tiny Reader RSS vs Byline 5
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
tiny Reader RSS
This is a lightweight, unofficial RSS reader designed for Tiny Tiny RSS (TTRSS). It requires a TTRSS server with an activated API and user account to function.
- Lightweight RSS reader
- Unofficial TTRSS client
- Requires TTRSS server
- API integration
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tiny Reader is an unofficial lightweight RSS reader for Tiny Tiny RSS (TTRSS). It requires a Tiny Tiny RSS server with an account and an activated API. ** Please contact support for help and feature request. **
Byline 5
Access your favorite news sources and blogs, even without an internet connection. Subscribe to thousands of RSS feeds and stay updated with automatic syncing across all your devices. Enjoy a streamlined reading experience with offline access and quick navigation.
- Offline reading with cached content
- Syncs across devices and web
- Quick article navigation
- Background app refresh for syncing
- Discover new feeds and search articles
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Read the latest news from the websites that matter to you most, even when you’re offline. Simply sign in with a free Feedly account and subscribe to your favourite blogs, magazines, and news sources. Byline automatically stays in sync and brings you new content, putting thousands of RSS feeds at your fingertips. FEATURES: - Stay in sync across devices and the web via feedly.com. - Move between articles quickly with a simple swipe gesture. - Read offline with cached images and (optionally) full web pages. - Find new feeds and search for articles in the app or with Spotlight. - Sync and cache articles automatically with Background App Refresh.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: tiny Reader RSS at 79% against Byline 5's 41%. Byline 5's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 4.1) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. tiny Reader RSS sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Byline 5 sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Byline 5 holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 31 and 73 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 79% of tiny Reader RSS's written reviews are positive against 41% of Byline 5's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
tiny Reader RSS ships an update every 4 months, Byline 5 every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on August 1, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | tiny Reader RSS | Byline 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (31 ratings) | 4.3 (73 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.5% of reviews — better | 40.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 31 | 73 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Pascal PLUCHON | Phantom Fish |
Customer experience
tiny Reader RSS
Byline 5
Bugs and requests
tiny Reader RSS
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Byline 5
Reported bugs
20 issues- App freezes after opening articles
- App attempts to paste from clipboard on opening
- Paid version still shows ads
- Unable to sign in via Google account
- Google login error: 'This browser or app may not be secure'
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Cannot login to Feedly
- App freezes when initiating sync
- Offline page caching broken
- Offline reading only works for text, no images/diagrams
- Cannot link into websites when offline
- Cached items number in settings seems static
- Syncing is too slow
- Swipe sensitivity decreased
- Swipe gestures are difficult to use
- Swipe to mark as read is slow
- Mark all as read function moved to categories
- Cannot open items to Chrome
- Offline saving of web pages not working
- App crashes when trying to sign in with Feedly
- Doubling of some headlines
Requested features
12 requests- Add progress indicator for downloads
- Add dark mode
- Add widgets
- Improve swipe sensitivity
- Allow reordering of feeds
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Add 'mark all as read' when scrolling
- Improve offline caching for images/diagrams
- Add option to expand groups to see sites within them
- Add font size adjustment
- Make scrolling mark as read
- Move to top article after manual refresh
- Allow opening items in Chrome
In-app purchases
tiny Reader RSS
- Tiny tip for tiny Reader$0.99
- Normal tip for tiny Reader$2.99
Byline 5
- Byline Premium$2.99
- Byline Premium$5.99
