Why You Should Use RSS (Instead of Email) to Follow Your Favorite Sites

Tired of Newsletters and Social Media? Try RSS.

If you’ve ever wished you could follow your favorite websites without giving away your email or fighting an algorithm, RSS is exactly what you’re looking for.

You don’t need to be a tech expert to use it—and once you get the hang of it, you might wonder how you ever lived without it.

What is RSS (and why should you care)?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a technology that allows websites to publish content updates in a standardized format.

Think of RSS as a custom curated news feed just for you. Instead of checking 10 different websites every day to see what’s new, you can use an RSS reader that shows you all the latest posts in one clean place.

It’s like a personalized magazine made up only of websites and social content you care about!

You might also see something called Atom — it’s just a slightly different version of the same idea. They use a similar feed format and most RSS apps handle both automatically, so you don’t need to worry about the difference.

With RSS or Atom feeds, whenever a site publishes new content, it shows up in your reader. No fluff. No spam. No algorithms deciding what you should see.

5 Reasons to Use RSS Instead of Email Newsletters

There are plenty of reasons why I prefer RSS over email and you might too.

#1 No inbox clutter!

Newsletters can fill up your email fast. RSS keeps things separate, so your inbox stays clean.

Last year I was looking at some Pottery Barn Kids furniture for my son's bedroom and I signed up for their list hoping to be notified when a sale was on. I got emails DAILY. That is insane.

I remember when I'd get a West Elm catalog in the mail it was typically sent quarterly. I guess they decided email was cheaper than printing and postage so they can just blast your inbox.

I wish I could say this is unusual for a company to do but this sort of thing is becoming increasingly common even among smaller companies. They have zero chill.

It is only going to get worse as more and more people are using LLMs to design and compose emails and the effort required to bombard recipients is so low.

#2 No spam or tracking!

With RSS, you don’t give anyone your email address. No one can track you or send you ads.

You should always be hesitant to hand over your email address to anyone unless you have a strategy in place using email aliases or throw away accounts.

Even people that promise not to share your data are typically using 3rd party services to deliver emails so you have to trust them and the other party and with data breeches occurring frequently even an unintentional disclosure of your data can wreck your inbox and open you up to spammers and phishing attacks.

RSS is a great way to reduce this risk. There is simply no need to hand over your email to follow online content.

#3 Everything is in one place!

Whether it's blogs, news, podcasts, or even YouTube channels, RSS can bring it all together in one place. Just open up your RSS feed reader and see what's new.

Always check for RSS feeds for online content you like to follow so you don't have to sign up for lists or visit sites frequently just to see if something is new.

Keep in mind that many sites like YouTube do their best to not make RSS obvious but the truth is you don't need to be subscribed or even be logged into a Google account to know when your favorite creators post new videos.

#4 Never miss a post!

RSS shows you everything a site publishes, in chronological order. If it's part of the feed your RSS reader will fetch it. It's that simple.

It's not a matter of whether or not the site owner decides to fire off a newsletter email. There are no algorithms hiding things from you or injecting adds or content you aren't even subscribed to into your feed.

How many times have you heard a YouTuber beg subscribers to “click the bell icon” because subscribers are not notified of new videos? That's ridiculous.

If it's posted it goes in the feed. That's the way it should work.

#5 You’re in control!

You decide what to follow. If you’re tired of following a site, forget digging for unsubscribe links in emails, stupid exit surveys or worse being on a list where you have to hunt online for instructions to unsubscribe. Skip that foolishness. Just remove it from your feed reader. Done. Easy peasy.

How It Works and How to Get Started

#1 Get a RSS Reader that you like.

There are a lot of free and paid RSS Readers out there. I'll list a few in the next section so you can get started finding one you like.

#2 Locate the feed URLs for your favorite websites.

Look for the RSS icon on websites, or look for a link in the header or footer menus. If you don't see one you can try URLs like:

• https://example.com/feed
• https://example.com/rss.xml

Some sites like YouTube don't make the links obvious because they want you visiting their site or using their apps.

Here's how to get the feed URL for a YouTube channel:

1. Visit the homepage for the channel you want to add to your feed reader.
2. Right click on a blank area of the screen and choose ‘View page source' to view the source code for the page.
3. Search the page source for “channel_id=” and you should be able to see the feed URL.

For example, if I view the source of Adam Savage's Tested channel homepage and view and search the page source I see the feed url is https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCiDJtJKMICpb9B1qf7qjEOA

#3 Copy the feed URL and add it to your reader.

The process for this varies depending on your feed reader but in short you just copy that feed URL into your feed reader whether that be from an “Add Feed” or “Subscribe” option or in some cases like newsboat it may be a simple text file/configuration file you just add the URL to.

#4 Read and enjoy!

The reader checks the feed regularly for updates. New articles will appear in your reader, just like unread emails. Features vary from reader to reader but there are many ways to handle notifications or task bar icons and organize your feeds. Just choose a reader that fits your needs.

Is it still worth using RSS in 2026? Absolutely.

It's not a new technology but don't write it off as something old and usless. If you value digital privacy, minimalism, and staying up to date without being overwhelmed, RSS might be exactly what you’re looking for.

Even if you don't care about those things, it's great to be able to curate your own news feed from sources you want to follow. It's just more efficient and saves time and headaches.

While social media tries to guess what you want to see—and email newsletters flood your inbox—RSS keeps things simple. It’s open, decentralized, private, and entirely under your control. It definitely has a place in a modern digital life.

Free and Open Source RSS Readers

There are plenty of high-quality FOSS RSS readers available for every platform. Here are some great options:

For Linux or other UNIX-like operating systems

• Liferea [ https://lzone.de/liferea/ ] – Liferea is a lightweight yet full-featured GTK/GNOME desktop reader. If you want a GUI but still want something similar in interface to an email client then Liferea is a good choice. It has an embedded browser so viewing articles and listening to podcasts can be done inside the application in most cases.
• Newsboat [ https://newsboat.org/index.html ] – A terminal-based reader for the command-line crowd. This has been my RSS reader of choice for the past few years but it is a text console reader so there is no fancy GUI here. This is not for everyone. If you like tinkering with config files and customizing things or have an older system that benefits from running minimal software maybe Newsboat is a good fit for you.
• Akregator [ https://apps.kde.org/akregator/ ] – Similar to Liferea, Akregator is Part of KDE's PIM suite. If you like KDE applications or are running a KDE desktop and try to keep your applications styled in a similar manner this may be a good option for a reader with a GUI.

For macOS

• Vienna [ https://www.vienna-rss.com/ ] – A native Mac RSS reader that’s open source and easy to use. I don't think it's seen a new release in a couple of years so the next option below which is actively maintained may be a better option.
• NetNewsWire [ https://netnewswire.com/ ] – Polished, fast, and free; It is actively maintained and is also available on iOS.

For Windows

• RSS Guard [ https://github.com/martinrotter/rssguard ] – A cross-platform reader that is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and is RSS/Atom compatible.

Cross-Platform / Web-Based

• Fluent Reader [ https://hyliu.me/fluent-reader/ ] – Electron-based modern UI for desktop (Windows, macOS, Linux).
• FreshRSS [ https://freshrss.org/index.html ] – For those who want to self-host a feed aggregator.
• Miniflux [ https://miniflux.app/ ] – Minimalist and efficient self-hosted option.

Browser Extensions

• Feeder (Firefox/Chrome) [ https://feeder.co/ ] – Adds RSS discovery and reading to your browser.
• Feedbro (Firefox/Chrome) [ https://nodetics.com/feedbro/ ] – Adds RSS directly to Chrome or Firefox.