Comparison

Flowist vs Riff

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

Head to head
About

Flowist

Features
Read full description

Flowist is a fast, personal RSS reader for following news, blogs, and independent websites in one calm timeline. Add a site name or URL and Flowist discovers available RSS or Atom feeds—no account or algorithmic recommendations required. Read comfortably with a clean article view, inline images, adjustable typography, light, dark, and dim themes, and smooth full-screen navigation. Organize sources into folders, mark everything read, save favorites or Read Later, and search across your library. Key features: • RSS and Atom feed discovery by site name or URL • Clean full-article reader with inline images • Unread, Favorites, and Read Later views • Feed folders and health status • Search by title, summary, or article content • OPML import and export • iCloud sync for feeds, folders, and reading state • Offline Read Later snapshots • Adjustable typeface, text size, and spacing • Light, dark, and dim themes Flowist keeps you in control of what you read. Your sources stay yours.

About

Riff

This news reader presents articles one by one, allowing you to quickly read or skip them. It offers AI-powered summaries on demand and an optional listening feature. Your reading experience is private, with no account, ads, or tracking.

Highlights
  • Card-based article browsing
  • AI-powered article summaries
  • Offline article access
  • Customizable source playlists
  • Article listening feature
  • Home and lock screen widgets
Features
Read full description

One card, one second: you read it or you skip it. Riff is an RSS and news reader with no account, no ads and no tracking, with an AI summary on request. Keeping up with the news shouldn’t mean opening twenty links and stacking tabs. Riff shows you the stories from your sources one at a time, full screen: the headline, the picture, the gist. Interested? Read it right here. Not? Swipe. YOUR SOURCES, YOUR PACE • More than 1,000 sources in French and English, switched on in one tap • Paste the address of a site or an RSS feed to add your own • Import your subscriptions from another RSS reader with an OPML file: folders become categories • Playlists: your categories grouped under the name you like, up to 10 • For You: a feed composed on your iPhone from your reading, with “fewer stories like this” one tap away • Subject: tap it to find the articles that talk about the same subject, in your sources and beyond The article’s text shows in the app when the publisher makes it freely available. If it is for subscribers only, Riff shows the excerpt and the link: it never gets around a paywall. AN AI SUMMARY, ONE TAP AWAY Tap the Riff logo: Apple Intelligence writes a short summary above the article, on your iPhone. Nothing is summarized unless you ask, and the text you read stays the publisher’s. It needs a device that supports Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or later), with Apple Intelligence turned on in Settings. Without it, everything else works. LISTEN (experimental) Riff reads the article aloud, in French or English, with the voices of your device: the text is sent nowhere. Controls on the lock screen, with headphones and in the car. You need an enhanced or premium voice installed in Settings. ON IPHONE DUO Opened and in landscape, the list of articles and the article sit side by side. Swipe from one article to the next, and your watchlist opens on the left. Closed or in split screen, the buttons and the action bar stand down the side. WATCHLIST AND WIDGETS • Keep an article in one tap, with its text and its summary: it opens even offline • Widgets in three sizes on the home screen, and on the lock screen with the number of articles left to read NO ACCOUNT, NO ADS, NO TRACKING Riff has no account and no server: your device fetches articles directly from the publishers. Your sources, settings and reading history stay on your iPhone and, unless you turn sync off, in your private iCloud. Export the sources you added yourself (OPML) to open them in another RSS reader. Riff is free, with no subscription and no in-app purchase. Articles belong to their publishers: Riff sends you to the source and is not affiliated with any of them. Apple Intelligence is a trademark of Apple Inc. Privacy: https://riff.watch/en/privacy/ Riff terms: https://riff.watch/en/terms/

Screenshots

Flowist4 screens
Riff4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Flowist at none against Riff's 2. Flowist also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Riff's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (daily vs monthly). On price 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. Riff sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Flowist asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Flowist ships an update monthly, Riff daily. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Flowist versus Riff: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlowistRiff
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyDaily — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB16 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperMEHMET RECEP ESERArnaud Lewis

In-app purchases

None

Flowist

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Riff

Subscriptions2
  • Riff, monthly14 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Riff, yearly14 Days trial$17.991 Year

Questions

Is Flowist free?
Flowist is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Riff free?
Riff is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Flowist or Riff have ads?
Flowist shows ads; Riff does not.
Which is updated more often, Flowist or Riff?
Flowist ships an update monthly, and Riff daily. Most recently, Flowist was updated on October 7, 2026 and Riff on October 31, 2026.

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