What's your favorite RSS Reader?
Back in the olden times, I was an avid user of Google Reader. I had dozens of RSS feeds and went through my feeds religiously. When Reader was killed I jumped to Feedly, and while it was alright for a while I just couldn't get into it and eventually fell off and found Reddit.
Well, it's been around a decade and I'm interested in jumping back into RSS. I've seen a lot of suggestions, but right now Reeder and News Explorer are the two I'm looking at. Ideally I'm looking for one that can at least sync between macOS, iPadOS, and iOS; but watchOS would be a an excellent bonus (and tvOS is ludicrous, but News Explorer supports it, so sure?).
Do you use an RSS reader anymore? What do you use or recommend, and why? I'd love to know.
NetNewsWire with Feedly
My choice too. I used Feedly mixed with Reeder for a while but after a while didn’t want to use Feedly anymore, so just using the feeds directly inside of NetNewsWire. The only thing I wish it had was a mute filter feature. Sometimes I want to filter words to avoid spoilers if a movie/game/whatever is coming out soon. Haven’t found a great looking RSS app with a mute filter feature without a subscription. I’m happy to pay for an app if it has what I want, but I’m not interested in a subscription.
Note that it deletes posts older than 30 days. This came as a surprise to me and was not a nice thing to notice.
Feedly just updated for some reason and asked me for a login. All of my feed preferences have been wiped from my phone. Hence, I wiped Feedly.
I have tried many and Reeder is my default rss reader on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Reeder 5
Agreed. Fed by my self hosted FreshRSS server.
I love this implementation. No charges, no random shut down, etc. basically free. Amazing. Glad I’m not the only one.
this is the way to go
Another for Reeder here.
Saw yours and others recommendation for reeder5 and tried it today. Really liking it so far. Thank you for that.
+1 for Reeder
I use Inoreader though I don't have any experience with using it in an Apple ecosystem. And if you want yet another alternative look at The Old Reader.
It still works for Reddit post-API change. Just add .rss to the sub you want to read and it’ll pull it in as an RSS feed.
How long will that keep working remains to be seen.
NetNewsWire with syncing through Feedly.
The Feedly web UI is decent, and NNW is great on Mac and iOS.
I use Feedly directly in the web UI primarily on Windows and Linux
It all stays in sync nicely.
NetNewsWire is free and light weight in a good way.
Feedly is the one I used since Google Reader died, haven't looked back since.
I had been using Feedly as well, as my GReader replacement. But they put a lot of features behind an arbitrary paywall with a few quite high. I understand people need to feed their families, but Reeder had the better value proposition for me (especially since I am already paying for iCloud storage).
Feedbin, with Reeder on iOS and Mac.
This doesn't meet your platform requirements, but for non-Appley types reading - Feeder:
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.nononsenseapps.feeder/
Very minimal (in a good way) and clean RSS reader that can sync across Android devices. I think if it had a Web version it'd be perfect.
https://netnewswire.com/
Reeder 5 NetNewsWire
Reeder, since 10 years maybe
Reeder iOS
Definitely NetNewsWire (https://netnewswire.com/).
Inoreader. It has a great iOS client and the web interface is fantastic too.
I use inoreader https://www.inoreader.com. Pretty happy with it.
I came here to say Reeder because it’s the absolute best on Apple platforms, as it syncs with iCloud hence doesn’t rely on third party services.
I use it too on Android, but it's a shame that they add ads to the RSS feed when used in a third party app (such as Reeder 5, which I like to use on my Mac). So I'm kind of stuck between using Feedly for syncing with third party apps and using Inoreader for their superior mobile app.
For iOS it’s Reeder. I’ve been using it forever. It’s awesome. I use an RSS aggregator on my rPi FreshRSS which uses an API to connect to my phone. Works really well.
Reeder with Feedly as the source on iOS, Feedly website on the Mac.
What is the advantage of Feedly as a source?
Thinking of getting rss setup again and have a lifetime Feedly account that goes unused.
Mainly just that it's a web service so I can access it anywhere, but also has good client support for when you want to use an app. I like to use multiple platforms with everything in sync.
Ah. Ok so use it as a common source list regardless of app. Cool.
Was trying out Feedly for the first time in years. Felt a bit dated. Still does it’s job but would be interesting to see how Reeder or others do things.
I've been a Feedbin user ever since Google Reader's shutdown. It's simple, it loads fast, and gets new features occasionally that I like. Does help that it looks nice af and not outdated too even after many years in.
Reader wise, always Reeder. I don't like it as much as the very earliest versions (I think it looks generic now especially on iPad), but I always felt like it was the best designed and the most reliable.
A bit of a shame that it's basically frozen in place feature wise. I remember double and triple dipping Reeder 3, 4 and now 5 and it's barely changed since.
Another +1 for NetNewsWire. Its simple, ad-free, syncs over iCloud, can set an entire feed to reader mode (so convenient for certain feeds that only broadcast the headline), and its FOSS.
The creators encourage supporting other FOSS devs and accept no donations to themselves or NNW.
I use Inoreader and have been very happy with it
Ditto, switched to Inoreader when Google Reader closed and have never changed so it must be doing something right.
+1 for Inoreader. I was an avid user of Google Reader and Inoreader was the closest that I’ve found.
I use Reeder and like it. I also have Reader by Readwise and tried to use the RSS feature in that, but it didn’t work as well as Reeder last I tried it.
I stopped using Feedly after all the creepy AI stuff. Reeder synced over iCloud with an OPML export every now and then keeps it so I'm not reliant on a central service and can run it all locally should I choose.
Anyone using Feedly, or equivalent, hasn't learnt the lessons of Google Reader. Manage it yourself, don't rely on a central service that's going to do creepy monitoring on you to power their AI model.
What AI stuff? I use freedly as a backend for Reeder so never touch the website. This might be the push I need to either go local or roll my own.
My slightly vague recollection was that they were basically feeding "enterprise customers" a load of information including stuff that could be used for union busting, monitoring protests etc. Their enterprise plan has
as features. So yeah, creepy as fuck. And they said at the time that this was all done using "AI".
Looks like they just made a fancy google keyword alerts notifier to cash in on the AI craze. Poor marketing example but feels like blaming google for your search results.
I use the Feedbin service and the ReadKit app. I used to love Reeder, but ReadKit’s Wallabag integration won me over.
Reeder and Newsblur is a great combo! I don't even miss Google Reader anymore.
I use Reeder too and have good results. I stopped using a desktop client to avoid distractions and it has worked so far.
I use Feedbin. Happy user since the early days. Feedbin on the web on macOS, Feedbin app on iOS.
I have set TinyTinyRSS to a web server. There, with fever plug-in I use it to read feeds in Apple-devices with Reeder. This also allows me to use various apps in Windows and Android devices, whenever I feel like it.
Unread is super clean with minimal UI distraction. Probably not for everyone, but I think it’s perfect
Yeah I use Unread on mobile and Feedly on desktop.
I love Unread. Its design goes out of its way to focus on the reading experience, not filtering, not “triage”, just beautiful, readable text of the sites you subscribe to and the basic management features to add or remove.
I also love that Unread has “saved articles” which lets you use that same interface and readability for random articles you find, without having to subscribe.
Used it for years, happily pay the subscription for premium.
I loved Unread until it went subscription. I know I don’t need to pay for it and I get core stuff For free — but some of their functionality was free before and now just feels locked to just be locked for pay.
I think the subscription could be a bit cheaper, but I’ve been on and off with it and it definitely works without it.
The main reason I started it again is because of a built in "save link in unread" feature, but you can also get that via pocket or instapaper‘s rss feed.
I’ve used Feedly ever since Google Reader shut down. I’ve stuck with it because it does what I need it to do.
+1 for reeder
NetNewsWire
Lire rss
The developers is frequently updating and he has fixed bugs I reported. Full text is good and it had caching. However you will have to pay for it.
I switched to Reeder with Feedly when Google Reader shut down and never looked back
Reeder it is.
I use matrix RSS bots
That's an interesting choice. Is there a reason you went with that instead of a more traditional reader?
FreshRSS with NetNewsWire
NewsBlur
I use Thunderbird for that. I’ve got everything in folders and categories. I can read articles in text-only mode (depending on the feed), save them (even in folders with email messages), or delete them.
QuiteRSS portable
TTRSS with Fiery Feeds (iOS). This suits me very good
NetNewsWire and An Otter RSS Reader.
reeder on the ipad (best ui for me) and vienna on macos (as its open source, themeable and fast)
Probably belongs more in selfhosted, but I started to do my own instance of miniflux. Works decent and is clean interface. Didn’t want to have chance of another company ending a product again.
Lire on iOS, and Feedbro firefox extension on the desktop. I used to use newboat, but switched since the browser is the new OS (j/k)
I’ve been using News Explorer after trying to find something simple and like how it just gets out of the way on all Apple platforms (iOS, iPadOS, macOS).
For self-hosted, TT-RSS. Otherwise Newsblur.
I only moved to self-hosted because I need to be able to read internal RSS feeds (Huginn etc) otherwise I would have stuck with Newsblur.
I like Lire on iOS. I use the subway and train a lot and lose service, so it filled the need of offline caching. I like it!
I’ve used Feedly ever since Google Reader shut down. I’ve stuck with it because it does what I need it to do.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! There were quite a few, and it took me a fair bit to decide on which one I wanted to start out with.
For now, I'll be using Reeder to see if it meets my needs. Like I said though, lots of fantastic options. NetNewsWire was up there around number two in suggestions, and Feedly was mentioned a fair bit as well. Admittedly I also asked around people I know, and overall those using RSS seemed to prefer Reeder.
Still, if you're stumbling upon this looking for your own, definitely go through the suggestions here.
I use the old reader most of the time.
I've been selfhosting Miniflux on a raspberry pi 3b for a while now. It's very lightweight and minimal, and seems to happily subscribe to whatever feeds I've thrown at it.
Another vote for Feedly. Development has stagnated a bit but it still works well
I’ve used Feedly ever since Google Reader shut down. I’ve stuck with it because it does what I need it to do.
I’ve used Feedly ever since Google Reader shut down. It works well.