News hub. Creative Commons license by Lorrie McClanahan.

[Refresh Monday: Update 20, April 2009] Today, on my first Refresh Monday I focus again on the best free RSS readers.

Refresh Monday is my new regular column where I’ll update old valuable resources from my blog at the begginning of each week.

As I am probably not the only one to look for an RSS reader I decided to share my list of those I think are the best ones.

Most people nowadays use Google Reader for RSS (and Atom) feeds but I do not want Google to have all my data, I use far too many Google services by now.

Anyways, I still think that it’s one of the best RSS readers so I included it here in my list of the best 12 free cross-platform RSS readers (also referred to as feedreaders by many) along with 11 alternatives. Cross platform means they work on Windows, Mac and Linux.

• 3 of the best RSS readers are open source software based on the Java programming language, that’s why they work on all operating systems.


• 2 of them are Firefox extensions (add ons) and work on all system as Firefox itself is cross platform


• 6 of them are web based feed readers. It means they work in your browser like any website.


• 1 is a mail client that can also be used for RSS.

So here is the list, the desktop programs first:

1. RSSOwl - Probably the most popular free open source RSS reader, nice clean interface, support dozens of languages


2. BlogBridge - Simple, browser-like interface, also open source and quite popular newsreader


3. BottomFeeder - It’s a complex open source RSS reader for the power user


4. Sage - Sage is by now an established Firefox Add on for RSS. It’s been very simple and easy to use


5. Feedly - Feedly, a newer RSS Firefox extension offers a magazine like display of your feeds thus adapts to your natural reading habits
   
   


6. Google Reader - AJAX enhanced most popular web based RSS reader, using the typical Google colors and fonts. Allows easy sharing of items


7. Bloglines - Before Google Reader Bloglines was the most popular online browser based RSS reader, you can make your subscriptions visible for others here


8. Netvibes - Netvibes is more a web based starting page than a stand alone RSS reader but you can use it like one, you can share items too


9. Pageflakes - This is a Netvibes like service, an “online homepage” service with a far less cluttered interface


10. NewsGator Online RSS Aggregator - NewsGaor by now offer a wide variety of premium RSS products. The Online RSS aggregator is free though (sign up here at the bottom) and is a high quality web based RSS reader with a clean usable interface


11. FeedShow - This service is similar to Bloglines from it’s appearance but a little more fancy in its colors


12. Thunderbird - The popular mail client by the Moziall Foundation, also the makers of Firefox can also be used as an RSS reader. Reading news like this saves time but can also be distracting.

Are newsreaders, feed readers, Atom and RSS readers the same? Yes and no, I prefer the term RSS readers even though they also support Atom feeds (just another RSS-like format) because there is a RSS Reader software called Feedreader. I do not want you to mix it up.

I did not include Feedreader here as it only works on Windows. “Newsreader” might refer to the so called Usenet, a part of the Internet that came before the Web and still is used by some people. Usenet newsgroup readers are not the same as RSS newsreaders.