Spread vs Column Social
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Spread
Access exclusive content from top publications by proving you're human. Follow influential individuals to discover their curated reading, listening, and watching lists. Share access to content with friends and followers.
- Human verification for content access
- Follow journalists and thinkers
- Discover curated reading lists
- Share access with others
- Spread content from any app
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Spread: The Human Internet Prove you’re human to unlock access across top publications with Spread. Discover what journalists, creators, and other smart people are reading, listening to, and watching. HOW IT WORKS: - Verify you’re human to unlock access across top publications. - Discover and access things journalists, creators, and other smart people are reading, listening to, and watching. - Drop links in Spread from any app or browser to unlock access. - Share Spread links in group chats and on social media to pass unlocked access to your friends and followers. Join our mission to enable human access to the world's information.
Column Social
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Column is a network of private communities that host the most important conversations in the world. Some of the most important conversations in the world are happening in group chats. Column is an app for your group chats so people can subscribe and the chats can go viral to include everyone in the world that should be in the chat. On Column, you can: - Create and join private, paid groups for communities of practice - Post new content in real time in private groups, or publicly - Stay up to date in your field and communities of interest - Upload photos and share links with previews - Chat one-on-one with others from your gropus via DMs Privacy Policy: https://www.joincolumn.com/legal/privacy Terms of Service: https://stage.joincolumn.com/legal/terms-of-service
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Spread at none against Column Social's 10. Spread also leads on ads (none vs shown). Column Social's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Column Social sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.00 per month. Spread asks for nothing beyond the download.
Spread ships an update fortnightly, Column Social every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Spread | Column Social |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (56 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 94.1% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 56 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 43 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Spread Social, Inc. | Column Inc |
In-app purchases
Spread
No in-app purchases
Column Social
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