Ask HN: Which RSS reader do you use?
Its been some time since this question was asked. Every RSS reader I've used so far sucks. Either the built-in web support is poor or it stops fetching the feeds or renders then poorly. Sorry for my frustration, but I would like to know what everyone else is using and if they are satisfied with their RSS reader.
I use NetNewsWire on iOS / iPadOS, as a front end to a self hosted instance of FreshRSS. I host FreshRSS using docker on an old Raspberry Pi.
I use NetNewsWire on Apple’s platforms and Mozilla Thunderbird on Windows. Both are free. Thunderbird is a bit more…unrefined…compared to NetNewsWire, but it works fine.
I have been using RSS since early 2000s and currently I am settled on Feedly.
> Either the built-in web support is poor or it stops fetching the feeds or renders then poorly.
I guess I am good with Feedly, and Google Reader and everything before that, is because I dont use the RSS Reader to read the content. I am only using RSS as News Headline [1]. And then will either Command Click, Right Click Open New Tab, Simply Click on it, depending on which OS and browser I am using to open them in a new Tab inside Browser.
Which is also the reason why I could end up with hundreds of tabs open. And I read them one by one. For these type of heavy browsing usage I recommend Firefox > Chrome > Safari.
So for my usage I actually think RSS should be a function inside a browser. But I know a lot of people use RSS reader differently.
[1] Which is also how I use Twitter as well. I simply have a list of people I follow and read those list only. So for me I dont ever understand why people are so upset with the For You Tab. But I guess I am the minority and I use it differently.
Is it me or are RSS feeds making a comeback on HN? Very happy to see this trend!
I've been using email since the Google Reader shutdown. The short versions is that I filter (almost all) feeds into a few folders that have no notifications. Now I have a offline-first reader that is already synced to all of my devices.
The long form: https://kevincox.ca/2013/06/27/email-as-rss-reader/
Newsboat for reading in terminal / TUI. I've used it for years and it's quite capable for my needs.
https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat
newsboat is great, we have this on our page on terminal trove for easy installation.
https://terminaltrove.com/newsboat/
As an aside, we have first class support for RSS on our site if you're looking for a feed to add.
https://terminaltrove.com/feeds/
NetNewsWire - https://netnewswire.com
I use it with my iCloud and it's synced on my Mac & iPhone. It just works!
I use my own RSS reader [0]
Recently I also extracted web reading into a separate library which should make writing new projects like RSS readers easier [1]
[0] https://github.com/rumca-js/Django-link-archive
[1] https://github.com/rumca-js/crawler-buddy
After Google Reader was shut down, I found TTRSS and use it since then. It works and there are some great extensions like FeedIron available to process RSS feeds before the will integrated into the UI
I really like Mailbrew. Daily email digests from RSS feeds (and a bunch of other stuff).
https://mailbrew.com/
Reeder on iOS / macOS: https://reederapp.com/classic/
With Inoreader as backend: https://www.inoreader.com/
I also really like Reeder but use miniflux as the backend
Self-hosted Miniflux, and ReadKit on my Apple devices to access it.
https://miniflux.app https://readkit.app
I've used Miniflux for a long time, and its content manipulation features allows you to work around some of the oddities of RSS feeds you come across.
I love that I can pull whole articles. I wrote https://markdown.download for llm use, but mostly ended up using it with miniflux to fetch full articles from problematic sites
I use feed2mail, which is a Python program that turns RSS Feeds into Maildir emails. I have my own patchset on top to address some issues.
https://hg.sr.ht/~mmatalka/feed2mail/rev/mmatalka-patchset
https://www.inoreader.com
I self host freshrss (https://www.freshrss.org/), super easy to set up via docker and it doesn't required some over provisioned dependency setup (DB servers, etc...). It has nice/familiar keyboard shortcuts and a clean and fast interface. My only complaint is that the cloudflare-ifiation (aka enshittification) that is slowly ruining and rotting the internet prevents the fetching of RSS feeds from some news sites from your presumably affordable non hyperscaler VPS instance.
When using mobile I use https://capyreader.com/ which has first class intigration with freshrss; meaning you can add/remove/view feeds via the app and have the changes sync with freshrss. Also, probably my favorite feature of capy reader, is that when you want to view the content of an rss article that is only a summary or headline (because few people publish the full content of their articles in the rss feed anymore), you can just press a button and it will fetch it for you and display it in the reader without sending you to a browser. So much happier and more accurately informed since moving back to RSS where I can choose what I want to see vs having it filtered/fed to me via some biased algorithm.
Freshrss is a great choice I think.
I use the freshrss web interface on my phone, that works quite well I feel. The app might not be necessary.
BTW, Freshrss also has a function to fetch the full article content directly. I think it's not especially clever, just uses a selector, but worked well for me for the one or two feeds where I enabled it.
https://freshrss.org
I self-host it
Same here. I self-host it since 3 years and didn't feel the need to change it. A stable application which doesn't have any problems which OP mentioned. I use it as a PWA on mobile.
It's the best option if you use multiple devices and have the ability to self-host IMO.
But being PHP means there is a lot of moving parts. Miniflux is a lot easier to maintain…
You can use any cheap webhosting
Not a lot to worry with the Docker container.
Even without a container it's pretty easy to run PHP with a HTTP server like Caddy, there's no need for any extra configuration aside from passing the required directives in the server config for your setup. You can find many examples in the docs.
Same Here. The web use is non-intrusive and works well on both desktop and mobile.
Newsraft, before I was using Newsboat.
https://codeberg.org/newsraft/newsraft
Here is a video to see how it works. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE-PhXnvp30
I'm still running a self-hosted Fever instance, it still didn't break down with newer PHP versions.
Using Reeder Classic as an RSS client. Also something threatened by unwanted updates.
Feedi (https://github.com/facundoolano/feedi)
Self-hosted. I like the news feed design and deboosting of already-seen entries.
"Feeder" on Android. Built-in web is the Android web client. But I let it open the links with Firefox anyway. I just use the RSS Reader to get the list, actual reading I do in the Browser.
I've been using Inoreader for a few years now and I'm pretty happy with it. Its reliability and feature set is the right balance for me. I've written about its pros and cons [1], the main pros for me are:
- Very smooth experience between web, android, and iOS apps (I’m mentioning this first, as many other apps I’ve tried are flaky)
- Mark as read while scrolling (Very useful for quickly shortlisting items from the feed. This is probably the main reason I’ve been able to replace Inoreader with social media apps.)
- Rules to auto-delete duplicated items or if the title contains specific words.
[1] https://saeedesmaili.com/posts/my-content-consumption-workfl...
Elfeed
https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed
https://bazqux.com/
Five years now.
Same here.
Feedly. It's fine.
Yup. Site is fine, Android app is fine, it works reliably. Been paying for it happily since Google Reader went away.
I use the Feedbro [1] extension in the browser and the Flym [2] app on Android. I'm quite satisfied with both.
[1] https://nodetics.com/feedbro/
[2] https://github.com/FredJul/Flym
I use FoxBot (https://github.com/antfie/FoxBot) which delivers important RSS topics to my Slack. Nb I created this tool.
Miniflux (miniflux.app)
I used to use FreshRSS, but there were some minor pain points that eventually pushed me to find an alternative. Miniflux has been great so far. It's very minimalistic, which also makes it very lightweight to self-host, as I do, but you can also subscribe to the hosted version for about a dollar a month.
The Old Reader (https://theoldreader.com) in the browser.
Brief in Firefox (on my Mac laptop).
Also Feeder on Android: https://github.com/spacecowboy/Feeder
For me it's Thunderbird, "Blogs & News Feeds" section. After version 120-something it stopped resizing images on article load - this is the part I find unsatisfying. Otherwise it just works.
NetNewsWire
https://netnewswire.com/
Nextcloud News, still using v24.0 - which is no longer supported but for which I made a patch to make it work in current Nextcloud versions - instead of the current v25.0 rewrite since the former is functionally superior over the latter for my use case.
Self hosted Fresh RSS but Reeder as client on Mac and iDevices
Self hosted CommaFeed https://github.com/Athou/commafeed
I use https://fidder.app, which works in the browser and Installs it as PWA on mobile.
I’ve been using Feedbin since Google Reader shut down. Been very happy with it. I access it through the web on desktop and using Reeder 4 on iOS; both work well.
Wrote my own in Elixir, needed some features like auto-star. I'll possibly release it in the future.
NetNewsWire (Apple platforms only but excellent)
I have my own Next loud instance with the RSS plugin enabled a d the companion app on my phone
Works fairly well.
Miniflux via NetNewsWire. Both are great — I could gladly live with Miniflux’s web UI; it’s that nice.
I used tinyrss self hosted until had some issue updating Since then îm very happy with selfoss https://selfoss.aditu.de/ self hosted
If I’m on iOS I regularly use “feeeed”: https://feeeed.nateparrott.com/
It has some extra functionality for certain websites like HackerNews so it shows points, etc.
Self-hosted FreshRSS instance. I use FeedMe in Android to connect to it.
Inoreader
Self hosted miniflux via the excellent web UI.
Tiny Tiny RSS, self hosted on a cheap virtual server.
https://bazqux.com/
I built my own called Stratum.
TT-RSS, I do not like it much, but it's the more apt ready-made to quickly skim many posts from many feeds...
Feedbro lets me read on my regular browser. No need to put up with special UI.
Feedbro is great. It has none of the arbitrary limitations that many of the web-clients impose for monetisation reasons.
The only downside (or upside depending on your perspective) is that it is a local solution. You can only access it on a specific device, and it won't be syncing when that device is turned off.
The Old Reader with FeeddlerPro as mobile client, since Google Reader shut down.
https://www.netvibes.com
Elfeed on Emacs of course.
Elfeed (emacs package.)
I use Reeder Classic on iOS and the Mac (the pre-enshittified version that does not have a subscription model). I will likely stick to it until it’s completely unsupported (which it isn’t), although a key part of the experience for me is read item syncing via Feedly.
I also use Feeder for Android on my Supernote Nomad. It has the nice side benefit of creating EPUBs I can save/annotate/share.
I very much prefer to use a native app, and have no use for web-based RSS readers (I have created my own GPT-based AI summarizer that generates custom digests - https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2025/01/12/1730#daily-news-d...)
I’ve also got a soft spot for NetNewsWire, but don’t really use it since the above works for me to skim the equivalent of 200+ feeds over breakfast (I’m posting this from inside Reeder on my iPad mini).
Wrote my own.
NewsBlur
Newsblur has been stable and consistent since the Google Reader shutdown. Has plenty of goodies. Samuel Clay, the creator, is responsive to feedback.
Can't fault it.
Reeder Classic on Macs and iOS. https://reederapp.com/classic/
I use self-hosted FreshRSS as the sync backend.
Self-hosted FreshRSS. Simple and reliable. It just works.
Elfeed on Emacs of course
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