I brought my news feed back from the dead thanks to this self-hosted RSS reader

Back when I started reading articles on the internet, an RSS feed was the best way to accumulate all the content I was interested in, in one place. I primarily used Feedly for this purpose since I liked the UI of the mobile app. However, as time passed by, lots of websites and services reduced or removed RSS support, which meant that I also stopped closely following the majority of publications I used to. Instead, I started relying on Google's Discover feed to find new articles from publications that align with my interests. Of late, though, the recommendations I was getting via Discover were quite terrible, and I couldn't access the articles when I was offline. So, I decided to resurrect my curated news feed via an RSS reader.

My first preference was a self-hosted solution, since it prioritizes privacy and would also work offline via my local network. Additionally, I wouldn't have to download additional apps on my phones and tablets since I could access the service using a browser. I looked around for a bit, and among several options, I found FreshRSS to fit the bill perfectly for my use. It has all the features I need, a simple UI, and the ability to segregate blogs based on different categories. So, I gave it a shot, and now my news feed is regularly updated with articles that truly matter to me. Here's how you, too, can create a curated news feed using FreshRSS.

Almost like an email inbox

Read articles across different categories

I hosted FreshRSS on my home network via Docker, and it seems like the simplest way to go about it. Once you create an account and log into the service, you add all the feeds you want to see on the app. As soon as FreshRSS starts fetching your articles, you'll realize that the blogs are listed in a format that's similar to viewing emails in your inbox. I like this approach since I can clearly view which website the article is from, what it's about, and when it was delivered. Then, I can decide to read it, mark it as read, or perform other relevant actions.

Clicking on an article loads it inside FreshRSS itself, but you also get a button to access the article on the original webpage. There are several categories and tags that you can use to differentiate between articles from various websites, across multiple categories, etc. Speaking of viewing articles, FreshRSS lets you change the theme of the service from within the preferences page. I quickly switched to the dark theme to suit my aesthetic.

Feature-rich and quick to update

You can even read comics on it

Along with articles, FreshRSS also lets you read comics on the app. In fact, there's a dedicated section that makes it easy to find all the visual content in your feed. Since it's an open-source project, there are several contributions from the community, the best one being a bunch of extensions to further improve the functionality of FreshRSS. You can choose from an AI summary plugin that does exactly what the name suggests: an extension to make links clickable, the ability to refresh the feed at set intervals, and a lot more nifty tools.

Adding new feeds and categories is as simple as reading an article on FreshRSS. Navigate to the Settings page, add the feed URL along with all necessary details, and just wait for the service to fetch new posts from the blog. You can also create new categories or delete existing ones from this menu. The biggest advantage of using FreshRSS is its simple and easy-to-use UI. Even if you're a beginner, it's not intimidating at all, and there are a bunch of settings to change every small aspect. If you don't like the email inbox-like layout, you can also switch to a book-like interface to make the reading experience more immersive.

Get a specially curated news feed delivered every day

I can't tell you how valuable it is to read only the latest articles about the things that actually matter to you — all delivered to you in one place. From the time I started using FreshRSS, I have kept the tab pinned to my browser, so I can access it whenever I want with a single click. The fact that you can categorize the articles, set favorites, and create a priority folder means you can customize your feed just the way you want it.