How to Read RSS in 2026 (and Why You Should)

The case for RSS over social media, the 4 readers I have tried, the 2 I kept, and the 5-minute setup that gets you off the algorithm.

What RSS is, in 2026RSS is a 25-year-old protocol that lets you subscribe to a website and get every new post in a single feed. The website publishes a feed (an XML file with a list of posts). You subscribe to the feed in a reader (an app that checks the feed every hour or so and shows you what's new). The reader is the part that has changed a lot. The protocol has not changed at all.RSS is what the web was supposed to be. You visit a site because you want to read it. You subscribe because you want to come back. The site does not need to track you. The site does not need to know who you are. The site just publishes a feed, and the feed is the contract: "here is what I wrote, in the order I wrote it." The reader is the part that lets you read the contract on your schedule, not the platform's schedule.Why RSS in 2026, specificallyThe 2026 web is the most platform-dependent the web has ever been. Most people get their news from 3-5 platforms (Google search, Reddit, X, YouTube, TikTok, Substack). The platforms decide what you see. The platforms decide the order. The platforms decide whether you see the new post from the person you actually subscribed to, or whether you see 5 posts from people the algorithm has chosen for you. The platforms are the bottleneck, and the bottleneck is the problem.RSS is the part that removes the platform from the loop. The site publishes the feed. You read the feed. The platform is irrelevant. The algorithm is irrelevant. The site is the source of truth, and the feed is the contract between the site and the reader. The contract is the part that has not changed in 25 years, because the contract does not need to change. The contract is the part that works.RSS in 2026 is also the comeback. After about 10 years of "RSS is dead" articles, RSS is back, and the comeback is being driven by the same people who are tired of the platforms. The number of people who use an RSS reader has roughly tripled since 2020. The number of sites that publish a feed has held steady. The total volume of posts published in feeds is higher now than at the peak of Google Reader in 2013, and the readers are better, and the feeds are more useful, and the platform problem is worse, and the case for RSS is stronger.The 4 readers I have triedOver the last 18 months, I have tried 4 RSS readers. Here is what I liked and did not like about each.1. Feedly (free tier, $7/month Pro)Feedly is the most popular modern reader. The free tier is functional. The Pro tier adds AI-powered recommendations, which I do not need. The interface is clean. The mobile app is good. The web app is good. The main downside is that Feedly is a hosted service, and the hosted service can change its pricing, get acquired, or shut down. The same risk applies to any hosted service (Gmail, Notion, Figma), and the risk is the part I have learned to weigh.I used Feedly for about 9 months. The use was fine. The risk of a hosted reader is the reason I switched.2. NetNewsWire (free, Mac + iOS)NetNewsWire is a native Mac and iOS reader. The free price is real (no pro tier, no upsell, no tracking). The Mac app is fast, the iOS app is fast, and the sync is via iCloud or Feedbin (a paid hosted sync service I did not need). The main downside is that the Mac app is the only good Mac reader, and the iOS app is the only good iOS reader, and the iCloud sync is not as reliable as the hosted sync services. The reliability is the part I had to accept for the price.I used NetNewsWire for about 6 months. The use was fine. The iCloud sync was the part that occasionally ate new posts.3. Miniflux (free, self-hosted)Miniflux is a self-hosted reader. The reader is a small web app you run on your own server. The data is yours. The sync is yours. The reader is yours. The setup is about 20 minutes. The maintenance is about 5 minutes a month. The main downside is that you have to run a server, which is the same downside as any self-hosted service (e.g. the email server from [the self-hosting post).I have been using Miniflux for about 6 months. The use has been excellent. The reader is fast, the reader is feature-complete, the reader has no AI-powered recommendations, and the reader does exactly what an RSS reader should do. The setup was 20 minutes. The maintenance is a 5-minute monthly cron job. The trade is real, and the trade is worth it for me.4. Reeder (Mac + iOS, $30 one-time per platform)Reeder is the best-looking reader I have used. The Mac and iOS apps are beautiful. The sync is via Feedbin, iCloud, or a self-hosted backend. The main downside is the price: $30 for the Mac app, $30 for the iOS app, and you still need a sync service. The total is $60 plus $5/month for Feedbin, or $0 if you use iCloud and accept the iCloud sync limitations. The price is the part I have to think about.I have not used Reeder long enough to have a strong opinion. The use was good. The price is the reason I went with Miniflux instead.The 2 I kept, and the tradeI keep Miniflux as my primary reader and NetNewsWire as my fallback. Miniflux is where I read on the laptop. NetNewsWire is where I read on the phone. The two are not synced (Miniflux on the laptop, NetNewsWire on the phone, both pulling from the same feeds but storing locally). The lack of sync is the trade I have accepted for the data being mine.The trade is real. The trade is the part that would make most people prefer Feedly. The trade is also the part I prefer: the data is mine, the readers are mine, the feed is the contract, and the platform is not in the loop. The platform is the part RSS removes, and the platform is the part I have learned to not want.The 5-minute setupHere is the minimum viable RSS setup. It takes 5 minutes. It works on any of the readers I mentioned. The setup is:Pick a reader. Feedly if you want a hosted reader. NetNewsWire if you want a free Mac + iOS reader. Miniflux if you want a self-hosted reader. Reeder if you want the best-looking reader and you are willing to pay.Subscribe to 5-10 feeds. Start small. The blog-factory-style starter list: 3 tech blogs you already read, 2 industry blogs in your field, 1-2 personal blogs you like, 1 news source you trust. Add more later. The starting list is the part that determines whether RSS sticks. The starting list should be small enough to read in 15 minutes a day.Set the check interval to 1 hour. The interval is the part that determines whether the reader is a feed reader or a feed-checker. 1 hour is enough that you are not refreshing constantly, and rare enough that you are not missing posts. Most readers default to a sensible interval. The interval is the part you do not have to think about.Read every morning for 15 minutes. The reading time is the part that makes RSS work. 15 minutes a day, every day, just like a newsletter. The newsletter is what RSS replaces, and the replacement is the part that is better than the original.Unsubscribe from feeds you do not read. After 2 weeks, audit the feeds. If you have not read a feed in 2 weeks, unsubscribe. The feed is the contract. The contract is only useful if you read it. The unread feeds are the part of RSS that is the same as the unread newsletters, and the unread newsletters are the part that make the case for unsubscribing.That is the setup. 5 minutes. After the setup, you have a reading habit that is not on a platform, not on an algorithm, not on a subscription model, not on a social network. The reading habit is on a feed, and the feed is yours, and the habit is the part that compounds.What RSS does not doIt does not give you discoverability. The platform algorithms are very good at suggesting new content. The RSS reader is not. The RSS reader is good at delivering content you have already chosen to subscribe to. The RSS reader is bad at helping you find new content to subscribe to. The discoverability gap is the part I have to fill with other tools (e.g. Hacker News, Twitter lists, friend recommendations).It does not give you analytics as a publisher. The hosted readers (Feedly) do provide some publisher analytics, but the self-hosted readers (Miniflux) do not. The trade is the trade. The trade is the part I have accepted: less analytics, more privacy, more control.It does not work for content that is not in a feed. Some sites have intentionally abandoned RSS (most major news sites, most social platforms). The sites that have abandoned RSS are the sites that want you on their platform. The sites that have kept RSS are the sites that want you to read on your schedule. The kind of site is the kind of publisher. The kind of publisher is the part I prefer.What I would tell past-meIf I could go back and tell past-me one thing, it would be: set up RSS in 2010, not 2024. The cost of RSS in 2010 was higher (the readers were worse, the feeds were spotty). The cost in 2024 is much lower. The benefit of RSS in 2010 was the same as the benefit in 2024. The benefit is the part I underestimated for 14 years, and the part I now use every day.I would also tell past-me: do not use the platform. The platform is the part that decides what you see. The platform is the part that decides the order. The platform is the part that gets to show you 5 things you did not ask for, in exchange for the 1 thing you did ask for. The platform is the cost. The RSS reader is the part that removes the cost. The reader is the part that I should have set up 14 years ago.Who this is forAnyone who is tired of the platform. Anyone who is tired of the algorithm. Anyone who is tired of "for you" pages that are not for you. The setup is 5 minutes. The trade is real but small. The benefit is the part that compounds, and the compounding is the part that makes RSS the right answer for anyone who reads more than 5 things a day.The honest partI am not going to pretend RSS is for everyone. The platforms are better at discoverability, the platforms are better at low-friction consumption, the platforms are better at the "I have 5 minutes and I want to see something interesting" use case. The platforms are also worse at the "I want to read the people I actually subscribe to, on my schedule, without the algorithm choosing for me" use case. The platforms are better at one thing; RSS is better at the other.For me, RSS wins because the people I want to read are the people I want to read, and the algorithm is the part that gets in the way. The algorithm is the cost. RSS is the part that removes the cost. RSS is the answer for me. RSS is the answer for you if you read more than 5 things a day and you want to choose which 5.Subscribe to this site via RSSThe feed is at [/feed.xml. Drop it into your reader of choice. I publish 2-3 posts a week. The feed is the part that does not have a platform, does not have an algorithm, does not have a subscription. The feed is the part that just delivers the post.Buy on Gumroad. $14

Send me the rough edges if you try it. I read every message.