Readerpocalypse - The Alternatives

Posted Sunday, April 14, 2013 4:20 am

It's been a month since Google announced it was going to shut down Reader, so I decided to gather up all the various links to 'alternatives' that I've been saving over the past few weeks, do some searches on Twitter to see if anything had popped up that I missed (a few actually), and then take a step back and try to categorize all the various services and apps into groups to try to understand what the options are out there so far. As I'm working towards launching Clever.io, I want to be aware of what others are doing so I can figure out the best way to present the service.

The results are pretty interesting I think. If you check out the links you'll see that in some ways there's a lot of variety right now, but it's pretty clear to me that there's a level of stagnation as well. (Which is good for what I'm trying to do). I'll post some other thoughts about this soon, as I want to start blogging more about what I'm working on (it helps me think through things), but for now check out the list yourself.

Below is a complete list of actively hosted news readers and a few alternative apps, categorized by function and type, with comments where needed. If I missed anything big, leave me a comment.

-Russ

P.S. Whoops - decided to change the title be more specific.

Reader Replacements - BigCos

  • AOL Reader - "All your favorite websites, in one place."
  • Feedly - "More than 3,000,000 Google Reader users have switched to feedly."
  • Wordpress Reader - "Keep track of all your favorite blogs and discover new ones with the Reader."
  • GoodNoows - "ZNet Labs develops Good Noows - Your personal news stream."
  • NetVibes - "A dashboard for all your apps, pics and tweets. A reader for all your real-time articles and posts. The best of both worlds."
  • Taptu - "Instant access to all your interests in one beautiful little app. DJ your news." Can only import 100 GReader feeds... odd.
  • Bloglines - "Bloglines is the fastest way to find and track your favorite websites and blogs in real-time."
  • Feedreader.com - "Read all your feeds online as a single stream." They also have an OEM edition as well.
  • Digg Reader - "A simple, clean, fast, uncluttered reading experience."

Reader Replacements - Startups with Open Source

  • NewsBlur - "NewsBlur is a personal news reader that brings people together to talk about the world. A new sound of an old instrument." $24/year Code in Python plus Android client
  • FeedHQ - "FeedHQ is a feed reader built with readability and mobility in mind." Code in Python.
  • CommaFeed - "Bloat-free feed reader" Code in Java w/ AngularJS.
  • Newsline Pro - "Newsline is a RSS and Atom feed fetching and sync server." Code in Python
  • Pykih reader - "A clean, no bullshit, lightning fast Google Reader alternative" Code in Ruby
  • GoRead - "Go Read is a web-based RSS reader." Code in Go

Reader Replacements - Startups

  • Feedbin - "A fast, simple RSS feed reader that delivers a great reading experience." $2/month
  • The OldReader - "Welcome to The Old Reader, the ultimate social RSS reader. It's just like the old google reader, only better."
  • Rivered - "A simple RSS feed reader that focuses on doing one thing right: Letting you interact with content you're interested in." $20/year
  • Rolio - "News, business, entertainment, sport, social media and much more aggregated into your own customizable real-time feed"
  • Memamsa - "Memamsa helps you stay posted on stories, trends and topics of interest."
  • FeedFiend - "Feed Fiend is a web-based RSS reader that makes it easy to follow the sites and blogs you love without much technical knowledge."
  • FeedInbox - "Single inbox for all your feeds. Supports all types of feeds RSS, Atom. Powerful search through the feeds. Folder wise organisation of feeds."
  • BazQux - "BazQux Reader shows blog posts and comments in one seamless stream, tracks what was read and displays only new discussions next time." $30/year
  • Syndifeed - "Keep up with all your favourite sites." You can login into the demo account using demo and demodemo.
  • Readable.cc - "Readable.cc is a news reader created by Elbert Alias." Very slow server, but clean interface with training algorithms.
  • Yaegr - "the minimal news app - hunts, eats and displays rss feeds for you"
  • Yanobs - "We operate on a freemium business model, so we won't have to shut down the service!"
  • Wellread - "Never miss what matters from your news, professional and social networks!"
  • Fetch [n] Read - "We fetch content from your favorite sites, you read it when and how you want."
  • ModeFeed - "ModeFeed lets you effortlessly follow your favourite sites and blogs by putting them in one easy to read feed."
  • NewsVibe - "Newsvibe is an RSS news feed reader that will enable you to read your news feeds in any browser and will keep the news that you want to read in sync across all your devices."
  • 1kpl.us - "This is an RSS and Atom feed reader." Fully functional front page demo.
  • FeedWrangler - "I wanted a more modern approach that focused on providing the best possible experience for navigating my news feeds. Feed Wrangler will be a paid, subscription service"
  • Hive Reader - "Hive, the place to read the internet on the internet."
  • Pikareader - "Pikareader is a RSS feed reader built by and for news addict !"
  • g2reader - "g2reader is Google Reader inspired RSS reader"
  • Yoleo - "The simple and beautiful feed reader".
  • Manyjars - "manyjars is a minimal, opinionated reader for rss and atom feeds"
  • Bloganizer - "Organize & Manage Your Blog Life - Bloganizer supports a single-step transition from Google Reader. PLUS AWESOMENESS."
  • Feedspot - "Social Feed Reader. We are Rethinking the RSS Reader and building an entirely new platform from scratch."
  • FlowReader - "All the news you want. Together at last."
  • Feeder.co - "The easiest way to follow your favorite sites"
  • Lector - "A news reader for people who want one simple thing: read."
  • Bulletin - "A fast, modern RSS service."
  • Curata Reader - "Curata Reader is specifically designed for marketers and businesses to give you a reader experience like none before."
  • ArrEssEss - "A simple, fun, and free RSS reader"
  • RedTree Reader - "Designed to as closely mimic Google Reader as possible."
  • FeedRebel - "Read and Manage your feeds effortlessly."
  • Hawk Reader - "Ihr einfacher deutschsprachiger RSS-Newsreader"
  • Daily Social - "Read top stories from your Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds"
  • Reader.is - "The RSS Reader reimagined."
  • FeedEachOther - "Where the web comes to you."
  • InoReader - "RSS reader built with simplicity and speed in mind. Inspired by Google Reader. Made for Google Reader fans."
  • SilverReader - "A simple but powerful RSS reader"
  • Kouio - "The Reader you've always wanted"
  • Readuction - "Readuction is the intelligent, adaptive feed reader"
  • Ridly - "The simple but elegant Google Reader replacement"

Reader Replacements - Anonymous

Amazingly, all of these services are missing an about page or contact list. No Twitter accounts listed, no country of origin, nothing. Crazy.

  • NuesByte - Fully functional front-page demo and signup, no contact info. Looks good though.
  • Pheedr - "Pheedr is a minimalist, web-based, RSS reader designed for reading."
  • Pagetty - Completely anonymous. Screenshot looks nice. Again, no about page.
  • Feedbot.io - "A Really Simple Syndication Synchronization Machine... A syncing API is on the way."

Simplified

  • Bloglovin - "Sure, there were other blog readers out there, but they were technical, boring, and cluttered with features. We wanted to build something for the rest of us."
  • Subpug - "The beautiful free RSS reader with comments and filters" Nice job on the UI, but it relies on Google's JSON feed API.
  • HeadSlinger - "All the news, half the time."
  • Skimr - "Skimr is a very simple web based RSS reader for desktop and mobile." I like the minimal interface and cross-device focus.

Pinterest-like

  • Rockmelt - "Rockmelt is re-imagining what navigating the Web should be: mobile, visual, social, and personalized."
  • MultiPLX - "Multiplx is a reimagined RSS Reader developed by Kosmaz Technologies LLC. "
  • Mocharoll - "MochaRoll is an elegant way to follow all your favorite sites in one place"
  • Ego - "Made by a bunch of geeks in UC Berkeley."
  • Backstitch - "backstitch is your personal web and its all of your favorite websites & services working together under a unified experience."
  • Kelinux - "Es un agregador de noticias con pretensiones" Con lo peor nombre imaginable....
  • Mixtab - "We started Mixtab because we wanted a better way to read news, and keep up with our interests." Mac, iPad and HTML5 versions

Enterprise

  • Flud - "Flud helps product teams keep up with tech and design trends, marketing teams share brand insights, and field sales reps stay on top of market news." Flud was a Flipboard clone, but apparently they pivoted and announced 'Flud for Teams and Businesses' last year. $125/month
  • Delve - "Turn news into knowledge" A news reader for workgroups/businesses. Very important I think. Article about them: Easier daily news consumption with Delve
  • HootSuite RSS Reader - "Add streams of articles and stories via RSS feeds" - Not a standalone service, but an add on 'app' which plugs into their social media monitoring stuff.
  • Q-Sensei FeedBooster - "Discover RSS Feeds Multi-Dimensionally"

Services

  • Superfeedr - "Superfeedr will provide a partial replacement for the Google Reader API by the end of June."
  • FeedsAPI - "Full RSS to email in real time" I'm not sure how much of a market there is for this, but like that this a paid service. $9/month to $79/month
  • BlogTrottr - "Blogtrottr delivers updates from all of your favourite news, feeds, and blogs directly to your email inbox."
  • Curatic - "Curatic is an intelligent RSS service that will save you time searching for the stories that are relevant to you."

Commercial Self-Hosted

  • Fever - "Fever is a PHP and MySQL application that you run on your own server. " $30
  • River2 - "River2 is a River of News feed reader with lots of features." From the Father of RSS Dave Winer, his river-style server software for Windows or Mac. Free

Open Source Self-Hosted

  • Tiny Tiny RSS - PHP-based and pretty full-featured.
  • Selfoss - "The open source web based rss reader and multi source mashup aggregator" This one looks nice - named after a waterfall...
  • Fastladder - Open Source / Free Download. If you prefer your readers in Ruby...
  • Lilina - "Take control of your feeds with Lilina. Style your reader and add the features you want."
  • Leed - "Leed est un agrégateur de flux RSS/ATOM dit KISS : minimaliste, simple, léger et rapide." Open Source, PHP, French.
  • Bottle-Fever - "A clean-room clone of the Fever RSS aggregator, focusing on providing a compatible API and a simple feed store based on SQLite" Under active development by the always gracious Rui Carmo.
  • Canto - For the completely insane, a console-based feed reader. :-)
  • ownCloud News - "The News app is a an RSS/Atom feed aggregator." This is a plug-in to the bigger ownCloud set of open source cloud-based apps.
  • Leselys - "I'm Leselys, your very elegant RSS reader." Mongodb and Python
  • Potion - "Potion (aka f33dme-ng) is a flask+sqlalchemy based feed/item reader." Python
  • Miniflux - "Miniflux is a minimalist web based news reader." PHP
  • BirdReader - "Home-made Google Reader replacement powered by Node.js and Cloudant"
  • Temboz - "Temboz is [an open source] RSS aggregator inspired by FeedOnFeeds (web-based personal aggregator), Google News (two column layout) and TiVo (thumbs up and down)."
  • RSS2Email - "A free, open-source tool for Windows and UNIX for getting news from RSS feeds in email." Python
  • Stringer - "A [work-in-progress] self-hosted, anti-social RSS reader." Ruby
  • Rssminer - "A simple, intelligent RSS reader" Code in Java/Clojure.
  • Freader - "A small yet powerful RSS Feed Reader working with Node.js and Angular"
  • Django Yarr - "A lightweight customizable RSS reader for Django."

Native Apps

I just listed a few big names - there's a ton more out there.

  • NetNewsWire - "The best way to keep up with the sites and authors you read most regularly. "
  • Reeder - "... the plan is to add more services you can choose from in the next weeks and months."
  • Feeddler - "Feeddler is the most popular RSS reader for iPad."
  • Press - "We took away the clutter of 'feature' heavy RSS readers and concentrated on giving you what you want: Simply reading your news."
  • SkyGrid - "SkyGrid connects people to the things they care about. The SkyGrid platform provides web-scale infrastructure to help people connect with what they are passionate about."
  • WebReader - "Thanks for choosing the best desktop rss!"
  • Vienna - "Vienna is an [open source] RSS/Atom reader for Mac OS X, packed with powerful features that help you make sense of the flood of information..." A Mac-only desktop app, but under active development.
  • BlogBridge - "BlogBridge is for true info-junkies who want a better way to wrangle all their RSS feeds from blogs and news into one pretty cool organizer."
  • ReadKit - "Bringing Post-PC reading to the Mac"
  • Instacast - " Subscriptions, show notes, playback and playlists, more" Mac/iOS
  • Feed Viewer for Windows 8 - "The best synoptic news reader"

Magazine-style Apps

  • Flipboard - "Flipboard is your personal magazine, filled with the things you care about."
  • Pulse - "Our Mission: Elevate daily media consumption to foster informed discussion." Just got bought by LinkedIn.
  • Prismatic - "Prismatic is the most interesting place in the universe"
  • News360 - "The News360 semantic analysis platform is a culmination of 7 years of development and natural language analysis experience. "
  • Zite - "we're excited that we've been able to build something so quickly for disgruntled Google Reader users and look forward to adding more features."
  • Thirst - "Keep up with what's up."

Invite Only

  • News Maven - "Rockin' RSS for News Addicts. Sign up for News Maven now!"
  • SwarmIQ - "SwarmIQ is a personalized reading experience that helps you stay on top of your topics, express your opinions and learn what others are reading."
  • Skim.me - "A visual feed prioritized by how much time you have and what you're in the mood for."
  • Sprightly - "Keep up to date with all your favorite content"
  • SubReader - "New way to keep up with your favourite websites."
  • Noowit - "Cut the noise!"

In Development/Coming Soon/Vaporware

  • Clever.io - "The Future of News Readers" Wooooooohoooo! :-)
  • FeeDeus - "Stay up to date with them here in FeeDeus, Keep, Bookmark, Organize, Share and many more features in an easy and friendly way."
  • Viafeeds - "We've been building a replacement that will be ready in a couple months."
  • Read - "A simple replacement for Google Reader."
  • Worpy - "Worpy is a multi-platform RSS feed reader devoid of fancy gimmicks."
  • Fez - "Fez isn't ready yet, but the progress is pretty great."
  • Creek.io - "The reader you'vebeen looking for"
  • Feederous - "The minimalist, user-friendly and intutive RSS reader - is coming soon! Follow us for updates and invitations."
  • Skystone Reader - "A free Web-based RSS feed reader. Limited BETA release coming in May 2013."

< Previous         Next >