Thanks for re-submitting this. I submitted this earlier when the Google Reader shutdown was first announced. Any more additions or suggestions most welcome.
The list confuses full feed reader services (like Feedly, Newsblur) with Google Reader clients (Reeder). Would have been nice to separate those as Reeder is certainly not a replacement for Google Reader.
This is useful. Feel free to put your list on http://getgini.com. I want to make it collaborative, so you could have contributed to my original list itself, or forked it to make whatever changes you want. But, I haven't got around to adding collaboration yet!
What does "Web" mean? I would expect it to mean I can access it with a web browser, but that does not seem to be the case (feedly, reeder are applications to install). It does not mean hosted either as tt-rss and stringer need to be self-hosted.
Concerning FeedHQ, it has now a paid service (free for one month, 12$ a year)
I do mean web browser by "Web". I thought Feedly used to work directly in the browser, but looks like now they require you to install it via the Chrome Web Store. I've updated the other details you mentioned. Thanks!
The feature I'm most interested in is not mentioned in this chart at all: whether my feeds will render correctly! I read a bunch of math blogs, many of which are on WordPress and use some LaTeX plugin for formulas. Many RSS readers do not render the formulas at all (I'm not sure why). Google Reader does it right, as does the RSS to email service blogtrottr.com (which is what I'm using now). Last time I tried Feedly, to give just one example, the formulas didn't show up.
I asked on /r/math for RSS feed readers that don't use Google Reader as a backend and render formulas correctly and didn't get a single answer, so I'm not optimistic. Maybe reading math blogs is too small a niche for RSS readers to bother with it?
Mmh. That suggestion mentions MathJax, but the WordPress LaTeX plugin many blogs use is not so fancy. That plugin insert formulas as images, dynamically generated by a PHP script, using URL's like this one:
That is most likely much easier to support than MathJax, which involves running JavaScript code. Having MathJax support too would be great, but I'd be satisfied with the WordPress PHP LaTeX plugin thingy.
They're going to have to pry Klipfolio 5 from my cold, dead, internet-hands. I still find it the most awesome RSS reader - as a bonus, you can program it to do pretty much anything as it is a full-fledged KPI program. v.5 is the last consumer-oriented one they put out, after which it disappeared, but you are still able to find it about. Give it a try if you like a desktop version!
Ah I see. I originally had it as "Web" but then it only showed me Chrome (because I'm using Chrome). Changed back to Web since they have addons for FF and Safari too. Sorry IE :-p users
Thanks, just added newsbeuter. I'm sorry I haven't added collobaration to my list app, otherwise I'd credit you properly. But I've linked to this discussion as a source.
Used liferea for years. Using it now. Will continue using it.
Tangentially, it saddens me to see people forgetting about simple native desktop apps - no getting shut down; no ads; no obnoxious social bullshit; just simple tools that succeed based on being useful rather than getting their users hooked and spamming their contacts for attention...
Thanks, just added liferea. I'm sorry I haven't added collobaration to my list app, otherwise I'd credit you properly. But I've linked to this discussion as a source.
It's not really about "forgetting". In many cases, a simple desktop app won't cut it.
Unless it also has a mobile app that syncs what I've read with the desktop app, it's sub-par to Google Reader for me personally. This is actually the most important of any feature for me.
I need to be able to go back and forth between desktop, laptop, and phone and never lose my place. I travel, co-work periodically, and like to read my feeds over lunch on most days.
This is my main issue. Finding something which works across multiple devices.
One thing which I've found rather irritating with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 is you find a great RSS app like Feed Monster, but then its not available on the WP8 platform. I'm constantly finding good apps for the desktop which are not available on the mobile platform and its incredibly frustrating. Add then you have some great apps like Feedly which are not available yet on WP8 (and probably won't be).
I'm pretty sure I'll be moving back to Android at the end of the summer.
I use http://www.feedsapi.org to forward all my expanded rss to my email account, On the web I use it in combination with Feedly to read fulltext rss feeds, and on my desktop, I use snackr + http://www.feedsapi.org .
I see your point, but I made this list so that people can see lots of alternatives. Feel free to make your own list with just the ones you think are good. That's really the idea of Gini - it's meant to be like a Github for useful lists of data. Collaboration and forking coming soon!
I found Feedbin from Reeder saying it was going to support it, but find that the feedbin website meets my needs. Of all of the ones I've tried it was the first that seemed to refresh the feeds with seemingly the same frequency that Google Reader. $2 / month.
Doesn't seem to consistently note which options you host yourself vs which are hosted elsewhere. E.g. I see Fever has a note that it is self-hosted, but tt-rss does not have a similar note.
Nice long list though. I guess it's almost July, I need to get on this.
I haven't tried many of the services on this list, but I would recommend Feedly. It can be a bit slow, and the fact that it requires a browser extension is a bit off-putting, but those things are being improved I believe.
They seem to be willing to listen to their users (in particular all of the ex-Google Reader users) and are improving the service very quickly, trying to cater for everyone's seemingly different needs.
The Android app is great as well, and is a much more visual reading experience than Google Reader was (but it doesn't have to be- it seems to be very highly configurable).
The fact that it's free is a bit worrying, but in a survey they sent out last month they asked if user's would be willing to pay a small fee for it- so this might be where it heads in the future (I'd hope so, anyway).
One thing I can't figure out about Feedly is if they're using their own sync service yet or if they are still relying on Google's while they work on building their own.
I have been using feedly, but it keeps asking me for logging in to google after every session. I wonder what will happen once reader goes down. That and it looks/feels bloated.
Here's another self-hosted option I came across in my search for a Reader replacement http://projet.idleman.fr/leed/ The site's in French but Google translate works well and it seems the developer has done good work on this project.
Thanks for the comprehensive list I now have more options to consider for a home hosted replacement.
For Emacs users, there's Gnus [1] and Newsticker [2]. Gnus doesn't support Atom feeds natively [3], so you have to call an external script to convert them to RSS before they're processed by Gnus. Newsticker supports RSS and Atom [4].
I've been using Tiny Tiny RSS since Google Readers announcement of shutdown. It's worked really great and since you can host it yourself the only person you can blame for it getting shutdown is yourself. The updating of RSS feeds is a little janky, but certainly not a show stopper. I have been very happy with it so far.
I'm still looking for one with a spiffy UI, a backend written in Python with Flask not Django, and not using MongoDB as a back end. I'd piece together my own but it's tempting to just use NewsBlur or one of the others that don't quite meet all those but see active development.
Why do you care what the backend to your newsreader is? You just need to access the UI, who cares what's driving it. If there are reliability issues it's because it's poorly built not because of the technology it's built on.
I'm reluctantly probably to go with Feedly for now, even though the "slickness" of the experience really gets in the way, the preferences are limited, and the page-by-page flipping on Android is maddening. I skim in streams, not blocks.
Newsblur was my second choice, but I found it too busy and cumbersome. That arrow that follows your mouse vertically that you can lock/unlock was the last straw.
It would be good to know which of these readers has a sustainable business model. For example, Feedly is free. After Google Reader, I'm not sure I can trust that.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 111 ms ] threadConcerning FeedHQ, it has now a paid service (free for one month, 12$ a year)
I asked on /r/math for RSS feed readers that don't use Google Reader as a backend and render formulas correctly and didn't get a single answer, so I'm not optimistic. Maybe reading math blogs is too small a niche for RSS readers to bother with it?
http://www.newsbeuter.org/
Tangentially, it saddens me to see people forgetting about simple native desktop apps - no getting shut down; no ads; no obnoxious social bullshit; just simple tools that succeed based on being useful rather than getting their users hooked and spamming their contacts for attention...
Unless it also has a mobile app that syncs what I've read with the desktop app, it's sub-par to Google Reader for me personally. This is actually the most important of any feature for me.
I need to be able to go back and forth between desktop, laptop, and phone and never lose my place. I travel, co-work periodically, and like to read my feeds over lunch on most days.
One thing which I've found rather irritating with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 is you find a great RSS app like Feed Monster, but then its not available on the WP8 platform. I'm constantly finding good apps for the desktop which are not available on the mobile platform and its incredibly frustrating. Add then you have some great apps like Feedly which are not available yet on WP8 (and probably won't be).
I'm pretty sure I'll be moving back to Android at the end of the summer.
You did miss FeedWrangler too. I guess it wasn't out at the time of the other thread.
I've added FeedWrangler now, thanks.
Nice long list though. I guess it's almost July, I need to get on this.
They seem to be willing to listen to their users (in particular all of the ex-Google Reader users) and are improving the service very quickly, trying to cater for everyone's seemingly different needs.
The Android app is great as well, and is a much more visual reading experience than Google Reader was (but it doesn't have to be- it seems to be very highly configurable).
The fact that it's free is a bit worrying, but in a survey they sent out last month they asked if user's would be willing to pay a small fee for it- so this might be where it heads in the future (I'd hope so, anyway).
Thanks for the comprehensive list I now have more options to consider for a home hosted replacement.
[1] https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/gnus/RSS...
[2] https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_mono/newstick...
[3] http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/GnusRss
[4] http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/NewsTicker
I'm holding off to see what the 'Digg Reader' has to offer before making a final decision.
Looks like it's going to be Feedly though. I was pretty much sold when I heard that Reeder (iOS) and GReader (Android) will both sync with it.
Newsblur was my second choice, but I found it too busy and cumbersome. That arrow that follows your mouse vertically that you can lock/unlock was the last straw.