RocketTheme Blog
Top Feed Readers
- Thursday, 08 May 2014 19:06
RSS clients, and other news aggregation tools are an excellent way to keep up with multiple content sources from one, central location. News aggregation services give you the ability to keep track of all of these feeds from a centralized location, making it possible to connect multiple clients to a single list.
A good RSS client can connect to these services, and display content in a way that is easy to read and manage. Many of the aggregation services listed in our first blog post in this series have their own clients, in addition to the third-party clients, some of which are featured in this article.
While an RSS client won’t replace the native UI of a well-made website, it can serve as a functional time saver for the busy user.
RSS feeds are used all across the Web to make distribution of content easier not only for the user receiving the information, but content creator. The content creator benefits from syndicated distribution of content with less server overhead.
Below, we have listed some of our favorite RSS clients. The options in this list not only allow the user to manually add feeds, but to plug in to more comprehensive news aggregation services that allow centralized, cloud-based management options.
ReadKit
ReadKit is a full-featured RSS / read later client for OS X that can be purchased from the Mac App Store for $6.99.
Andy Miller, RocketTheme’s founder, described ReadKit: “It works seamlessly with Feedly, so syncing is speedy and reliable. It’s also just a great app that exhibits several key values: visually appealing, stable, fast, and configurable.”
ReadKit not only works with Feedly (which itself has a very popular Web client) but it also works with the following:
- Instapaper
- Readability
- Pinboard
- Delicious
- Feedly
- Fever
- NewsBlur
- Feedbin
- Feed Wrangler
ReadKit can even accept new RSS feeds without the need of tying in to any third-party services.
Reeder 2
Reeder 2 is a feed reader for iOS that can be purchased for $4.99 and is formatted to run natively on both the iPhone and iPad.
Reeder 2 works with the following services:
- Feedbin
- Feedly
- Feed Wrangler
- Fever
- Readability
It also works as a stand-alone RSS reader.
In addition to an easy multi-touch navigation system and multiple themes, the client can also share stories with nearly a dozen sharing services like Buffer and Zootool.
Reeder 2 is also available for Mac in a beta client. The client has a clean, intuitive interface, and integrated support for Feedly, Feedbin, Feed Wrangler, and Fever.
Newsify
Newsify is an excellent reader client for iOS that works natively on iPhone and iPad. It’s also free, which makes it a good deal for anyone looking for a decent client with a good UI.
Newsify has an abundance of useful features that make scrolling through stories, and organizing data, a little easier. Articles are organized in a newspaper-like layout with an optional traditional list display available.
The client works with Feedly, but can be synced with iCloud in the absence of an account.
NextGen Reader
NextGen is a native RSS reader for Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
It is a primary Feedly client that features a three-pane layout, light and dark color schemes, and more.
You can pick up NextGen for $2.99 from the Windows App Store.
Vienna
Vienna is a free and open source RSS/Atom reader that utilizes Open Reader to deliver a simple, robust reader experience. It isn’t the prettiest app in this list, but it is an excellent alternative for anyone that wants to sync their feed list without spending money for the service.
You can sync your library with open reader servers like: BazQux, FeedHQ, InoReader, and TheOldReader.