Given the many software tools that are available on the market, the term “best RSS reader” is pretty nuanced. In the following article, we will introduce the top RSS feed reader characteristics and features that you should be looking for. Hopefully helping you in how to choose RSS feed reader.
Important characteristics
Speed
Yes, all modern feed readers help you to be fast productivity-wise, but there is a hidden cost beneath all that: the synchronization speed. Others might call this “crawl speed”, “polling speed” or “update interval”. Feeder can check for updates as fast as every minute. For some use cases this can be extremely important, for example if you are a journalist, a public relations specialist or just want to always know the latest news in your industry.
Web-based and mobile applications
The advantage of cloud applications over local storage are many. If you prefer reading on a mobile device, you can do this using cloud readers that provide these apps. Normally the process is as simple as installing from the app store and using your e-mail and password to get started.
Clean and organized interface
Design and user experience (UX) is very important. It should be intuitive to use and setup, and hopefully pass the grandmother test: Software so easy your grandmother can pick up and use without calling you every evening with problems. Even though these phone calls might be a pleasant time to catch up with your grandma. Normally all RSS feed readers follow a similar pattern: One pane of feeds and one of content. Some might have three panes, some might have everything in a single feed. However, the devil is in the details.
Powerful options
As they say, sharing is caring, and news is one such thing that is shared a lot. You should be looking for ease of sharing, but also of combining and filtering by criteria. As humans we tend to have different views on many things, and that’s why it is important be able to change color schemes and how notifications are displayed.
Integration options
Good readers offer integrations with other platforms. RSS feed readers generally offer general purpose software, and to focus your content for your specific use case you will probably need an integration with other software.
Affordable prices
Prices for RSS readers start at $5-6 per month to about $40-50 per month. Given the time a high quality RSS feed reader will save you, it is easy to justify the cost. Your time is limited, and we feel that anything that helps you optimize this time is a big win. Don’t you agree?
Good support
With almost every software today, there is a chat or help center that offer support. And the mark of a good software is the availability of support. Don’t expect to get your questions answered the second you post them, though. The developers are often busy writing code and fixing things, so give them between 1 and 7 days. Anything above that is considered pretty poor.
Now it is time to choose RSS feed reader
Hopefully now you have a better feel for what how to choose RSS feed reader and what characteristics you should be looking for in a quality RSS reader. So go now and try to conquer the world of information.