NewsBlur vs The Old Reader

Both readers emerged from the post-Google Reader era. NewsBlur has continued evolving with intelligence training, AI, and a full open source platform.

Feature	NewsBlur	The Old Reader
Intelligence Training	✓ Train by author, tag, title, text, URL, regex	✗
Ask AI	✓ Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok	✗
Full-Text Search	✓ Elasticsearch-powered	✓ Premium only
Track Changes / Diffs	✓	✗
Web Feeds (Any Website)	✓ Follow sites without RSS	✗ RSS only
Email Newsletters	✓	✗
Story Archive (Forever)	✓ Archive plan	✗
Social / Sharing	✓ Public blurblog with comments	✓ Follow friends, shared items
Original Site View	✓ Renders original website	✗
Text View (Full Story)	✓ Extracts full text from truncated feeds	✗
Native Mobile Apps	✓ iOS and Android	✗ Web only
Third-Party App Support	✓ Reeder, ReadKit, Unread, etc.	Limited
Open Source	✓ Fully open source (MIT)	✗ Proprietary
Self-Hosted	✓ Docker install	✗
Dark Mode	✓	✓
Free Plan	64 sites	100 feeds
Paid Plan	$36/year (Premium), $99/year (Archive)	$30/year (Premium)

Familiar roots, different trajectory

The Old Reader was created to recreate the Google Reader experience, and it does that well. The interface is intentionally simple and familiar. NewsBlur also started before Google Reader shut down (founded in 2009), but has evolved continuously since then. Intelligence training, AI-powered reading, web feeds, story clustering, and a full API ecosystem have been added over the years. If you want a simple, no-frills Google Reader clone, The Old Reader delivers. If you want a reader that has kept pace with how the web has changed, NewsBlur is the more complete choice.

Intelligence training changes how you read

The biggest feature difference is NewsBlur's intelligence training. Instead of reading every story in every feed, you can train NewsBlur to highlight authors and topics you care about and hide the rest. Stories are color-coded so you can scan your feeds at a glance. Over time, the reader adapts to your interests. The Old Reader has no filtering or training system, so managing a large number of feeds means more manual work.

Native apps and third-party support

NewsBlur has native iOS and Android apps, plus full sync with popular third-party readers like Reeder, ReadKit, Unread, and NetNewsWire. The Old Reader is primarily a web application with limited third-party integration. For mobile reading, NewsBlur provides a significantly better experience with native apps built specifically for each platform.