Comparison

PageFeed vs Hacker Pulse

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

Head to head
About

PageFeed

A news reader designed for focused reading, presenting articles like pages in a book without scrolling. Organize your sources, tag stories, and read offline. Summaries are available on-device for supported devices.

Highlights
  • Page-based reading, no scrolling
  • Organize sources into categories
  • On-device article summaries
  • Offline reading capability
  • Customizable tagging and muting
  • Adjustable text and high-contrast theme
Features
Read full description

PageFeed is a different kind of news reader, built for reading, not scrolling. Featured by Six Colors, iPhoneBlog.de and iphone-ticker.de: the news reader you page through like a book. The sites, blogs, and writers you follow, laid out in clean, full pages. You tap forward and back, like turning pages in a book. Nothing scrolls. Every page is set to fit, so you always know exactly where you are. WHY PAGEFEED • Read in pages, never scroll. A calm, book-like way through every story, and on iPad, a two-page spread like an open book. • Your sources in order, not by algorithm. Newest or oldest first, your choice. Nothing is promoted, hidden, or reordered for you. • Group your sources. Organize the sites you follow into your own categories and read one topic at a time. • Private sync, your way. Sync through your own iCloud account to keep your iPhone and iPad in step, or through your own Google Drive to sync cross-platform, including the web. Either way, we never see your reading. Prefer simple? A free PageFeed sync account also works everywhere. • Summaries on device. On an iPhone or iPad with Apple Intelligence, get the gist of any article in a few private, on-device bullet points. • Tags, on your terms. Every story is tagged, so you can follow a topic or mute one and never see it in your feed again. • Save anything. Share a web page to PageFeed to keep it, and star the stories you want to come back to. • Works offline. Once loaded, your reading is there on the subway, on a plane, anywhere. It catches up when you're back online. • Find your sources. Browse hundreds of publications by topic in Discover, and follow the ones you like. • Adjustable type and a high-contrast theme. Set the text size and switch to an easy-on-the-eyes look. PageFeed is deliberately minimal: no noise, no infinite scroll, no clutter. Just the news you choose, in order, one page at a time.

About

Hacker Pulse

Features
Read full description

Hacker Pulse is a Hacker News reader built for reading — the article and the discussion, together, beautifully. THE ARTICLE, RE-TYPESET Every story is fetched, parsed and laid out natively — no web view, no reader-mode shortcut, no external service. Set your type size, and with Premium the typeface, line height, margins, spacing and paper colour; images, code blocks, tables, quotes and lists all survive the trip. The discussion continues below the article in the same scroll, and your place in a long read is remembered. BUILT FOR LONG THREADS The whole discussion arrives at once. Fold a subtree, step between conversations with the navigator, pull a deep reply's ancestors into view, open any comment on its own screen, or search inside the thread. Hold a comment to copy, share, translate, block or report. YOURS TO KEEP Read state, saved stories and reading positions live on your device, and a mis-swipe can be undone. With Premium, a saved story is downloaded whole — article and discussion — and stays readable offline until you remove it. TRANSLATE ON DEVICE With Premium, on iOS 26 and later, articles and comments translate entirely on your device. Nothing is sent to a server. The interface itself speaks nine languages — English, 简体中文, 繁體中文, 日本語, 한국어, Français, Deutsch, Русский and العربية — including full right-to-left layout. TWELVE LISTS, A WIDGET, AN iPad LAYOUT Top, New, Best, Ask HN, Show HN and Jobs from the official API, kept on disk so a cold launch is instant; Active, Classic and the front page from any day back to 2007; three score thresholds; and two lists of comments rather than stories. A widget in three Home Screen sizes — four on iPad — and one for the Lock Screen follows the list you choose. On iPad, a real two-column layout — list beside reader. TAKE PART, IF YOU WANT TO Reading needs no account. Sign in with your own Hacker News account and you can also upvote, downvote, reply, submit a story, and edit or delete your own comments — without leaving for a browser. Your password is never saved; only the session, in your keychain, until you sign out. QUIET BY DESIGN Block users, and with Premium mute title keywords or whole sites. No analytics, no tracking, no ads; the one server of ours the app ever talks to hands out reader-engine updates and learns nothing about you. Your reading habits are nobody's business — including ours. FREE TO READ, ONE PURCHASE FOR THE REST Every list, every discussion, search, profiles, your account and the reader itself are free, with no ads and no time limit. One purchase — no subscription — unlocks Premium: your own type and paper, saved stories kept offline, iCloud sync and library import, on-device translation, read aloud, automatic archive lookup, discussion detail, hiding read stories, four more colours with their icons, and keyword and site filters. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Family Sharing shares it. AN HONEST NOTE Hacker News publishes no API for signing in, voting, replying or submitting, so Hacker Pulse does those the only way the site allows: by posting its own web forms, exactly as a browser does. They work today and could be broken by a redesign tomorrow. Hacker News itself has no downvote for stories, and it allows editing and deleting only for a couple of hours after posting. Hacker Pulse first shipped in 2012. Version 2.0 is a complete rewrite that keeps the original's look — the same rust-and-orange chrome, the same pulse — and the same two-finger flick to switch between light and dark. Hacker Pulse is an independent app, not affiliated with or endorsed by Y Combinator. Story and comment data come from the public Hacker News and Algolia APIs.

Screenshots

PageFeed4 screens
Hacker Pulse4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: PageFeed at every 5 days against Hacker Pulse's every 3 weeks. Hacker Pulse's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. PageFeed sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Hacker Pulse sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

PageFeed ships an update every 5 days, Hacker Pulse every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
PageFeed versus Hacker Pulse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPageFeedHacker Pulse
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB10 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperBrad MossS. Smart Rabbit LLC

In-app purchases

1 purchases

PageFeed

One-time1
  • PageFeed Unlock$9.99
4 purchases

Hacker Pulse

One-time4
  • Small Tip$1.99
  • Hacker Pulse Premium$4.99
  • Tip$4.99
Show 1 more
  • Generous Tip$9.99

Questions

Is PageFeed free?
PageFeed is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hacker Pulse free?
Hacker Pulse is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do PageFeed or Hacker Pulse have ads?
Neither PageFeed nor Hacker Pulse shows ads.
Which is updated more often, PageFeed or Hacker Pulse?
PageFeed ships an update every 5 days, and Hacker Pulse every 3 weeks. Most recently, PageFeed was updated on November 7, 2026 and Hacker Pulse on November 6, 2026.

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