Choosing an RSS reader for newsletters: volume or privacy
It depends on what you want from it. If you read a lot, Inoreader's free plan is the most generous at 150 feeds, though its newsletter addresses need the paid plan. If you care more about who has your email, Rovatrove gives every signup its own real mailbox and fills in the form for you.
Any of these will put your newsletters next to your blogs, podcasts and YouTube channels. Where they split is what they’re built for. Some are made for reading a lot of sources fast, and some are made to keep your own address out of the signup form.
How most readers handle newsletters
Inoreader, Feedbin and Readwise Reader work like a second inbox. They give you an address and the rest is up to you: open the site, fill in the form, wait for the confirmation link, click it.
- Inoreader is the heavyweight for volume: 150 feeds free, 2,500 on Pro, with rules and filters for people following hundreds of sources. Newsletter addresses are a Pro feature, 20 of them, and Pro is $9.99 a month or $7.50 if you pay for the year.
- Feedbin is $7 a month after a 30-day trial and gives each account one address for newsletters.
- Readwise Reader is $9.99 a month billed annually, after a 30-day trial. It takes newsletters too, and it’s built around highlighting and notes more than following.
The catch with one address
When every newsletter writes to the same address, one bad sender affects all of them. If someone ignores your unsubscribe, sells their list or gets breached, that address is out there and you’re back to writing filters.
It only covers newsletters, too. The form that wants an email to send you a newsletter is the same form that wants one before a download, a trial or an account, and a reader address doesn’t help with any of those.
Where Rovatrove fits
Rovatrove isn’t built to pull in hundreds of sources. It’s for people who follow what they love reading, and want a quiet place to read them and a say in who gets their email.
- It signs you up. When a site asks for an email, the app makes an address for that one site and fills in the form.
- Every address is a real mailbox. Confirmation links and login codes arrive in the app so the signup goes through, and you can reply from it.
- Retire an address and that sender is gone. No asking them to unsubscribe. Anything sent to it afterwards is dropped, and if mail ever turns up where it shouldn’t, you know which company passed your address on.
- Everything lands in one feed. Blogs, newsletters, podcasts and YouTube channels, with a curated library of thousands to browse by topic. Podcasts play right in the app.
Plans and platforms
The free plan includes five feeds, so you can settle into the reader before you pay. A separate address for every signup comes with the paid plan. Rovatrove is on Android now, and iOS is coming soon.
Which one to pick
- Choose Inoreader if you want to follow hundreds of sites for free and don’t mind setting up filters.
- Compare the paid plans on newsletters. Inoreader Pro is $9.99 a month for 20 newsletter addresses. Rovatrove is $8.99 a month for 50, and each one belongs to a single site.
- Choose Rovatrove if you want your favorite writers in one quiet place, a separate address for every signup, and a way to cut a sender off at the source.
If the address side is what you’re after, here’s how the private email generators compare.
Questions people ask
Which RSS reader should you use for newsletters?
It depends on what you want from it. If you read a lot, Inoreader's free plan is the most generous at 150 feeds, though its newsletter addresses need the paid plan. If you care more about who has your email, Rovatrove gives every signup its own real mailbox and fills in the form for you.
Can you read newsletters in an RSS reader?
Yes. The reader gives you an email address, you subscribe to the newsletter with it, and each issue turns up alongside your feeds instead of in your inbox.
Which RSS readers have a free plan?
Inoreader has the largest free plan at 150 feeds, though its 20 newsletter addresses need Pro. Feedly has a free tier for reading. Feedbin and Readwise Reader are paid after a 30-day trial. Rovatrove is free for five feeds.
Do you still need your own email address?
For most readers, yes. The address they give you receives newsletters, but you use your own address for the things that need an account. A reader that issues an address per signup can take that on too.
What happens when you want a newsletter to stop?
In most readers you unsubscribe with the link in the issue, and the sender still has the address. Where each signup has its own address, retiring that address ends it, whether or not the sender honors the unsubscribe.
Can an RSS reader follow podcasts and YouTube channels too?
Some can. A podcast is an RSS feed with audio attached, and YouTube publishes a feed per channel, so a reader that supports both can put them in the same list as your blogs.