Thunderbird – The popular mail client by the Mozilla Foundation, the makers of Firefox, can also be used as a feed reader.

Netvibes – Netvibes is more a web based startpage than a stand alone feed reader but you can use it like one, you can share items too.

The Old Reader – Clean and simple online tool for subscribing to your favorite feeds that is based on the early versions of Google Reader without the bloat that followed later.

Originally it required Google Reader, not anymore! It adapts to your natural reading habits.

Feedly – Feedly, a modern web based feed reader with a magazine like display of your feeds.

RSSOwl – Probably the most popular downloadable free open source RSS reader, nice clean interface, supports dozens of languages.

The standalone desktop program comes first:

1 is an open source cross-platform mail client that can also be used for feeds.

It means they work in your browser like any website. It’s based on the Java programming language, that’s why it works on all operating systems.

The best standalone feed reader is open source software.

The Web-based feed readers also work on mobile devices without the need for an app. Now only the latter are left.Ĭross-platform means these feed readers work on Windows, Mac and Linux. I listed it here originally in my collection of the best free cross-platform feed readers along with alternatives. Most people until 2013 used Google Reader for RSS (and Atom) feeds but then Google decided to shut it down. As I am probably not the only one to look for a feed reader I decided to share my list of those I think are the best ones.

Open source feed reader