Comparison

FLAT RSS Reader vs An Otter RSS Reader

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

Head to head
About

FLAT RSS Reader

This app offers a streamlined way to follow your favorite news sources. Easily manage your RSS feeds, discover new ones from website URLs, and save interesting articles for later access.

Highlights
  • Manage registered RSS information
  • Get RSS from website URLs
  • Register favorite news content
  • Simple outlook
  • Useful functions
Features
Read full description

'FLAT RSS Reader' — Only what matters, beautifully. Stay focused on the articles you actually want to read, free from ads and noise. Add your favorite blogs and news sites, and catch up on everything in one place. [Features] · Latest - See the newest articles from all your feeds in one unified list. Never miss a thing. · Feeds - Easily add, remove, and reorder feeds. Browse articles by feed at a glance. · Bookmarks - Save articles to read later. Access them instantly, even offline. [Perfect for you if…] · You want a clean, simple experience without cluttered features. · You'd rather have fewer ads and unnecessary notifications. · You like reading news in a browser with a content blocker (ad blocker) enabled. · You prefer reading in Dark Mode for a gentler experience on your eyes. · You want one place to manage your personal news feed.

About

An Otter RSS Reader

A minimalistic RSS reader that synchronizes your subscribed feeds across Apple devices via iCloud. It allows for automatic feed discovery, organization into folders, and reading articles in a standard web view. Integrates with Shortcuts and offers home screen widgets for unread counts.

Highlights
  • iCloud feed synchronization
  • Auto-discover RSS feeds
  • Group feeds into folders
  • Read articles in web view
  • Shortcuts integration
  • Home screen widgets
  • Import/Export with OPML
Features
Read full description

An Otter RSS Reader is a simple RSS reader for following news, blogs, and personal sites without another account. Subscribe to feeds, organize them into folders, and let iCloud keep everything in sync across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Otter keeps the experience intentionally calm: quick refreshes, native navigation, readable article views, and just enough personality to make checking your feeds feel pleasant. New in 2.0, the iPad edition grew up. The Front Page opens to today's stories while native adaptive columns keep feeds and the story list side by side when there’s room, then collapse cleanly on smaller screens. Articles set in a real serif with a comfortable reading measure, on iPad and iPhone alike. Features: - Subscribe to RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, and XML feeds - Sync subscriptions and reading state with iCloud - The Front Page: a daily opening spread across iPhone and iPad - Smart Folders that fill themselves — long reads, quick reads, podcasts, videos - A serif reading view with adjustable typography - Reading Insights: streaks, reading calendar, and when-you-read patterns - Organize feeds into folders - Import and export subscriptions with OPML - Keyboard shortcuts and menu commands on iPad - Refresh feeds in the background or manually - Shortcuts actions, Home Screen widgets, and alternate app icons Otter Pro, the optional subscription, adds ad-free reading, custom Smart Folders, TL;DR article summaries, and the full Reading Insights dashboard. Otter is not trying to be a social network, inbox, or power-user dashboard. It is a practical little RSS reader for people who still like the open web. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://anotterrss.com/privacy

Screenshots

FLAT RSS Reader4 screens
An Otter RSS Reader4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FLAT RSS Reader at none against An Otter RSS Reader's 10. FLAT RSS Reader also leads on rating (4.4 vs 4.1). An Otter RSS Reader's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months). 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. An Otter RSS Reader sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. FLAT RSS Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

FLAT RSS Reader holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: An Otter RSS Reader has 73 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of FLAT RSS Reader's written reviews are positive against 60% of An Otter RSS Reader's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FLAT RSS Reader ships an update every 2 months, An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
FLAT RSS Reader versus An Otter RSS Reader: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFLAT RSS ReaderAn Otter RSS Reader
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (8 ratings) — better4.1 (73 ratings)
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews60.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings873 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supported — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB45 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperNobuhide UzawaJosh Holtz

Customer experience

FLAT RSS Reader

All ratings8 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

An Otter RSS Reader

All ratings73 ratings
Positive75.3%
Neutral8.2%
Negative16.4%
Written reviews111 reviews
Positive60.4%
Neutral9.9%
Negative29.7%

Bugs and requests

FLAT RSS Reader

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

An Otter RSS Reader

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • It does not work
  • Articles flicker in and out of existence and about 30 of them don't show at all
  • The list views are messed up with many black spaces where a feed item should appear but is completely black
  • Reader mode seems to not work
  • Articles show up in duplicated often, articles had been marked as read will show up again as unread
Show 5 more
  • Feeds disappear after closing the app
  • Feeds don't refresh
  • Crashes when importing OPML files
  • Crashing when importing opml files
  • Crashes when trying to import an OPML file

Requested features

13 requests
  • Encripted iCloud backups would be welcome
  • Mark articles read on scrolling past them
  • Option to hide read articles by default instead of manually hiding all the time
  • When clicking on a top level folder it expands the folder clicking the arrow should expand the folder
  • Needs swipe gestures example swipe right mark read/unread swipe left add to favorite
Show 8 more
  • Need to add an option to sort by oldest and newest first
  • If in reader mode hitting the safari button should open in the in app browser instead of leaving the app
  • Under notifications there should be an option to show badge count with unread articles
  • Should be an option to see favicons to the left of the headline to quickly see at a glance which site posted the story as well as an option to enable images if there is one in the story
  • MiniFlux Sync would be nice
  • Offline reading?
  • Dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

In-app purchases

None

FLAT RSS Reader

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

An Otter RSS Reader

Subscriptions1
  • Otter Pro Annual7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time5
  • Small Tip2 variants$0.99
  • Medium Tip2 variants$2.99
  • Large Tip2 variants$5.99
Show 2 more
  • Mega Tip2 variants$12.99
  • Otter Pro Lifetime$19.99

Questions

Is FLAT RSS Reader free?
FLAT RSS Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is An Otter RSS Reader free?
An Otter RSS Reader is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, FLAT RSS Reader or An Otter RSS Reader?
FLAT RSS Reader is rated higher. FLAT RSS Reader averages 4.4 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while An Otter RSS Reader averages 4.1 from 73 ratings.
Do FLAT RSS Reader or An Otter RSS Reader have ads?
FLAT RSS Reader shows ads; An Otter RSS Reader does not.
Which is updated more often, FLAT RSS Reader or An Otter RSS Reader?
FLAT RSS Reader ships an update every 2 months, and An Otter RSS Reader every 3 days. Most recently, FLAT RSS Reader was updated on November 1, 2026 and An Otter RSS Reader on November 3, 2026.

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