The choice comes down to a few questions: whether you need the full text of an article, what to do with sources without RSS, how many devices you have, whether you need offline reading, how you will export your data and how you’d rather pay.
| Criterion | What to look at |
|---|---|
| Full text | Whether the full text is downloaded along with images, video and other files |
| Sources without RSS | What the app does with Telegram channels, YouTube, newsletters and paid blogs |
| Devices and sync | Whether there are apps for phones and computers, and whether what you read syncs between them |
| Offline | Whether articles are downloaded in advance, whether you can read when there is no internet |
| Archive | Whether a copy stays if the source deletes the article |
| Order in the feed | Whether articles come in date order or the order is chosen by an algorithm — and whether some of them are hidden from you |
| Ads and recommendations | Whether there are ads in the app — how obvious they are, or whether they are blended in so you do not notice them |
| Rules and filters | How many conditions you can set, what you can check and what actions you can take |
| Refresh frequency | How often sources are checked and whether the refresh can be sped up |
| Lifetime of unread items | Whether old articles are marked as read automatically before you get to them |
| Data export | Whether you can take your subscriptions with you and move to another app. Whether you can get the articles as files. Whether you have to contact support for that |
| Payment model | Whether one plan covers everything or modules are paid for separately, what the free plan includes, and whether you pay for a year up front or monthly |
Bookmarks are fine for individual articles, but they do not work as a stream: to avoid missing anything you have to visit every site yourself and waste time switching between them. Social network feeds, by contrast, bring new content on their own, but into one endless feed, and the order is chosen by an algorithm, with no guarantee that you will see every article.
Feeds in Readine strike a middle ground: new articles arrive on their own, and you choose how to sort them. You have to set everything up once — which is exactly why people put off switching.
Choosing badly costs more than the subscription itself: you pay for the whole plan, lose your favourites when you move or have to re-add every source. All of this can be checked before payment.
| Mistake | What to do |
|---|---|
| Moving every source you come across into the app | A feed of a hundred channels becomes just another endless scroll. Add filter rules, set up automatic deletion. |
| Looking at the price of a plan without checking what it includes | The higher plans usually include offline reading, rules, Telegram and faster refresh. If you need at least one of these things, you have to buy the whole higher plan and pay for what you do not use. Check what each plan includes. |
| Not checking the export before moving | The list of read articles, favourites, notes and rules may not be exported, so check them in advance. |
| Expecting instant updates | Sources are checked on a schedule: see how the frequency is configured and whether acceleration is sold separately. |
Q: How many sources do you need to start?
A: 3–10 is enough to understand whether the app suits you.
Q: Do you need your own server?
A: Readine is a ready-made solution — no server to install. A server is needed for such features as device sync, notifications, complex filtering, downloading full-text articles and advanced search through them. The heaviest work — the kind that drains your battery and data — can also run on the server.
Q: Will there be ads in Readine?
A: No, neither on the free nor on the paid plan.
Q: What happens if the service shuts down?
A: Subscriptions live in your account, and you can export them as an OPML file at any time. Offline copies of articles stay on the device, even if the source has deleted it.
Q: How do you know if the app is not for you?
A: If after a couple of weeks you are back to reading in a messenger or a social network, ask yourself what is missing.
Readine reads RSS feeds, Twitter, Telegram channels, YouTube, Substack, Fanbox and more. 3 feeds free, no time limit and no ads.
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