NewsBlur launched in 2009 as an independent RSS reader. When Google Reader shut down in 2013, hundreds of thousands of readers found their new home. Over a decade later, NewsBlur is still going strong.
NewsBlur was founded in 2009 as an independent, one-person project with a simple goal: build a better RSS reader. At the time, Google Reader dominated the market. But NewsBlur offered something Google never did. It let you train your feeds with intelligence classifiers so you could focus on the stories that matter and hide the ones that don't.
When Google announced the shutdown of Google Reader in March 2013, millions of people scrambled for an alternative. NewsBlur was one of the top destinations for that migration. The servers were overwhelmed for weeks as new users flooded in. That moment proved something important: people care deeply about RSS, and they need a reader they can count on.
If you used Google Reader, you'll feel at home in NewsBlur. Folder-based organization, keyboard shortcuts for navigating and managing stories, a clean reading interface, and full OPML import and export are all here. NewsBlur preserved the core reading experience that made Google Reader great.
But NewsBlur goes further. Intelligence training lets you highlight stories by author, tag, title keyword, or full text. You can filter by URL patterns and even use regex classifiers on the Pro plan. Stories are color-coded green for focus and red for hidden, so you always know why a story is surfaced or suppressed. Ask AI lets you query your stories using Claude, GPT, Gemini, or Grok. Web Feeds let you follow any website, even ones without RSS. And email newsletters can be forwarded directly into your reading queue.
The lesson of Google Reader was clear: if your reading tool is owned by a corporation that doesn't value it, it can disappear overnight. Google shut down Reader not because it was unpopular, but because it didn't align with their business priorities.
NewsBlur is fully open source under the MIT license. The entire codebase, including the web app, iOS app, Android app, and all backend services, is available on GitHub. You can inspect it, contribute to it, or run your own self-hosted instance with Docker. Even if NewsBlur the service were to stop operating, the software would live on. Your reading workflow is never at the mercy of a single company's quarterly earnings call.
Whether you're coming from Google Reader's old OPML export, another RSS reader, or starting fresh, NewsBlur makes it simple to get set up. Import your OPML file and all your feeds and folders appear instantly. NewsBlur also supports exporting your subscriptions at any time, so you're never locked in.
NewsBlur works with popular third-party apps like Reeder, ReadKit, and Unread through its open API. You can read on the web, on the native iOS and Android apps, or through the client of your choice. There's also a free plan with up to 64 sites, so you can try it without commitment.
NewsBlur has been running continuously since 2009. That's over fifteen years of uptime, development, and community trust. It survived the Google Reader shutdown, the rise and fall of social media as a news source, and the ongoing consolidation of the web. Through all of it, NewsBlur has stayed independent, open source, and focused on one thing: giving you the best way to read the news.
If you've been searching for a Google Reader replacement, you've found it. NewsBlur isn't just an alternative. It's the reader that Google Reader users chose, and the one that's still here.