RSS Guard is an open-source cross-platform multi-protocol desktop feed reader. It is able to fetch feeds in RSS/RDF/ATOM/JSON formats. RSS Guard is developed on top of the Qt library.

RSS Guard is a cross-platform application, and at this point it is known to work on:

  • Windows 7+
  • GNU/Linux (including PinePhone and other Linux-based phone operating systems)
  • BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc.)
  • macOS 10.13+
  • OS/2 (ArcaOS, eComStation)

Supports online feed synchronization with these services:

  • Tiny Tiny RSS,
  • Inoreader,
  • Nextcloud News,
  • Gmail API,
  • FreshRSS,
  • The Old Reader,
  • Bazqux,
  • Reedah,
  • Feedly.

RSS Guard is written in C++. It is pretty fast even with tons of messages loaded. The core features are:

  • Multiplatformity,
  • Support for all feed formats,
  • Simple internal chromium-based web viewer (or alternative version with simpler and more lightweight internal viewer),
  • Simplicity,
  • Import/export of feeds to/from opml 2.0,
  • Downloader with own tab and support for up to 6 parallel downloads,
  • Message filter with regular expressions,
  • Very fast parallelized feed updates,
  • Feed metadata fetching including icons,
  • No crazy dependencies,
  • Ability to cleanup internal message database with various options,
  • Ability to tweak columns in displayed list of messages,
  • Enhanced feed auto-updating with separate time intervals,
  • Multiple data backend support,
  • Sqlite (in-memory dbs too),
  • Mysql.
  • Ability to specify target database by its name (mysql backend),
  • "Portable" mode support with clever auto-detection,
  • Feed categorization,
  • Drap-n-drop for feed list,
  • Automatic checking for updates,
  • Full support of podcasts (both rss & atom),
  • Ability to backup/restore database or settings,
  • Fully-featured recycle bin,
  • Can be controlled via keyboard,
  • Feed authentication (basic),
  • Handles tons of messages & feeds,
  • Sweet look & feel,
  • Fully adjustable toolbars (changeable buttons and style),
  • Ability to check for updates on all platforms + self-updating on windows,
  • Hideable main menu, toolbars and list headers,
  • Feanza-based default icon themes,
  • Fully skinnable user interface + ability to create your own skins,
  • Newspaper view,
  • Support for feed:// uri scheme,
  • Ability to hide list of feeds/categories,
  • Open-source development model based on gnu gpl license, version 3,
  • Tabbed interface,
  • Desktop integration via tray icon,
  • Localizations to some languages,
  • Qt library is the only dependency,
  • Open-source development model and friendly author waiting for your feedback,
  • No ads, no hidden costs.

What's New

OK, this is mainly bug-fix release. In the close future (months), expect only bug-fixing releases. Again, we need to make RSS Guard rock stable.

Added:

  • Nothing really.

Fixed:

  • Fixed detection of plugins which was broken due to wrong plugin search path. (#1416, #1420)
  • If "Show unread only" article list filter is active and you select article (which then gets marked read) and then feed is fetched, currently selected article does not suddenly disappear from the list. (#1415)
  • Selected "style" was disappearing from settings dialog even thought it was correctly saved into settings. (#1408)
  • Right-clicking article selects it (and displays its contents) but does not modify read/unread state. This behavior was corrupted in previous release, therefore we just return to old good behavior. (#1410)
  • XML parser now allows leading and trailing blank lines when loading XML of feeds. (#1403)
  • Date/time parsing was further enhanced, although there are some connected issues which will be hunted in the future.
  • Qt5/Windows builds will use only qtmultimedia media player backend because libmpv dropped Windows 7 support.
  • Fixed "About" dialog RSS Guard information formatting.