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Feedly feedly.com

Can AI replace Feedly?

Core RSS reading, folders, search, and saved articles are very buildable; Feedly's paid moat is polished feed discovery, mobile, AI features, and reliability.

Verdict: Bot · AI can build you a working versionBuild time: one sitting
Bot

01What it costs

$7/moPro, monthly
$84per year at that price

Checked Aug 13, 2026 · source: docs.feedly.com.

PlanMonthlyBilled yearlyWhat you get
BasicFreeFreeUp to 100 sources; 3 Feeds; 3 Boards.
Pro$7$5.42/moFaster feed polling, search and integrations; annual total is $65.
Pro+——AI Feeds, RSS Builder and Zapier; feed polling can be as frequent as 7 minutes.
Enterprise——Team feeds, administration and intelligence tools; numeric seat limits and price are quote-based.

Hidden costs: self-service refunds are limited to 5 days after a charge; Enterprise cost scales by seats and selected intelligence features

02Could AI build it for you?

The core job: Parse RSS feeds on a schedule, store items, mark read/saved, expose folders and search, and optionally summarize articles.

What a working version needs:

  • hosted cron or local daemon
  • RSS parser
  • database
  • web UI
  • optional LLM API

A textbook yes: open protocol, many mature open-source alternatives.

03What you'd give up

  • mobile apps
  • feed discovery
  • integrations
  • Leo/AI filtering
  • uptime
  • polished reading UX

They pay to avoid maintaining hundreds of feeds and reader apps across devices.

04Free and cheaper alternatives

Foloopen-source

A modern hosted research feed with 150 free subscriptions, one inbox and one automation.

folo.is →
NewsBluropen-source

Feeds, newsletters and trainable filters, in exchange for running several databases.

newsblur.com →

05The build prompt

Paste this into an AI coding tool (such as Claude, ChatGPT, Lovable or Replit) to build your own version.

prompt.txt
Build me a personal RSS reader to replace Feedly. Requirements:

- Node + Express + better-sqlite3, server-rendered pages, binds to localhost.
- Feeds live in feeds.opml with folders; import my Feedly OPML export on first
  run so nothing is retyped.
- Poll every 30 minutes with node-cron, parse with rss-parser, dedupe items by
  GUID then link.
- Reader UI: unread counts per folder, an article list with j/k keyboard
  navigation, one-key mark-read, and s to star.
- Starred view, plus full-text search over titles and content via SQLite FTS5.
- Optional summarize button per article using an LLM key from .env; hide the
  button entirely when no key is set.
- Keep read items 90 days, starred forever, pruned nightly.
- No accounts, no telemetry, local-first.
- Out of scope: mobile apps and feed discovery/suggestions. Adding feeds means
  editing the OPML, that is fine.
- README: setup, where the DB lives, and how to export my OPML back out.

06Open-source starting points

  • FreshRSS: Mature self-hosted RSS aggregator and reader.
Sponsor slot · openFeatured alternative to Feedly. A labeled card for one relevant tool.
Book this spot →

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App prices, verdicts, alternatives and build prompts are adapted from Can I Vibecode It? (MIT License, © 2026 Rob Hallam). Each price shows the date it was checked and its source. Prices change; confirm on the vendor's site before you decide.