RSS Reader

Name: RSS Reader
Author: Ufumbuzi

About RSS Reader

Most social feeds work the same way: you follow accounts, and a system decides what you see. An RSS feed does the opposite. It is a file a website publishes with its newest entries, and a reader collects them. What reaches you is what the site chose to publish, in the order it published it, with nobody in between deciding that you would find it interesting.

This reader runs in the browser and keeps everything on the device. There is no account, no subscription and no email address to hand over.

What it does

You paste a feed address and the reader fetches the articles. Three filters narrow the list: everything, unread, and favourites. Search runs over the titles and summaries of articles you already have, without touching the network. An article can be marked read or unread and starred, and both states are saved with the feed.

On a phone, opening an article switches to a reading view that hides the feed list. On a desktop the list stays on one side and the article opens on the other. There are light, dark and sepia themes, and the interface switches between English and Spanish on the same page.

The part that is harder than it looks

A browser refuses, by design, to let one page read a file from another site. That rule is what stops a page you open from quietly collecting everything you type. It also means a feed reader in a web page cannot simply fetch a feed from BBC or The Verge.

The workaround here is a proxy: a small script on this same site that fetches the feed and hands it back. It only accepts about forty listed domains, so most feeds work and some do not, and when one fails you get nothing back rather than a half-loaded page.

What your browser gets back is rarely a live request. A scheduled job on the server fetches each allowed feed once an hour and stores a copy on disk; the browser reads that copy. Two things follow. The load a publication receives is fixed instead of growing with the number of readers, and a story can be up to an hour old. The Refresh button re-reads the server copy rather than going out to the publication, so pressing it twice in a row will not get you anything newer. If a feed is missing from the list of allowed domains, you can add it.

This is a real limit, not a rounding error, and it is worth stating plainly before you build a subscription list around it.

Where your subscriptions are kept

In the browser's own database, on the device where you added them. The feeds, the articles, the read marks and the favourites are all there. Nothing is sent to a server, and nothing is tied to an account.

The consequence is that your list does not follow you to another device, because there is no server to sync from. It also means that clearing your browsing data erases your subscriptions. That is the trade: no tracking and no account, in exchange for no backup.

What it does not do

It is not a social reader. There are no algorithmic feeds, no trending list and no recommendations, because those are the mechanisms this is an alternative to.

It does not handle podcasts or YouTube channels in a special way. A YouTube channel exposes an RSS feed, and that feed can be added like any other, but you get entries rather than a player.

It does not sync, does not send newsletters, and does not track which articles you open. There is nothing to export and no paid tier with more features.

A free RSS reader that runs in the browser, with filters, search and offline reading, and nothing to sign up for.

RSS Reader features

Add a feed by pasting its RSS or Atom address, and the reader fetches the articles itself. There is nothing to configure and nothing to sign up for: the button asks for a URL and the rest happens on its own.
Three filters to narrow a long list: everything, only what you have not read, and only your favourites. The unread filter is the one that makes a feed worth following, because it turns a pile of headlines into a short list of what is actually new.
Search runs over the titles and summaries of the articles you already have, as you type. It does not reach out to the network, so it works on a train and it does not tell any server what you are interested in.
Mark an article as read or unread, and star the ones worth keeping. Both states are saved with the feed, so the list you come back to is the list you left, not a fresh pile every morning.
Light, dark and sepia themes, remembered between visits. Sepia is the one that matters on an OLED screen at night, because a white page at two in the morning is what makes people stop reading.
On a phone, opening an article switches to a reading view that hides the feed list, with a button to go back. On a desktop the list stays on the left and the article opens beside it, which is the layout that suits a wide screen.
Everything is kept in the browser's own database on your device: the feeds, the articles, the read marks and the favourites. Clearing your browser data is the only thing that erases them, which is the trade for having no account and no server.
Feeds come through a proxy on this same site, which only accepts about forty listed domains. A scheduled job fetches each one once an hour and the browser reads that stored copy, so what a publication receives does not grow with the number of readers. In exchange, a story can be up to an hour old.
Installs from the browser as an app, so it opens in its own window with no address bar. Once the page has loaded it keeps working with the network off, and the articles you have already fetched stay readable.
The interface switches between English and Spanish from the same page, without reloading and without a second URL. Choose the language once and it is remembered next time.

Frequently asked questions about RSS Reader

What is RSS Reader?

Read RSS feeds free in your browser. Add a feed, mark what you have read, search your articles, and keep everything on your device.

Is RSS Reader free?

Yes. RSS Reader is a free, ad-free progressive web app. It needs no sign-up and no payment details, and your data stays on your own device.

Does RSS Reader work offline?

Yes. Once installed as a PWA, RSS Reader runs from your device and keeps working when you have no internet connection.

How do I install RSS Reader on my phone or computer?

Open RSS Reader in your browser and choose “Install app” from the Chrome menu, or “Add to Home Screen” in Safari. It then opens with its own icon, like a native app.

Which devices does RSS Reader support?

RSS Reader works on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS and Linux, because it is a progressive web app.

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RSS Reader screenshots