Open-source RSS reader

Read what matters. Skip the rest.

News is a calm RSS reader for your phone and your desktop. No endless scrolling, no algorithm – just your sources. Every new post gets one quick decision: read now, later or not interested. Your devices stay in sync, end-to-end encrypted, no account needed.

Open News Host your own

Free & open source · installs like an app · works offline

The reader

One post. One decision.

Most readers pile up unread counters until you give up. News works like a good editor: everything new lands in your inbox, and every post leaves it again – with a decision. Hello, inbox zero.

  1. Inbox

    Fresh posts from all your sources, newest first. Nothing gets marked as read behind your back.

  2. Read now

    Opens the article and files it under Done. Changed your mind? Undo is one tap away. o

  3. Later

    Your reading list – on every device and saved for offline reading, even after the post has left its feed. l

  4. Not interested

    Gone, no guilt. One swipe on your phone, one key on your desktop. x

Everything a reader needs. Nothing it doesn't.

No ads, no tracking, no “recommended for you” – just your sources, in one calm place.

Phone and desktop

Install News from your browser like an app. Swipe through posts on your phone, fly through them with j k o l x on your desktop, and share any page to News to follow it.

Encrypted sync, no account

Scan a QR code and your devices are paired. Feeds, reading list and progress are locked up before they leave your device.

Local-first & offline

Everything lives in your browser. News starts instantly, keeps going in a tunnel and catches up once you are back online.

Feed or no feed

Follow any website – even one that has never heard of RSS. The built-in Collector finds the new posts anyway.

Leave Feedly behind

Import your OPML file and all your sources move in. Export is just as easy – no lock-in, ever.

Private and light

No analytics, no third-party requests, no framework. Just a few kilobytes of plain JavaScript and self-hosted fonts.

Sync

Sync with nothing to leak.

Your devices share one secret key. It travels by QR code and never reaches the server. Everything is encrypted on your device first, so the server only ever holds one sealed file it cannot open. No database, no account, no e-mail.

  • End-to-end encrypted – AES-256-GCM, with keys that exist only on your devices.
  • No database – one sealed file per vault. Nothing to query, dump or breach.
  • Tiny attack surface – one endpoint, three verbs, strict size and rate limits.
  • Leaves no trace – gone with one click; forgotten vaults vanish after 180 days.
Phone and laptop hold the key and exchange only an encrypted file through the server, which cannot read it PhoneNews app key Laptopbrowser key Your server /api/sync 3f9a·e21c c07b·9d… one sealed file no database · no key

Under the hood · Collector

Every website becomes a feed.

Most readers give up when a site has no RSS link. News doesn't – thanks to the Collector, a small REST endpoint on the same server. It tries the most precise strategy first, falls back step by step and always returns the same clean JSON. Use it for News, or build your own reader on top.

GET /api/collect?url=https://medium.com/@someone

rule Page URL mapped to the native feed

{
  "source": {
    "strategy": "rule",
    "rule": "medium-user",
    "feedUrl": "https://medium.com/feed/@someone"
  },
  "entries": [ … 10 normalized entries ],
  "meta": { "count": 10, "cached": false }
}

GET /api/collect?url=…24 h shared cache per sourceSSRF-safe – private hosts blocked, every redirect re-checkedRate limited per client

Self-host your own

Your server. Your name. Your readers.

News Reader is open source under the MIT license. Run it for yourself, your family, your team or your community – on your own domain, under your own brand. White-label is not an add-on: it is one theme file.

  1. Clone

    A handful of PHP files and a static web app. No database server, no build step, no container.

  2. Rebrand

    Colours and fonts live in app/theme.css. Swap the icons and the app name in the manifest – done. Your users see your reader, not ours.

  3. Deploy

    Any web server with PHP 8.1+ and HTTPS. The bundled nginx config blocks everything except the app and the API.

# get the code
$ git clone https://github.com/kreativ-anders/news-reader.git

# let PHP write the feed cache + sync vaults
$ sudo chown -R www-data: news-reader/var

# make it yours
$ $EDITOR news-reader/app/theme.css

# open https://news.example.com/app/ – done

Requires PHP 8.1+ with dom, libxml, mbstring (curl recommended) and a writable var/. That's it.

Questions & answers

What is News?

A calm feed reader for your phone and your desktop browser. Every new post lands in your inbox and gets one decision: read now, later or not interested. It installs like an app, works offline and is free and open source.

How is it different from Feedly and co.?

No account, no ads, no tracking and no algorithm deciding what you see. Your reading progress lives on your devices, sync is end-to-end encrypted, and you can run the whole thing on your own server.

How does sync work without an account?

Your first device creates a random secret key. Other devices join by scanning a QR code or opening the pairing link. From that key, each device derives an access token and an encryption key. The server only ever gets the token and one encrypted file – the key itself never leaves your devices.

Can the server operator read my feeds or reading list?

No. Feeds, reading list and progress are encrypted on your device (AES-256-GCM) before they are uploaded. The server stores one sealed file per vault, named after a hash of the access token – no database, nothing readable to leak. Like any website, the web server does see your IP address when you connect.

What if I lose all my devices?

Then nobody can open the vault – not even us. That is the price of real end-to-end encryption. Want a backup? Export your feeds as OPML every now and then.

What is the Collector?

The REST endpoint that ships with News Reader: GET /api/collect?url=… turns any website or feed URL into normalized JSON entries. It tries a native feed first, then a declared feed, common feed paths, the sitemap and finally the page's HTML.

What if a website has no RSS feed?

News can still follow it. The Collector uses the site's sitemap if it carries dates, and otherwise picks the posts straight from the page (JSON-LD, article elements or links below the requested path).

Can I host my own News Reader under my own brand?

Yes – it is MIT-licensed. Colours and fonts live in one theme file, name and icons in the web app manifest. Run it for yourself, your family, your team or your readers, on your own domain.

What do I need to host it?

PHP 8.1+ with dom, libxml and mbstring (curl recommended), a web server with HTTPS and a writable var/ folder. No database server, no build step, no background workers. An nginx config is included.

Can I move from Feedly?

Yes. Export your subscriptions from Feedly as OPML and import the file in News under Feeds. News exports OPML too, so you are free to leave any time.

Start reading.

Open News in your browser, follow your first website and put it on your phone’s home screen – takes a minute. Or run your own News Reader, for you, your team or your readers.

Open News Source on GitHub