# Alternatives to NewsBlur

Open source reader with training.

NewsBlur ranks #1 of 11 in RSS readers, with an Alt Score of 86. It is licensed under MIT, freemium from $36/year and available on Web, iOS, Android and macOS. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/newsblur/
Category: RSS readers

## Where NewsBlur stands out

- **Self-hostable** — 4 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: People who follow many RSS/news feeds and want fine-grained control over what they see, from casual readers to power users tracking hundreds or thousands of sites.
- **What you get**: An RSS reader that lets you train 'intelligence' filters to automatically hide or highlight stories by author, tag, title, or keyword. You can read articles in their original site layout or extract full text from truncated feeds, search across your archive, and share favorite stories publicly or with friends via a personal Blurblog. It's open source (MIT license) and can be self-hosted via Docker instead of using the hosted version.
- **How it works**: Add RSS feeds or import an OPML file, then mark stories as liked or disliked to train the intelligence filters over time. NewsBlur uses that training to automatically sort incoming stories, while you read them in-app, in original-site view, or share select ones to your Blurblog.

## Profile

- **License**: MIT (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Pricing model**: Freemium (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Starts at**: $36/year (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Platforms**: Web, iOS, Android, macOS
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-11)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [FreshRSS](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/freshrss.md) | 82 | AGPL-3.0 | Web |
| 2 | [Miniflux](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/miniflux.md) | 82 | Apache-2.0 | Web, iOS, Android |
| 3 | [Tiny Tiny RSS](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/tiny-tiny-rss.md) | 82 | GPL-3.0 | Web |
| 4 | [Feedbin](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/feedbin.md) | 78 | MIT | Web, iOS |
| 5 | [Inoreader](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/inoreader.md) | 73 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 6 | [Folo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/folo.md) | 64 | AGPL-3.0 | Web, iOS, Android, Windows |
| 7 | [Feedly](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/feedly.md) | 50 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 8 | [Reeder](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/reeder.md) | 50 | Proprietary | iOS, macOS |
| 9 | [The Old Reader](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/the-old-reader.md) | 50 | ? | ? |
| 10 | [NetNewsWire](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/netnewswire.md) | 28 | MIT | iOS, macOS |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| RSS readers checklist | NewsBlur | FreshRSS | Miniflux | Tiny Tiny RSS | Feedbin | Inoreader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Freemium | Free | OSS + paid hosting | Free | Subscription | Freemium |
| Starts at | $36/year | ? | $15/year | ? | $70/year | $89.99/year (~$7.50/mo) |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 | MIT | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android, macOS | Web | Web, iOS, Android | Web | Web, iOS | Web, iOS, Android |
| Feed limit (free) | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial |
| Full-text extraction | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Keyboard navigation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rules & filters | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Newsletter ingestion (email address) | Yes | Partial | ? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Offline reading | Partial | ? | Partial | ? | ? | Partial |
| Tagging | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ? |
| Podcast support | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for NewsBlur. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: MIT — <https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/blob/main/LICENSE.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “The MIT License”
- **Starts at**: $36/year — <https://www.newsblur.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “$36 /year”
- **Pricing model**: Freemium — <https://www.newsblur.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Everything in Free, plus: Follow up to 1,024 sites, Sites updated up to 5x more often, River of News (reading by folder), Search sites and folders”
- **Platforms**: Web, iOS, Android, macOS — <https://github.com/samuelclay/NewsBlur/blob/main/README.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Native Mobile Apps - Free iOS, macOS, and Android apps jam-packed with features.”
- **Status**: active — <https://forum.newsblur.com/t/a-mini-media-player-for-podcasts-audio-and-video/13425> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “I wanted something that keeps playing while you keep reading. So I built a persistent mini media player.”
- **Feed limit (free)**: Partial — <https://www.newsblur.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Follow up to 64 sites”
- **Full-text extraction**: Partial — <https://www.newsblur.com/pricing/premium> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “When feeds only include summaries, Text view fetches the full article from the source. Clean formatting, no clutter.”
- **Keyboard navigation**: Yes — <https://www.newsblur.com/features> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Navigate everything without touching the mouse. Open feeds, scroll through stories, mark as read, save, share, train, switch views — all from the keyboard.”
- **Rules & filters**: Yes — <https://www.newsblur.com/features> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Train NewsBlur to show you what you want and hide what you don't. Thumbs up an author, tag, or title keyword to highlight matching stories in green.”
- **Newsletter ingestion (email address)**: Yes — <https://www.newsblur.com/features> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Forward newsletters to your unique NewsBlur email address and they appear as a feed. Train, tag, search, and organize newsletters just like any other feed.”
- **Offline reading**: Partial — <https://www.newsblur.com/features/native-apps> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Stories are cached locally and the iOS app uses background refresh to stay up to date even when you're not using it.”
- **Tagging**: Yes — <https://www.newsblur.com/pricing/premium> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Save stories for later and organize them with custom tags. Each tag gets its own RSS feed for sharing.”
- **API**: Yes — <https://www.newsblur.com/api> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “NewsBlur's API allows users to retrieve their feeds, feed counts, feed icons, feed statistics, and individual feed stories. No API key is required, but you are required to authenticate before using an”
- **Self-hostable**: Yes — <https://www.newsblur.com/pricing> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “DIY Self-Hosted”
- **Podcast support**: Yes — <https://forum.newsblur.com/t/a-mini-media-player-for-podcasts-audio-and-video/13425> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “A lot of the sites I subscribe to have audio and video embedded directly in the stories. Podcasts, YouTube channels, news clips.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/