Disclosure: Hushread is my app. I’ve tried to be fair, and I say where the others are the better choice.
The best RSS reader for iPhone is NetNewsWire for most people: it’s free, open source, has home screen widgets and syncs through iCloud or seven feed services. Pick Reeder instead if you want articles, YouTube and podcasts in one timeline, Reeder Classic ($4.99 once) if you already pay for a sync service or have an older iPhone, Unread for comfortable reading, and Fiery Feeds if you like to tweak everything.
If you also read on Android or Windows, the app matters less than the account behind it: choose a service with its own web reader, such as Inoreader, and read it on the iPhone through whichever app you like.
11 iPhone RSS readers compared
I opened each app’s US App Store listing on 17 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars, “Needs” is the minimum iOS version the listing shows, and the privacy column is the heading of Apple’s privacy label.
| App | Price | Needs | Latest update | Sync | Privacy label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NetNewsWire | Free | iOS 17 | 7.2, October | iCloud or 7 services | Data Not Linked to You |
| Reeder | Free for 10 feeds, then $1.99/mo or $14.99/yr | iOS 17 | 2026.10, 2 Oct | iCloud only | Data Not Collected |
| Reeder Classic | $4.99 once | iOS 15 | 5.6, 25 Sep | iCloud or 8 feed services | Data Not Collected |
| Unread | Free, extras $29.99/yr or $4.99/mo | iOS 18 | 5.1.1, October | Unread Cloud or 10 services | Data Not Linked to You |
| lire | $9.99 once | iOS 15.6 | 7.1.0, 12 Oct | Feedly, Feedbin and others | Data Not Collected |
| Fiery Feeds | Free, Premium in the app | iOS 17.4 | 2.16.2, October | “most services” | Data Not Linked to You |
| ReadKit | Free for 20 feeds, Premium $9.99/yr | iOS 15 | 3.4.5, 25 Jun | Built-in or feed and read-later services | Data Not Collected |
| Inoreader | Free, Pro $89.99/yr | iOS 15 | 7.11.1, October | Inoreader account | Data Linked to You (contact info); diagnostics not linked |
| Feedly | Free, Pro $7.99/mo | iOS 15 | 90.1.1, 7 Oct | Feedly account | Data Not Collected |
| NewsBlur | Free, Premium $35.99/yr | iOS 26 | 15.1, 9 Oct | NewsBlur account | Data Not Collected |
| Feedbin | $59.99/yr in the app | iOS 18.6 | 1.3.2, July | Feedbin account | Data Not Collected |
NetNewsWire: the best free RSS reader for iPhone
NetNewsWire is free with no in-app purchases, rated 4.7 from 886 ratings, and made by Brent Simmons (App Store). Its listing names “Home screen widgets for today, unread, and starred articles” and syncing “via iCloud, Feedbin, Feedly, BazQux, Inoreader, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, and FreshRSS”. Apple’s privacy label says data is not linked to you.
NetNewsWire on the US App Store, 17 October 2026. Source: apps.apple.com
NetNewsWire’s requirements disagree with each other. The listing says iOS 17.0 or later, while its own site says “iOS 26 and newer” under the App Store button (netnewswire.com). On an iPhone running iOS 17 or 18, believe the App Store: if it lets you download, it runs.
What it leaves out: it has a Reader view you switch on per article, but no AI and no YouTube or podcast timeline.
Reeder or Reeder Classic?
They’re two different apps by the same developer, Silvio Rizzi, and older reviews that recommend “Reeder 5” mean the one now called Reeder Classic.
Reeder puts articles, videos, podcasts and social posts in one timeline (App Store). It costs $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year. Reeder’s help page says the free version is “Limited to 10 feeds”, without OPML import (Reeder help). The same page says Reeder has “no unread counts or read/unread states” at all, paid or free. Ignore the older, lower price quoted on that help page; the store price is what you’ll pay.
Reeder Classic is the traditional reader with unread counts, $4.99 once with no subscription. It syncs through iCloud or with “Feedbin, Feedly, FeedHQ, NewsBlur, The Old Reader, Inoreader, BazQux Reader, FreshRSS”, saves to Instapaper and Pocket, and has widgets you can limit to feeds, folders or searches (App Store). It runs on iOS 15, the lowest requirement here (tied with ReadKit), which makes it my pick for an older iPhone.
Reeder Classic on the US App Store, 17 October 2026. Source: apps.apple.com
The Mac version of Classic has its own listing and price, which my Mac RSS reader guide covers.
For reading: Unread and lire
Unread is free to read with, including its own Unread Cloud sync, and it also syncs with “Birchfeed, Feedbin, Feedly, Fever, FreshRSS, Gobbler, Inkwell, Inoreader, Miniflux, and NewsBlur” (App Store). For summary-only feeds, it shows the full article text from the webpage. The $29.99 a year subscription adds extras such as widget customization. It needs iOS 18 since version 5.0.
lire is a $9.99 one-time purchase on iPhone for iOS 15.6 and up, with tips as the only in-app purchases (App Store). It’s built around turning partial feeds into full ones and caching them, so you can read the full text with no connection, which is handy on a plane or the subway. Its latest update added extra large widgets on iOS 27.
For power users: Fiery Feeds and ReadKit
Fiery Feeds is a highly customisable feed reader and read-later client that, in its own words, “syncs with most services” (App Store). It extracts full article text and has home screen widgets and a Safari extension. Premium is a subscription, with in-app purchases listed from $1.99 to $9.99.
ReadKit is free up to 20 feeds in its built-in engine and also connects to feed and read-later services (App Store). Premium is $2.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $19.99 once for iOS alone. It follows YouTube channels and playlists, and Premium adds full-text extraction and AI article summaries (those also need Apple Intelligence and iOS 26).
When you want a service behind the app
The apps above are front ends. If you read on more than one kind of device, the account behind them matters more than the app.
- Inoreader has the biggest free hosted plan: 150 feeds, with Pro at $7.50 a month billed annually (Inoreader pricing), which is $89.99 a year, the same as in the app.
- Feedly lists Pro at $7.99 a month in the US App Store and needs an account (App Store). Its free plan’s limits are in Feedly pricing.
- NewsBlur is free for 64 sites, with Premium at $36 a year on its site (NewsBlur pricing). Its app needs iOS 26, so on an older iPhone, use its account through NetNewsWire, Reeder Classic or Unread.
- Feedbin has no free plan: $70 a year on its website. It’s $59.99 a year as an in-app purchase on the US App Store (App Store). If you start on iPhone, subscribing in the app is the cheaper route.
My Inoreader pricing post covers what its free plan leaves out.
Best RSS reader for iPad
NetNewsWire is my pick on iPad too: it’s the same free listing, requires iPadOS 17, and syncs your feeds with the iPhone through iCloud. On an older iPad, Reeder Classic needs only iPadOS 15, and its single $4.99 purchase covers both iPhone and iPad. Every other app in the table also runs on iPad with the same version requirement as on iPhone.
If you follow sites without a feed
Paste a website’s address into Hushread and it follows the site even when it has no RSS feed, so you skip the hunt for a feed URL that doesn’t exist. Coverage of one event from several of your sources is folded into one story with a timeline, so the same news doesn’t fill your screen five times.
On iPhone it adds push alerts when a keyword rule matches and a Latest Article home screen widget (apps and devices). It needs iOS 15.1 and lists Hushread Pro Annual at $14.99 in the US App Store (App Store): free for 5 sources, then $1.25 a month billed yearly. The limits are real: 5 free sources is small, there’s no Mac app (the web app works in any browser), and it doesn’t sync with Feedbin or Inoreader the way NetNewsWire does.
FAQ
What is the best RSS reader for iOS?
NetNewsWire, for most people: it’s free and open source, rated 4.7 on the US App Store, and syncs through iCloud, Feedbin, Feedly, Inoreader, NewsBlur and others. Reeder Classic is the pick for an iPhone on iOS 15 or 16.
Is there a free RSS reader for iPhone?
Yes. NetNewsWire is free with no in-app purchases, Unread is free to read with, and ReadKit and Reeder are free for 20 and 10 feeds. Inoreader’s free plan follows 150 feeds through its own app.
What is the best RSS reader for iPad?
NetNewsWire, free on iPad with iPadOS 17 or later and synced with your iPhone through iCloud. On an iPad stuck on iPadOS 15 or 16, Reeder Classic is a one-time $4.99 that covers iPhone and iPad.
What is the difference between Reeder and Reeder Classic?
Reeder is a subscription ($1.99 a month or $14.99 a year) with one timeline for feeds, videos and podcasts, no unread counts and iCloud-only sync. Reeder Classic is $4.99 once, keeps unread counts and syncs with services such as Feedbin, Feedly and Inoreader.
Which iPhone RSS reader also works on Android?
Pick a service you can also read in a browser, such as Inoreader or NewsBlur, and use a front end like NetNewsWire on the iPhone. iCloud sync, which is all Reeder offers, doesn’t reach Android.
Start with NetNewsWire, and move only when you hit something it doesn’t do: full text in Unread or lire, a mixed timeline in Reeder, an older iPhone with Reeder Classic. Your feeds move between all of these as an OPML file, so the choice is cheap to undo. If you follow sites that have no feed, Hushread’s free plan covers 5 of them.