RSS readers pull the feeds of the sites you follow into one list you control. This guide covers hosted services, servers you run yourself and apps for Apple devices or the desktop.
We rank by who operates the product, how far feed counts drive the price, whether you can host it, and how well it serves work reading.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What RSS readers software does
An RSS reader subscribes to site feeds in RSS or Atom format and gathers new articles in one list, as a web service, a server you run or an app.
To rank RSS readers tools we asked, in turn, how much work setup takes, what it truly costs, whether data can be taken back out, whether leaving is possible, and who the product suits. On top of them sits one rule. The top three places are for challengers, which means vendors outside the big names, where the category has any, and the household brands come in from fourth place. The reasoning behind the five tests, and behind having no score out of ten, is set out on the how we work page.
Stockholm-operated reader aimed at tracking work sources, with keyword alerts
Ranked #1 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingEurope
Feeder describes itself as one reader for every source a person tracks for work. Its extras are keyword alerts, AI-written summaries and team-shared folders.
You read in a web app, on iPhone or Android, or through extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. The privacy policy and terms name Really Simple i Stockholm AB, with an address in Stockholm. Paid pricing appears only on the plan comparison page.
What stands out
Keyword alerts
Team folder sharing
Browser extensions
Where it costs you
No paid price or trial appears on the homepage, only a link to compare plans.
The free tier ends at 200 feeds.
Right for
Professionals tracking regulators, news and newsletters who want keyword alerts and shared team folders
Wrong for
Readers wanting a fixed price before opening a comparison page
SwedenFree up to 200 feeds; paid plans listed on a separate comparison page
Miniflux ships under the Apache 2.0 licence, and the homepage offers an RPM or Debian package, a binary built statically, or a container image. Anyone avoiding a server can sign up for the hosted version, which costs 15 dollars a year after a 15-day trial.
Two privacy features are listed, removal of tracking pixels and of tracking parameters in URLs, along with automatic retrieval of full article text. Donations through Liberapay and PayPal are optional.
What stands out
Apache 2.0
Tracking-pixel removal
Full-text retrieval
Where it costs you
The homepage names a single developer and no organisation behind the project.
The homepage lists no sharing or team features.
Right for
Individuals wanting a plain, privacy-minded reader they can self-host or rent cheaply
Wrong for
Teams needing shared folders, alerts or a named company contract
Not stated by the vendorFree software you run yourself, open source; hosted instance billed yearly with a 15-day trial
Hosted reader with one plan and every feature included
Ranked #3 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingElsewhere
The Feedbin pricing page says 'One plan. Everything included.' Billing is monthly at 7 dollars or yearly at 70, with nothing to unlock. New accounts get a free 30-day trial, and no card is requested to start it.
The about page dates the service to 2013 and mentions San Francisco, but names no legal entity or country. It is a hosted service in the pages read, and no maximum feed count is given.
What stands out
One plan
30-day trial
Hosted service
Where it costs you
Where the single plan tops out is unknown, since no limits are printed.
The pages read mention no option to host it yourself.
Right for
Readers who want one flat monthly price and no tier decisions to make
Wrong for
Anyone who must run the reader on their own server
Not stated by the vendorPublished single plan, billed monthly or yearly; 30-day trial without a card
Tiered reader with a self-hosted option and a 30-day premium trial
Ranked #4 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingElsewhere
The NewsBlur pricing page sets four rungs by site count: 64 on the free plan, then 1,024, 4,096 and 10,000. The two upper tiers add things the lower ones lack, namely a full archive with Ask AI at 4,096, and faster fetching plus regex training and priority support at 10,000.
A 30-day trial of premium starts with every new account. A DIY route installs on Docker with one command, with the repository on GitHub.
What stands out
Site-count tiers
Docker self-hosting
Ask AI
Where it costs you
The free plan stops at 64 sites.
Prices show a dollar sign with no currency code, and no country is stated.
Right for
Heavy readers who want a clear ladder of site limits, or a Docker install
Wrong for
Readers who dislike counting sites against a tier limit
Not stated by the vendorFree plan with a site cap; three paid tiers published; Docker self-hosting; 30-day trial
Hosted reader with rules and filters, priced by feed limits
Ranked #5 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Inoreader lays out three levels. Free costs nothing and needs no card, within 150 feeds and 30 rules. Pro, at EUR 6.67 a month on annual billing or EUR 8.99 monthly, gives 2,500 feeds, 50 filters and 100 boosted feeds.
Enterprise sends buyers to a quote request. The pages mention a 15-day trial and say VAT is extra. The copyright line reads Innologica Ltd, and the pages read give no country.
What stands out
Rules and filters
Enterprise quote
15-day trial
Where it costs you
Prices exclude VAT, so the bill is higher than the figure shown.
The free plan stops at 150 subscriptions and 30 rules.
Right for
Readers who automate sorting with rules and filters and will pay monthly
Wrong for
People who dislike limits on rules, filters and boosted feeds
Not stated by the vendorFree plan with feed cap; Pro published monthly or yearly; Enterprise quoted; 15-day trial
FreshRSS puts a demo at demo.freshrss.org, so the interface can be tried before an install. It handles OPML in both directions, uses WebSub for real-time updates, can scrape web pages into feeds and supports saved searches.
Extensions add more, and the page says third-party mobile apps connect through its APIs. Stated scale is over 1 million articles and 50,000 feeds, with translations into more than 15 languages. Users who skip hosting can sign up with a listed cloud provider.
What stands out
AGPL 3
WebSub updates
Extensions collection
Where it costs you
Mobile reading depends on third-party apps connected through its APIs.
Running it means looking after your own server.
Right for
Self-hosters with large subscription lists who want extensions and saved searches
Wrong for
Readers unwilling to maintain a server or pick a cloud provider
Not stated by the vendorFree software you run yourself, open source under AGPL 3; cloud providers listed separately
Behind CommaFeed stands a repository under the GitHub account Athou, written on Quarkus with a React and TypeScript front end. Several install routes exist, from Docker images to a build from source.
The default store is an embedded H2 database, and PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB work as alternatives. OPML in and out, a REST API and the Fever and Google Reader protocols let mobile apps connect. A free public instance is run at commafeed.com.
What stands out
Apache-2.0
Fever API support
Database choice
Where it costs you
The commafeed.com homepage returned only a title, so pricing and company details could not be confirmed.
The repository sits under the personal GitHub account Athou.
Right for
Developers who want a Google Reader style server with a choice of database
Wrong for
Buyers who need a named company and a published price page
Not stated by the vendorFree public instance; self-host with Docker, packages or source; open source under Apache-2.0
The Tiny Tiny RSS page lays out a feature list typical of a long-lived server reader: folders with subfolders, keyboard shortcuts, OPML in and out, generated feeds and podcast support.
A JSON API, plugins and themes widen it, and image duplicates are caught by perceptual hashing. Software is under GNU GPLv3 and documentation under CC BY-SA 4.0. The code lives in the tt-rss/tt-rss GitHub repository, and the page tells users to run it on Docker.
What stands out
GPLv3
JSON API
Plugins and themes
Where it costs you
It requires Docker, and support may be limited without it.
No owner, company or country is given anywhere on the page.
Right for
Technical readers who want plugins, a JSON API and full data control
Wrong for
Anyone without a Docker host or an appetite for upkeep
Not stated by the vendorFree software you run yourself, open source under GPLv3; Docker required
AI-focused reader with summaries, filtering and a free Basic plan
Ranked #9 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Folo is presented as an AI RSS reader, with summaries and filtering built on feeds, lists and inboxes. Plus allows 1K subscriptions, 5 lists, 10 inboxes, 5 actions and 30 summaries a day, plus 300 translations.
Pro raises these to 5K subscriptions, 15 lists, 20 inboxes and 10 actions, with unlimited summaries and translations. The site links a web app, downloads and a GitHub page marked Built Open.
What stands out
AI summaries
Daily AI limits
GitHub page
Where it costs you
Plus caps AI summaries at 30 a day and translations at 300.
The footer gives no company name or country.
Right for
Readers who want AI summaries and translations on top of ordinary feeds
Wrong for
Buyers who dislike daily caps on AI summaries
Not stated by the vendorFree Basic tier; Plus and Pro published yearly, each with a trial button
Typography-first Apple reader with a free sync service of its own
Ranked #10 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Free tierSelf-hostablePublished pricingElsewhere
Unread puts reading comfort first: the page describes beautiful typography and a selection of colour themes, light and dark chosen separately. For substance it offers full-text retrieval for feeds that publish summaries, offline caching of text and images, and sign-in to paywalled sites inside the app.
Sync can run through Unread Cloud, a free service, or through most external and self-hosted feed services. The copyright notice names Golden Hill Software.
What stands out
Typography themes
Unread Cloud sync
Paywall login
Where it costs you
The page shows no price for Premium and mentions no trial.
It runs on Mac, iPhone and iPad only.
Right for
Apple users who care about reading comfort and want a sync service included
Wrong for
Windows, Android or Linux users and buyers wanting a visible Premium price
Not stated by the vendorFree app; Premium subscription with no price shown on the page
Free Apple-platform feed reader with its source code on GitHub
Ranked #11 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
The NetNewsWire homepage keeps things short: a free app across Mac, iPhone and iPad, with the Mac build downloaded directly and the mobile build from the App Store. System requirements are recent, macOS 15 and iOS 26.
A link leads to the GitHub repository, though no licence is stated on the page. The notice credits Brent Simmons and says the app is made in Seattle and around the world, without naming a company.
What stands out
Free price
Apple platforms
Brent Simmons
Where it costs you
It needs macOS 15 or iOS 26 or newer.
The page names no licence and lists no sync service.
Right for
Apple users who want a plain, free reader without an account or fee
Wrong for
Anyone using older Apple devices, Windows or Android
Not stated by the vendorFree to download; source code on GitHub, licence not named on the page
Local desktop reader that syncs with Inoreader, Feedbin or Fever
Ranked #12 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Fluent Reader describes itself as a modern, local, cross-platform desktop reader. Sync is optional: Inoreader, Feedbin and services speaking the Fever or Google Reader API are supported, and OPML can be imported.
Full-text view for summary-only feeds uses Mercury Parser, a loaded webpage or an external browser. Regular expressions drive search and rules. All data stays with the user, full backups ease a move between computers, and downloads sit on GitHub Releases.
What stands out
Local data
Regex rules
Service sync
Where it costs you
No price, company or country is stated.
The page describes a desktop program, with no phone or web version.
Right for
Desktop readers who want local storage and optional sync with an existing service
Wrong for
People who read mainly on a phone or in a browser
Not stated by the vendorNo price stated on the page; downloads come from GitHub Releases
Yarr lives on GitHub under the user nkanaev, and the readme describes a web-based feed aggregator that arrives as one executable without dependencies. It can run as a desktop application or be self-hosted, on Windows, macOS or Linux.
Data goes into SQLite or Postgres. The MIT licence puts few limits on reuse. No further features are cited here, which makes this the leanest entry in the list.
What stands out
MIT licence
Single binary
SQLite or Postgres
Where it costs you
The repository gives no full name or company behind it.
The sources checked list few features beyond the basics.
Right for
Minimalists who want one binary on a laptop or small server
Wrong for
Buyers who need a vendor, a support contract or named features
Not stated by the vendorFree software, open source under the MIT licence; no hosted plan listed
macOS-only reader maintained by the ViennaRSS project, with plug-ins
Ranked #14 of 14 in Best RSS Readers in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Vienna is a long-running macOS project: the copyright runs from 2010 to 2026 under the ViennaRSS Project. The navigation points to downloads, development, a source browser, plug-in creation and custom styles.
Its own description calls it free and open-source, and only macOS is named. Cost, sync and feeds handling are not discussed on the home page, so a buyer should test the download before relying on it.
What stands out
macOS only
ViennaRSS project
Plug-ins and styles
Where it costs you
It runs on macOS only.
The home page cites no licence, sync service or feature list.
Right for
Mac users who want a free desktop reader with plug-ins and custom styles
Wrong for
Anyone reading on iPhone, Windows, Linux or Android
Not stated by the vendorFree app for macOS per the project site; source code browsable
An RSS reader subscribes to site feeds in RSS or Atom format and gathers new articles in one list, as a web service, a server you run or an app. Products in this area look alike on a feature list, so we would decide these questions first.
01
Check who publishes a price
1 vendors on this page sell by quote, while 13 publish a pricing model you can read today: Feeder, Miniflux, Feedbin, NewsBlur, Inoreader, FreshRSS, CommaFeed, Tiny Tiny RSS, Folo, Unread, NetNewsWire, Yarr, Vienna.
02
Decide how much the jurisdiction matters
Where a company is established decides which courts and regulators can reach it. Here that means 2 countries: Elsewhere 13, Europe 1.
03
Consider whether you want the source
Open source here means Miniflux, FreshRSS, CommaFeed, Tiny Tiny RSS, Yarr. The price of self-hosting is the time your team spends maintaining it.
RSS readers: the feed cap that sets your tier
Hosted readers meter you by how many sources you follow, so count yours before comparing prices. Inoreader's free plan stops at 150 feed subscriptions and its Pro plan at 2,500. NewsBlur climbs from 64 sites on the free plan to 1,024, 4,096 and 10,000 across its paid tiers, and Folo's Plus plan holds 1K subscriptions against 5K on Pro.
Feeder allows 200 feeds free, while Feedbin prints no feed or site limits on its pricing page. Self-hosted FreshRSS says it manages 50,000 feeds. A reader with forty blogs never meets any of these walls; a researcher with several hundred sources meets one fast. Export your subscriptions as OPML first, then count them.
Count your subscriptions from an OPML export before choosing a tier
Compare feed caps rather than plan names across Inoreader, NewsBlur and Folo
Check whether the cap also covers rules, filters or lists
Self-hosted RSS readers: the server becomes your job
Running your own reader swaps a monthly fee for upkeep. Miniflux installs from a binary, a package or a container, and also sells a hosted instance after a 15-day trial, which gives you a way back if the server wears you out. Tiny Tiny RSS requires Docker and warns that running without it may limit support.
CommaFeed uses an embedded H2 database by default and supports PostgreSQL, MySQL and MariaDB, while Yarr runs as one binary on SQLite or Postgres. FreshRSS lists cloud providers that host accounts for you. Whoever hosts also handles updates, backups and the database. Decide who does that in a year, not only on installation day.
Name the person who will apply updates and restore backups
Confirm your server can run Docker before choosing Tiny Tiny RSS
Try a hosted Miniflux instance or a FreshRSS provider before buying a server
Apple and desktop apps: sync decides how long they stay useful
A native app is pleasant until you want the same unread list on a second device. NetNewsWire is free but needs macOS 15 on the Mac and iOS 26 on iPhone and iPad, which rules out older hardware. Unread covers Mac, iPhone and iPad, has its own free sync called Unread Cloud and also works with most external and self-hosted services.
Vienna reads on macOS only. Fluent Reader is a local desktop program that syncs with Inoreader, Feedbin and services that speak Fever or the Google Reader API. CommaFeed and FreshRSS expose APIs that mobile apps connect to. Pair an app with a sync backend on purpose, because the app alone keeps read state on one machine.
Check the minimum macOS or iOS version against the devices you own
Choose the sync backend before the app
Test a Fever or Google Reader API connection from your phone app
Reading for work: alerts, summaries and shared folders
Some readers exist for monitoring rather than leisure. Feeder promotes keyword alerts, AI summaries and team folder sharing across the sources a professional follows. Folo markets AI summaries and filtering, yet its Plus plan allows 30 summaries and 300 translations a day, against unlimited on Pro.
Inoreader adds rules and filters, and NewsBlur's Pro tier adds regex training. Miniflux and Fluent Reader fetch full text for summary-only feeds, and Unread does as well. Match the feature to the job: alerts for monitoring, full text for reading, folders for a team. A solo reader paying for team features wastes money, and a team on a personal app shares links by hand.
Write down whether you monitor topics, read at leisure or share with a team
Check Folo's daily AI limits on Plus against your real volume
Confirm that full-text retrieval covers feeds that publish only summaries
What goes wrong most often when buying RSS readers software
Paying for a higher tier on a feed count nobody measured, when an OPML export would have shown far fewer subscriptions.
Installing a self-hosted reader on a free weekend and forgetting that updates and backups carry on for years.
Picking an Apple app first and learning later that the sync service does not support it or that an older device cannot run it.
Treating AI summaries as unlimited when a plan such as Folo's Plus counts them per day.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best RSS readers in 2026?
First of 14 on this page is Feeder. Feeder is operated by Really Simple i Stockholm AB and is built for people who follow news sites, regulators, newsletters and YouTube channels for work.
It adds keyword alerts, AI summaries and folders a team can share, with apps for web, iPhone and Android. The homepage shows no paid prices and mentions no trial, so the cost past 200 feeds stays unknown.
Which RSS readers tools publish their pricing?
13 out of 14 state a price model on their own site:
Feeder: Free up to 200 feeds; paid plans listed on a separate comparison page.
Miniflux: Free software you run yourself, open source; hosted instance billed yearly with a 15-day trial.
Feedbin: Published single plan, billed monthly or yearly; 30-day trial without a card.
NewsBlur: Free plan with a site cap; three paid tiers published; Docker self-hosting; 30-day trial.
Inoreader: Free plan with feed cap; Pro published monthly or yearly; Enterprise quoted; 15-day trial.
FreshRSS: Free software you run yourself, open source under AGPL 3; cloud providers listed separately.
CommaFeed: Free public instance; self-host with Docker, packages or source; open source under Apache-2.0.
Tiny Tiny RSS: Free software you run yourself, open source under GPLv3; Docker required.
Folo: Free Basic tier; Plus and Pro published yearly, each with a trial button.
Unread: Free app; Premium subscription with no price shown on the page.
NetNewsWire: Free to download; source code on GitHub, licence not named on the page.
Yarr: Free software, open source under the MIT licence; no hosted plan listed.
Vienna: Free app for macOS per the project site; source code browsable.
The remaining 1 sell by quote.
Is there a free RSS readers tool?
Feeder, Miniflux, NewsBlur, Inoreader, FreshRSS, CommaFeed, Tiny Tiny RSS, Folo, Unread, NetNewsWire, Yarr, Vienna can be used for free, either as a free plan or a self-hosted edition.
Miniflux, Feedbin, NewsBlur, FreshRSS, CommaFeed, Tiny Tiny RSS, Unread, Yarr. The other 6 are hosted by the vendor only.
What should you use instead of Feeder?
Second is Miniflux, which suits Individuals wanting a plain, privacy-minded reader they can self-host or rent cheaply. Third is Feedbin, which suits Readers who want one flat monthly price and no tier decisions to make.
Who should not buy Feeder?
Readers wanting a fixed price before opening a comparison page. No paid price or trial appears on the homepage, only a link to compare plans..
Missing from this RSS readers ranking? Contact us with a short description of the product and its users. Adding it is an editorial choice, and software advice explains what a listing does and does not involve.
