Comparison

Vortex for Podcast vs Hacker Reader

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Vortex for Podcast

Discover and manage podcasts with a feature-rich player. Enjoy advanced audio controls, offline listening, and seamless data syncing. Customize your experience with a beautiful, intuitive interface.

Highlights
  • Podcast management via RSS and OPML
  • Advanced audio playback controls
  • Offline episode downloads
  • Automatic data backup and iCloud sync
  • Customizable themes and interface
  • Voice Boost feature
Features
Read full description

Discover your next favorite podcast with Vortex, a powerful and elegant podcast player designed for the modern listener. Built with the latest iOS technologies like SwiftUI and SwiftData, Vortex offers a seamless and feature-rich experience. Key Features: Powerful Podcast Management: Easily subscribe to your favorite shows via RSS, import your library with OPML, and let Vortex keep everything up-to-date automatically. Our smart sorting and favorites system helps you find what to listen to next. Advanced Audio Experience: Enjoy high-quality audio with robust playback controls. Manage your listening with a flexible playback queue, and never lose your spot with playback position memory. Enhance your listening with our Voice Boost feature and stream to your devices with AirPlay. Listen Anywhere, Anytime: Download episodes for offline listening. Vortex intelligently manages downloads and can even pre-download items in your queue, ensuring you always have something ready to play, with or without a connection. Seamless Data Sync & Backup: Keep your subscriptions and playback progress safe with automatic silent backups and iCloud sync. Easily export your data or create manual backups whenever you need. Tailored To You: Customize your experience with theme switching. Vortex is designed to be beautiful and intuitive, with smooth animations and a clean, responsive layout. Download Vortex today and rediscover the joy of podcasts!

About

Hacker Reader

A native iOS client for Hacker News offering a streamlined reading experience with home screen widgets, community interaction, and a beautiful, dark-mode-friendly design. Securely log in to upvote, comment, and bookmark stories.

Highlights
  • Browse all story categories
  • Upvote stories and comments
  • Secure login with HN account
  • Post comments and replies
  • Bookmark stories
  • Home screen widgets
  • Dark mode support
Features
Read full description

Hacker Reader is a calm, native Hacker News client. Clean white cards in Light Mode, warm charcoal in Dark Mode, serif story pages, comment threads that are easy to follow, and widgets that keep the top stories on your Home Screen and Lock Screen. On iPad, the list and the story sit side by side. BROWSE THE STORY FEEDS • Top Stories - what's ranking on HN right now • Best Stories - the highest-voted stories • New Stories - recently submitted content • Ask HN - questions and discussions from the community • Show HN - projects, products and creations shared by users • Jobs - openings at YC companies • Past front pages - any day's front page, from the feed menu • Switch feeds from the menu in the header, with infinite scrolling and pull to refresh • Numbered cards show the site's icon and domain, points, comments, author and age, plus a thumbnail when the page has one • Stories you have opened are dimmed, and a badge shows how many new comments arrived since • Long-press a card to peek at the story, upvote, bookmark, share, hide it, or mute its site READ AND FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION • Story pages open with a serif headline, a large link preview and the byline • Ask HN and Show HN posts are labeled, with their full text • Articles open in an in-app browser • Nested comments with quiet orange depth rails • Tap a comment's header to collapse its thread and see how many replies are hidden • Jump between top-level comments, or collapse every thread • Comments newer than your last visit are marked • Choose a text size in Settings • The original poster is marked OP INTERACT WITH THE COMMUNITY Sign in with your Hacker News account to: • Upvote stories with a tap on the points, or from the long-press menu • Post comments and replies • Delete your recent comments • Submit a story from your profile • Flag stories (HN karma rules apply) No account is needed to browse, bookmark stories for later, hide stories, mute keywords and sites, or block users you'd rather not see. PROFILES AND SEARCH • Tap a username in a thread or on a story page to see their karma, member-since date, bio and recent stories and comments • Tap a comment in someone's submissions to jump to it in the thread • Once you sign in, the Profile tab shows your own karma and submissions • Search stories or comments, by relevance or newest, with a date range, a minimum score, and author:name HOME SCREEN AND LOCK SCREEN WIDGETS • Small shows the top story, Medium the top 2, Large the top 7 • A Lock Screen widget with the top 3 headlines • Points, comments and age at a glance on the Home Screen • Widgets refresh on their own when stories go stale, even with the app closed • Light, dark and tinted Home Screens are supported • Tap a story to open it in the app A WARM, NATIVE DESIGN • Clean white cards in Light Mode, warm charcoal in Dark Mode, never pure black • Follows your system, or pick Light or Dark in Settings • Solid reading surfaces with orange accents that match the app icon • On iPad and other wide windows, a fixed list beside the open story, and lines that stay a comfortable width • Native iOS tabs, menus and toolbars, SF Symbols and subtle haptics • Link previews with Open Graph images PRIVACY & SECURITY • Sign in with a native form: your password goes straight to Hacker News over HTTPS and is never stored in the app • Your session is kept in the iOS Keychain • Bookmarks, hidden stories, blocked users, mutes and reading history are stored on your device • Open source - read the code on GitHub Hacker Reader is designed and built by an indie developer who loves Hacker News and wanted a calmer way to read it. It's built with React Native, Expo and SwiftUI. Questions or feedback? Open an issue on GitHub, find me on X at @danielcspaiva, or reach out via the support URL. Not affiliated with Y Combinator or Hacker News. Built using the official HN API (https://github.com/HackerNews/API) and Algolia's HN Search API.

Screenshots

Vortex for Podcast4 screens
Hacker Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Vortex for Podcast at 5.0 against Hacker Reader's 1.0. Vortex for Podcast also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). Hacker Reader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). On price, ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Vortex for Podcast sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Hacker Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Vortex for Podcast holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Vortex for Podcast ships an update fortnightly, Hacker Reader every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Vortex for Podcast versus Hacker Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterVortex for PodcastHacker Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB65 MB
Age rating4++9
Developer恒敏 吴Daniel Capistrano Sarinho Paiva

Customer experience

Vortex for Podcast

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Hacker Reader

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Vortex for Podcast

One-time3
  • Buy me a Coffee$0.99
  • Buy me a Lunch$2.99
  • Buy me a Feast$5.99
None

Hacker Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Vortex for Podcast free?
Vortex for Podcast is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hacker Reader free?
Hacker Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Vortex for Podcast or Hacker Reader?
Vortex for Podcast is rated higher. Vortex for Podcast averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Hacker Reader averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Vortex for Podcast or Hacker Reader have ads?
Neither Vortex for Podcast nor Hacker Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Vortex for Podcast or Hacker Reader?
Vortex for Podcast ships an update fortnightly, and Hacker Reader every 2 months. Most recently, Vortex for Podcast was updated on October 14, 2026 and Hacker Reader on October 9, 2026.

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