Comparison

Simple News Reader vs Unread

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

Head to head
About

Simple News Reader

This app offers a clean and intuitive interface for managing RSS feeds. Easily add, refresh, and browse articles, with options to save for later and a convenient night mode.

Highlights
  • Clean and intuitive interface
  • Easy feed management
  • Save articles for later
  • Night mode
  • Search functionality
  • Share articles
Features
Read full description

Are you looking for a nice clean designed Rss Reader with all the functions you always missed with others? Then Simple News Reader is perfect for your needs. The app makes it super easy to add feeds, refresh them, scroll through articles and even share or save them for later reading. Simple News Reader combines following functions: - A simple, intuitive and clean interface - Managing feeds, simple adding process with auto pasting from clipboard. - Convenient paging through articles - Saving articles for later reading - Nightmode for reading your favourite feeds in bed - Search feature

About

Unread

This app offers a beautiful and intuitive way to read your favorite news and blogs. It features customizable themes, automatic full-text article retrieval, and seamless syncing across devices. Enjoy offline access and integration with various read-later services.

Highlights
  • Beautiful typography and color themes
  • Gesture-based navigation
  • Automatic full-text article retrieval
  • Cross-device syncing with Unread Cloud
  • Offline access to cached content
  • Integration with read-later services
  • Share sheet extensions for subscribing and saving
Features
Read full description

Rediscover the joy of reading your favorite writers and publications with Unread. Unread is an RSS reader with beautiful typography, comfortable gesture-based navigation, and a variety of color themes. Unread is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Unread won the MacStories Selects 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award. Capabilities include: SYNCING: Our free Unread Cloud service keeps your devices in sync. Unread also syncs with Birchfeed, Feedbin, Feedly, Fever, FreshRSS, Gobbler, Inkwell, Inoreader, Miniflux, and NewsBlur. AUTOMATIC WEBPAGE TEXT: For feeds that contain only article summaries, Unread will display the full article text from the webpage. Easily switch between feed text and webpage text for any article, and change the default for individual feeds. WEBSITE ACCOUNTS: For news websites that require an account, sign in and get full webpage text. SUBSCRIBE IN UNREAD: This share sheet extension lets you subscribe to a website’s feeds while visiting that website from Safari or any other web browser. SAVE TO UNREAD: This share sheet extension creates an article in Unread with the contents of the webpage you are visiting from Safari or any other web browser. (Subscription required.) COLOR THEMES: Unread provides a variety of color themes. Choose one theme for light mode and another for dark mode. CACHING: Unread caches webpage text and images for instant loading and offline access. (Subscription required.) READ-LATER SERVICES: Unread can save articles to Anybox, Flyleaf, GoodLinks, Instapaper, Matter, Pinboard, Plinky, Quick Reads, Raindrop.io, Readwise, Safari Reading List, and wallabag. On a device with a hardware keyboard, assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each. (Subscription required.) SHORTCUTS: Perform shortcuts on articles and links inside articles. On a device with a hardware keyboard, assign a custom keyboard shortcut to each. (Subscription required.) --- “Just a gorgeous app.” – John Gruber, Daring Fireball “Most importantly, I should stress again how refreshing it feels to have such a great native experience with Unread. The app is really fast, even when it’s loaded up with hundreds of feeds.” — Niléane Dorffer, MacStories “It’s an RSS reader made with taste. It has great typography, themes, search, and compatibility with the usual suspects. I love having this app on my Mac.” — David Sparks, MacSparky --- Unread has full VoiceOver coverage. Every screen and every feature is available to users with vision impairments: • From any screen you can perform a magic tap, a two-finger double tap, to open a menu of options available for that screen. • When on an article list, there are actions available for each article in the list. After selecting an article, invoke the accessibility rotor and then select “Actions”. There is an action to mark the article read or unread, an action to share the article, and many others. • Use the VoiceOver escape gesture, a two-finger “Z”, to back out of the current screen. --- UNREAD SUBSCRIPTION Unread is a free app. Additional functionality is available with a $29.99 (USD)/year auto-renewing subscription: • Article actions for sending articles directly to supported bookmarking and read later services, and for sharing via email or iMessage. • Ability to execute shortcuts on articles and links. • Caching of webpage text and images. • Widget customization options. • Save to Unread share sheet extension. • Custom app icons. • Premium support. A subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your account settings on the App Store after purchase. Unread’s Terms of Use are available at: https://www.goldenhillsoftware.com/unread/terms-of-use/

Screenshots

Simple News Reader4 screens
Unread4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Unread at 4.6 against Simple News Reader's 3.3. Unread also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 9 months) and ratings volume (443 vs 3). Simple News Reader's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads 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. Unread sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Simple News Reader asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Unread holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Unread has 443 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simple News Reader ships an update every 9 months, Unread every 8 days. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Simple News Reader versus Unread: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimple News ReaderUnread
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.3 (3 ratings)4.6 (443 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—72.7% of reviews
Number of ratings3443 — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS11.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB40 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperFerdinand HofGolden Hill Software

Customer experience

Simple News Reader

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

Unread

All ratings443 ratings
Positive89.8%
Neutral2.7%
Negative7.4%
Written reviews176 reviews
Positive72.7%
Neutral8.0%
Negative19.3%

Bugs and requests

Simple News Reader

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Unread

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Occasional article duplication
  • Issues with 'Keep Unread' feature
  • Text formatting problems in dark mode

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add support for more RSS providers (e.g., Miniflux, FreshRSS)
  • Implement keyboard shortcuts and power-user features
  • Improve information density on iPad layout
  • Introduce a one-time purchase option

In-app purchases

None

Simple News Reader

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Unread

Subscriptions4
  • Unread Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
  • Unread Annual Subscription$29.991 Year
  • Unread: Free first year$29.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Unread: Discounted first year$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Simple News Reader free?
Simple News Reader is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Unread free?
Unread is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Simple News Reader or Unread?
Unread is rated higher. Simple News Reader averages 3.3 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Unread averages 4.6 from 443 ratings.
Do Simple News Reader or Unread have ads?
Neither Simple News Reader nor Unread shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simple News Reader or Unread?
Simple News Reader ships an update every 9 months, and Unread every 8 days. Most recently, Simple News Reader was updated on November 6, 2026 and Unread on November 6, 2026.

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