Free Rss Feed Reader For Mac

The iPhone and iPad are both great ways to consume news and RSS on the go, or while simply lounging around the house. No matter what service you use — Feedly, Feed Wrangler or something else — there are tons of RSS and news apps that support them. If you don’t need a news aggregator service, or don’t even know what that means, there are still news apps that can help you find interesting things to read.

These are currently the best of the best news apps available for iPhone and iPad — and why I think they’re so great.

Free rss feed reader for desktop

Reeder 2

RSS has long history on the Mac. It was even built into Apple's own Safari and Mail at one point. Likewise, Google Reader in the browser was immensely popular, as were OS X apps that used it for sync. What is a good free/open source RSS reader that is magazine-styled? What causes a delay in some RSS feeds imported into an RSS reader? What are the best unlimited free RSS feed readers for iOS and Mac? RSS Bot is a free app that shows advertising at start-up like Leaf, but lives in the menu bar like RSS Reader. RSS Bot crashed while importing my test.OPML file, and adding feeds one by one was slow, as it took the app nearly a minute to “retrieve and process” each feed.

Elegant, simple, just the way you want it

The first question I always get asked after doing a roundup like this is which app I personally use. I’ve been using Reeder 2 almost as long as I can remember using an iPhone.

What I love about Reeder 2 is that I can choose how and what I want to read. It also integrates with all the major RSS services such as Feedly, Feed Wrangler (which is what I use, for those wondering), Feedbin and more. If you don’t use an RSS service, you can also add feeds manually by just entering the website.

Reeder 2 provides a clean, streamlined, standard feed that’s easy to use and understand. If you want all your news in straight chronological order with zero frills, Reeder 2 is the quickest way to work through and triage tons of RSS feeds.

  • $4.99 – Download

See also:

  • Reeder 3 for Mac – $9.99 – Download

NetNewsWire

Favorites come first

The very first RSS app I ever used on my iPhone was NetNewsWire. I was overjoyed when it recently received a complete overhaul. What makes it unique from other news and RSS apps are the unique ways to sort and view your content.

For example, the favorites view is a great way to filter out sites that post a lot of noise so your feed isn’t congested by stories you don’t particularly care as much about. I love using NetNewsWire when I only have a few minutes to catch up and only want to see content from my favorite sites. Enabling the Smart Site Refresh feature in settings makes the experience even better. This way, only your favorite sites auto-refresh on their own. Everything else is only updated when you manually pull to refresh.

NetNewsWire also features great-looking inline images that integrate right into your feed. However, if you prefer fitting as much as you can on the screen at once, you can disable them in settings.

  • $7.99 – Download

See also:

  • NetNewsWire for Mac – $19.99 – Download

Newsify

A tailored, magazine-like experience

Simple text feeds for news aren’t for everyone and if you fit in that category, Newsify is a much more visual way to browse and read news. I like to think of it as a happy medium between Flipboard and standard RSS apps.

Anyone who enjoys the idea of viewing news as a collection of magazine clippings will love Newsify. It’s much more media-centric than many other standard news and RSS apps. When I have time to sit and randomly browse news feeds, I’ve found Newsify to be a great way to do it.

If you use an RSS service, Newsify will import your categories, folders or smart streams just as you have them. This way you can still triage effectively while enjoying a magazine-style experience without all the clutter.

  • Free – Download

Unread

A beautiful, undistracted reading experience

If I sit down with my iPad, I probably want to do some long-form reading or some serious catch up. For these kinds of reading sessions, I almost always turn to Unread.

I just can’t help but love the way every little detail of Unread is well-thought-out. There are seven gorgeous themes to choose from and the entire interface can be navigated with nothing but gestures. In a single swipe and tap, I can change how articles are grouped or sorted, or I can mark everything in that category as read.

Reeder 2 offers a simpler setup in terms of referring to older articles or viewing things I’ve already read, but when I want to read long-form content on my iPad, I much prefer the experience and the immersive design Unread offers. It’s a strange setup, I know, but since both Unread and Reeder 2 support Feed Wrangler, I’ve never had an issue.

  • Unread for iPhone – Free w/ IAP – Download
  • Unread for iPad – Free w/ IAP – Download

Flipboard

If you don’t know where to begin

I don’t use Flipboard regularly because I have a very small subset of sites I actually care to read. However, if you don’t and need to find awesome sites and news sources to follow, there’s no better place to start than Flipboard.

Designed like a personal magazine, Flipboard will ask you to tell it about your interests and present you with curated content based on what you provided. It’s also a magazine-style reading experience, which takes the pressure off focusing on unread counts or getting through a huge list of feeds.

Just sit down, relax, read what you have time for, and come back later – just as you would with a paper magazine.

  • Free – Download

This post was syndicated via The App Factor.

by Martin Brinkmann on September 17, 2014 in Software - Last Update: September 17, 2014 - 36 comments

As is the case with many tools out there, I prefer a desktop RSS reader over an online solution. Sure, online services such as Feedly have advantages. You can access them for instance from any Internet capable device and they require less space than local solution.

On the downside, you depend on the service. If it goes down, has a bug or decides to become paid only, you may not be able to access the service for the time being or ever again.

Desktop RSS readers work similar to mail clients. You add one or multiple feeds to them and whenever you start them, see which sites have published new posts.

These information are stored in a local database so that you can access past records even without Internet connection. In addition, using a local client may be faster than using an online service and you are always in control of the data.

We start with the requirements that all RSS readers need to match first.

Requirements

  1. A free version needs to be available.
  2. The program has to be compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows.
  3. The main feature of the program needs to be RSS reading.

Top RSS Readers

All readers listed below support the following set of features: import OPML files and notifications.

FeedDemon

FeedDemon is a long standing client for Windows. You can import an OPML file on start into the client or add individual RSS feeds manually to it. All feeds can be sorted into folders or tagged to improve the manageability of feeds.

Unlike other programs of its kind, FeedDemon embeds the contents in its interface which seems to take a bit longer and may pose more security risks than delivering a custom version of the page that is only displaying contents.

Powerful filters can be created which list items based on keywords being included or not included in articles. It is possible to add one or multiple keywords and define exactly where FeedDemon should search for those keywords.

Feedreader

Feedreader has been one of the first desktop feed readers dating back as early as 2001. The program allows you to import an OPML feed or add individual feeds to it instead.

All feeds can be sorted into folders and tagged individually. Feedreader displays notifications automatically when new items are discovered and these items can be read directly in the program interface or in an external browser.

FTP server or local file synchronization is supported by the application. It ships with a small amount of other features of interest, for instance its enclosure browser which can be used to browse media directly embedded in feeds or the option to preload feeds.

Overall though, its features are straightforward.

GreatNews

The program seems to have been abandoned by its author. While that appears to be the case, it is working fine at the time of writing.

It displays the feed listing on the left and the actual contents on the right. Here you can select from different styles that define how contents are displayed on the screen.

For

The program lacks options to display individual feeds in a compact manner on the screen. The closest style available is called brief but it displays entries in two columns instead of just one.

Omea Reader

The light version of Omea Pro supports most of the features that you expect from a reader. It can import one or multiple OPML files, offers customizations to display news the way you want, and ships with a powerful search and filter engine as well.

On top of that, it can be used to browse bookmarked web pages, subscribe to newsgroups or manage podcasts that you are subscribed to.

Another interesting feature is the ability to create clippings that the program stores for you and a note taking module to take notes of your own in the program.

QuiteRSS

QuiteRSS is a full blown RSS reader for Windows that is in active development. The program ships with all the bells and whistles you'd except it to. You can import individual feeds or OPML files, define how and when feeds are updated, use filters or notifications, and customize how contents are displayed to you.

What makes QuiteRSS attractive is the impressive set of features that it offers and the fact that it works fine out of the box. While you can customize the program to your liking, for instance by configuring it to automatically clean the database and old entries on exit or modifying font styles, it is not mandatory to do so.

Many users will however appreciate that options are provided to do so.

RSS Bandit

RSSBandit development seems to have stopped in 2013 and while most program features work as advertised, some show the age of time. There is for instance still an option to synchronize feeds with Google Reader, Google's online service that the company retired in mid 2013.

The functionality that RSSBandit provides is for the most part quite good. You can import individual feeds or OPML files into the program, customize how contents are displayed in it, subscribe to newsgroups and make use of the top stories feature which tries to determine the most popular stories so that you can concentrate your attention on those.

You will notice however that the internal browser is not the fastest, especially when you compare it to other programs listed on this page.

RSSOwl

RSSOwl requires the Java Runtime Environment so make sure it is installed on the system before you start the application. Feeds can be loaded using OPML files or individually into the program.

The default layout displays folders and feeds in a sidebar on the left, the selected folder or feed on the right, and the selected post underneath it.

How things are displayed can be modified in the options. Here you can also use the password manager, a feature missing from other applications of its kind, to save login information for sites that require authentication.

Other options provided are to configure the notifier in detail, define if an embedded or external browser should be used to display contents, and configure shortcut keys for fast access to program features.

Comparison table

Program nameCleanupFiltersCustomizeSearchSyncOther
FeedDemonyesyesyesyesnopreload feeds
Feedreaderyesnonoyesyespreload feeds, media browser
GreatNewsyesnonoyesno
Omea Readernoyesyesyesnonewsgroups, bookmarked web pages, podcast support,
QuiteRSSyesyesyesyesno
RSSBanditnonoyesyesyesnewsgroups, top stories finder
RSSOwlyesyesyesyesnorequires Java, save searches

Free Rss Feed Reader Yahoo

Recommendation

The feed reader that I favor right now is QuiteRSS. It has been the main feed reader on my Windows system for quite a while. What I like about it is that it offers everything that I require. This includes a great interface that lets me browse feeds fast as well as excellent filter and search options.

It gets my vote but may be too barebones for some. If you require synchronization, you may want to pick another client supporting that for instance.

Now You: Have another favorite desktop client? Feel free to share it with everyone in the comment section below.

The best free RSS readers for Windows

Best Rss Reader For Mac

Description
We take a look at the top free RSS feed readers for the Windows operating system. Check out short summaries of each program and check out a table to compare features.
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