Comparison

think vs HeadlineDeck

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

Head to head
About

think

This news app offers a focused reading experience by presenting one story at a time, free from distractions like auto-playing media or infinite scrolling. Users can customize their news sources by selecting topics, publishers, or adding custom RSS feeds, with all data stored locally for privacy.

Highlights
  • One story at a time reading
  • Customizable publisher selection
  • Add custom RSS/Atom feeds
  • Bookmark stories for later
  • No account or tracking
  • Offline data storage
Features
Read full description

think renders news the way e-ink renders a page: soft greys, a serif headline, dithered photographs, nothing that blinks, auto-plays, or refreshes itself while you're looking at it. ONE STORY AT A TIME No infinite scroll, no feed to doomscroll through. Each story fills the screen — headline, photo, publisher, and a read-time estimate. Swipe up for the next one, swipe right (or tap) to open the full article in-app. When you've seen everything your topics have to offer, the feed says so and stops, instead of padding itself out with filler. PICK YOUR PUBLISHERS, SKIP THE ALGORITHM There's no engagement-driven ranking deciding what you see. Choose your topics, and think shows you a curated catalog of publishers behind them — 208 publishers across 32 topics at last count. Vote a story up or down to tune the mix, or mute a publisher outright. Want a source that isn't in the catalog? Paste any site's RSS or Atom feed URL and think adds it to your list. SAVE FOR LATER Bookmark anything you don't have time for now. Saved stories are grouped by topic and stay in your list until you clear them. NO ACCOUNT, NO TRACKING There's no sign-in and no user id. think has no analytics, advertising, or crash-reporting SDK, and no server of its own — it only talks to your chosen publishers' RSS feeds and their image hosts. Your topics, your publishers, your votes, and your saved stories live on your device only, and are deleted when you delete the app. Available in English and Vietnamese. Requires iOS 15 or later.

About

HeadlineDeck

Get your daily news in a clean, card-based format. Enjoy AI summaries, offline reading, and customizable feeds from trusted publications. Stay informed without the distractions.

Highlights
  • Card-based news feed
  • AI-powered article summaries
  • Offline reading and bookmarking
  • Customizable topic and publication follows
  • Home and lock screen widgets
  • Text-to-speech audio headlines
  • Cross-device syncing
Features
Read full description

Swipe the news instead of scrolling it. HeadlineDeck turns 48 topics and trusted publishers into a calm deck of headline cards — no ads, no clickbait, no rabbit holes. PERSONALISED NEWS FEED • Follow up to 5 topics and 5 publications free. Pro Lite unlocks unlimited follows. • Choose from trusted publications including BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, TechCrunch, The Verge and AP News. • Your deck updates automatically throughout the day with fresh breaking news and top stories. • Choose whether to include recommended stories from outside the sources you follow. CARD-BASED READING — BUILT FOR SPEED • Swipe through story cards in a clean, focused deck — headline, summary, and source at a glance. • Pro unlocks built-in Reader Mode for full articles, with clean typography and adjustable font sizes. • No clickbait. No promoted content. Real journalism, curated for you. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS (Pro Lite) • Catch breaking headlines on your Home Screen with four widget styles. AI-POWERED SUMMARIES (Pro) • Get concise 2–4 sentence AI summaries of full articles — understand the whole story in seconds. • Powered by Google Gemini for neutral, accurate, and context-aware summaries. • Available to HeadlineDeck Pro subscribers. SAVE, ORGANISE & REVISIT • Save up to 20 articles free; Pro Lite unlocks unlimited saves. • Organise saved articles into custom folders and add private notes with Pro Lite. • View your full reading history at a glance. AUDIO HEADLINES (Pro) • Listen to articles hands-free with built-in text-to-speech voice playback — great for commutes and multitasking. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES • Sign in with Apple, Google or Email to sync your followed topics, bookmarks, reading history, folders, and notes across all your devices. • Guest mode available — no account required to get started. TABLET & FOLDABLE OPTIMISED • Full dual-pane layout on iPad and foldable devices — browse your feed on the left, read articles on the right. • Adaptive layout adjusts beautifully for any screen size. DARK MODE & THEMES • System-automatic Dark Mode with full AMOLED-friendly dark theme. • Light, Dark, or System — choose what works for you. HEADLINEDECK PRO • Unlock the full HeadlineDeck experience: • AI-powered article summaries • Paywall article filter — automatically hide paywalled content • Audio headline playback with natural voice narration • Unlimited topic & publication follows • Available monthly or annually. Cancel any time. DESIGNED FOR FOCUS • Built to respect your time, not trap your attention. • Effortless gesture-based card navigation. • Concise AI summaries that get straight to the point. • Zero algorithmic rabbit holes and zero ads. Support: support@headlinedeck.app Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://headlinedeck.app/privacy.html

Screenshots

think4 screens
HeadlineDeck4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: HeadlineDeck at daily against think's every 2 weeks. think's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. think sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and HeadlineDeck sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for think against 5.0 for HeadlineDeck. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

think ships an update every 2 weeks, HeadlineDeck daily. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
think versus HeadlineDeck: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterthinkHeadlineDeck
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size51 MB30 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperKhanh Trinh Le BaShai Vure

Customer experience

think

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

HeadlineDeck

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

In-app purchases

1 purchases

think

One-time1
  • think forever$9.99
3 purchases

HeadlineDeck

Subscriptions2
  • HeadlineDeck Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
  • HeadlineDeck Pro Annual$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • HeadlineDeck Pro Lite$4.99

Questions

Is think free?
think is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is HeadlineDeck free?
HeadlineDeck is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, think or HeadlineDeck?
think and HeadlineDeck are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do think or HeadlineDeck have ads?
Neither think nor HeadlineDeck shows ads.
Which is updated more often, think or HeadlineDeck?
think ships an update every 2 weeks, and HeadlineDeck daily. Most recently, think was updated on November 6, 2026 and HeadlineDeck on November 6, 2026.

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