Settling on Reeder

Software
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Following the thread Settling on Obsidian, I am going to talk about Reeder.

The Reeder I mean is the latest app that needs subscription, which I, and other else, may not like, but £1/month or £10/year is acceptable. It looks like the app developer doesn’t reply to anyone online, and he also didn’t reply to my email when I encountered issues. The app is not updated so frequently.

I was a user of NetNewsWire, which is a good, solid app with frequent updates. However when the app only supports macOS 15 or above, which no longer supports my macOS 14 laptop, I found it is never possible to sync the blogs I added on other devices. Also I prefer not having badges reminding me of reading all these articles I subscribe, although I can get used to it. I always long for a RSS reader which can allow me to show simply latest blog and news updates (like social media), while no algorithm exists to manipulate my reading habits or block me from reading a certain kind of information I need.

Besides satisfying the above criteria, Reeder also allows Bluesky, YouTube, Podcasts. In fact, all RSS readers can support these non-blog kind of information sources, but Reeder enhances the experiences so that I can read these contents without any distraction.

Reeder does not need much management. If you find a certain information very important to you, simply tag it or put it into the folder. If it’s something you don’t really care but are just interested in, you don’t need to tag, and you don’t have to decide if you have to delete or keep it. Just skip it.

The app has different tags to process information, besides reading later, so that I can customize tags. I need this because not every time I will need to save on my Obsidian. I simply tag them, and one day I may use it. If I don’t, I just leave it.

And there is one more thing: Reeder can sync the Timeline Position across the devices, and next time I can start from that position, although it’s weird to scroll down to browse the updates towards the top. However I get used to it.

When I keep cancelling almost all subscriptions to iCloud, Pika and my mobile network, Reeder is the one I would consider. When many users found the interface comfortable, the way to digest information deeply and slowly is the main reason I recommend Reeder.

That said, NetNewsWire is also a great software, especially the simple interface with better contrast for readability.

After Obsidian and Reeder, I may consider talking about iA Writer next time.

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Did you try Tapestry? (They offer a lifetime option)

I have the lifetime option as a Kickstarter reward, but I still prefer Reeder Classic… (UI/UX)

PS: I also tried the new Reeder, but that does not sync with Miniflux :cry:

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I tried it before on iPhone but I don’t like the interface. It’s like social media oriented (I may be wrong about the impression). Now I used the Mac version, it quit unexpectedly for the first time, and my MacBook was burning to trigger the fan on.

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I wanted to point out that NetNewsWire does in fact allow you to download and use older versions, though they don’t support them. It’s a free app.

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I’ve settled in with Reeder as it seems like Reeder Classic might not be getting much, if any, support.

I have had, at various points, RSS, YouTube, Mastodon and BlueSky all loaded in. I have found that I really only want my RSS feeds in Reeder. I still use it, like Reeder Classic, to triage articles to read later, which I now send to Obsidian for that purpose.

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I also have been using Reeder (the new one) after being a long time user of Reeder Classic. It’s not the best, not the worst. I like how it’s a unified timeline of all the things I want to see/read. Also think it has helped with keeping away from traditional social media a bit more! £10 a year isn’t the end of the world I don’t think!

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I have also used the new Reeder for multiple years and really love the UI, support for different sources and keeping all digital content in one place.

But I do miss a good newsletter support, and feel there are some other features missing.

Have used Current since this fall and really love that new take on a reader, but miss the “multi channel” and timeline support

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I really wish more people and organizations (e.g. museums, libraries and volunteer groups) use their ways to spread information that we can subscribe, which is not Meta or X that we only have to use their own apps so that we are never informed even we already subscribe to, and even manipulated by their algorithms to deteriorate our mental wellbeing.

But it looks like having an app supporting various forms of communication is the only easier way to minimise the impact from giant social media companies.

Yes, £10 per year is fine!

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Maybe I only bring companies and organizations to my Reeder for their latest news, instead of social media influencers, so having various points is a plus for me.

If the people do have their own blogs besides Podcasts and YouTube, I will prefer following their RSS.

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I haven’t used the classic before, yes I hope there will be newsletter!

I saw Current but ended up not buying most likely due to the lack of gathering various points into an app.

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I vibe coded a macOS/iOS/iPad native Miniflux frontend called Effluo a month ago, stealing some ideas from here and there like magazine view, prefetching thumbnails and so on. Miniflux is very handy and provides rock solid syncing, to the point that I also added CloudKit feed syncing but will keep Miniflux as a backend because it’s so fast (unlike CloudKit!). So far I still have a lot of rough edges in terms of UI but I have been using during my summer holidays away from my computer and it’s worked beautifully, so I will probably beta release it soon!

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As a very long term user of Reeder (OG), it was frustrated with the new Reeder. I looked around, and ended up on Readkit which has worked flawlessly on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Really happy with it. FWIW, I use Feedly on the back end, but may move over to simple iCloud sync when my Feedly renewal comes up

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One thing to be mindful of with Reeder and Tapestry is they show posts in strict chronological order by when they feed says they were published, not by when Reeder and Tapestry first see them. I had a few feeds that seem to publish to RSS on a bit of a delay so they never surfaced and I missed a lot of stuff I wanted to see - I switched to News Explorer to make sure I’m not missing anything.

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For my case I’d rather go back to NetNewsWire because the previous version is still available to download for my outdated macOS thanks to the developer.

I have just deleted a feed added on iPad and followed again and the sync works on my Mac now. But needs to admit there can be (more) bugs on the old NNW which will not be fixed.

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I use NetNewsWire as a frontend for a FreshRSS instance running on a rented server. FreshRSS has:

  • Advanced filters (automatically mark filtered articles as read) so I could e.g. follow the Six Colors feed wihout seeing sponsored items.
    • News Explorer supports rudimentary filters but does not download filtered items. I don’t like their approach because I might want to know what’s been filtered.
  • Ability to remove unwanted elements (e.g. injected ads) in feed articles using CSS selectors.

Setup is easy for those who are familiar with VPS or self-hosting. Minimal maintenance is needed. Working well for me for 3 years.

Involving an additional service is somewhat against the very idea of “really simple” syndication. Unfortunately the “native” RSS readers offer too few customization options.

FreshRSS is not great for auto fetching full articles, especially when you run it on a VPS. Datacenter IPs get a lot of captchas. I don’t mind that as I prefer going to the original website for stuff I want to read.

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Always surprised why Readkit is not frequently recommended. I have bought all RSS apps in the market and love Readkit.

Yes I have Reeder Classic, Lire, Current, NNW (Free) and Readkit.

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I’m surprised no-one has yet mentioned News Explorer. That along with tapestry seem to be great one-time purchase alternatives.

Edit: I stand corrected, @Daniel_Bowman mentioned it in the post above, missed it :]

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I get that subscriptions still are not what we like. Me neither… But that is basically where we are these days for software (almost always) that is not FOSS. No matter if it is called a subscription or a Lifetime Purchase. At least if we want to use software that is being kept current by the developer and supported for the current OS.

In defense of Reeder’s subscription-only option: it is 10 bucks per year. That is a very fair price these days, isn’t it? Tapestry’s one-time purchase is 90 bucks over here (alternative yearly subscription: 23 bucks). You will get 9 years of Reeder until it is more expensive than Tapestry. Tapestry’s Lifetime Purchase seems to be calculated as for a 3 to 4-year release cycle. I have doubts that those 90 bucks will provide everybody with 9 years of “Tapestry” in its current incarnation. The later we are in the cycle/its lifetime, the more expensive the OTP option is looking to me. That is something one should keep in mind.

1st Disclaimer: none of the mentioned apps are for me, I still am a Reeder Classic guy and I would have loved to see a new incarnation of that app, even with a subscription (yes, I know, it is not “dead”, but those updates have been very sparse lately)…

2nd Disclaimer: Tapestry is being loved by a lot of users (so, they have done everything right) and Iconfactory is a fantastic development and design studio. I wish them all the best!

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Reeder’s price is fair (much cheaper) compared to other competitors. I just hope he can do more at least replying to emails.

The well maintained one is NetNewsWire though, and it’s FOSS.

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I have been a Reeder user since the day the iPad was released. I just am into its minimalist design. If I have learned one thing over the years, then it is that Silvio Rizzi does not really respond to emails, but he is reading them. :slight_smile: If something is broken, it will be fixed eventually, but that’s it. I have accepted that these days. :wink: It is more important to me that he maintains his apps being a single developer. Sometimes he is addressing some things via Mastodon so that I at least know that he still is maintaining his apps:

NetNewsWire works like a charm (as a classic RSS reader) and yes, you can customize its design, but it is not the same for me. :slight_smile:

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