ViennaRSS

Judgement

What it is

Complete system

What it does

A long-running native macOS newsreader for RSS, Atom and JSON Feed with smart folders and sync to some reader services.

Adopt it when

You use a Mac and want a classic, free desktop feed reader.

Watch out

Mac only and developed by a small volunteer team at a slow pace.

Ready for

Production-ready

Runs as

Desktop app

Built with

Objective-C and Swift

How established

Established: started 15 years ago, latest release v/3.10.8.

What the license allows

You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.

Judged on 2026-11-03 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Built from

Follow it down: ViennaRSS → Swift → LLVM project → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

Open-source alternatives to ViennaRSS

1. 1
   Folo RSSNext

   🧡 Folo is the AI RSS Reader

   Complete system Usable You want a modern feed reader that also pulls in sites without native RSS and offers AI summaries.

   ★ 39k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today
2. 2
   FreshRSS FreshRSS

   A free, self-hostable news aggregator…

   Complete system Production-ready You want your own feed server that syncs read state across phone and desktop apps, on cheap PHP hosting.

   ★ 16k AGPL-3.0 PHP Active, pushed today
3. 3
   NetNewsWire Ranchero-Software

   RSS reader for macOS and iOS.

   Complete system Production-ready You use Apple devices and want a fast, free, privacy-respecting feed reader.

   ★ 10k MIT Swift Active, pushed 9 days ago
4. 4
   V2 miniflux

   Minimalist and opinionated feed reader

   Complete system Production-ready You want a fast, low-maintenance feed server and do not need visual frills.

   ★ 9.9k Apache-2.0 Go Active, pushed yesterday
5. 5
   Fluent Reader yang991178

   Modern desktop RSS reader built with Electron, React, and Fluent UI

   Complete system Usable You want a clean desktop feed reader, especially on Windows.

   ★ 9.8k BSD-3-Clause TypeScript Active, pushed 4 days ago
6. 6
   NewsBlur samuelclay

   NewsBlur is a personal news reader that brings people together to talk about the world. A new sound of an old instrument.

   Complete system Production-ready You want a mature hosted feed reader with filtering, or want to study or self-host the full stack.

   ★ 7.7k MIT HTML Active, pushed today
7. 7
   ReadYou ReadYouApp

   An Android RSS reader presented in Material You style.

   Complete system Usable You want a good-looking free feed reader on Android.

   ★ 7.6k GPL-3.0 Kotlin Active, pushed 3 months ago
8. 8
   PlainApp plainhub

   🔥 PlainApp is an open-source app that lets you securely manage your phone from a web browser. Access files, media, contacts, SMS, calls, and more through a simple, easy-to-use interface on your desktop.

   Complete system Usable You want to move files and handle messages on your Android phone from your computer without cloud services.

   ★ 7.1k AGPL-3.0 Kotlin Active, pushed today

Commercial RSS readers

1. 1
   Feedly Feedly

   News aggregator

   Complete system Production-ready You follow many sources and want a polished reader, or a team needs topic monitoring with AI filtering.

   478 readers a month Since 2008 Commercial
2. 2
   Inoreader Innologica

   RSS feed reader

   Complete system Production-ready You are a heavy RSS user who wants rules and search to manage hundreds of feeds.

   135 readers a month Since 2013 Commercial
3. 3
   NewsBlur NewsBlur

   American software company, founded 2009

   Complete system Production-ready You want an independent RSS reader with story filtering and the option to self-host.

   53 readers a month Since 2009 Commercial
4. 4
   Readwise Reader Readwise

   Complete system Production-ready You read a lot online and want highlights and notes from everything flowing into your note-taking system.

   Commercial