How to choose an RSS reader?

If you find yourself on this here article, then perhaps you’re new to the RSS scene and need a bit of help in choosing an RSS feed reader.

Welcome! We’re glad you made it. RSS is just the best thing you can add to your digital life, which will greatly improve your time on the Internet.

We’re here to help you make the most informed decision to get the best start possible with RSS. 

RSS feeds 101?

RSS feeds exist, because people wanted a better way to consume content online back before social media ruled the Internet. It was the early 2000s and blogs had become a massive hit with not just experts or professionals, but everyone who had something to say.

RSS feeds emerged as the only convenient way to read as many blogs and new sites as one wanted with zero demands on their time. An RSS reader would crawl each site in your subscriptions and return with any new headlines within minutes of publication. This way to syndicate content gave users the freedom to enjoy the Internet at their own pace.

Sounds like a dream right? That’s precisely why you should bring it back into your daily routine. 

Why do you need it?

RSS makes your life easier regardless of whether you’re using it during your free time or in the office. It’s just a smarter, more efficient way to get through all the reading you want to do without any of the associated stress. Given the recent move towards capturing feeds from social media and podcasts, you can access the entirety of your online spaces in one client.

Not to mention, RSS readers have leapt miles ahead in their evolution and are now effective tools in boosting productivity for businesses. 

What to consider when choosing an RSS feed reader?

It can be a tough decision to know what RSS feed reader will meet all your needs. Sometimes you might not know what your needs are in the first place, which is why we have this handy checklist prepared for just this task. 

Speed

It’s incredibly important to have good speed. How well do RSS readers deliver on speed? What’s the update interval and how often does the reader crawl sites. If you’re relying on an RSS reader for your day job and you need to go over large quantities of articles and titles, then you can’t work with anything less than stellar.

Each reader has its own strengths. Inoreader gives users the ability to boost their feeds and reduce update intervals with ease. As a general rule, you’re best to choose desktop clients, because the browser-based readers have to contend with how your browser operates. 

Integration with other platforms

RSS readers have moved beyond accessing feeds from blogs and news sites. Current readers have support for social media platforms and newsletters. Inoreader can even return results from Reddit, which is notoriously difficult to search and follow.

However, most important is the full integration with other platforms. Can you send articles you like to your social media accounts? Are you able to directly send to messaging platforms like Slack and Telegram? Can you save articles to DropBox or Evernote? It’s important to look into the full range of compatibility an RSS reader offers. Inoreader supports regular expression and works with both IFTTT and Zapier. 

Interface

RSS readers have a very similar look and feel as most have risen to fill the void left after Google Reader ceased to be. The Old Reader is perhaps most faithful to the original simplicity of the most popular RSS reader at the time. Beyond it, new models are definitely designed to be intuitive as a whole and most importantly you’ll have a chance to see a tutorial video.

What’s even better than a simple view is a reader with flexibility in how you change your layout. Customization such as this is widely available as well. It’s up to you to consider what works best for you and take into account the costs for any upgrade in customization. 

Features 

Integration is all good and well, but what can your RSS reader do on its own? Competition is quite strong among different clients as there’s a lot to consider.

Netvibes, for instance, does more than just syndicate content. It allows users to command multiple applications as well. Feedly gives you the opportunity to comment on and highlight important passages of articles.

Inoreader is known for its excellent filtration and automation features as well as its powerful search and discovery mode, which takes cues from your reading. 

Affordable price

Price sensitivity is something worth discussing. Individual users have mostly all options available on the market free of cost – the only catch is that free means limited features. You’re basically all getting rudimentary functionality.

Paid options vary significantly. Most RSS readers strike a solid monthly rate range between 15$ and 25$ – Inoreader certainly falls into this range. Though you can continue to upgrade features to a subscription model of 60$ for a truly powerful experience. Feeder is another RSS reader with a pro account reach up this high and they give you excellent features, which is a smart investment for those companies who have the budget. 

Good support

Good support may not be the first thing you think about when shopping around for your business as most are rather intuitive and don’t have the type of capabilities to necessitate dependence on a reliable support team. However, the more you invest in an RSS reader and there are pricey options on the market, you should research their available support.

You don’t want to run for more than a week on end without a proper response. If you don’t hear good things about the support coupled with reviews that mention bugs and errors, then you should walk right past. Needless to say, learn about the developer as well. Small developers equal longer response times generally and that’s not a dealbreaker.