Compare
Taper and Inoreader
Inoreader is the power user's control panel, and this page is not going to pretend it is not. It is a comparison for people who already know that.
Sources, free tier
Unlimited150
Taper · Inoreader
A year, paid
$48$90
Taper · Inoreader
A day's reading
EndsDoesn't
Taper · Inoreader
The short answer
Inoreader is the most capable reader in the category and has been for years. Rules that file things automatically, monitoring feeds that watch for a phrase across the whole web, newsletters and social accounts as sources, an API, and a hundred and fifty feeds free. If what you want is control, it is very hard to argue against.
Inoreader's answer
Give you enough machinery to shape it, and the control to keep that machinery right.
Taper's answer
Machinery is a second job. A fixed number of items with nothing underneath needs none.
Move to Taper if
Your rules are tidy and the reading still never finishes
That is the problem Taper is built for, and no amount of filing solves it.
The hundred and fifty feeds have started to bind
Taper puts no number on the source list, on either tier.
You want sorting you can hold in your head
Three words per source, assigned per edition. That is the entire system, and there is nothing to maintain.
You would rather not see a figure for what you missed
There is none here, anywhere, including on the app icon.
Stay with Inoreader if
You use the rules seriously
Taper has per-edition filters, not automation. Nothing here files, tags, forwards or triggers, and that gap is not closing.
You read newsletters through it
Inoreader takes newsletters and social accounts as sources today. Taper takes neither yet.
You need monitoring
Watching the whole web for a phrase is a different job from reading the sources you chose, and Inoreader is genuinely good at it.
You need the API, or an app in the store
Taper has neither.
Side by side
Values rather than ticks, because a tick is an opinion and a figure is something you can go and check.
| Feature | Taper | Inoreader |
|---|---|---|
| Sources, free tier | Unlimited | 150, plus 20 newsletter and 20 web |
| Sources, paid tier | Unlimited | 2,500 |
| Paid tier, billed monthly | $5 | $9.99 |
| Paid tier, billed yearly | $48 | $90 |
| Ads on the free tier | None, on any tier | Yes |
| What sets the order | Source tiers you set | Recency, rules, and AI on Pro |
| A figure for what you did not read | None, anywhere | Beside every source |
| Where a day's reading ends | At the size you set | It does not |
| Rules and automation | None | 30 free · more on Pro |
What Inoreader does better
Written down first, and not out of politeness. You are probably reading this while paying for Inoreader, which makes you the worst possible audience for a page that cannot be checked.
Automation, properly
Rules that file, tag and act on items as they arrive, at a depth Taper has nothing comparable to. Taper filters an edition and stops there. It does not act on anything.
Newsletters and social accounts
Inoreader takes both as sources today. Taper takes neither: newsletter ingestion is planned and unbuilt, and social accounts are not on the list at all.
Monitoring the web, not your sources
Watching for a company, a phrase or an event across everything, not just the feeds you subscribed to. Taper only ever reads sources you chose, so it cannot do this and never will.
The most capable free tier here
A hundred and fifty feeds, thirty searches, thirty rules and fifty filters, free, is more free product than anyone else in this comparison offers.
Where they actually differ
Not a feature list. Four places the two products disagree about what a reader is for, and every smaller difference falls out of one of them.
Control versus an ending
Both products agree a raw list of everything is unreadable. Inoreader's answer is real machinery to shape it, which is why it wins on capability. Taper's is that the machinery is a second job, and a fixed number of items needs none of it.
What a paid tier is allowed to take
Inoreader's raises a figure from a hundred and fifty to two and a half thousand, and removes ads. Taper's cannot do either: nothing behind the paid tier may remove an article from your view, and there are no ads on any tier, ever.
Where the sorting lives
In Inoreader, in rules you write and maintain. In Taper, in three words per source assigned per edition, so the same publisher can be essential in one and background in another.
The count
Inoreader shows you what is waiting, which is correct for a product built on control: you cannot manage what you cannot see. Taper shows no count, badge or dot anywhere, and that is product definition rather than a setting.
Moving from Inoreader
What comes across, what does not, and what it costs.
Do my Inoreader rules come across?
No, and nothing here replaces them. OPML carries sources and folders, which is what every reader exchanges; rules, tags and automation are Inoreader's own and have no equivalent to land in. What you get instead is per-edition filters: keyword lists free, and boolean logic with headline, summary and author scoping on Pro. It is a smaller tool, honestly described.
What about my newsletters?
They stay in Inoreader for now. Taper has no address to send a newsletter to yet; it is planned and it is not built, and a page that implied otherwise would be selling something that does not exist. If newsletters are the reason your reading lives in Inoreader, this is the thing to weigh.
Is fifteen editions going to bind after a hundred and fifty feeds?
Almost certainly not, and the two numbers are unrelated. Sources are never counted, so a hundred and fifty of them can sit in a single edition. Editions are how many ways you slice them, and most readers run between two and nine.
Inoreader's free tier looks bigger. Is it?
On its own terms, yes. A hundred and fifty feeds with searches, rules and filters is more free product than anything else here. The shapes differ rather than the sizes: Inoreader's free tier is capable and counted, Taper's is uncounted and simpler, with no automation and no ads on any tier. Figures checked 15 August 2026.
Decide how much news is enough.
Bring the sources you already read. Set a size. Reach the end of it, and find nothing underneath.
Free. No card, and bring every source you follow.