FreeThinker vs Reason
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
FreeThinker
This news reader app aggregates content from curated sources, catering to libertarian-minded individuals and offering broader political and topical feeds. It provides features like offline reading, article management, and customizable topic filtering for a personalized news experience.
- Aggregates libertarian and independent content
- Dozens of curated sources
- Hides or distinguishes seen articles
- Earmark articles to read later
- Topic filtering for content customization
- Offline reading mode
- Light and dark UI options
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By Libertarians, for Libertarians. FreeThinker. Welcome to FreeThinker, a new kind of RSS news reader app. Easy to use and fully featured, FreeThinker provides articles of interest to Libertarians, third-party enthusiasts and independent-minded individuals. Choose your news from a selection of curated sources that cater to your political point of view. Not a Libertarian? FreeThinker is still for you! The app offers additional sources across the political spectrum and across a variety of topics. Read feeds on technology, science, news, and more regardless of your point of view. Turn on feeds you like, disable those that you don’t. Check out all that FreeThinker can do: - Aggregates Libertarian and politically-independent content spread out across the Internet into one convenient place - your device! - Provides dozens of curated sources for you to choose from, including content from the leading Libertarian-oriented media and public policy organizations. - Keeps track of what you read and provides options to hide or distinguish seen articles in your feed content. - Allows you to earmark articles to read later, or click through to see the content on the respective websites. - Collects and aggregates topics connected to each article, allowing you to choose which topics you’d like to see more of - or less. - Delivers details about the sources you choose, and toggle them on or off, augmenting your feed. - Creates an accessible-friendly experience with numerous text size options that work with or without your device’s accessibility settings. - Offers light and dark UI, tied to your device settings or your personal preference. - Adds a sharing interface for you to send articles to others on demand. - Works automatically in offline mode, to read existing content when your device has no connection. - Caches images and other items to reduce network load and improve performance. - Auto-cleans its content to save storage space on your device over time. - And there’s more in store! Have ideas on how to improve FreeThinker? Drop us a line at letsgo@lucindigital.com.
Reason
Access accurate and honest news, ideas, videos, and podcasts from a libertarian perspective. Personalize notifications and stream exclusive content, including documentaries and newsletters.
- Libertarian news and ideas
- Exclusive videos and documentaries
- Podcast streaming
- Personalized news notifications
- Newsletter access
- Reason Plus subscription for early magazine access
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The Reason app helps you stay on top of the news and better understand your world without all the tired left-wing or right-wing spin. You won’t find a better source for accurate and honest news, ideas, videos, and podcasts from a libertarian perspective. Turn on notifications and personalize your settings to get alerts about issues you care about. Stream new episodes of Reason podcasts: The Reason Roundtable, The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie, and The Soho Forum Debates. Click to listen to every article and build your own content playlist. Access Reason’s latest vertical videos. Watch Reason’s documentaries, video essays, and comedy videos, including Remy and Andrew Heaton. Browse Reason’s newsletters: Reason Roundup by Liz Wolfe, The Rattler by J.D. Tuccille, Free Media by Robby Soave, and more. Play Reason’s weekly crossword plus special puzzles when magazine issues publish online. Subscribe to Reason Plus for exclusive early access to new issues of Reason magazine on your phone, tablet, or computer. To join, visit reason.com/subscribe on any browser.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: FreeThinker at fortnightly against Reason's every 4 months. FreeThinker also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Reason's advantage is ratings volume (284 vs 2) and chart position (#199 vs unranked). On price, review sentiment, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
FreeThinker holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Reason has 284 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
FreeThinker ships an update fortnightly, Reason every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | FreeThinker | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.8 (284 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 284 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #199 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 27 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Lucin Digital Services LLC | Reason |
Customer experience
FreeThinker
Reason
In-app purchases
FreeThinker
No in-app purchases
Reason
No in-app purchases









