news.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Clear Reader ™ at free against HackerPillar's freemium. Clear Reader ™ also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly) and device support (4 vs 2). 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
Both are free to download. HackerPillar sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month and Clear Reader ™ sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for HackerPillar against 5.0 for Clear Reader ™. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
HackerPillar ships an update fortnightly, Clear Reader ™ every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on June 1, 2026 and July 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HackerPillar | Clear Reader ™ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Taha Broachwala | Space 64 LLC |
Customer experience
HackerPillar
Clear Reader ™
In-app purchases
HackerPillar
- HackerPillar Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
Clear Reader ™
- Clear Reader Pro$9.99





