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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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 Does help that it looks nice af and not outdated too even after many years in.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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Feedly AI Advanced Skills:
Market intelligence
Threat intelligence
Biopharma research
Competitive intelligence
as features. So yeah, creepy as fuck. And they said at the time that this was all done using "AI".
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
Feedly AI Advanced Skills:
Market intelligence
Threat intelligence
Biopharma research
Competitive intelligence
as features. So yeah, creepy as fuck. And they said at the time that this was all done using "AI".
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 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 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 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 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.
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.
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).
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.
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.