A Directory of The Best RSS readers

This is by no means a definitive list, but I've tested these programs and found them all to be worthwhile. Some more additions after feedback. Please keep the suggestions coming. (These are mainly Windows programs: At some point I'll do a Mac list, suggestions for that also welcome)

• Awasu A free Windows RSS client, allowing monitoring of a variety of news sites and weblogs around the world. Using plugin architecture, can also be customized to monitor databases, email accounts, and other resources
• FeedReader Freeware application for Windows.
• Newz Crawler Provides access to news content from several sources, including XML, RSS, Usenet, and the Web.
• NewsGator News aggregator that runs in Microsoft Outlook. Site features product overview, online tutorial and trial download.
• Novobot A heavily featured desktop newsreader, that can also scrape non-RSS'd sites
• RSS Bandit A free desktop news aggregator for Windows built on the .NET Framework.
• RocketInfo The Rocketinfo RSS Reader is a FREE personal news and information tool that allows you to search, subscribe, read and track content from thousands of RSS and Weblog sources.
• FeedDemon FeedDemon enables you to quickly explore the world of RSS from your desktop without having to visit hundreds of sites. Written by Nick Bradbury, creator of TopStyle and HomeSite, FeedDemon makes RSS as easy to access as your email.
• Abilon Abilon displays headlines from RSS (Rich Site Summary) Channels in an easy to read format. It is small (364 kb), fast, and free. Adding new channels is as simple as right-clicking and entering the address of the feed.
• RssReader RssReader collects news in the background at user configurable intervals and warn with a little popup in the system tray that there is a new message arrived. You can click the news headline to see a short description of the news and click or open the original news web page in an RssReader browser or default browser window.
• SauceReader Clean, intuitive Outlook 2003 style user interface. Integrated weblogging environment with full posting functionality. Share content with friends using the Windows Messenger integration. Automatic application updates. Feed discovery and one-click subscription to RSS and Atom feeds. Full-text search of archived items.
• RSSOwl (thanks, Sam Prince) It lets you gather, organize, update, and store information from any compliant source in a convenient, easy to use interface, save selected information in various formats for offline viewing and sharing, and much more. RSSOwl is also free of charge, fast, cross-platform, and unobtrusive. It's easy to install, easy to use, and easy to move.
• Bloglines (thanks Mark) Bloglines is the most comprehensive, integrated service for searching, subscribing, publishing and sharing news feeds, blogs, and rich Web content. It's free and easy-to-use.
• SharpReader SharpReader is an RSS/Atom Aggregator for Windows, created by Luke Hutteman.
• BlogMatrix Jäger (thanks, Dewayne Mikkelson) BlogMatrix Jäger is an extensible "one-panel" reader, taking up a very small amount of screen space, and includes a synchronization feature. (+ Mac)

Here are some others I haven't tried, but which have been suggested by readers:

• Rawdog
• JabRSS (thanks, Jim Hughes)

Comments

[markf@bloglines.com]

I humbly ask that you try our service, Bloglines, at http://www.bloglines.com. We're the most popular web-based news aggregation service, and we have several features that no other aggregator has, including personalized recommendations, a clip blog, and email subscriptions. Thanks.

[Juha Komulainen]

As a user of Bloglines I can only agree with the recommendation. I've tried several desktop RSS readers, but Bloglines beats them hands down, because I can access it from any computer. It even integrates nicely with Firefox using an extension.

[Sam Prince]

You might also want to try out RSSOwl. It's a java (SWT) aggregator with a nice UI and all the features you might expect such as customisable automatic reloading of feeds, optional popups for new news, support for blogging tools... more info here:
http://rssowl.sourceforge.net/features.php?lang=en

And it's open source too.

[padawan]

Interesting list. You should either precise that this is only for Windows PC, or add NetNewsWire and other Mac readers to it.

[Tom McMahon]

I've found that Bloglines and iRider together make an unbeatable combination.

[Dewayne Mikkelson]

Nice List!!
Have you looked at BlogMatrix Jaeger?
http://jaeger.blogmatrix.com/

[Dewayne Mikkelson]

Your Welcome. And Thank You for the linkage!!!

[Douglas Sorocco]

Thanks for the great information! I am linking to you as part of my Syndication/RSS Readers information on my weblawg PHOSITA: http://www.okpatents.com/phosita/

Thanks again!

[Scott]

Add me to the list of Bloglines fans. I too have tried about half a dozen readers and Bloglines is by far the best out there. The RocketInfo one is not too bad too however.

[Jim Hughes]

You could add Rawdog and JabRSS to that list.

Rawdog - http://offog.org/code/rawdog.html

JabRSS - http://cmeerw.org/dev/node/view/7

[Pino]

We're around with a web-based aggregator since 6 years - you should have heard about it - NewsIsFree.com. Btw-we're also the biggest producers of (free) RSS feeds for a variety of sites out there who still have no rss feeds. - oh - and i didn't even mention our news maps :)

[BlogFusion]

Check out Sharp Reader. I've been very impressed with its simplicity.

[pieman]

The latest edition of Firefox (1.0) incorporates RSS into the browser. I haven't tried it yet although it will be interesting to test it before the new version of Safari (For Mac) comes out which promises something similar.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/live-bookmarks.html

[Steven]

404Browser version 1.5 has supported RSS and it ranks the news items by user preference (the user is able to score the news story from a scale of 1 to 5).

[jason]

You should also check out www.wurldbook.com It's like Pluck, but 100% web-based and vastly more powerful. Still in beta, but well worth a look.

[Scott]

Check out Sage, a Firefox extension. I love it. As the description says:

"It's got a lot of what you need and not much of what you don't."

http://sage.mozdev.org/

[Ian]

I personally like Bloglines alot since I can use it anywhere, but check out desktop sidebar. I love that gizmo.

http://www.desktopsidebar.com

[Yiannis]

Very Interesting Site.I use firefox 1.0.2 and newzcrawler.Very good both of them.keep going.thanks

[Mike]

Not an aggregator per se but in that class is http://www.rss-to-javascript.com/

Simple to use for aggregating RSS content into a web page, like a blog.

[Alessandro Alinone]

This is a pure HTML RSS Reader, based on Lightstreamer technology, that does not require to download applets or application. It streams new headlines to any browser without refreshing the page, in true-push fashion (so you just keep the browser window open and you will see any update through streaming).

You can check the demo out here: http://app.lightstreamer.com/RSSDemo/

To know more info about Lightstreamer, you can visit this site: www.lightstreamer.com.

[John Reed]

How about adding Pluck to the list? We may not be the most popular RSS reader (yet), but like Avis, we try harder. Check out Pluck for Internet Explorer and Pluck Web Edition.

[rachael]

Not sure if you'd consider it a RSS reader, but you should look at klipfolio - http://www.serence.com/klipfolio

and is free too

[Kdogg]

Waggr is another excellent web-based news reader - http://www.waggr.com/

[Jeremy]

Here's a new one: GreatNews, from http://www.curiostudio.com/index.html

[katie]

heya, u can try out another web-based rss reader at www.netimechannel.com (no need for installation, etc)... its pretty fast, and i heard they're upgrading their services pretty soon. so worth the look :D

[sk]

1. get firefox
2. get add live bookmark extension.
3. add new toolbar - name it address bar, move your search bar on to this bar.
4. go to manage bookmarks and create folders for the feed categories that you'd need. make sure to create them in bookmarks toolbar folder.
5. browse and add your feeds.
6. voila best rss integration ever within the confines of your browser. nothing can top this.

[sk]

1. get firefox
2. get add live bookmark extension.
3. add new toolbar - name it address bar, move your search bar on to this bar.
4. go to manage bookmarks and create folders for the feed categories that you'd need. make sure to create them in bookmarks toolbar folder.
5. browse and add your feeds.
6. voila best rss integration ever within the confines of your browser. nothing can top this.

[sk]

1. get firefox
2. get add live bookmark extension.
3. add new toolbar - name it address bar, move your search bar on to this bar.
4. go to manage bookmarks and create folders for the feed categories that you'd need. make sure to create them in bookmarks toolbar folder.
5. browse and add your feeds.
6. voila best rss integration ever within the confines of your browser. nothing can top this.

[simon]

Chaos Wallpaper displays the news over your desktop wallpaper. Very handy since you can just click on news that interest you directly from your desktop background.
http://www.elgorithms.com/downloads/chaoswallpaper.php

[Joseph]

I request you to try the latest online news aggregator, FeedFeeds (http://www.feedfeeds.com)

[Grant]

I highly suggest you all try Gritwire - www.gritwire.com - this service is easily the best RSS/blog aggregator site on the internet. They recently did some major changes and the features and content now available are amazing.

[denis titov]

Take a look at my tool
Build-in RSS Client.

http://www.dat-it.com/

Its an MS Internet Explorer tool bar for handling RSS feeds

[ProfitPapers]

I can't image using anything but Google Reader. it may be in beta but its already a solid very usable Google style app.

[savaged]

To all the bloglines fans, you really should switch to newsgator it's much easier to configure and use and has all the features that bloglines does for reading feeds.

[Maria]

Another Blogline fan! I always recommend it.

[nick]

rss-magnet is my reader of choice.

[Jim Demers]

Check out www.feedblitz.com -- they'll gather posts from your favorite blogs and compile them into a single daily email. Sweet!

[Alexey Polkovnikov]

Hi,

I suggest you to try RSS-To-Speech and LiveRSS gadgets for Google Desktop. The software was recently awarded by Google with Honourable Mension.. (http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/2006/09/results-of-google-desktop-gadget.html)

Enjoy!

[top]

I am use thunderbird and it's rss client. It's best.

[Dmitry]

Great, it is interesting!

[podo]

Perfect BLOG!!! A+++++

[Joe]

I suggest www.ereses.cz - nice web feed reader/agregator

[Alex]

I suggest www.ereses.cz - nice web feed reader/agregator

[Jack]

Great list - very helpful.

I did find another one that you might be interested in checking out. It's called Popuload, and it's a little different from the rest. Recently released, too.

Check it out - http://www.popuload.com