RSS is a simple web format that websites use to publish a list of their newest posts. That list is called an RSS feed. When you subscribe to a feed in an RSS reader, every new post from that site comes to you automatically, so you never have to keep checking the site yourself.
What does RSS stand for?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. Early versions called it Rich Site Summary. Either way, the idea is the same: a website shares its latest content in a standard format that any app can read.
What is an RSS feed?
An RSS feed is a small file that a website updates every time it publishes something. For each post, it lists the title, a link, the date and usually a summary. Some feeds also include the full article, images, audio or the author's name. The website decides what goes in, and your reader shows whatever the feed provides.
A feed is written in XML and looks like this behind the scenes:
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Example News</title>
<item>
<title>A new post</title>
<link>https://example.com/a-new-post</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 26 Sep 2026 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>You never need to read this yourself. An RSS reader turns it into a clean list of posts.
What does subscribing to an RSS feed give you?
Subscribing means your RSS reader checks the feed for you and shows every new post as soon as it finds it. Compared with following a site on social media or signing up for its newsletter:
- You see everything. Every post the site publishes, in order, with nothing ranked or hidden by an algorithm.
- You stay anonymous. No account and no e-mail address needed. The site only sees that a reader fetched its feed.
- You stay in control. Unsubscribe with one click, and nothing follows you around afterward.
How do you use RSS feeds?
- Get an RSS reader. It is the app that collects your feeds. What is an RSS reader? explains the options.
- Add the sites you want to follow. Paste a website's address and most readers find its feed for you. In Feeder, click Add feed and paste the address. How to add a feed to Feeder has the details.
- Read. New posts land in your reader, newest first, marked unread until you get to them.
If you want the feed link itself, look for the orange RSS icon, often in a site's footer. Many sites also serve their feed at an address like example.com/feed or example.com/rss.
What can you follow with RSS?
Far more than blogs. RSS works for news sites, podcasts (podcasts are RSS feeds), YouTube channels, Reddit, Mastodon, job boards, real estate listings and Google Alerts. For a site with no feed, you can create an RSS feed for any website.
RSS, Atom and JSON Feed
Atom and JSON Feed are newer formats that do the same job. Most readers, Feeder included, read all three, so you rarely need to know which one a site uses.
Pros and cons of RSS
RSS gives you a complete, uncluttered, private view of the sources you choose, and it is fast: many readers pick up new posts within minutes.
It has limits too. Some sites only put a short summary in their feed, so you click through to read the rest. And if you follow a lot of busy feeds, the list can grow quickly. Folders and filters in your reader keep that manageable.
Common questions
Is RSS still used?
Yes. Most news sites and blogs still publish feeds, YouTube has one for every channel, and podcasts are distributed with RSS.
Is RSS free?
Feeds are free to follow. Many RSS readers are free too, with paid plans for more feeds and faster updates.
Is RSS safe?
Yes. Your reader only downloads the list of posts that the site already publishes. You don't share an e-mail address or create an account on the site.
Try Feeder
Feeder is an RSS reader for the web, iOS and Android, with extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge. The free plan follows up to 200 feeds, updated as often as every 30 minutes, with no ads. Plus is $7.99 a month, billed yearly, for 2,500 feeds, updates as often as every 5 minutes and e-mail summaries.
Get started with Feeder for free