Hey

A lot of people are subscribing to blogs and websites using RSS. (Did you know that you can find my RSS feed here). I think it is a great way to keep update with the latests posts and updates of your favourite sites. I have many RSS feeds, and I really enjoy reading through them. This post will be about some of the top RSS readers for the Macintosh operating system. Most of them are very similar in nature in what they do (there is not a lot of variation for RSS feeds). The list is organized in alphabetical order, but if you think I have missed one please leave a comment below.

1) Cyndicate

Touted as a next gen RSS reader it has a very similar interface to mail. It does have some interesting features such as a star rating system for articles, the ability to customize the CSS and HTML to your liking. So you change how it looks and feels. As well as this it also has a unique feature for having the “Share This” option, enabling you to share it with your friends or favourite sites. It does have a 21-day demo so you can try before you buy.

Price: $29.95

2) Endo

Endo (very cool name) is made by the popular people that made the desktop blogging software ecto. This reader brings forward some of the simple interfaces and styles that ecto is so popular for. This is a simple reader, designed to bring you directly to your feeds. It has a “different” navigation bar at the top, but has all of the usual features of searching, smart downloads, flagging. This app also enables you to customize the look of your feeds but enables you to do it individually to different feeds through the use of a simple GUI.

Price: Free.

3) Firefox

Although not an RSS reader in itself it does offer the ability to keep track of your feeds through its interface. Its not the best RSS reader in the world, it may not even be the “top” but it is good for anyone who is on a computer network and cannot install applications. Its all built in. Only ever good if you need to quickly check a site. There are various plugins which enable this function to perform slightly better.

Price: Free. Download it here.

4) Google Reader

Probably one of the best online RSS readers, the other being bloglines, it has the similar Google interface we have come to know and love. It works in a simple way of letting you subscribe and view you feeds in the sidebar. It is great if you are always on the move, or want a site to keep track of all of your feeds so you can access them from anywhere.

Price: Free

5) Mail

Personally, my favorite RSS client. Although it doesn’t have any of the fancy, advance features, it does work very well. It integrate well within your normal mailbox. You can easily apply flags, and filters, as well as easy folder organization to keep things in check. Best of all it is included with the operating system so you don’t have to download anything.

6) NetNewsWire

Probably one of the best, and popular RSS readers on the Mac, and rightly so. It has one of the easiest to use interfaces. Like many readers on this list, it has lots of features including a fast search engine, html archiving and picking up on favicons within the sidebar. It is now free, which is the best thing of all.

Price: Free

7) NewsLife

A very simple RSS reader. Like many other reader it has a simple sidebar and colourful interface. Simple to use, although could have some more advance features.

Price: Free

8) NewsFire

From the creators of xtorrent, a popular bittorrent software, the same guys have made newsfire. It is very simple to use and doesn’t have more of the advance features. It does have a very simple interface, so if you are only after a RSS reader that does just that, read. Newsfire is your choice.

Price: Free

9) PixelNews

Like all RSS readers it offers the same basic format of sidebar plus entry. But this program has a couple of cool features. Such as the ability to show the latest posts feeds through the use of a “Breaking News” feature. It also links to the Pixelnews database which enables you to view and search other RSS feeds with other people. It does have a free 2 week trial.

Price: $25

10) Safari

Another built-in RSS reader that is way better than Firefox. It gives you all you need to preview feeds. search through them and easily organise them from your menu bar. One very cool feature is the article length slider, than enables you to sort the lengths of your feeds, so you can either have the full view, a partial cut down view, or just the head lines. I would go for this one for a web based RSS reader.

Price: Free

11) Shrook

A different method of viewing RSS feeds through the use of column views. Although slightly annoying it does have some good features to compensate. For example it runs through growl, which enables you to get easy on screen notifications. As well as the ability to store items later through the use of a scrap book.

Price: Free.

Hopefully that has enlightened you to some of the top RSS readers out there. There are hundreds of programs out there that could be the job, but I would be here all day if I was to list them all. My personal choice would be to go for Mail or Safari if you don’t want to download anything, and NetNews if you want to download an app. These are my choices. If you have any comments on ones I have missed out that should have made the list, or just any comments please leave one below.

Edit: Due to unsurpassed popular demand:

12) Vienna

Similar to many RSS readers, Vienna does have some cool features that many people seem to like, due to untold number of comments. Including tabbed browsing, and Apple Script support. Apple Script support is a very cool idea. There have been many times I would have wanted a quick bit of Apple Script to do a repetitive job. I think I might have to give this program a try, it seems a lot of people like it.

Price: Free