Reading the news online and scanning blogs is becoming one of the world's favorite past times. While keeping up with a few blogs is easy enough to do on one's own, keeping track of dozens of news feeds and blogs is a task best regulated to an RSS reader.
The following is a list of the best Windows RSS readers.
Newzcrawler
Features: Supports Usenet Newsgroups as well as RSS/ATOM, Built-in web browser, Email articles to friends, built in WYSIWYG editor for blogging on articles, search features.
Description: A very feature RSS reader with a lot of options and very customizable. Great for the experienced RSS reader. Somewhat confusing to use at first, so not the best reader for someone just getting started with RSS feeds.
Price: $24.95
FeedDemon
Features: Synchronize feeds through Newsgator, Clip articles, Email articles to friends, See what others are linking to, supports audio and video podcasts.
Description: Not as feature rich as some RSS readers, but very easy to use. It's basically a windows front-end to the Newsgator web-based RSS reader. Great for beginners.
Price: Free
Omea Reader
Features: Supports Usenet Newsgroups as well as RSS/ATOM, organize bookmarks, clip articles, supports podcasts, browser intigration helps you add feeds to the Omea reader.
Description: Allows you to organize websites, contacts and notes as well as feeds, and the pro version (also free) adds files, instant messages, email and more to the list. While not difficult to use, the user interface could be better. As it stands, it can take a new user a little bit to figure out how to use it.
Price: Free
Sharpreader
Features: Group feeds into categories, Feedster integration.
Description: Light on the features, Sharpreader is a solid RSS reader for those not needing much out of their reader, but it's unintuitive interface can be confusing to use at first.
Price: Free
RSS Owl
Features: Built-in web browser, aability to export articles to HTML, RTF or PDF formats.
Description: The clean interface is easy to use, and it comes preloaded with a lot of feeds -- which may or may not be a bonus to some users. Lacks a way to see consolidated view of feeds, and is unable to detect feeds given just the website's address. Light on the features, but its ease-of-use and cost (free) make it a good choice for beginners.
Price: Free
Blogbridge
Features: Smartfeeds, statistics, post to your blog, open source.
Description: An RSS reader with interesting features like statistics -- good for knowing when you are reading blogs -- but lacking some of the features that make other readers shine. Also lacks an easy way to see consolidated view of feeds.
Price: Free
FeedBeast
Features: Built in browser
Description: Lacks the features of most RSS readers. Lacks a way to see consolidated view of feeds. Adequate choice for those who only want to view a few feeds, but there is little reason to use this reader over a browser.
Price: $18.95
Blog Navigator
Features: Built-in web browser, edit articles for your blog, view blogs in newspaper-style reader.
Description: Easy-to-use, but lacks the features of many other RSS readers. Somewhat buggy when used with Vista.
Price: $19.95
