Headlines RSS vs Fluent Reader Lite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Headlines RSS
Stay updated with your favorite news sources through this reader. It automatically categorizes feeds and offers a clean article view optimized for full content. Easily manage your subscriptions with import/export options.
- Automatic feed categorization
- Optimized article view
- Direct feed fetching
- Color-coded feeds
- OPML import/export
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A morning cup of latest news from your favorite feeds, categorized automatically as Trickle, Stream and Link blogs, so you can easily choose what you want to spend your reading time for. - Nice article view, optimized for feeds with full-size content. - Does not rely on any feed aggregation services, fetches feeds directly from content providers. - Each feed has a color associated with it - makes quick skimming through the lists of articles easier. - Simple to use interface. - Can import and export subscriptions using OPML files. - Plays podcasts and other audio content in the feeds
Fluent Reader Lite
A simple, open-source RSS client that supports various self-hosted and commercial services. It offers features like dark mode, content filtering, and article organization. Optimized for multitasking on iPad.
- Supports Fever, Google Reader, Inoreader, and Feedbin APIs
- Dark mode for UI and reading
- Configure content loading (full or webpage)
- Dedicated subscriptions tab with article titles
- Search and filter local articles
- Organize subscriptions with groups
- Two-pane view and multitasking on iPad
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Fluent Reader Lite is a simplistic, cross-platform, and open-source RSS client. The following self-hosted and commercial RSS services are supported. * Fever API (TT-RSS Fever plugin, FreshRSS, Miniflux, etc.) * Google Reader API (Bazqux Reader, The Old Reader, etc.) * Inoreader * Feedbin (official or self-hosted) Other key features include: * Dark mode for UI and reading. * Configure sources to load full content or webpage by default. * A dedicated subscriptions tab organized by latest updates with article titles. * Search for local articles or filter by read status. * Organize subscriptions with groups. * Support for two-pane view and multitasking on iPad. The following features from the desktop app are *NOT* present: * Local RSS support and source / group management. * Importing or exporting OPML files, full application data backup & restoration. * Regular expression rules that mark articles as they arrive. * Fetch articles in the background and send push notifications. * Keyboard shortcuts.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Headlines RSS at 100% against Fluent Reader Lite's 47%. Headlines RSS also leads on rating (4.0 vs 3.6) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months). Fluent Reader Lite's advantage is price (Free vs $1.99) and ratings volume (10 vs 1). On 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
Fluent Reader Lite is free to download; Headlines RSS costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Headlines RSS holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Fluent Reader Lite has 10 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Headlines RSS's written reviews are positive against 47% of Fluent Reader Lite's.
Headlines RSS ships an update every 2 months, Fluent Reader Lite every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Headlines RSS | Fluent Reader Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (1 ratings) — better | 3.6 (10 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 47.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 10 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #90 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | +17 |
| Developer | onFoot IT | Haoyuan Liu |
Customer experience
Headlines RSS
Fluent Reader Lite
In-app purchases
Headlines RSS
No in-app purchases
Fluent Reader Lite
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Headlines RSS free?
Is Fluent Reader Lite free?
Which has better reviews, Headlines RSS or Fluent Reader Lite?
Do Headlines RSS or Fluent Reader Lite have ads?
Which is updated more often, Headlines RSS or Fluent Reader Lite?
Other comparisons
