# RSS Reader With Notifications (2026): Instant Alerts

> An RSS reader with notifications, explained: how RSS push alerts work, which readers offer them, and how to get notified when a website posts.

Published by Hushread, 2026-10-14. Canonical: https://hushread.com/blog/rss-reader-with-notifications

*Disclosure: Hushread is our app. We've tried to be fair, and we say where the others are the better choice.*

To get a notification when a website posts, you need something that checks the site's feed often, day and night, and turns each new post into a push notification on your phone. Inoreader offers push notifications on its Pro plan ($89.99 a year), while Hushread checks feeds from its servers around the clock and sends push notifications on its free plan (up to 5 sources), with Pro ($1.25 a month billed yearly) covering every feed. Below: how RSS notifications work, what each option offers, and how to set up alerts for a site, a subreddit or a YouTube channel without drowning in them.

## How RSS push notifications work

RSS is a pull system. A feed is a file on the publisher's site that lists recent posts, and nothing tells your reader when it changes. The reader has to go and check. So two things decide how quickly you hear about a new post.

**Where the checking happens.** A reader that checks from your phone can only do it when the phone lets the app run in the background. A reader that checks from its own servers keeps going while your phone sleeps, and sends a push when it finds something new.

**How often it checks.** This varies by service and plan. Inoreader Pro guarantees each feed is refreshed at least hourly, with "boosted" feeds every 10 minutes for up to 100 feeds, while Free has no guaranteed interval ([Inoreader blog](https://www.inoreader.com/blog/2026/01/discover-and-monitor-content.html)). Feedly's Pro plan promises updates "up to 10x faster" than Free ([Feedly pricing](https://feedly.com/i/pro)). A notification can only be as quick as the check behind it.

![Feedly's pricing page listing Pro at $6.99 a month billed annually with "Get new articles up to 10x faster", and RSS Builder under Pro+](/blog-img/rss-reader-with-notifications/feedly-pricing.webp)
*Feedly's paid plans as shown to an address in India on 9 October 2026. Source: [feedly.com](https://feedly.com/i/pro)*

There is also a standard, WebSub, that lets a publisher announce new posts instead of waiting to be checked. It only helps when the publisher's feed supports it, and your reader does too; the self-hosted FreshRSS is one reader that does ([FreshRSS](https://freshrss.org/)).

## RSS readers with notifications compared

Prices are as of September 2026.

| Reader | Push alerts | How feeds are checked | Sites without a feed | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hushread | On Free; Pro for every feed | From its servers, around the clock, every plan | Paste the address | Free (5 sources); Pro $1.25/mo billed yearly |
| Inoreader | Pro only | Pro: at least hourly; 10 min for up to 100 boosted feeds | Web feeds, Pro (20) | Free (150 feeds); Pro $89.99/yr |
| Feedly | Not verified by us | Pro: updates "up to 10x faster" | RSS Builder, Pro+ | Free (100 feeds); Pro about $6 to $7/mo, billed annually |

## Inoreader: push notifications on Pro

Inoreader Pro costs $7.50 a month billed annually ($89.99 a year) or $9.99 billed monthly, with a 15-day trial ([pricing](https://www.inoreader.com/pricing)). Alongside push notifications, it adds the tools people who want alerts tend to reach for: 30 rules, a pool of 50 filters, 30 monitoring feeds, and 20 web feeds that track pages without RSS. The guaranteed hourly refresh and 10-minute boosted feeds matter here too. One Reddit user said page tracking is why they stay: "The monitoring of non RSS pages is what keeps me there" ([Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/rss/comments/1td7q1f/battle_of_the_full_featured_rss_readers/om0n4mk/)).

![Inoreader's pricing page listing Free at 150 RSS feeds and Pro at $7.50 a month billed annually or $9.99 billed monthly, with 20 web feeds on Pro only](/blog-img/rss-reader-with-notifications/inoreader-pricing.webp)
*Inoreader's plans as shown to an address in India on 9 October 2026. Source: [inoreader.com](https://www.inoreader.com/pricing)*

Inoreader Free is generous in other ways, with 150 feeds and no ads, and it includes Google News alerts. But push notifications, rules and filters all start at Pro. If you want Inoreader and phone alerts, budget for Pro. Our [Inoreader alternatives](/blog/inoreader-alternatives) guide covers what else is out there.

## Feedly: check before you pay for alerts

We couldn't verify how Feedly's notifications currently work on each plan, so we won't make claims about them. What we can confirm: Feedly Free allows 100 feeds and 3 folders, with sponsored ads. Pro costs about $6 to $7 a month billed annually and promises updates "up to 10x faster" ([Feedly pricing](https://feedly.com/i/pro)). The RSS Builder, Feedly's tool for sites without feeds, is Pro+ and Enterprise only ([Feedly docs](https://docs.feedly.com/article/594-how-can-i-access-the-rss-builder)). If alerts are the reason you're choosing a reader, test them on the free plan before paying. Our [best RSS reader](/blog/best-rss-reader) guide compares the wider field.

## Hushread: server-side checks and push, including on Free

Hushread, built by one independent developer, checks your sources from its servers around the clock, on every plan including Free, so your phone doesn't have to. When a source you've turned notifications on for publishes, Hushread sends a push. Push is on the free plan, and Pro, at $1.25 a month billed yearly (regional pricing may differ), adds unlimited sources and push for every feed.

Your sources can be RSS and Atom feeds, websites without a feed (paste the address and Hushread learns to read the page), topics, subreddits, YouTube channels and Facebook pages.

**Keyword rules** add alerts based on what an article says rather than who published it. You can get notified when an article mentions a keyword, such as a company, a product or a place. The same rules can mute or mark read instead. On Pro, rules can also act on an article's tone, positive or negative.

The limits: Free is 5 sources. There are no integrations, so no Zapier or IFTTT to forward alerts elsewhere, and no public API. There's no newsletter-to-inbox feature. Hushread is also newer and smaller than Inoreader or Feedly.

## Set notifications per source, not for everything

The quickest way to start ignoring notifications is to switch them on for every feed. A busy news site can post dozens of times a day. A per-source approach works better, and Hushread lets you switch notifications on source by source:

- **Turn on push only where timing matters and posts are rare:** a favorite writer's blog, a company newsroom, a local council page, a release notes feed.
- **Use keyword rules for subjects,** instead of alerts for an entire busy feed. You hear about the one article that mentions the thing you track, not the other forty.
- **Leave everything else in the feed** and read it when it suits you.
- **Mute the noise** with mute rules, so the few alerts you do get are worth opening.

Big news days stay readable in the feed too. Hushread groups articles from different outlets about the same event into one story and collapses repeats under the freshest version, so one event doesn't fill your screen. More on that in our guide to an [RSS reader that removes duplicates](/blog/rss-reader-remove-duplicates).

## How to get notified when a website posts

1. **Look for a feed.** Paste the site's homepage address into your reader. Sites usually announce their feed in the page code, and most readers pick it up from there.
2. **If there's no feed, get one made.** In Hushread, paste the address and it learns to read the page. Inoreader's web feeds (Pro, 20) and Feedly's RSS Builder (Pro+) do a similar job. Standalone feed generators work with any reader, and their refresh interval sets how late your alert can be:
   - [RSS.app](https://rss.app/pricing): free for 2 feeds refreshed every 24 hours; Basic ($9.99 a month) refreshes every 60 minutes.
   - [FetchRSS](https://fetchrss.com/prices): free for 5 feeds refreshed every 24 hours; Advanced ($9.95 a month) refreshes every 30 minutes.
   - [PolitePaul](https://politepaul.com/en/prices), formerly PolitePol: free for 3 feeds every 1.5 hours; paid plans from $5 a month refresh every 10 minutes.

   A once-a-day check is fine for a blog, not for breaking news.
3. **Turn on notifications for that source,** and add a keyword rule if you only care about some posts.

### Subreddits, YouTube channels and Facebook pages

- **Subreddits** have feeds, such as www.reddit.com/r/technology/.rss. In June 2026 Reddit cut logged-out RSS from "100 updates per 10 minutes" to "1 update per 1 minute" ([Lapcat Software](https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/2026/6/3.html)), which can trip up readers that check often. In Hushread you paste the subreddit link and it handles the feed from its servers.
- **YouTube channels** have a feed at youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id= followed by the channel ID, listing the 15 most recent uploads, Shorts included. Hushread finds it from the channel link.
- **Facebook pages** haven't had native RSS since 2015. Hushread follows public Facebook pages directly, on every plan. Facebook changes its pages often, so any tool reading them can occasionally miss or delay a post, and it works for public pages only.
- **Newsletters** aren't something Hushread handles. [Kill the Newsletter](https://kill-the-newsletter.com/) turns one into a feed you can add, though it deletes entries older than a month.

## FAQ

### Can RSS feeds send push notifications?

Not by themselves. A feed just lists recent posts. You need a reader or service that checks it and sends a push when something new appears. How fast that happens depends on how often it checks and whether it checks from a server or from your phone.

### Does Inoreader have notifications on the free plan?

No. Push notifications are on Inoreader Pro, $89.99 a year or $9.99 billed monthly. Free has 150 feeds and no ads, but no push, rules or filters.

### Is there a free RSS reader with push notifications?

Hushread Free includes push notifications and server-side checks around the clock, for up to 5 sources. Inoreader Free doesn't include push. We haven't verified notification support in every free reader, so test any app before relying on it for time-sensitive alerts.

### How do I get notified when a website without RSS posts?

Use a reader that can follow pages without a feed (Hushread on every plan, Inoreader web feeds on Pro, Feedly's RSS Builder on Pro+), or make a feed with RSS.app, FetchRSS or PolitePaul and add it to a reader with push. Check the generator's refresh interval, since free tiers can be as slow as once a day.

If you want to know the moment a handful of sources publish, that's what Hushread's free plan is for. Hushread is free with up to 5 sources on iOS, Android and the web. [Try Hushread](https://hushread.com/#download).