Comparison

Flat RSS vs Sakura Reader

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

Head to head
About

Flat RSS

Consolidate all your reading, watching, and listening into one calm, chronological feed. Save articles, videos, and podcasts from various sources, with offline access and cross-device sync. Enjoy a private, ad-free experience.

Highlights
  • Unified feed for RSS, podcasts, videos, social media
  • Save articles, videos, and links to Stash
  • Offline access for saved content
  • Cross-device iCloud sync
  • Ad-free and privacy-focused experience
  • Customizable feed filtering
Features
Read full description

Flat is one calm place for everything you read, watch, and listen to. Flat brings RSS, podcasts, videos, social feeds, and saved links together in one quiet place. No unread counts. No pressure. No algorithmic ranking. FOLLOW YOUR FAVORITE SOURCES • RSS, Atom, JSON feeds, podcasts, YouTube, Reddit, Mastodon, Bluesky, and more • Paste a URL or keyword and Flat finds the right source • Browse a clean chronological timeline • Filter by source, focus or hide feeds, and filter out unwanted keywords SAVE ANYTHING • Save articles, videos, podcasts, and links to your Stash • Save links from any app, browser, or Flat browser extension • Auto-stash items from feeds you never want to miss • Keep saved items until you are ready to come back LISTEN AND WATCH • Play podcasts and videos with playback progress synced across devices • Build your own audio and video queue • Use chapters and a sleep timer AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE • iPhone, iPad, and Mac • Automatic iCloud sync across devices • Offline access for saved articles, audio, and video podcasts PRIVACY FIRST • No ads • No tracking • No account required • Your reading data is not used for advertising FLAT PRO Start free with Stash, saved links from other apps, and up to 30 feeds. Upgrade to Flat Pro for unlimited feeds, so new articles, podcasts, and videos from all your favorite sources appear automatically in your timeline. A free trial is available. Just your content, at your pace. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://justasimple.app/privacy

About

Sakura Reader

A modern RSS reader offering multiple display styles for news, blogs, and podcasts. Features on-device AI summaries, content grouping, and easy feed discovery. Read offline with cached content and built-in translation.

Highlights
  • Multiple display styles for content consumption
  • On-device AI-generated article summaries
  • Automatic content grouping by topic
  • Easy feed discovery via Share Sheet
  • Offline reading with cached content
  • Built-in podcast player with background audio
  • Customizable feed presentation
Features
Read full description

Sakura is a modern RSS reader built around the way you consume content: news, photo blogs, YouTube channels, podcasts and more. A Layout for Everything Pick the style that fits each feed. Use an inbox for classic RSS reading, cards for quick reads, or a social-style feed for scrolling, plus more. Video feeds get widescreen thumbnails. Podcasts get a full player with skip, seek, background audio and Now Playing controls on the Lock Screen and in Control Center. Browse with Tabs Open content in tabs and switch between them like in a web browser, so you never lose your place. Clean, Offline Reading Sakura pulls content from the original page and shows it without the clutter. It saves content on your device for offline reading and can translate feeds written in other languages. Intelligence Features (Supported Devices Only) Get a morning briefing of what was published overnight and an evening digest of the day's highlights. Content Insights groups content by topic so it's easier to find. Apple Intelligence creates the summaries on your device. Add Feeds Easily Add a website's feed from the Share Sheet without looking for a feed URL. Sakura finds feeds automatically and supports YouTube, Fediverse feeds, and more. Stay in Control Mute keywords or authors, customize how each feed looks, and import or export your feeds with OPML. Private by Design Summaries, content extraction and caching all happen on your device. There are no accounts, no ads and no tracking. More Features - Home Screen widgets for your latest unread content - Bookmarks and full-text search - Unread badge counts - Configurable background refresh - Integrations with reader services - Available in multiple languages

Screenshots

Flat RSS4 screens
Sakura Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sakura Reader at none against Flat RSS's 3. Sakura Reader also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 10 days). Flat RSS's advantage is iOS requirement (18.6 vs 26.1). On price, review sentiment, 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. Flat RSS sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Sakura Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Flat RSS ships an update every 10 days, Sakura Reader every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Flat RSS versus Sakura Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlat RSSSakura Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.5 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—4 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS18.6 — better26.1
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB35 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperRene FischerJustin Xin

Customer experience

Flat RSS

Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Sakura Reader

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Flat RSS

Subscriptions2
  • Flat Pro Monthly7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Flat Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Flat Pro Lifetime$44.99
None

Sakura Reader

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Flat RSS free?
Flat RSS is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sakura Reader free?
Sakura Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Flat RSS or Sakura Reader have ads?
Neither Flat RSS nor Sakura Reader shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Flat RSS or Sakura Reader?
Flat RSS ships an update every 10 days, and Sakura Reader every 4 days. Most recently, Flat RSS was updated on October 2, 2026 and Sakura Reader on October 8, 2026.

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