Notes 
NetNewsWire: For Mac and iOS. More news, less junk
Reviewed by Marco Wollank
NetNewsWire
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Threat level
Covered
A covered pick. Anyone can use it as a private drop-in, with no setup or know-how. Enough for most people. Threat levels
Our take
NetNewsWire is the RSS reader to pick on Apple devices when you want your feeds private and free: it is open source, has no ads or tracking, and reads feeds directly without routing your reading habits through a company’s servers. The limitation is right there in the appeal, it is Mac and iOS only, so cross-platform households should look elsewhere. For anyone in the Apple ecosystem who wants a clean, no-junk reader that respects them, it is the obvious choice.
GitHub at a glance
Ranchero-Software/NetNewsWire MIT feed-readeriosjson-feedmacosrssrss-feed-readerrss-reader
Stars
10,499
+13 this week
Forks
785
117 watching
Last commit
today
healthy
Latest release
mac-7.2.1
14d ago, 100+ total
Star history
Issues
86% closed
625
open
3,923
closed
+41 / -43
opened / closed, last 4 weeks
Opened vs closed, last 12 weeks
Commits, last 26 weeks
1,104 commits, active 23 of 26 weeks
90 contributors since May 2017
Languages
- Swift 64.7%
- HTML 23.7%
- CSS 6%
- Other 5.6%
Updated daily from the GitHub API. Star tracking since Jun 15, 2026.
Website at a glance
netnewswire.com
D score 30
Weak website security headers
Graded by Mozilla HTTP Observatory, tested 1d ago
Inspect this site yourself
Measures the security configuration of the tool's own website, not the privacy of the product itself. A strong tool can still score low here.
NetNewsWire alternatives
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Akregator KDE's desktop RSS and Atom feed reader, part of the Kontact personal information management suite. Runs on Linux and Windows, with an integrated article browser, fast search, and feed archiving.
Feedbro Feedbro: Browser Extension for Chrome, Vivaldi, Edge, Brave and Firefox
Miniflux Minimalist self-hosted RSS and Atom feed reader written in Go. Runs as a single static binary against PostgreSQL, with a responsive web UI and compatibility APIs for mobile clients like Reeder.
Newsboat Terminal RSS and Atom feed reader for Linux and macOS, actively maintained as a fork of the abandoned Newsbeuter. Vim-style keybindings, scriptable filters, and works well over SSH.
NewsFlash Modern GTK RSS reader for Linux desktop, designed to pair with a web-based feed service such as Nextcloud News, Miniflux, or Feedbin. Adaptive layout, fast full-text search, and desktop notifications.
NetNewsWire license, in plain English
MIT Permissive
Do almost anything: use, change, and ship it, even inside closed-source products. The only condition is keeping the copyright notice.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Private use
Requires
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Permissive licensing lets anyone reuse this, including inside closed products. That is freedom to build on, but no guarantee that downstream copies stay open.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.
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