A free Feedly alternative is easy to find. The harder part is knowing where each free plan stops, because "free" ranges from a full reader with hundreds of feeds to a short trial that never renews. Everything below works in a browser, needs no install and asks for no card to start. Here is what each one gives you for nothing, and what it costs once you outgrow it.
Free plans at a glance
| Tool | Free plan | What runs out first | First paid step |
|---|---|---|---|
| AyeWatch | 3 lifetime monitoring runs, up to 3 topics | The runs, which do not renew | Pro, $9/mo |
| Feeder | 200 feeds, 30-minute updates, no ads | Rules and email summaries are paid | Plus, $7.99/mo yearly |
| Inoreader | 150 feeds, search, Google News alerts | Rules, filters and web feeds are Pro | Pro, $7.50/mo yearly |
| NewsBlur | 64 sites, training by author, tag and title | Site count | Premium, $36/yr |
| Feedly | 100 feeds in 3 folders | Folders and feeds; AI is Pro+ | Pro, $6.99/mo yearly |
All figures come from each vendor's pricing page in October 2026.
AyeWatch: the free trial that changes the habit
AyeWatch is our pick, with one honest note up front: its free tier is a preview, not a free forever plan. You get three monitoring runs in total across up to three topics, at daily or slower intervals, with push and in-app alerts. That is enough to see whether the idea works for you, not enough to live on.
The idea is the reason to try it anyway. Instead of following feeds, you describe what you want in a sentence, for example "free weekend game releases from indie studios on Steam" or "price drops on this one product page". AyeWatch searches across news sites, blogs, forums and social platforms, plus any page you paste in, and alerts you with a short summary when something matches. Nothing to scroll, nothing to mark as read.
If the preview convinces you, Pro costs $9 a month for up to 50 topics with hourly checks. Plans run on monitoring credits, where most checks cost one credit, so a topic you check hourly uses more than one you check daily. Email alerts, Slack, Discord and webhooks come with paid plans.
You can start the free preview here.
Feeder: the biggest free reader
Feeder is the most generous if you want to keep reading feeds. The free plan follows 200 feeds with updates every 30 minutes and shows no ads. You lose rules, filters and email summaries, which arrive with Plus at $7.99 a month billed yearly or $9.99 monthly.
Good for: someone who wants Feedly's basic job done for free with room to grow.
Inoreader: free reader with the most to grow into
Inoreader's free plan covers 150 feeds, search across your articles and Google News alerts. The tools that make it special, such as rules, filters, monitoring feeds and following sites without RSS, are in Pro at $7.50 a month billed annually.
Good for: people who will eventually pay and want the most features per dollar when they do.
NewsBlur: small free plan, cheap upgrade
NewsBlur caps the free plan at 64 sites but lets you train stories by author, tag and title from day one. New accounts also start with a 30-day premium trial. Premium is $36 a year, which works out to the lowest yearly price on this list.
Good for: people with a short list of favorite sites.
Feedly free: still fine for light reading
Feedly's own free plan follows 100 feeds in three folders on the web and phone apps, and shows sponsored ads that paid plans hide. The AI features, including AI Feeds and noise muting, are in Pro+ at $12.37 a month billed annually.
Good for: casual readers who do not need AI filtering.
Which free option to pick
- You want to stop scrolling: try the AyeWatch preview on your three most important topics.
- You want the largest free reader: Feeder.
- You plan to upgrade later: Inoreader.
- You follow only a few sites: NewsBlur.
If you mostly open Feedly to check on a handful of things, the AyeWatch write-up on Feedly alternatives explains why alerts often replace the reader entirely, and when they do not.