# News Explorer

> RSS reader with iCloud sync across Apple devices, bought once

News Explorer is an RSS reader from Betamagic, a small software company in the Netherlands, built only for Apple platforms. It reads RSS, Atom and JSON feeds as well as Reddit, Mastodon, YouTube and podcast feeds, and it syncs feeds, articles and read status through iCloud across Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV without a separate account. The Mac app and the mobile app are each bought once, and the Mac edition has a 14-day free trial.

- **Category:** Read Later & Bookmarks
- **Made by:** Betamagic
- **Website:** https://betamagic.nl/products/newsexplorer.html
- **Runs on:** macOS, iOS
- **Facts last checked:** Oct 6, 2026

## Pricing

News Explorer is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $4.99 one-time for the mobile edition; $9.99 one-time for the Mac edition.

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free trial of the Mac edition, downloaded from the Betamagic website.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mobile edition | $4.99 one-time purchase (US App Store) | Universal purchase covering iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV. It does not include the Mac app. |
| Mac edition | $9.99 one-time purchase (US Mac App Store) | The macOS app. Also sold as a Personal License in the Betamagic Store, where the 14-day trial is offered, and included in Setapp. |

Read from https://apps.apple.com/us/app/news-explorer/id1032668306 on Oct 6, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with News Explorer before buying.

## App Store prices by country

"The app", as each country's App Store showed it on Oct 9, 2026. These are the app's prices, not the website's.

| Country | Price | In US dollars |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | $4.99 | |
| United Kingdom | £4.99 | about $6.60 (32% more) |
| Germany | 5,99 € | about $6.71 (35% more) |
| Canada | $6.99 | about $4.91 (about the same) |
| Australia | $7.99 | about $5.58 (12% more) |
| India | ₹ 499 | about $5.16 (about the same) |
| Brazil | R$ 29,90 | about $5.97 (20% more) |
| Mexico | $99.00 | about $5.44 (9% more) |
| Turkey | ₺249,99 | about $5.08 (about the same) |
| Indonesia | Rp 99ribu | about $5.54 (11% more) |
| Philippines | ₱ 299.00 | about $4.76 (about the same) |
| South Africa | R99.99 | about $6.05 (21% more) |

## Key features

- **iCloud sync without an account:** Feeds, folders, articles, read status, favorites, filters, notes and tags sync through iCloud across Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV, with no other service to sign up for.
- **Many feed types:** Reads RSS, Atom, RDF and JSON feeds along with Mastodon, Bluesky, Reddit, YouTube channel and podcast feeds, and a built-in search finds new feeds by keyword.
- **Automatic Reader view:** For supported sources the app downloads the full original article and shows it in a clean format. Several Reader view engines are available and can be chosen per feed.
- **Smart filters and prefilters:** Sidebar filters match on title, content, author, tags or dates, and prefilters stop unwanted articles from being downloaded at all. Both sync between devices through iCloud.
- **Article comments:** Comments can be read inside the app for feeds that publish a comment feed per article, and for YouTube, Reddit and Hacker News feeds.
- **Notes, tags and sharing:** Rich-text notes and custom tags can be attached to articles, and built-in sharing sends items to Instapaper, Raindrop.io and Readwise.

## Good for

- People on Apple devices who want feed sync without creating an account
- Readers who would rather pay once than subscribe
- Following Reddit, YouTube, Mastodon and podcast feeds alongside RSS

## Worth knowing

- Built only for Apple platforms, with syncing that relies on iCloud; there is no web, Windows or Android version.
- The Mac app and the mobile app are separate purchases, listed at $9.99 and $4.99 on the US App Store.
- The 14-day trial is a download of the Mac edition; the App Store editions are paid up front.
- Current versions need macOS 15.6 or iOS and iPadOS 18 or later, and the Apple Watch app needs a paired iPhone.

## Works with

iCloud, Instapaper, Raindrop.io, Readwise

**Tags:** RSS reader, One-time purchase

## Alternatives

- [Reeder](https://toolgpa.com/tools/reeder): Feed reader for Apple devices with a synced timeline. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/news-explorer-vs-reeder)
- [NetNewsWire](https://toolgpa.com/tools/netnewswire): Free, open-source RSS reader for Mac, iPhone and iPad. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/netnewswire-vs-news-explorer)
- [Unread](https://toolgpa.com/tools/unread): RSS reader for Mac, iPhone and iPad with full-text retrieval. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/news-explorer-vs-unread)
- [Fiery Feeds](https://toolgpa.com/tools/fiery-feeds): Customizable feed reader and read-later client for Apple devices. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/fiery-feeds-vs-news-explorer)
- [Newsify](https://toolgpa.com/tools/newsify): RSS reader with a newspaper-style layout for Apple devices and web. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/news-explorer-vs-newsify)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Oct 6, 2026:

- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/news-explorer/id1032668306
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/news-explorer/id1032670789
- https://betamagic.nl/products/newsexplorer.html
- https://betamagic.nl/store.html
- https://betamagic.nl/company.html

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/news-explorer
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).