

Ask HN: Have you settled on a Google Reader replacement? - mwexler

Feedly keeps popping up as a winner; some love Newsblur, some say The Old Reader or Tiny RSS.   Just asking: have you settled on a winner?  What were pros and cons?  Do you read on both desktop and mobile, and did that play into your choice?
======
arocks
I have been using Feedly for a bit and my analysis:

PROS

\- Great UI. Layout similar to a Magazine

\- Intelligent sorting of content - Must Reads etc.

CONS

\- No offline reading on Android app

\- No pure HTML client like Google Reader

\- Feedly Chrome Extension eats up RAM and slows down my laptop. Uninstalled.

CONCLUSION: Still looking for a better alternative

~~~
aychedee
Yeah, Feedly developers, if you are reading this. Don't inject an image into
every page I visit. Uninstalled.

I've gone with Newsblur now.

------
bitboxer
Basically I am waiting for the Reeder App Guy to Announce what he will do with
the app. If he goes the "give me an google api compliant endpoint and it will
connect to it", I might use <https://github.com/swanson/stringer> , looks
really promising so far. But I need Reeder to support it first.

~~~
swanson
Just pushed some basic Reeder support to Stringer last night :)

~~~
bitboxer
Ah, great! Thanks for this !

------
farslan
I'm using <https://feedbin.me/>. The design is really good and has Reeder
support (which is handy because I have both Mac and iPhone clients)

------
aerique
Blogtrottr (<http://blogtrottr.com/>) is an RSS to e-mail service. Combined
with filtering, good old procmail for me, it makes a nice alternative to
Google Reader since it automatically works on mobile as well.

I really don't need all the social 'features' that come with other RSS
services.

~~~
__--__
rss2email is a good way of running your own rss to email service. I only say
this because rss to email services have a nasty habit of shutting down.

------
acdha
Newsblur: it has a clean UI, mobile apps, open source, has a viable business
model and has gotten past the first round of scaling to handle the Reader
diaspora.

A number of the people I used to follow on Reader have joined and the social
side is flourishing with most of the voices which Google+ snuffed out.

~~~
lowmagnet
I like the idea of it, but this is disheartening:

> There are 1192 people in front of you, all patiently waiting on their free
> accounts on NewsBlur. By going premium you can get full and immediate access
> to NewsBlur.

I get that they're trying to be able to handle the load, but it concerns me
that they can't simply 'scale' their service like most modern web
applications.

~~~
philtar
On the contrary, I'm happy with that. I'd rather they try to be profitable
from the beginning than do the whole get users then figure out monetization
model. I want a stable long term rss reader, not a service that tries to get
acquired.

------
runjake
I've ended up replacing Google Reader with Twitter.

I follow all the people I care to read about -- they tweet their blog postings
as they're posted. I follow Techmeme -- they tweet their river of news. I
aggressively unfollow or disable retweets for any followed account with a poor
signal/noise ratio.

I supplement that with an occasional glance at Google Plus (where the
Android/Google-centric like to post updates). If I'm really behind, I just
visit <http://techmeme.com/river> and catch up.

~~~
brandonb927
I've slowly started to replace my RSS feeds with Twitter. Everything I see in
my feeds is generally posted to Twitter as well.

------
gromgull
I am trying with feedly, but on Android:

* no offline support

* no way to not use the built-in browser for opening links

* no way to go from a post to all posts from this source

~~~
lowmagnet
And on the review pages they stuff a lot of high-star reviews with the same
text such as:

> Since the announcement of Google Reader being discontinued, I have enjoyed
> this easy app. It also has a simple, attractive interface. Highly recommend.

and:

> Feedly has managed to create a visually appealing RSS reader, that also
> focusus on a clean simple visual style that is intuitive to use.

It's really weird.

------
taoufix
I'm using CommaFeed[1], it's pretty much a simple Google Reader-like
interface. It's a bit slow sometimes during heavy loads and needs better
scaling.

The code is open source and available at Github[2].

1: <https://www.commafeed.com>

2: <https://github.com/Athou/commafeed>

------
olegp
Here's a list of replacements with some additional information such as their
popularity, recent blog posts etc. <https://starthq.com/apps/?q=reader>

If there are any missing, please submit them via the "Submit App" link in the
footer.

------
ritvvijparrikh
Hello, we recently hosted a hackathon and it spat up an open source, no-
bullshit Google Reader Alternative. It is live at <http://reader.pykih.com>.

We started this as a fun project and we only have an early prototype out but
are getting sign-ups. We want it to be a simple, text-heavy, less UI,
developer friendly, hacker news style reader.

Please do try it and give suggestions, feedback, bugs, etc. at
<https://github.com/pykih/reader/issues>. In case you are a Rails developer
and wish to contribute, we are at <https://github.com/pykih/reader>. Thank you
in advance. :-)

------
duncan_bayne
Newsblur: it does everything I want, and I've been impressed with the
improvements to the system of late.

------
iamthedata
Using <http://www.newsbeuter.org/>, a terminal-based RSS reader. "The Mutt of
RSS Feed Readers", as they call it.

Everything in lists, next-next-next and hit 'O' to actually open an item. Rip
through all those feeds fast.

------
Osmium
Literally just started using The Old Reader (<https://theoldreader.com>) and
it's the one whose interface I like best so far. No integration with third
party apps, but it's free, and their website is great on mobile anyway.

------
Fuzzwah
I was never a GReader user (I've always prefered my hacked up self hosted
rnews aggregator; <http://rnews.sourceforge.net/> ).

However I have been hunting for a decent rss reader for android ever since
flipboard made changes which have resulted in exactly 1 line of text being
displayed for each item.

Just today I found Holo Reader.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.hdodenhof.h...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.hdodenhof.holoreader)

Super simple, good layout, deals with my hacked up yahoo pipes feeds (where
I've jammed header img tags into each description). I'm very impressed by it.

------
jareds
I use Tiny Tiny RSS and it works well enough with the web interface on my
desktop. Although it's self hosted I have no problem using a $2.5 per month
vps with 256 mb of ram to host it. For mobile access I use YATTRSSC which is a
decent tt-rss client.

~~~
satyap
I like TT-RSS. It has that mark-read-on-scroll thing as well as next/previous
article by arrow keys (or k/j) thing. Awesome sauce.

------
abrowne
FeedHQ — I just subscribed last night ;-)

I've trialed various other services and FeedHQ.org is my favorite. (See my
recent comment history for more detail on other services I've tried.) It's
fast in both UI and checking feeds, and I like the multi-page design instead
of the more common 2 or 3-column Reader-like layouts. Most importantly, this
means than when reading an article I don't lose more vertical screen real
estate to navigation bars.

Accounts are $12/year, so the service should stick around, but the code's on
Github[1] in case it doesn't.

[1]: <https://github.com/feedhq/feedhq/>

------
chesh
Thanks for asking because it reminded me to cross this migration off my ToDo
list.

Before checking this I was convinced I would be going with NewsBlur. Based on
the positive feedback on Feedly I decided to check that out.

For me Feedly wins hands down. Winning points:

\- instant Google Reader import (wow!)

\- list view is very similar to the plain GR view

\- social rank for URLs based on G+ and FB (I have been looking for a PostRank
replacement ever since Google killed my second favorite app)

What I would love to see in future enhancements:

\- extend social rank to filter the views (more like Postrank)

\- search within posts that I have read

------
jpluimers
No winner yet, but cut the list down to 3.

Feedly: PRO: imports GR including which posts you already read. PRO: GR
imported posts contains all history (even from blog feeds that are now
defunct) CON: slows down browser considerably CON: UI has too much whitespace
CON: UI is slow (browsing with j/k takes ages)

CommaFeed & InoReader & OldReader PRO: uses as much screen estate as possible
PRO: very fast UI CON: GR import misses the read/unread markers CON: GR import
incomplete (so now defunct feeds do not appear)

One of the reasons I want to have the defunct feeds, is that it contains the
old blog of a friend that passed away.

------
zrail
I wrote and host my own rss to email gateway, which I'm pretty happy with so
far. Of course at the time the google reader shutdown was announced I hadn't
been using rss for years so I started from scratch, feed-collection wise.

------
nissimk
I'm working on a serverless chrome extension rss reader. It's still in
development but if you'd like to try it out or help out, please have a look:
<https://github.com/nissimk/brassReader>.

Check out the code. Go in chrome to extensions page set developer mode on load
unpacked extension point it at the checked out folder

If you're logged in to google in another tab, press the button with the cloud
on it and it will pull in all of your feeds.

Thanks for the look.

------
kidproquo
Anybody know of a decent reader that allows me to click and go to the comments
of sites like HN?

Most of the times I first read the comments before actually going to the main
link.

~~~
jerrya
Yes, this is exactly the problem I had with feedly when I tried it a few weeks
back. Seems to have way more clicks required to read the comments than
Reader's much leaner interface.

------
gregn
I hacked up my own in March. I didn't even know Google Reader was closing. I
just got tired of the features that other readers didn't have. It's a console
application, which I realize has limited utility for most people, but it is
very powerful and provides many multi-tool functions that could be useful to
someone.

<http://github.com/gmn/rsstool>

There are screen shots and some instructions on the wiki.

------
zfran
Yes, Feedly. I tried it out when Google announced the shutdown, and I wasn't
completely satisfied, but then 2 or 3 weeks after that I started using it more
and it felt a lot better. I don't know exactly what changes they made, or if
they made any at all, but the experience feels fairly polished now. I like to
think that they worked on the feedback the Google Reader refugees gave them.
I'm quite happy with it, and I've stopped using Reader completely.

------
stowelly
Decided to go the self hosted route and host my own tiny tiny rss reader. as
its more or less the same and im in control of when it goes down, plus with
mobile client

------
rbrcurtis
We're re-releasing Nuesbyte today, personally I think its amazing alternative.
:)

<http://nuesbyte.com>

~~~
7hundredand77
Its a clean, simple, fast, html reader, more info:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5750405>

------
vshabanov
Using my own BazQux Reader <https://bazqux.com>

PROS

\- fast

\- clean UI

\- shows comments

\- integration with Readability to get full article text

\- many view modes

\- able to subscribe to twitter/fb/g+

CONS

\- non free (PROS for some people)

\- no mobile app yet, but I'm close to finish cloning Google Reader API.

------
sirsean
I wrote my own replacement, which is open source here:
<https://github.com/sirsean/quickfeed>

I host it for myself, and it works quite well; no mobile app or mobile-
optimized site at the moment, but for the desktop it'll do.

I didn't like any of the existing post-Reader options.

------
dochtman
I found the Feedly Firefox plugin to slow down Firefox a lot, so that wasn't
really a good experience.

So far, as a FeedDemon on Windows, Reeder on OS X and Reader on Android user,
NewsBlur looks like the best option from where I sit (as a 10-year RSS reader
user with some 120 feeds ATM). Going to try Feedbin, though.

------
notirk
I'm still searching for a perfect substitute. Feedly is the best I've found so
far. I've very pleased with the desktop experience. Although, I really liked
the Google Reader widget for Android and the Feedly one isn't as dense
information wise, and reading offline (when on the subway) has proved to be
problematic.

------
adrow
I set-up TTRSS (<http://tt-rss.org/redmine/projects/tt-rss/wiki>) on my own
server. I didn't like that Feedly requires a browser add-on, as I'm not always
going to be able to install that on every browser I might use.

------
icule
I'm fairly happy with Gnus combined with Gwene, and surprisingly found this
combination more time-efficient than Google Read has been for me. I first
reduce my read list using Usenet-reader paradigms, and then use a small
function of mine which batch-opens all that remains in Chrome tabs.

------
Ecio78
I used to use Google Reader as a podcast repository for listening to podcasts
on Android (at the beginning with Google Listen then, after Google retired it,
with BeyondPod/Podkicker). Is any of these services integrated with a mobile
Android podcast reader?

------
tmzt
Using Feedly, two main issues:

    
    
      No direct link to more items from source
      Android app limits my subscription list which is well over a hundred sources.
    

Everything else seems to work and the extension works fine on Chromebook.

------
thiagoc
<https://github.com/wking/rss2email>

Pros: It sends to my Gmail account, separated by labels, and I can read both
in PC and mobile.

Cons: you have to run the command in your PC.

------
tocomment
I just started with commafeed.com The good is that it's simple, looks like
google reader, and had a 1-click import from google reader.

The bad is that it seems slow to update and it's almost unusable on the
iPhone.

~~~
prathibhanu
Most of my feeds does not get updated and seems to be slow. So, i am going
with multiplx.com and pretty happy with it.

------
bruceboughton
I'm not one of these Reeder users. I've always used Byline on iPhone (a Google
Reader client) so I'm waiting to see if this is going to be maintained post-
GReader and what service it will support.

------
russellbeattie
I've been keeping track of all the options (about 100 so far and counting) and
updating my blog post about it here: <http://bit.ly/RSSreaders>

------
sangupta
Try MultiPLX at <http://multiplx.com> \- is totally web based, a pure HTML5
client, supports card layouts and also let's you export your own data.

------
th3m
Trying <https://www.commafeed.com/> at the moment, but still open to
suggestions.

~~~
saddington
this broke on me multiple times.

------
joshbaptiste
<http://getgini.com/google-reader-alternatives>

------
codva
I'm using TT-RSS. I just installed it in a subdirectory of my existing domain
account - so no incremental cost at all.

------
wging
NewsBlur.

------
pppp
Using Bazqux.com. It's the closest to Google Reader that I've found and it's
fast. Inoreader.com is also not bad.

------
prathibhanu
I am going with multiplx.com as it gives me a google reader style and a
Visually rich pinterest style UI.

------
PaulFreund
I used <http://selfoss.aditu.de/> and I like it

~~~
scottcjordan
Thanks for that. I've been looking. It runs nicely on my Raspberry Pi. Took me
about an hour to set up, mostly because I made a stupid mistake. Fixed that,
runs like a hose, and surprisingly lovely to look at. Win.

------
nicholaides
I'm using <http://theoldreader.com/>

~~~
br0ke
I'm also using theooldreader, but find that updates are sometimes slow and it
seems to miss some stuff, so I've been using an install of tinytinyrss as well

------
gateaumoisi
tried to keep away from google starting some months ago (prior to google
reader shutdown), and i tried some cli softwares on linux, Newsbeuter is
amazing. <http://newsbeuter.org/>

------
haliphax
Tiny Tiny RSS; hosting it myself, and I love it. I read on both mobile and
desktop.

------
venkasub
Using Feedly for the past couple of weeks. Good so far and the UI is neat.

------
skanga
Ask Google to open source it. Go to this thread and add +1 and your name.

~~~
skanga
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5761892>

------
tusharc
I've been using Feedly (desktop and mobile) and quite like the experience

------
mhausenblas
Feedly here, both on desktop and mobile. Luv it!

------
rounak
Using feedly, find it a decent alternative.

------
girzel
gwene.org, then read in gnus via nntp.

------
allard
one mention of 'export,' none of 'opml' in the comments

------
aviraldg
Google Currents

------
ooooak
no :(

------
hmans
Feedbin.

------
fakeer
FeedBin.

But keeping an open mind. Looking for better changes and sync/2rd party
support from FeedHQ, NewsBlur and TheOldReader etc. Feedly is not my thing.
It's a funny service. No sync to third party client. You need a Firefox client
to read on its website. Means it spies in you.

