A Feedly alternative for TV and gaming fans

Chances are you're here because Feedly has been getting on your nerves. The free plan feels cramped, searching your articles costs extra, and useful features like mute filters require Pro+. Meanwhile, Feedly's homepage increasingly feels aimed at cybersecurity analysts rather than people catching up on their feeds over coffee.

If all you want is another RSS reader (which Topiks isn't), skip ahead to the readers I'd recommend. But if your Feedly folders are full of TV and gaming news, stick around for a few minutes. We've probably run into the same frustrations. They're why I started building Topiks, and I want to walk you through what I was missing in Feedly and what I decided to do differently.

Why do RSS readers struggle with TV and gaming news?

I kept my TV and gaming folders in Feedly for years, so what follows is less analysis, more autobiography.

First problem: with an RSS reader, you subscribe to sites you like reading, like IGN, GameSpot or Variety. Then it's on you to sift through everything they publish and find the articles you actually care about. You spend your time tweaking your feeds and, if your plan allows it, adding filters to hide the stuff you don't want. Then you cross your fingers and hope the good stuff ends up in there somewhere. RSS has this backwards, if you ask me. What you actually care about is a TV show, a game, an actor, a studio. You should be able to start by choosing those topics. Then you can see which sites cover them and decide which of those sites you'd actually like to read.

Second problem: even if your feed only covered topics you care about, you probably still wouldn't want to read everything. For some shows, I just want to know when they're coming back and watch the next trailer. Cast interviews, fan theories... yeah, not really my thing. But with another show, I'll happily spend ten minutes staring at photos from the set, trying to work out what's going on. It's the same with games. If I'm counting down the days until a game comes out, I don't want the same articles as when I've been playing it for six months. That's something I'd like to have a say in too. For each topic, what kind of news I want to get, and what I'd rather leave out.

And then there are spoilers. That's where I threw in the towel. You open your feed to catch up on a few stories, and a headline has already told you what happens in the episode you were planning to watch tonight. In Feedly, you can get around that by setting up a filter to hide articles that mention the show's name. But then all the news about that show disappears too. And if you follow esports, it's even worse. Good luck checking the news without finding out who won a big tournament. I still want to read about the shows and tournaments I follow. I just want to hide the articles that would spoil what I haven't watched yet. A filter on the name of a show or tournament has no way of knowing where I'm up to. That's what I started with when I built spoiler protection for Topiks.

What does Topiks do differently?

Topiks works the other way around from a traditional RSS reader. You don't subscribe to a site and get everything it publishes. You follow the shows, games, actors, studios and so on that you're interested in. You're picking them from a catalog of specific topics, not just adding keywords to a list. Once you've made your choices, the articles about them come to you, no matter which site published them. And of course, just like in an RSS reader, you can adjust which sites you hear from if you have a few favorites, or a few you can't stand. That part's pretty standard.

But Topiks goes much further than that. Following your favorite show or game doesn't mean you want to be spammed with absolutely everything about it. Topiks lets you choose exactly what you want to hear about, for each topic you follow. Just trailers and release dates for a show? No problem. Just patch notes for a game? Done.

Now, back to those spoilers. For every show, movie and tournament you follow, you can tell us exactly where you're up to. Stopped at season 2, episode 4 of The Last of Us? Topiks hides articles that would spoil anything that happens after that episode. That's how precise it is. Only watched as far as the quarterfinals of League of Legends Worlds? Same idea: you tell us which matches you've seen, we take care of the rest. Topiks knows every episode of every show and every match of every tournament, so telling us where you're up to only takes a few clicks. There's more on the spoiler protection page.

That's the pitch. Now comes the part where I stop being charming and show you a table.

How does Topiks compare with Feedly, Inoreader and NewsBlur?

For this comparison, I've picked Inoreader and NewsBlur, the two alternatives I'd look at first if I were replacing Feedly. There are others worth a look too, especially if you want to host your own reader or use an app for Apple devices. I'll get to those right after the table.

Which RSS readers would I recommend instead of Feedly?

Welcome to everyone who skipped here from the intro. No hard feelings. Here are the five readers I'd consider for replacing Feedly, with what I like about each and what would make me think twice.

1. Inoreader

Price: Free | Pro €6.67/month, billed annually | Pricing details

Why I'd pick it: This is the one I'd try first if I wanted something that felt familiar after Feedly. The free plan gives you a bit more breathing room, with 150 feeds instead of 100, and no ads.

The catch: rules, filters and duplicate filtering all require Pro. So if you're leaving Feedly because you're tired of paying just to filter your articles... you're going to run into that frustration here too. It'll cost you less, but you'll still have to pay.

2. NewsBlur

Price: Free | Premium $3/month, billed annually | Pricing details

Why I'd pick it: What I like about NewsBlur is that you can already filter your articles on the free plan. You tell it which authors, tags or words in headlines interest you, and which ones you'd rather hide. It uses those choices to highlight some articles and hide others. It's also open source, so you can host it yourself if you feel like it, or use their hosted service.

The catch: you need to spend some time telling it what you want to read. If you import your feeds and expect it to work out your tastes on its own... it'll need a little help. And some features require a more expensive subscription. Duplicate stories are already grouped on popular feeds for free. Archive extends that to all your feeds for $8.25 a month, billed annually, while regex filters require Pro, at $29 a month.

3. FreshRSS

Price: Free | Hosting not included | Official site

Why I'd pick it: If you'd like to host your own reader, FreshRSS is one I'd look at. It's open source, and it'll run on a small server, even a Raspberry Pi. Filters are included, with no subscription needed to unlock this or that feature. It can even pull articles from some sites that don't offer RSS feeds, though you'll need to configure how it gets those articles.

The catch: if you host it yourself, you're responsible for installation, updates and backups. If you already have a server and enjoy tinkering, this could suit you well. If you just want to open your reader and read your articles without dealing with all that... I'd look at the other options.

4. NetNewsWire

Price: Free | Official site

Why I'd pick it: If you read your feeds on a Mac, iPhone or iPad, I'd start by trying NetNewsWire. It's open source, and you don't need an account to use it. You can also connect it to a service like Feedbin or Feedly to keep your subscriptions and what you've read in sync across devices. So if it's mainly the Feedly app that's getting on your nerves, you can change how you read without moving all your feeds somewhere else.

The catch: it's only available on Apple devices. And if you want to automatically hide articles containing certain words, NetNewsWire doesn't have a setting for that. Some filtering can happen through the service you connect it to, depending on what it supports. If you were hoping a different app would also help you weed out the articles you don't want... switching apps alone won't do it.

5. Feedbin

Price: $7/month or $70/year | 30-day free trial | Pricing details

Why I'd pick it: If you read a lot of newsletters alongside your RSS feeds, Feedbin is worth a try. It gives you an email address to sign up with, so those newsletters show up in your reader instead of getting mixed in with your regular emails. I also like how the subscription works. One plan, every feature included. No upgrading to Pro and then Pro+ just to unlock the setting you're missing.

The catch: there's no free plan for light use. If you're mainly looking for a replacement for Feedly's free plan, that might be enough to rule it out. And on Android, you'll need to use the mobile site or a compatible app like FeedMe or Capy Reader, since Feedbin doesn't offer its own Android app.