Folo vs RSS Guard
We give Folo a 3.6 GPA and RSS Guard a 3.4, out of 4.0. Folo grades higher on ease of use and platforms. RSS Guard grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan and features.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Folo
Open-source RSS reader with AI summaries and translation
Free plan · from $4.17/mo
How we grade them
| 3.6GPAFoloExcellent | 3.4GPARSS GuardVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BBasic is $4.17 a month billed yearly, $49.99, or $4.99 monthly. That's right in the middle for reading apps. Plus is $8.33 and makes the AI unlimited. Pro, at $83.33 a month billed yearly, is for people following 25,000 feeds. | AFree under the GNU GPLv3, with no paid version at all. The author takes optional donations through GitHub Sponsors, Liberapay and Patreon, and that's it. |
| Free plan and trial | A150 feed subscriptions is more than most people follow, so as a plain reader you could stay on Free. The AI is a taster though: 3 summaries and 1 text-to-speech a day, no translation, and just 1 list, 1 inbox and 1 action. | AThe complete application is free on Windows, Linux and macOS, with every service plugin and feature included. Nothing is held back and there's nothing to unlock. |
| Features | AFeeds, RSSHub routes for sites without one, an inbox address for newsletters, and separate layouts for articles, social posts, pictures, videos and podcasts. Then the AI: summaries, side-by-side translation, questions across everything you follow, and scheduled briefings from Plus. | AFeeds stored locally or synced with Feedly, Inoreader, FreshRSS, Miniflux, Nextcloud News and Tiny Tiny RSS. Scripted filters change, label or reject incoming articles, searches can be saved as regular expressions or SQL, podcasts play inside the app, and it can fetch full articles. |
| Ease of use | BThere's no App Store rating on record for it, so a B is as high as we go. Adding a feed or importing an OPML file is ordinary stuff. Actions, RSSHub routes and MCP services are there for people who like to tinker. | CNo App Store rating to go on. The official Windows builds aren't digitally signed, so SmartScreen may warn on first launch, and macOS Gatekeeper may block the app. The cleverest parts, filters and queries, are written as scripts, regular expressions or SQL. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWeb, Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android, and paid plans send articles on to Obsidian, Readwise, Instapaper, Zotero and more. Linux comes only as a direct AppImage download. | BWindows, Linux and macOS, syncing with a long list of online readers. But it's a desktop application only. No web app and no iOS or Android app is listed, and the docs say the macOS packages aren't well tested. |
| Best for | an RSS reader with AI summaries built in | a free desktop reader for Windows and Linux |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Folo and RSS Guard. How we grade
Where they differ
- Folo starts at $4.17 per month, billed yearly at $49.99 ($4.99 billed monthly). RSS Guard is free.
- Only Folo lists a web app.
- Only Folo lists iOS and Android apps.
- Folo also covers chat assistant.
In commonFree planmacOSWindowsLinuxOpen sourceRSS reader
At a glance
| Folo | RSS Guard | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $4.17 per month, billed yearly at $49.99 ($4.99 billed monthly) | Free |
| Free plan | 150 feed subscriptions, 30 RSSHub subscriptions, 1 list, 1 inbox, 1 action, 3 AI summaries and 1 text-to-speech a day, and no AI translation. | Free and open source under the GNU GPLv3, with no paid version. The author accepts optional donations through GitHub Sponsors, Liberapay and Patreon. |
| Free trial | Paid plans have a Start Free Trial button; the pricing page does not state the trial length | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Natural Selection Labs Pte. Ltd. | Martin Rotter |
| Price read from | folo.is | github.com |
| Checked | Oct 6, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Folo
- Readers who want AI summaries and translation inside their feed reader
- People following sites that have no feed through RSSHub routes
- Anyone who needs one reader across web, desktop and mobile, Linux included
- People who prefer open-source software
RSS Guard
- Windows and Linux users who want a free, open-source desktop reader
- People syncing with FreshRSS, Miniflux, Tiny Tiny RSS or Nextcloud News
- Power users who want scripted filters and SQL-style saved searches
Worth knowing
Folo
- The Free plan allows 150 feed subscriptions and 3 AI summaries a day, with no AI translation.
- Integrations, private subscriptions and the secure image proxy start on Basic; AI model selection, bring your own key and AI tasks start on Plus.
- Paid plans offer a free trial, but the pricing page does not say how long it lasts.
- The download page offers Linux only as a direct AppImage download.
RSS Guard
- It is a desktop application: no web app and no iOS or Android app is listed.
- Official Windows builds are not digitally signed, so SmartScreen may warn on first launch, and macOS Gatekeeper may block the app.
- The docs say macOS packages are not well tested and support only the SQLite database backend.
- The project warns that the rssguard.com website is unrelated; official downloads are on the GitHub Releases page.
Key features
Folo
- Feeds, RSSHub routes and inboxes
- Subscribe to any RSS, Atom or JSON feed, or follow sites without a feed through RSSHub routes. OPML import and export are supported, and an inbox with its own email address receives newsletters.
- AI summaries and translation
- Summarizes an article on demand or automatically and shows a translation in English, Chinese, Japanese or French beside the original. Daily caps apply on the Free and Basic plans.
- Folo AI
- Ask questions about one article, a feed, a folder or everything you follow, and connect MCP services. Choosing the AI model and bringing your own API key start on the Plus plan.
- Timeline summary and AI tasks
- A timeline summary condenses new entries into one digest. Scheduled AI tasks write daily or weekly briefings and deliver them to chat or email; they are included from Plus.
- Layouts for each format
- Articles, social posts, pictures, videos and podcasts each get their own layout, a reader view fetches full article text, and text-to-speech reads articles aloud.
- Actions and integrations
- Rule-based Actions filter, star, rewrite, notify or summarize new entries. Articles can be sent to Obsidian, Readwise, Instapaper, Zotero and other tools on paid plans.
RSS Guard
- Local feeds or online services
- A multi-account app: standard feeds can be stored locally, or an account can sync two ways with Feedly, Gmail, Google Reader API services, Nextcloud News or Tiny Tiny RSS.
- Article filters
- Scripted filters can change incoming articles, mark them important, assign labels or reject them. The docs describe filters as a tool for advanced users that can slow feed updates.
- Labels and saved queries
- Any number of labels can be assigned to an article, and a Query keeps a search in the feed list, written as a regular expression or an SQL WHERE clause.
- Built-in media player
- Podcasts and other audio or video play inside the app through a libmpv-based player or a simpler QtMultimedia one, depending on the build.
- Full-article extraction
- A bundled article extractor powers the Fetch full articles feature, pulling the main readable content from a web page, and it can also be called from scripts.
- Skins, notifications and databases
- Skins restyle the interface and the article viewer, desktop notifications are configurable by event, and data is kept in SQLite by default or on a MariaDB server.
Plans
Folo
Free$0
150 feed subscriptions, 30 RSSHub subscriptions, 1 list, 1 inbox, 1 action, 3 AI summaries and 1 text-to-speech a day.
Basic$4.17
per month, billed yearly ($49.99); $4.99 billed monthly
1,000 feed subscriptions, 5 lists, 10 inboxes, 5 actions, 30 AI summaries and 300 AI translations a day, private subscriptions and integrations.
Plus$8.33
per month, billed yearly ($99.99); $9.99 billed monthly
2,500 feed subscriptions, unlimited AI summaries, translations and text-to-speech, curated AI models, bring your own key, AI tasks and 5M AI credits.
Pro$83.33
per month, billed yearly ($999.99); $99.99 billed monthly
25,000 feed subscriptions, 100 lists, 200 inboxes, 100 actions, all high-end AI models and 50M AI credits.
RSS Guard
Free$0
The complete application for Windows, Linux and macOS, with every service plugin and feature included.
Ways to pay less
Folo
- Annual discount
Save 17% with yearly billing
Folo's pricing page labels yearly billing as saving 17%: Basic is $49.99 a year against $4.99 a month, and Plus is $99.99 a year against $9.99 a month.
RSS Guard
No public discounts listed.
