Readless vs Matter: Newsletter Tool Comparison (2026)
Both handle newsletters brilliantly—but in completely different ways. Matter gives you a beautiful reading experience with text-to-speech and highlighting. Readless uses AI to read newsletters for you and save 90% of your time.
Honest comparison to help you choose the right tool for your needs (or use both together).
Quick Facts: Readless vs Matter
Matter
Pricing
Free tier + Premium $8/mo ($60/yr)
Core Approach
Read-it-later app with beautiful interface
Key Features
Text-to-speech, highlighting, notes, RSS feeds
Founded
2021
Best For
Enhanced reading experience, 5-10 newsletters
Readless
Pricing
7-day trial + Pro $4.90/mo ($49/yr)
Core Approach
AI-powered digest with automated summaries
Key Features
AI summaries, scheduled digests, sender filtering
Founded
2024
Best For
90% time savings, 20+ newsletters
At a Glance Comparison
| Feature | Matter | Readless |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Enhanced reading experience | 90% time savings via AI |
| Newsletter Handling | Forward to Matter, read in app | AI summarizes & consolidates |
| Pricing | $8/mo or $60/yr | $4.90/mo or $49/yr |
| Best For | 5-10 newsletters | 20-50+ newsletters |
| Free Tier | Yes (limited features) | 7-day trial (full access) |
Key Takeaways
- Different philosophies: Matter enhances reading; Readless reduces reading via AI summaries
- Pricing: Readless is cheaper ($4.90/mo vs $8/mo) and better for heavy newsletter users
- Text-to-speech: Matter excels with HD natural voices (Premium); Readless doesn't offer TTS
- Highlighting & notes: Matter Premium has seamless annotation; Readless focuses on summaries only
- You can use both: Readless for daily digests (20+ newsletters), Matter for deep-reading favorites
- Time savings: Matter saves browsing time; Readless saves 90% reading time with AI
What Are Matter and Readless?
What is Matter?
Matter (founded in 2021) is a read-it-later app designed to give you a beautiful, distraction-free reading experience. Think of it like Pocket or Instapaper, but with a modern, minimal interface and premium features.
Matter excels at three things:
- HD text-to-speech (Premium): Natural-sounding voices that users praise as better than Readwise Reader or other competitors
- Highlighting and note-taking (Premium): Seamless annotation with integrations to Readwise, Notion, and other tools
- Newsletter management (Premium): Forward newsletters to a unique Matter email address and read them in the app
Matter is ideal if you want to read your newsletters and articles—just in a better environment with helpful features like listening via TTS or saving highlights for future reference.
What is Readless?
Readless (founded in 2024) is an AI-powered newsletter digest service that reads newsletters for you and delivers summaries. It's not a reading app—it's a time-saving tool that uses AI to extract key insights from your newsletters.
Readless excels at three things:
- AI summarization: Automatically generates concise summaries of every newsletter, extracting key facts and insights
- Scheduled digests: Consolidates 20-50+ newsletters into one daily or weekly email delivered on your schedule
- Cross-newsletter trend detection: AI identifies when multiple sources cover the same story and consolidates coverage
Readless is ideal if you're overwhelmed by newsletters and need to save time. Instead of spending 90 minutes reading 30 newsletters, you get a 10-minute digest with all the important information.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Detailed breakdown of every major feature to help you choose the right tool for your workflow.
| Feature | Matter | Readless |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter reader | ||
| Save articles for later | ||
| Beautiful clean design | ||
| HD text-to-speech (natural voice) | ||
| Highlighting & annotations | ||
| RSS feed support | ||
| Integrations (Readwise, Notion) | ||
| AI summarization of newsletters | ||
| Scheduled digests (daily/weekly) | ||
| 90% time savings (AI summaries) | ||
| Cross-newsletter trend detection | ||
| Sender filtering (Pro tier) | ||
| Newsletter email forwarding | ||
| Mobile apps (iOS/Android) | iOS only | Web-based |
| Price (monthly) | Free / $8 | $4.90 |
| Price (annual) | Free / $60 | $49 |
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Matter if you:
- Love listening to articles with natural text-to-speech while commuting or multitasking
- Want to highlight and take notes while reading for research or knowledge management
- Subscribe to fewer than 10 newsletters and have time to read them fully
- Value the reading experience and want a beautiful, distraction-free interface
- Need RSS feed support alongside newsletters and web articles
- Use Readwise or Notion and want seamless sync of your highlights and notes
Choose Readless if you:
- Subscribe to 20-50+ newsletters and feel overwhelmed or can't keep up
- Want to save 90% of your reading time with AI-generated summaries of key insights
- Need scheduled digests delivered daily, weekly, or on your custom timeline
- Want cross-newsletter trend detection when multiple sources cover the same story
- Prefer summaries over full reading and only dive deep when a topic interests you
- Want a more affordable option ($4.90/mo vs Matter's $8/mo for premium)
💡 Pro Tip: Use Both Together
Many power users combine Readless and Matter for the best of both worlds:
- Readless handles your daily digest of 20+ newsletters (10-minute AI summary)
- Matter is used for deep-reading the 3-5 articles you saved from Readless that deserve full attention
Total cost: $12.90/mo (Readless $4.90 + Matter $8) for complete newsletter workflow
Pricing Breakdown
Matter Pricing
Free Tier (Always Free)
- Uncapped read-later library
- Mobile & web extensions
- Best-in-class parsing
- Unlimited tags
- Full-text search
Matter Premium: $8/month or $60/year
- HD text-to-speech (natural voices)
- Seamless AI Co-Reader
- Newsletter sync (email forwarding)
- Unlimited highlighting & notes
- Integrations (Readwise, Notion)
- Send to Kindle
Readless Pricing
Lite Plan: FREE (Catch-All Digest)
- 1 scheduled digest
- AI summaries of all newsletters
- Custom @mail.readless.app address
- Unlimited newsletters
Pro Plan: $4.90/month or $49/year
7-day free trial (no credit card required)
- Up to 3 scheduled digests
- Sender filtering (organize by topic)
- Priority AI processing
- Custom delivery times
- All Lite features included
Bottom line: Readless Pro is cheaper than Matter Premium ($4.90/mo vs $8/mo) and better for heavy newsletter users. Matter has a free tier; Readless has a 7-day trial with full Pro access.
Real-World Scenario: 30 Newsletters
With Matter (Manual Reading)
- • Forward 30 newsletters to Matter
- • Open Matter app daily
- • Read each newsletter individually (3 min avg)
- • 30 newsletters × 3 minutes = 90 minutes
- • Listen via text-to-speech if multitasking
- • Highlight key points as you read
- Total: ~90 minutes daily
- Pro: Beautiful interface, can listen, save highlights
- Con: Still reading everything yourself
With Readless (AI Digest)
- Forward 30 newsletters to Readless
- AI reads all 30 and generates summaries
- Receive 1 consolidated digest at 7 AM
- Read digest in 10-15 minutes
- Click through to full articles if interested
- Total: ~15 minutes daily
- Pro: 83% time savings, all key insights included
- Con: No TTS or highlighting (use Matter for favorites)
The Hybrid Approach (Best of Both Worlds):
Use Readless for your daily 30-newsletter digest (15 min) → Save 2-3 must-read articles to Matter for deep-reading with TTS and highlighting (20 min) → Total: 35 minutes instead of 90 minutes
How Matter and Readless Compare to Other Tools
| Tool | Type | Key Feature | Pricing | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Readless | AI Digest | AI summaries & scheduling | $4.90/mo | 20-50+ newsletters, time-saving |
| Matter | Read-It-Later | HD text-to-speech | Free / $8/mo | Beautiful reading, TTS, notes |
| Readwise Reader | Read-It-Later | All-in-one reading + Readwise sync | $12/mo | Power users, knowledge workers |
| Read-It-Later | Simple save-for-later | Free / $5/mo | Basic read-later needs | |
| Instapaper | Read-It-Later | Minimalist design | Free / $3/mo | Distraction-free reading |
| Meco | Newsletter Inbox | Dedicated newsletter inbox | Free / $10/mo | Newsletter organization (no AI) |
Key insight: Matter and Readless serve different needs in the same workflow. Most read-it-later apps (Matter, Pocket, Instapaper) enhance reading. Readless is the only tool that uses AI to reduce reading time by 90%.
Ready to Save 90% of Your Newsletter Reading Time?
Start your free 7-day trial of Readless. No credit card required. Try it alongside Matter if you want both AI digests and deep-reading tools.
Try Readless Free (7 Days)