I excluded any apps that use an algorithm to determine the order in which posts are displayed (e.g., popular posts displayed first), and I also excluded tools better described as content discovery platforms (e.g., Flipboard).įull text. Traditionally, they do two things: display content in reverse chronological order and allow you to curate the content you want to read. (Here's our list of the best RSS readers for Mac.) Most of these apps can also work with popular native RSS apps that sync feeds directly to your device, but that wasn't required for inclusion. If you're used to reading things in your browser, it's the most natural experience. A web-based news feed reader lets you read content online using any device just by visiting a site. Each featured app has, at the very least, a great free plan that's sufficient for many users. As a vestige of an older, more open internet era, you don't have to pay to get a premium experience. In addition to that must-have, I required all the apps on this list to be:įree. They're all polished, easy to use, and put the content you want to read front and center. Thankfully, as it's a decades-old standard, there are a few great apps that have thoroughly cracked this problem.

You don't want to have to deal with weird UI quirks or even really interact with your reader app-it's all about seamlessly mainlining as much high-quality content as possible. Good RSS services have a weirdly challenging job: they have to gather content from loads of different places and display it for you, all while getting out of the way as much as possible. It means I don't have to constantly check and see if Derek Sivers or Tynan has published a new post-it just pops up in my feeds. I follow a few dozen tech sites, but it's also really great for following blogs that only publish a few times a year.

For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.Īs a tech writer, I rely on my RSS app to keep me up to date on what's going on. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.

Google flipboard