Comparison

Inkline vs Lede

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

Head to head
About

Inkline

Stay informed with a streamlined reading experience for news and blogs. Organize your feeds, take notes, and get personalized summaries. All processing happens on your device for enhanced privacy.

Highlights
  • On-device processing
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Siri integration
  • Spotlight search for notes
  • Handwritten notes with Apple Pencil
  • AI-powered daily brief
  • Subject and journalist monitoring
Features
Read full description

Inkline is a news reader for people who follow the news for a living: comms teams, journalists and anyone who has to know what is being said, by whom, and first. YOUR FRONT PAGE Today leads on the stories most of your publications are running, each one shown with its publisher's own icon. One card per story tells you how many outlets have it, who was first and when, and opens Compare to show how the coverage differs. Choose from over 7,500 publications in 130 markets, or add your own. WATCH A SUBJECT, FOLLOW A WRITER Watch a name, a company or a subject across your publications and the wider web, with a surge alert when coverage jumps, and a Live Activity on the Lock Screen if you want one. Follow individual journalists by their bylines rather than their mastheads. BRIEFINGS A short briefing of the last twelve hours, written on your device by Apple Intelligence, and Inkline Radio to listen to it, from the app, the Lock Screen or Control Center. SIRI, IF YOU WANT IT On iOS 27, you can let Siri answer some questions about your news, such as what's the latest in Inkline, from your own sources. It is optional and off until you turn it on. A REAL READER Articles open in a calm, typographic reader with captions, pull quotes and More on this story at the foot. Everything already fetched reads offline. Three fonts including OpenDyslexic, four color modes. KEEP WHAT MATTERS Save a story, select any sentence to keep the quote, write notes beside it, and turn a watched subject into a coverage report for the people you brief. YOUR NEWSLETTERS Connect Substack once and the newsletters you already subscribe to open whole, sorted into your categories. OUTSIDE THE APP Widgets on the Home Screen and Lock Screen, Spotlight, Shortcuts, a share extension to follow a site from Safari, and alerts you can act on straight away. Made for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo. PRIVATE No Inkline account, no servers of ours, no tracking. The intelligence runs on your device, and your notes and follows stay in your own iCloud. Inkline is free with up to 50 publications, and there is no time limit. Inkline Pro adds monitoring and alerts, following journalists, your Substack newsletters, the written and spoken briefings, and as many publications as you like. New subscribers may be offered a free trial first. Made by White Wiki. Inkline Pro is a monthly or yearly subscription, billed to your Apple account at the price shown for your country and renewing automatically until you cancel. You can turn off renewal at any time in your account settings, up to a day before it renews. Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Lede

A fast and clean RSS reader that allows you to follow your favorite websites and read articles in a distraction-free native interface. It offers control over your reading experience with features like daily limits and customizable article retention.

Highlights
  • Clean native reader interface
  • Automatic full text fetching
  • Swipe navigation for articles
  • Starred, Unread, and All filters
  • Daily article limits per feed
  • OPML import/export
  • Private by design, no tracking
Features
Read full description

Lede is a fast, calm RSS reader for iPhone. Follow the sites you choose, read them in a clean native reader, and leave when you're done. READ, DON'T WADE • Articles open in a clean reader with your choice of text size and typeface. • Teaser feeds get their full text fetched automatically. • Swipe up or down for the next article, right to go back, left for the original web page. STAY IN CONTROL • Starred, Unread and All on every list, plus a recency filter: Today, the past few hours, or the past week. • A limit per feed: show only a busy feed's latest articles, so it can't take over your lists. • Keep Articles cleans up after a day, a week or a month. Starred articles are always kept. BRING YOUR FEEDS • Add any feed, or just a website's address and Lede finds its feed. • Import and export OPML to move from any other reader. • Start with a pack of well-known feeds (news and tech, sports, food and crafts, and more), or with none. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no ads, no analytics, no tracking. • Everything stays on your iPhone. There are no servers of ours: Lede fetches only what your feeds point to.

Screenshots

Inkline4 screens
Lede4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lede at none against Inkline's 2. Lede also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days). Inkline's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Inkline sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Lede asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Inkline against 5.0 for Lede. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Inkline ships an update every 5 days, Lede every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Inkline versus Lede: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterInklineLede
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings23 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscriptionFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size127 MB4 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperMichael WhiteSteve Shreeve

Customer experience

Inkline

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Lede

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Inkline

Subscriptions2
  • Inkline monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Inkline Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
None

Lede

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Inkline free?
Inkline is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Lede free?
Lede is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Inkline or Lede?
Inkline and Lede are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Inkline or Lede have ads?
Neither Inkline nor Lede shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Inkline or Lede?
Inkline ships an update every 5 days, and Lede every 2 days. Most recently, Inkline was updated on November 13, 2026 and Lede on November 10, 2026.

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