Byline 5 vs Feed Viewer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Feed Viewer
This app aggregates news from your chosen RSS feeds and converts them into daily podcasts. It functions as a full-text reader, even when offline, and offers synchronization across multiple Apple devices and Windows.
- Full-text RSS reader
- Offline reading capability
- News podcasts from feeds
- Cross-device synchronization
- RSS feed search
- OPML import
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Feed Viewer is an RSS reader with a news widget for iPhone/iPad/Mac and a personal podcast news app. It is perfect for daily news delivery or as an offline reader for traveling. You’ll have a podcast compiled from your chosen sources, ready for you to listen to every day. Product features: • Full-text RSS reader, even offline • News podcasts from the content of your RSS feeds • iOS ↔ iPadOS ↔ macOS ↔ Windows synchronization • RSS feed search • OPML import Terms of use (EULA): https://www.feedviewer.app/termsofuse
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Byline 5 at 4.3 against Feed Viewer's 3.0. Byline 5 also leads on review sentiment (41% vs 0%) and ratings volume (73 vs 2). Feed Viewer's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 5 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Byline 5 sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Feed Viewer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Byline 5 holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Byline 5 has 73 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 41% of Byline 5's written reviews are positive against 0% of Feed Viewer's.
Byline 5 ships an update every 5 months, Feed Viewer every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Byline 5 | Feed Viewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (73 ratings) — better | 3.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 40.9% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 73 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 9 days — better |
| 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 | 9.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Phantom Fish | Vaclav Dajbych |
Customer experience
Byline 5
Feed Viewer
Bugs and 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'
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- 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
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- 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
Feed Viewer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Byline 5
- Byline Premium$2.99
- Byline Premium$5.99
Feed Viewer
- Essential3 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Basic3 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Advanced$19.991 Month
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- Premium$24.991 Month
