NetNewsWirevs
Reeder
Reeder: If you want YouTube, Reddit and Mastodon feeds mixed in with RSS and do not mind a low subscription
NetNewsWire
Free open source RSS reader for Mac and iOS, with no subscription, no ads and no feed limit
As of 1 September 2026, NetNewsWire is free to use. A free, open source RSS and Atom feed reader for Mac, iPhone and iPad, maintained by a small volunteer team with backing from the Vercel-owned Feedbin ecosystem contributors. Softwr lists it under News. NetNewsWire is made by Ranchero Software (open source project), available on Mac, iOS.
Overview
What NetNewsWire does
NetNewsWire fetches and displays RSS and Atom feeds in a traditional three-pane reading layout familiar to long time RSS users, with support for syncing read state and subscriptions through third party services such as Feedbin, Feedly or iCloud. It focuses purely on RSS and does not attempt to pull in YouTube, Reddit or other social sources. The distinguishing fact against Reeder is cost and scope. NetNewsWire is entirely free and open source, with no feed limit, no subscription tier and no ads, funded by volunteer maintainers rather than a commercial pricing model. Reeder charges a low monthly subscription for unlimited feeds and adds YouTube, Reddit and Mastodon alongside RSS. A user who only wants traditional RSS with no cap and no recurring cost has no real reason to pay for Reeder over NetNewsWire; a user who wants social feeds mixed in has no equivalent in NetNewsWire at all. Buyers, in the sense of adopters, are RSS purists, developers and long time subscribers to independent blogs and news sites who want a free, fast, native reader with no account required beyond an optional third party sync service. The trade-off is that it has no built in social feed integration, and because it depends on volunteer maintenance, new feature development moves more slowly than a commercially funded app.
What people use it for
- A reader who only wants traditional RSS and Atom feeds with no cap and no cost
- Someone who tried Reeder free tier, hit the ten feed limit, and wants an unlimited free alternative instead
- A developer who wants an open source reader they can inspect or contribute to on GitHub
- A user who wants feed sync through an existing Feedbin or Feedly account without paying for a separate reader subscription
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about NetNewsWire.
- It has no built in YouTube, Reddit or Mastodon integration, so a user wanting social feeds alongside RSS needs Reeder instead.
- Cross-device sync requires a third party account such as Feedbin or Feedly for full functionality, which may itself carry its own cost.
- As a volunteer-maintained project, new feature development and release cadence are slower than a funded commercial app.
- It is Apple platforms only, with no Windows, Android or web client.
- Its reading interface is more traditional and less gesture-driven than Reeder, which some users used to modern touch interactions find plainer.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of NetNewsWire
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- NetNewsWirevsMimestream
Mimestream: If your reading and triage need is really email rather than RSS
- NetNewsWirevsMorgen
Morgen: If your organisational need is scheduling content rather than reading feeds
Pricing
What NetNewsWire costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
NetNewsWire
Free
- Free and open source, no account required
- No feed limit
- Optional third party sync services
Capabilities
Features
RSS and Atom parsing
Reads traditional feed formats with a classic three-pane layout
Third party sync
Syncs subscriptions and read state via Feedbin, Feedly, iCloud or other supported services
Unlimited feeds
No cap on the number of subscribed feeds, unlike Reeder free tier
Smart feeds
Automatically grouped views such as unread, starred or today
Local search
Full text search across subscribed feed content
Open source
Source code publicly available and maintained on GitHub
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is NetNewsWire free?
Yes, entirely, and it is open source with no paid tier or ads.
Does NetNewsWire sync across devices?
Yes, through third party sync services such as Feedbin, Feedly or iCloud, rather than a proprietary sync system of its own.
Does it support YouTube or Reddit like the new Reeder?
No. It is focused purely on RSS and Atom feeds with no social feed integration.
Keep looking
Where to go from NetNewsWire
- NetNewsWire alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- NetNewsWire pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- NetNewsWire badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All News softwareThe full category
- Best News softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best News software for
Compare NetNewsWire with
- Reeder
- Ghost
- NewsBlur
- Arc Publishing
- Feedbin
- Feedly
- Inoreader
- Meltwater
- ConvertKit
- CrowdTangle
- Apple News
- Artifact
- Brightspot
- Business Wire
- EIN Presswire
- Ghost CMS
- Arc Publishing
Other News software
Subscription RSS and social feed reader for Apple platforms, with a separate one-time Classic version
Free, then $10/yr10 researched notesModern publishing platform with content API and membership support
Free, then $15/mo12 researched notesThe enterprise publishing platform for news organizations
Pricing on request9 researched notesSocial media insights and content monitoring platform
Pricing on request5 researched notesThe headless CMS for digital publishers and media companies
Pricing on request8 researched notesThe enterprise publishing platform for news organizations
Pricing on request9 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for NetNewsWire, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on NetNewsWire
NetNewsWire alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
NetNewsWire pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare NetNewsWire
Put it head to head with anything we hold
NetNewsWire badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best News software alternatives
Subscription RSS and social feed reader for Apple platforms, with a separate one-time Classic version
Per user per month
The easiest way to start and grow your newsletter
