Circles Reader vs 4th Estate
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Circles Reader
Read full descriptionHide full description
Stay updated with the latest news, blogs, and articles from your favorite sources with Circles Reader, the ultimate RSS reader designed for the modern user. Whether you're a news junkie, a blog enthusiast, or simply someone who loves to stay informed, Circles Reader is your go-to app for a seamless reading experience. Key Features: - Syncs all your feeds and articles via your favorite RSS aggregator service - Dark mode: reduce eye strain and enjoy reading in low-light environments
4th Estate
Read full descriptionHide full description
If you're satisfied with the dominant RSS readers, Fourth Estate isn't for you. Those apps share the same premise: your subscriptions are an inbox. Reading is a queue to drain. Unread counts are guilt counters. The goal is zero. Fourth Estate rejects all of that. Your feeds aren't an inbox. They're raw material for a newspaper you publish to yourself. You're the editor. You design the sections. You place the hero stories. You decide the front page. Apple Intelligence reads new arrivals on your Mac, entirely on-device, and assigns every piece a priority โ breaking, deep read, skim, or skip. You read what matters. You skim what's worth a glance. You skip the rest without guilt. That's what editors do. The reader is slow on purpose. Serif type. Generous margins. 48 fonts. 11 themes. Articles are meant to be finished, not processed. This is RSS reimagined as journalism โ not productivity software. Three modes coexist: a Paper you design like a broadsheet, an AI-triaged Today briefing, and a Wire for the moments you actually do want the firehose. THE PAPER โข Front Page with hero card, continue reading grid, and two-column headlines โข Custom newspaper sections โ swipe between them like pages of a broadsheet โข Assign any feeds to any section, reorder freely TODAY โข Apple Intelligence triages new articles on your Mac, entirely on-device โข Each piece gets a priority โ breaking, deep read, skim, or skip โข Plus a 3-5 sentence summary, topic tag, and auto-applied content tags โข Triage syncs to iPhone and iPad via iCloud โข Breaking-article notifications keep you on top of what matters THE WIRE โข Quick views: All, Unread, Read, Favorites, Archived โ for when you want the queue โข Categories, smart filters with 13 rule fields, and full feed management โข Blocklist rules auto-hide articles you never want to see โ by title, author, source, content, or any combination โข OPML import/export to migrate from other readers THE VAULT โข Library for favorites, saved articles, and archived pieces โข Tag-based filtering with untagged article support โข Paper-style card layouts for browsing your collection ARTICLE READER โข 48 fonts: New York, Baskerville, Palatino, Helvetica Neue, Futura, and more โข 11 app-wide themes including Sepia, Forest, Ocean, and OLED Black โข Typography controls: size, spacing, alignment, margins, content width โข Full-text extraction when feeds provide only summaries ALSO INCLUDES โข iCloud sync for articles, feeds, sections, tags, smart filters, and reading positions โข Share Extension to save articles from Safari โข Background refresh at configurable intervals โข Soft-delete trash with recovery PREMIUM 4th Estate is free to download with 4 feeds and 10 saved articles included. Upgrade to Premium for unlimited feeds, unlimited saved articles, AI triage with breaking-article notifications, and sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac โ through a single annual subscription. One subscription covers every Apple device on your Apple ID. Built with SwiftUI and SwiftData for iOS 26+ and macOS 26+. PRIVACY FIRST: All your data stays on your devices and syncs via your personal iCloud account. AI triage runs entirely on-device with Apple Intelligence โ no servers, no tracking, no data collection. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Fourth Estate Premium is a single annual auto-renewable subscription. After the 2-month free trial, payment will be charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase, and will auto-renew at the same price each year unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel subscriptions in your Apple ID account settings after purchase. Privacy Policy: https://www.termsfeed.com/live/475c4de9-ef7b-4c7e-980a-aad808043eae Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Circles Reader at none against 4th Estate's 1. Circles Reader also leads on iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.2). 4th Estate's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. 4th Estate sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $49.99 per year. Circles Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Circles Reader ships an update fortnightly, 4th Estate weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Circles Reader | 4th Estate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Weekly โ better |
| Ads | Yes | No โ better |
| In-app purchases | No โ better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad โ better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 โ better | 26.2 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Circles Incorporated | Parag Patel |
In-app purchases
Circles Reader
No in-app purchases
4th Estate
- Fourth Estate Premium2 Months trial$49.991 Year









