A simple RSS setup that doesn’t turn into a firehose

An RSS feed is either a pleasant, curated magazine or a firehose aimed at your face. The difference isn’t willpower. It’s the setup.

A sane RSS reader setup treats reading like editing: What gets the cover. What gets tossed in the back pages. What gets dropped in the trash behind the building.

This piece keeps it simple: Feedly vs Inoreader vs FreshRSS, plus folder rules that stop the flood without killing the joy.

The “curated magazine” folder rules that keep the firehose shut

First rule: folders aren’t for “topics.” They’re for attention. If a folder doesn’t change how someone reads, it’s decoration.

Second rule: cap the number of folders. Six is plenty. More than that, the magazine turns into a warehouse.

Third rule: one feed, one home. Tags can multitask; folders shouldn’t. A feed that lives in two folders will never get read.

A simple structure that behaves like a magazine:

Now the intake rules, the ones that keep the hose capped:

• Demotion rule: if a feed drops 20 unread items in a week and nobody misses it, it gets demoted to Back Pages or Low Tide.
• Promotion rule: if a feed gets opened three times in a row, it earns Front Page.
• No guilt rule: “Mark all as read” is not a crime, it’s janitorial work.

For picking a reader (and avoiding shiny traps), a good checklist is in Open RSS’s guide to choosing a reader. It’s blunt about the basics that matter, like folders and grouping.

Optional feed picks that feel like culture, not chores

This is where the magazine metaphor pays rent. A reader can add a little weird beauty without building a second job:

• Literary journals (new issues, essays, reviews)
• Museum and gallery exhibition announcement feeds
• Photo essay outlets (long captions, real editing)
• Music criticism sites that still write in paragraphs

Optional means optional. Two or three of these are seasoning, not a new religion.

Feedly vs Inoreader vs FreshRSS

January 2026 reality check

All three can be used to build a curated magazine. They just hire different staff.

Feedly is the friendly front desk. Inoreader is the back-office rules engine. FreshRSS is the locked filing cabinet at home.

A broader view of the current ecosystem, including how readers cope with overload, is mapped in Lighthouse’s RSS reader deep dive. The theme is consistent: control beats volume.

Here’s the clean comparison most people actually need:

Feedly: Best at fast reading, AI assistance on paid plans, solid search and archive, cloud service

Inoreader: Best at filters and rules, strong rules, automations, alerts, full text search on paid plans and archive

FreshRSS: best at owning the whole stack, filters are less polished, search and archivbe depends on configuration, self-hosted

One more sanity note: pricing and feature gates shift. A quick, current roundup of mainstream options is kept in Zapier’s best RSS reader apps list. It’s useful for cross-checking what’s free this year versus what quietly moved behind a paywall.

So who should pick what?

• Feedly fits readers who want the magazine to arrive folded and readable.
• Inoreader fits readers who want to build a bouncer at the door.
• FreshRSS fits readers who want the magazine printed in their own basement.

One setup playbook

Applied to Feedly, Inoreader, and FreshRSS

The playbook stays the same. The buttons move.

The goal is always this: less firehose, more curated magazine. Headlines on the cover, the rest filed where it can’t shout.

Feedly setup (quick triage, minimal fuss)

1. Create the six folders first (Front Page, Back Pages, Culture Desk, Workshop, Reference, Low Tide). No extra “just in case” bins.
2. Import OPML from an old reader, then immediately demote anything noisy into Low Tide.
3. Use priority signals (pin, save, or whatever the UI calls it) for true cover stories. Everything else can wait.
4. Add one “holding pen” for new feeds, then review it weekly. If a feed can’t earn a folder in seven days, it’s not a feed, it’s a stranger loitering.

Feedly’s pitch is ease. The discipline has to come from the folder rules, not heroic self-control.

Inoreader setup (make rules do the dirty work)

1. Build the same folder skeleton, then add a small tag set (example: “long-read”, “research”, “photo-essay”). Tags are spice, not a second filing system.
2. Turn on rules/filters early, before subscriptions pile up. This is the whole point of Inoreader.
3. Set retention expectations: the Front Page is for reading, not hoarding. The archive is for Reference, not ego.
4. Use search like a librarian, not a doomscroller. When a topic matters, find it on demand.

Inoreader shines when the reader stops pretending they’ll “catch up later” and starts automating the sorting.

FreshRSS setup (quiet, self-hosted, and stubborn)

1. Install FreshRSS on a server or home box, then lock down access. The reader owns the magazine printer now.
2. Import OPML, create the same categories, then set update intervals that match reality (Front Page updates more often, Low Tide less).
3. Add a backup habit (database and config). A private magazine is only private if it doesn’t vanish.
4. Keep the UI plain. FreshRSS works best when it stays boring and fast.

A practical set of installation notes and tweaks is collected in FreshRSS installation and tweaks. It’s the kind of gritty checklist that saves an evening.

Filter and rule recipes (portable ideas that work across tools)

These are concept recipes. Each tool names them differently, but the logic holds.

• Press release trapdoor: if title contains “press release” or “announces”, send to Low Tide, mark as read, or hide from Front Page views.
• Author trust boost: if author matches a favorite writer, auto-tag “Front Page”, star it, or push a notification (use sparingly, dopamine is expensive).
• Keyword include-exclude: include “photography” or “exhibition”, exclude “deal”, “coupon”, “webinar”, then route to Culture Desk.

Nothing fancy. Just guardrails. The magazine stays readable, the firehose stays outside.

Conclusion

A reader doesn’t need a perfect system. They need a system that refuses to become a firehose.

Feedly makes reading easy, Inoreader makes sorting ruthless, FreshRSS makes ownership real. Any of them can work, as long as the folders behave like a curated magazine and not a junk drawer.

The final test is simple: when the reader opens their RSS reader setup, does it feel like a cover story waiting, or like water pressure building behind the door?