Now that almost everyone knows what RSS is, I figured I’d review a few of the ways you can read RSS feeds. With a heavy emphasis on cross-platform and/or open source, here are 20 (albeit somewhat brief) reviews of the free RSS readers available. Links to download, screenshots and system requirements are included with every review.
| Name | Type | Supported Platforms |
| Alertbear | client |  |
| Attensa for Outlook | client | |
| Blam | client |  |
| BlogBridge | client |  |
| Bloglines | web | |
| Firefox | client | |
| Google Reader | web | |
| Netvibes | web | |
| Newsgator Online (Ajax beta) | web | |
| QuickRSS | client | |
| Rojo | web | |
| RSS Bandit | client | |
| RSSOwl | client | |
| Sage | client | |
| Shrook | client | |
| Straw | client | |
| ThinFeeder | client | |
| Thunderbird 2.0 | client | |
| Vienna | client | |
| Vista Media Center RSS Reader | client | |
Homepage: http://www.alertbear.com/
Requirements: Windows 2000 or XP and the .NET 1.1 framework
Thoughts: I’m not a huge fan of the ‘river of news’ style of RSS reader. I subscribe to somewhere around 100 feeds, and with that many, there’s just too much scrolling. With that said, Alertbear does a pretty great job of creating a ’stack’ that utilizes the river of news style. From their ‘about’ page: We believe that RSS should be usable by anyone. We also believe that RSS is not email, feeds should simply wash by, commonly called the “river of news”. Alertbear takes both of these concepts and introduces The Stack. The Stack appears whenever a feed contains new items, visibly showing you them being added to the top. You can scroll up and down it, see unread items by their cream colour and star icon, assign colours to your feed categories to make them easier to spot, click the arrow icon on each item to see expanded information, navigate through the list with arrow keys, page up/down or the mouse wheel and easily clear the stack with a quick stab of the delete key.
Screenshots:
 detect feeds during install |
 The Stack |
 options |
 more options |
Homepage: http://www.attensa.com/get-it/
Requirements: Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista and Outlook 2000/2002/2003/2007
Thoughts: I’ve already done a fairly in depth review of Attensa, so I’ll just repeat a few things here. If you live and breath in Outlook (I used to spend 1/3 of my day in Outlook), Attensa may very well be the RSS reader for you. Attensa integrates itself into Outlook so well that you’re not even aware it’s there most of the time. You can switch back and forth between reading email and RSS feeds so easily you’ll wonder why you used to use a browser or separate app for RSS.
Screenshots:
 default view |
 individual article |
 properties |
 options |
 manually add feeds |
 attensa settings |
Homepage: http://www.cmartin.tk/blam.html
Requirements: I honestly don’t know. Try compiling it yourself - it certainly works in Ubuntu and is a part of the Synaptic Package Manger.
Thoughts: Blam is a bit of a ‘no frills’ RSS reader for Linux. The author has a list of fixes/improvements for the 2.0 version. With all of that said, it certainly works. There are a few themes to choose from, and you can import and export OPML. One of the drawbacks is that it doesn’t fully support Atom 1.0 (only up to Atom 0.3).
Screenshots:
 default view |
 preferences |
 importing |
 imbedded media |
Homepage: http://www.blogbridge.com
Requirements: Java: 1.5 or later, OS X 10.3 or later, Windows XP or any Linux with a system GUI
Thoughts: Here’s how I’ll put a positive spin on BlogBridge - it’s the best RSS reader for Linux that I’ve seen so far. If you’re a Windows or OS X user, you may want to try another (but maybe not - BlogBridge is pretty darn good). There are some interesting features - Expert Guides being the one that stands out most. Per BlogBridge, Expert Guides are a collection of feeds around a specific topic that have been selected by someone who has real expertise in that area. BlogBridge is free and open source, there are some additional features that aren’t free (for commercial use). Feed Library (the software you can use to create your own Expert Guide directory) is one of them. Again, if you’re a Linux user, give this one a shot.
Screenshots:
 default view |
 summary view |
 create a smartfeed |
 “Guide” (groups of feeds) icons |
Homepage: http://www.bloglines.com/
Requirements: a (semi) modern web browser
Thoughts: Where to begin. Bloglines is one of, if not the most, popular web-based RSS readers. There are far too many features for me to list here, so if you’re curious, visit their about page for the highlights. Though I personally prefer Google Reader for web based RSS, Bloglines comes in as a close second. They also have a fun and helpful forum that’s worth checking out. Oh - and not only do they support importing and exporting OPML, they do it right (hierarchies etc).
Screenshots:
 default view |
 auto-discovery |
 article view |
 group view |
 feed options |
 forums |
Homepage: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Requirements: see the full list here - but in a nutshell, Windows 98 and up, Mac OS X 10.2.x and up, Linux kernel 2.2.14 (with glibc 2.3.2, XFree86-3.3.6, gtk+2.0, fontconfig/xft and libstdc++5)
Thoughts: Firefox is a browser, not an RSS reader. I know this. But a surprisingly high number of people use it as their primary RSS reader, through a feature that Firefox calls “Live Bookmarks”. Live Bookmarks are actually a lot of people’s first introduction to RSS, even though they may not know it. By default, Live Bookmarks don’t have a lot of features - they just kind of ‘are what they are’. Enter LiveClick, one of the many add-ons/plugins for Firefox. LiveClick adds a number of very useful features to Live Bookmarks, such as: marking Live Bookmark items as ‘read’, receive alerts when select Live Bookmarks have new items, and it even allows you to use site icons (favicons) in place of the default RSS icon.
Screenshots:
 Live Bookmarks in the Bookmarks Toolbar |
 expanded view |
 Live Bookmarks as Bookmarks |
 organize your Live Bookmarks |
 group Live Bookmarks together |
 LiveClick add-on Options |
Homepage: http://www.google.com/reader/view/
Requirements: For the best user experience, Google Reader requires an up-to-date browser. They recommend that you use Firefox or Safari (download: Mac), but Internet Explorer will work too (download: Windows).
Thoughts: Though I said I wouldn’t suggest which RSS reader is “best”, Google Reader is my personal favorite. With so many viewing options, keyboard shortcuts and extra goodies (integrated podcast/mp3 player, auto-sorting, etc) - you really can’t go wrong. Throw in some Greasemonkey scripts and the sky is the limit. Google Reader supports importing and exporting OPML files.
Screenshots:
 default home |
 list view |
 article view |
 all items |
 preferences |
 import/export OPML |
Homepage: http://www.netvibes.com
Requirements: Most modern browsers will work, but Netvibes recommends Firefox 2+ or IE 7+
Thoughts: Strictly speaking, Netvibes is not just a web based RSS reader. You can add modules for services like Craigslist, Ebay, Flickr, local weather, To-Do lists and every email service under the sun (gmail, yahoo, hotmail, .mac, AOL and even POP). If you’re still using My Yahoo as your home page, you may want to seriously consider switching to Netvibes. With that in mind, the more you customize and/or add to Netvibes, the more you’ll need a broadband connection. Netvibes.com is my home page, and supports importing and exporting OPML files.
Screenshots:
 customized home |
 example tab |
 theme options |
 add feeds or modules |
 Netvibes ecosystem |
 general preferences |
Homepage: http://www.newsgator.com/
Requirements: A modern web browser
Thoughts: I should say up front - the ‘old’ (non-beta) version of Newsgator Online is very stable. Rock-solid even. The ajax beta, not so much. I thought it might be Firefox, but Safari and IE 7 had the same errors (see screenshots). With that said, the beta/ajax version has serious potential. Once the bugs are worked out.. It has a very sleek look and feel, lots of options, and everyone loves ajax.
Screenshots:
 welcome screen |
 default view |
 errors (oops) |
 full view |
Homepage: http://quickrss.net/
Requirements: MS Windows and the .NET framework v.2.0.50727
Thoughts: If you’re looking for a feature rich RSS reader, QuickRSS isn’t for you. If you’re looking for a fast, functional and ’simple’ RSS reader, QuickRSS is for you. And that’s not to say it has no features - there’s a built in web browser, it supports the use of a proxy server, and you can minimize to the system tray. QuickRSS uses very few system resources (I couldn’t get it to use more than 4MB of RAM) and isn’t at all CPU intensive. Though it doesn’t support importing and exporting of OPML (yet), it does allow you to backup and restore your feeds.
Screenshots:
 default view |
 adding feeds |
 settings |
 web page view |
 backup |
 feed details |
Homepage: http://www.rojo.com/
Requirements: a web browser
Thoughts: Meh.. Of the web based RSS readers, I’d have to say Rojo was my least favorite. Though it has the typical options (import/export, keyboard shortcuts, mark as read/unread etc), it doesn’t have the advanced features of Google Reader or Bloglines. With that said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with Rojo, and the page load times are pretty quick.
Screenshots:
 default view |
 individual feed view |
 options |
 “scoop” an article |
Homepage: http://www.rssbandit.org/
Requirements: Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP/2003 - Windows 2000, XP or 2003 is recommended. The .NET framework 1.1 or higher
Thoughts: Anyone familiar with Outlook will have no trouble using RSS Bandit. But unlike Outlook, RSS Bandit is open source, and doesn’t crash nearly as often (it has yet to crash at all for me). A jazillion features - many of which are fantastic (advanced podcast options, NNTP support etc). Support open source!
Screenshots:
 default feed view |
 default article view |
 vertical pane view |
 options |
Homepage: http://www.rssowl.org/
Requirements: Java Runtime Environment (JRE), preferably 1.4.2 or 1.5.x
Thoughts: Cross platform, open source, a ton of features - what more can you ask for? How about exporting a newsfeed, a single article or an entire category of newsfeeds into PDF, RTF or HTML. Don’t like the 2 column view? Switch to 3. RSSOwl even has a built in browser you can use for quickly viewing html. Three thumbs up.
Screenshots:
 default view |
 preferences |
 displayed attachments |
 lots o’ tabs |
Homepage: http://sage.mozdev.org/
Requirements: Firefox
Thoughts: Sage is a lightweight RSS feed reader extension for Firefox. Once installed, open Sage by selecting View -> Sidebar -> Sage from the Firefox menu. One of the unique’ish features is the default style - what Sage refers to as “Newspaper feed rendering” (see screenshot 1 below). If you don’t like the default style, you can download one of the many pre-created ones, or make your own (styles are CSS driven). Sage supports importing and exporting OPML, and you can use Firefox’s tabs to open multiple feeds at once.
Screenshots:
 default style |
 web view |
 settings |
 custom style sheet |
 Sage using tabs |
Homepage: http://www.utsire.com/shrook/
Requirements: Mac OS X v10.3.9 or v10.4 (Universal Binary)
Thoughts: Wow. This is one feature packed RSS reader - I don’t even know where to start. Lets see - clickable Growl support, auto-download podcasts and have them added to your iTunes Library (and auto-export to a connected iPod), sync with a web reader (shrook.com) and so much more. The column view will be familiar for any mac user. Shrook supports importing and exporting OPML files, and importing from NetNewsWire.
Screenshots:
 article view |
 feed suggestions |
 sync w/ shrook.com |
 channel preferences |
 iPod preferences |
 advanced preferences |
Homepage: http://www.gnome.org/projects/straw/
Requirements: Python 2.4, PyGTK 2.6, GNOME-Python 2.6, GnomePythonExtras 2.10, Berkeley DB 3 or 4 and their Python bindings, ADNS library and the corresponding Python binding are highly recommended for smoother operation, but Straw will work without them.
Thoughts: For folks new to Linux, don’t let those requirements scare you - Straw can be installed via the Synaptic Package Manger. Straw is a straight forward, easy to use RSS reader. Not a lot of frills, but totally functional. You’ll need to learn the keyboard shortcuts to use Straw most effectively, as the GUI is pretty minimal.
Screenshots:
 default view |
 preferences |
 keyboard shortcuts |
 author and post URL |
Homepage: http://thinfeeder.sourceforge.net
Requirements: Java
Thoughts: ThinFeeder, as the name suggests, is a very small Java based RSS reader. It doesn’t use many system resources, has a decent GUI, and is supports multiple languages (Catalan, Dutch, English, Esperanto, French, German, Lithuanian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish and Swedish). Now for the drawbacks - though it supports importing and exporting OPML, it failed (reported errors) importing my Google Reader-exported OPML file. When manually adding feeds, I couldn’t paste them in (via keyboard shortcuts or right-click) - though that may be an OS X only problem. It still gets props for being so small, and of course open source.
Screenshots:
 default view |
 preferences |
 included skin |
 suggested feeds |
Homepage: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Requirements: View the requirements for your OS here
Thoughts: Though primarily developed as an email client, Thunderbird is also a great way to keep up with your feeds. One of the many benefits of using Thunderbird as your RSS client is that it supports viewing feeds/articles while offline (depending on the feed type). Thunderbird supports importing and exporting OPML files.
Screenshots:
 article view |
 web view |
 individual view |
 account settings |
 import/export |
 offline view |
Homepage: http://www.opencommunity.co.uk/vienna2.php
Requirements: Mac OSX 10.3.9 or later (it’s a Universal Binary)
Thoughts: Vienna is pretty darn slick. It has a built in tabbed browser, supports embedded media (youtube videos etc), several reading layouts and on top of it all, it’s open source. The ’smart folders’, which automatically displays all articles meeting a specified criteria, are genius. Works with Growl, and makes blogging simple by automatically recognizing the most common blogging software and launches the software with the details of the selected article pre-filled. If you know some HTML and CSS, you can even customize the article presentation. I’ll say it yet again - support open source!
Screenshots:
 default view |
 embedded media |
 tabbed browser |
 preferences |
Homepage: http://vistamcrssreader.oabsoftware.nl/ (or here for MCE version)
Requirements: Vista Premium or Ultimate, or Media Center Edition 2005
Thoughts: Eh.. It’s neat, I suppose. If I had Vista (or a PC running MCE 2005) hooked up to my TV I might use it. RSS feeds are pulled from IE 7 (MCE version uses a seperate app to subscribe/pull feeds). You can use it to listen to podcasts/mp3s or watch vodcasts in addition to reading RSS feeds. One drawback, images in RSS articles are not displayed. note: Vista Media Center RSS Reader is free “for now” but according to the author, You may be asked to pay a small license fee in the near future. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if someone else comes up with a similar app in the future, with more features (and one that will remain free).
Screenshots:
 RSS in media center |
 feed list |
 article list |
 article view |
 play audio/video content |
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
wow, this is a very nice article, great one Ross
I also prefer Google Reader but always wonder about the others. Thanks for such a thorough review.
There is also Gregarius, a web-based opensource feed reader, to install on your own server. Interesting because it can collects feeds with cron.
Opera has a nice feed reader built in. Pages having feeds show the familiar orange icon in the address bar. Just click this to subscribe to the feed.
Simple. Easy. Convenient. And, yes, free.
I use Brief Extension in Firefox for reading RSS feeds. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4578
It uses the live bookmarks of Firefox and i simply love its UI. Also Brief stores feed content in database (powered by SQLite) and it allows us to search the feeds.
For Linux exist LIFEREA (Linux Feeds Reader)
It’s fast, simple and don’t need a lot of dependences.
http://liferea.sourceforge.net
Recommended!!
i think you should add a review of itsmynews, they are a new web based RSS reader, but i like them a lot. I think your readers will also enjoy the site, its easy to read and has lots of feeds
Dude, why not just use Google?
I used to use google reader but i just like itsmynews better, i think the layout of the site is cleaner and i like that they have a site of the day feature. Also they have lots of feeds that google does not have
What theme is that on ThunderBird??? I want it!
Mike -
Sorry, every once in a while the notification system for comments doesn’t work perfectly and I don’t get an email when someone comments. So please accept my apology for the delay in this response
That’s actually the default theme/skin for Thunderbird in OS X
Ross
I wonder how “Greatnews” RSS reader software was forgotten. I think its the best freeware available for windows OS.
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