Online RSS reader recommendations

April 15, 2025 7:06 AM

The RSS service I picked out lo, 12 years ago, is now following in the footsteps of Google Reader into the grave. What's the currently recommended online RSS reading service (not an app)?

I occasionally browse my feeds on a computer where I'm not allowed to install anything (including browser extensions).

I follow a fair amount of feeds for blogs and forums, let's say upwards of a hundred in a dozen categories. Some of them update 20 times per day, others twice a year. Viewing new items per category would be ideal, and the ability to mark everything in a feed or category as read. Holding items for a month would be perfect.

I was using Netvibes, which basically cloned the Google Reader interface. I have my feeds exported into XML, but the volume is small enough that importing capability is not a deal breaker.

Searching for a replacement brings up apps, extensions and paid services (I can pay a few bucks a year but not like, streaming service kind of money). What's the current recommendation?

posted by I claim sanctuary to Computers & Internet (28 answers total)

Feedbin
posted by caek at 7:08 AM on April 15

Hm, Feedbro won't work for you. Perhaps Newsblur?
posted by humbug at 7:10 AM on April 15

I use the free version of Feedly and it works fine for me. I think it has all the features you request.
posted by metasarah at 7:16 AM on April 15 [16 favorites]

Miniflux has categories. I believe you can self-host if you want to, and it saves to pinboard easily if you want.
posted by soelo at 7:18 AM on April 15

Seconding Feedbin — it can be a service, i.e. you use Feedbin to manage your feeds and read them through another app, but I read them through Feedbin's web interface in the browser and it works perfectly nicely.

I switched a year or so ago from Feedly to Feedbin. Feedly was fine, I just didn't care about all the enterprise-y AI-driven features. (Feedbin is $5/mo; Feedly's free level is limited to 100 feeds, then it's $6/mo for up to 1,000 and $8 for up to 2,500.)
posted by fifthpocket at 7:34 AM on April 15

My favorite is Inoreader. Generally free but you can pay for more features.
posted by General Malaise at 7:43 AM on April 15 [5 favorites]

I use (self-hosted) miniflux and like it a lot. I can use a browser to read stuff, but sometimes use a dedicated RSS app on a tablet to peruse as well. One thing I love about it is the ability to download the entire article into its UI while reading, instead of opening a new tab or window to see it.

One thing I'm not crazy about it is that whatever mechanism it uses to poll for updates is occasionally mistaken for a bot and I've ended up on the temporary blacklist for occasional sites. I never had this problem with other apps I've used.
posted by jquinby at 7:45 AM on April 15

I use Feedly
posted by Chenko at 8:28 AM on April 15 [5 favorites]

I'm very happy with The Old Reader. It's also basically a Google Reader clone. The only thing missing (that I care about) is the "recently read" feed making it easy to get back to something I skipped over too hastily. The site reliability is a little lower than I'd like, but within reason. The pricing is appropriate and the feature set is solid other than the exception I noted, which may not matter to you.
posted by likedoomsday at 8:30 AM on April 15 [2 favorites]

Seconding Inoreader
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 9:14 AM on April 15

I quite enjoy Newsblur
posted by annekenstein at 9:36 AM on April 15 [1 favorite]

I like Miniflux. Hosted version is $15 a year. It's minimalist but you can try the hosted version out for 15 days free of charge.
posted by chr at 9:40 AM on April 15

I've been using newsblur since that fateful day and never looked back. One of the few pieces of software I happily pay for.
posted by chasles at 9:55 AM on April 15

+1 for Newsblur. A paying customer since the GR shutdown.
posted by deezil at 10:11 AM on April 15

I too am a Google Reader refugee, and after Feedly became more cashgrabby, I moved to Inoreader and am enjoying it.

Inoreader does have an app, FWIW, but I primarily read it in a web browser on a desktop.
posted by Sunburnt at 10:48 AM on April 15

+1 for Feedly
posted by Leontine at 10:49 AM on April 15

I also use Newsblur!
posted by kserra at 10:54 AM on April 15

I like both feedly and Newsblur, which I've had both (for personal/work life separation) since GR died.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:15 AM on April 15

I’ve been very happy with BazQux (https://bazqux.com/) - would recommend!
posted by misspettigrew at 12:28 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

Seconding theoldreader.com
posted by kbuxton at 12:44 PM on April 15

Fellow Netvibes user here. I signed up for a couple of backups years ago in case this happened. Just checked and they are still going. => Protopage and Start.me
posted by Webbster at 1:14 PM on April 15

Thirding The Old Reader, which I've been paying for for a few years. It does the thing I want and doesn't try to do more.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:15 PM on April 15

I'd like to chime in with a disrecommendation for Feedly. While it's free and meets your minimum requirements, it's getting more crufted up with AI BS and ads for paid plans every time I look at it. It has increasingly been putting up paywalls for key features (for instance, limiting the number of feeds you can follow), and I expect that it will be unusable within a year or three. I am following this thread with great interest.
posted by ourobouros at 2:49 PM on April 15

+1 for Miniflux. I'm happy to pay a small amount for them to host the site so I don't have to manage any updating. The interface in the browser is okay, but I do prefer to hook it into Reeder on my phone for primary use.

(Holds up a candle for the long-lost Google Reader and more recently gone Fever.)
posted by past unusual at 4:14 PM on April 15

The Old Reader. I give it the greatest compliment I can give a piece of software or application which is that Yeah It Is Totally Fine.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:32 PM on April 15 [1 favorite]

Hello fellow Netvibes user! I am currently trying out the free tier of Inoreader, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how immediately comfortable I found it. Thinking I may stick with it for a while.
posted by sandrayln at 7:27 PM on April 15

I was previously using the free tier of Inoreader, but didn't really like the interface, and seldom actually visited it -- this isn't really an Inoreader problem as much as a "me not liking the typical feed reader model" problem. I want to see a compact summary of everything in one place, without having to navigate lots of categories, and I don't like having to explicitly mark things as read (I find it psychologically unpleasant to have the task of dealing with all these items, either by reading them or by deciding that I won't, hanging over me and building up like a messy inbox).

So I'm also going to plug the web-based reader that I recently wrote for myself, and currently use, tonguefish. It has some very specific UI opinions and it's possible that nobody will like them except me (also it's very alpha). It's self-hosted in that you run it yourself, but it statically generates a pure HTML/CSS page, so you don't need a webserver to use it (although you can use one). It doesn't keep state; it uses the browser's history to indicate what links you have followed. I'm actively using this, and fixing bugs and adding features as I go. If you try it out and find bugs, please do file issues!
posted by confluency at 3:17 AM on April 16

QuiteRSS isn't being updated any more but is still available to download. I've been using it for the last 10 years and it does everything you mentioned.
posted by Zeedog at 12:50 PM on April 17