Comparison

Skim Reader vs Haiker

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

Head to head
About

Skim Reader

Read full description

Skim Reader: Read Smarter, Not Longer In a world of infinite scroll and endless content, your time is the ultimate currency. Skim Reader is the RSS reader that respects it. The Problem With Modern Reading You subscribe to 30 feeds. You have 200 unread articles. You have 10 minutes. What do you do? Skip everything? Skim headlines and miss the insights buried in paragraph seven? Feel guilty about the growing unread count? There's a better way. One Slider. Infinite Control. Skim Reader introduces something no RSS reader has done before: a compression slider that transforms any article to match exactly how much time you have. Drag left for a two-sentence summary. Drag right for the full article. Stop anywhere in between. It's that simple. - Glance: The headline in 10 seconds - Brief: Key points in 30 seconds - Summary: Main ideas in 2 minutes - Digest: Detailed overview in 5 minutes - Full: The complete article Every position is generated by on-device AI. No cloud. No subscriptions. No data leaving your phone. AI That Lives on Your Device Skim Reader runs a state-of-the-art language model entirely on your iPhone or iPad. Your articles stay private. The first time you open the app, you'll download a ~1GB AI model. After that, everything runs locally. Your reading habits are yours alone. It Learns How You Read Notice how you always want the full article from The New York Times but just the brief from tech blogs? Skim Reader notices too. The app quietly learns your preferences - by feed, by time of day, by habit. Open an article at 7am during your commute? It remembers you prefer Brief. Saturday morning deep-dive? It knows you want Full. You can disable this entirely in settings. But once you experience an app that just knows, you won't want to. Beautiful Typography, Zero Compromise Reading apps should be beautiful. Skim Reader uses carefully chosen typefaces optimised for extended reading: - New York for headlines - editorial elegance - Charter for body text - designed for screens - Your choice of fonts and sizes - Bionic Reading mode for faster scanning - Light and dark themes that don't strain your eyes Features That Matter - Add any RSS or Atom feed - paste a URL and it finds the feed - Full article extraction - even when feeds only provide snippets - Swipe gestures - mark read, bookmark, delete - All Articles view - see everything in one stream - Bookmarks - save articles for later - Pull to refresh - stay current - Open in browser - when you need the original - Haptic feedback - feel the slider snap into position No Subscriptions. No Ads. No Tracking. Skim Reader is free. No monthly fees. No "premium tiers." No advertisements. No analytics watching what you read. Who Is This For? - Professionals who need to stay informed but don't have time to read everything - Researchers managing dozens of sources - News enthusiasts who want depth without the time commitment - Anyone tired of the "mark all as read" guilt spiral - People who believe reading should be a choice, not an obligation The TL;DR for a Doomscrolling World I built Skim Reader because I was drowning in content. Every day, more articles. Every day, less time. I wanted a reader that adapted to me, not the other way around. Now I read more than ever - because I can finally read at the right depth for every article. Some get 10 seconds. Some get 10 minutes. Every one gets exactly what it deserves. Your time is valuable. Read accordingly.

About

Haiker

This app provides a clean reading experience for tech discussions, offering AI-powered summaries and instant translation to understand global conversations. Engage in discussions, save important content, and receive notifications for replies.

Highlights
  • AI-powered story summaries
  • Instant translation of posts and comments
  • Clean, modern interface
  • Structured comment threads
  • Reply translation to English
  • Notifications for replies
  • Bookmark stories and comments
Features
Read full description

Read the world's most insightful tech discussions in your own language. Haiker is a beautifully designed Hacker News reader for developers, founders, and curious minds. Explore discussions about AI, programming, startups, open source, and technology through a clean reading experience, AI-powered translation, AI story summaries, and thoughtfully designed comment threads. Whether you're discovering Hacker News for the first time or have been reading it for years, Haiker makes every discussion easier to follow. BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED FOR READING Long technical discussions shouldn't be exhausting. Haiker reimagines Hacker News with a clean, modern interface and beautifully structured comment threads, making even the deepest conversations easy to read. AI-POWERED STORY SUMMARIES Quickly understand what matters. Haiker uses AI to summarize the content of Hacker News stories, helping you grasp key ideas and insights without needing to read the full article. READ IN YOUR OWN LANGUAGE Instantly translate posts and comments into your preferred language without leaving the app. Stay connected with the global tech community, no matter what language you speak. WRITE REPLIES IN ENGLISH Share your thoughts naturally in your own language, and let Haiker translate them into fluent English before posting to Hacker News. DISCOVER WHAT THE TECH WORLD IS TALKING ABOUT Follow conversations covering AI, software engineering, startups, open source, cybersecurity, product design, and emerging technologies—all in one place. JOIN THE CONVERSATION Sign in with your Hacker News account to vote, reply, and participate in discussions with developers and founders around the world. NEVER MISS A REPLY Receive notifications when someone responds to your comments, so you can easily continue the conversation. SAVE WHAT MATTERS Bookmark insightful stories and valuable comments to build your own collection of knowledge for future reference. Privacy Policy: https://haiker.app/docs/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Skim Reader4 screens
Haiker4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Skim Reader at none against Haiker's 2. Haiker's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, 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. Haiker sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Skim Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Skim Reader ships an update monthly, Haiker every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Skim Reader versus Haiker: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSkim ReaderHaiker
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.8 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—6 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB68 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperLucas Young涛南 卢

In-app purchases

None

Skim Reader

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Haiker

Subscriptions2
  • Haiker Pro$2.991 Month
  • Haiker Pro$12.991 Year

Questions

Is Skim Reader free?
Skim Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Haiker free?
Haiker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Skim Reader or Haiker have ads?
Neither Skim Reader nor Haiker shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Skim Reader or Haiker?
Skim Reader ships an update monthly, and Haiker every 3 days. Most recently, Skim Reader was updated on October 8, 2026 and Haiker on October 24, 2026.

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