A news aggregator is software which collect news, weblog posts, and other information from the web so that they can be read in a single location for easy viewing. With the range of news sources available on the internet, news aggregators play an essential role in helping users to quickly locate breaking news.
For individuals that read lots of weblogs, a news aggregator makes keeping track of them effortless, and particularly useful if the weblogs are only updated occasionally.
There are a number of different file formats which information publishers use. The most frequently ones are RSS and Atom. RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. It is a defined standard based on XML with the specific purpose of delivering updates to web-based content. In other words, RSS is a Web content syndication format.
Using this standard, webmasters provide headlines and fresh content in a succinct manner. Meanwhile, consumers use RSS readers and news aggregators to collect and monitor their favorite feeds in one centralized program or location.
Atom is a format which is similar to RSS in many respects, but offers a number of improvements.
The chart below offers our rating for each software. Not all the applications featured in this group test are dedicated news aggregators. For example, Thunderbird is primarily an email client, but it also offers other functionality including RSS. The rating given to each software represents our view of the application in respect of its ability as a news aggregator only.
To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 10 impressive graphical news aggregators. Terminal-based and web based clients are covered in separate roundups, here and here.
Let’s explore the 10 news aggregators software at hand. For each application we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, screenshots, together with links to relevant resources. Start keeping up with the news today.
| Graphical News Aggregators | |
|---|---|
| FeedReader | High quality RSS client for various webservices |
| Akregator | News feed reader for KDE |
| Liferea | Three-pane GNOME based news aggregator |
| Fluent Reader | Modern desktop RSS reader |
| NewsFlash | Follow your favorite blogs and news sites |
| RSS Guard | Simple, light and easy-to-use RSS/ATOM feed aggregator |
| Raven Reader | Flexible settings to optimize your experience |
| QuiteRSS | Qt5-based news aggregator for RSS and Atom news feeds |
| Thunderbird | Popular free, cross-platform e-mail, RSS and newsgroup client |
| TICKR | RSS reader displaying RSS feeds in a ticker bar |
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |
QuiteRSS is my favorite hands down. I’d put Liferea as my second choice.
I found another RSS aggregator that I installed and I now use few times a day. This is FreshRSS. Very good. This is a great product. Runs with any LAMP server, be it on a VPS, or on your own local Linux server at home.work.
I decided to limit the number of self-hosted RSS aggregators for this group test. But there are many other self-hosted solutions too besides FressRSS including Leed, Kriss Feed, and selfoss. If there’s interest, we can compile a group test solely focusing on self-hosted solutions.
A vote for self-hosted solutions, I wouldn’t mind having something running on my RPi.
Personally I am using AKregator and Newspipe.