Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

NewsBlur VS Userscripts

Compare NewsBlur VS Userscripts and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

NewsBlur logo NewsBlur

NewsBlur is a personal news reader that brings people together to talk about the world.

Userscripts logo Userscripts

An open-source userscript editor for Safari.
  • NewsBlur Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • Userscripts Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-10

NewsBlur features and specs

  • Personalized Reading
    NewsBlur allows you to train its system on what stories you like and dislike, providing you with a more personalized news reading experience.
  • Offline Access
    The mobile apps support offline reading, which is useful for users who want to catch up on news without an internet connection.
  • Story Sharing
    It offers social features, enabling users to share interesting stories and comment within their circle or the public.
  • Third-Party Integration
    NewsBlur supports integration with other apps and services via APIs, enhancing its functionality and convenience.
  • Open Source
    The platform is open-source, which can attract developers who want to contribute to its improvement or customize it for their own needs.

Possible disadvantages of NewsBlur

  • Subscription Cost
    While NewsBlur offers a free tier, its advanced features and better performance require a paid subscription, which may not be appealing to everyone.
  • Complex Interface
    The user interface can be overwhelming for new users due to its numerous features and customization options.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its rich set of features, there can be a steep learning curve for those unfamiliar with RSS readers or similar platforms.
  • Limited Free Account
    Free accounts are limited to a small number of feeds and some features are restricted, pushing users towards the paid tier for a fuller experience.
  • Occasional Performance Issues
    Users have reported occasional performance issues, especially with large numbers of feeds, affecting the overall experience.

Userscripts features and specs

  • Customization
    Userscripts allow for extensive customization of web experiences, as users can write scripts in JavaScript to modify the behavior and appearance of websites according to their needs.
  • Enhanced Productivity
    By automating repetitive tasks and adding useful shortcuts, userscripts can significantly enhance productivity for users who interact frequently with specific web applications.
  • Open Source Nature
    Being hosted on GitHub, Userscripts is open source, allowing developers to contribute, review the code for security purposes, and fork the project for personal use.
  • Community Support
    Userscripts have a strong community backing, with many scripts readily available through various online repositories, providing users with a wide array of pre-made scripts to choose from.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    Many userscripts are designed to be cross-browser compatible, functioning in browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and others that support userscript managers like Tampermonkey or Greasemonkey.

Possible disadvantages of Userscripts

  • Security Risks
    Userscripts can pose security risks, as malicious scripts could potentially capture sensitive user data or perform harmful actions on behalf of the user.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    As websites update their structures and functionalities, users may need to frequently maintain or update their scripts to ensure continued compatibility and performance.
  • Technical Barrier
    Creating and managing userscripts often requires a certain level of technical knowledge, particularly in JavaScript, which may not be accessible to non-technical users.
  • Browser Deprecation Concerns
    Future browser updates might deprecate some functionalities that userscripts rely on, potentially rendering some scripts useless unless updated.
  • Performance Impact
    Poorly written or overly complex scripts might lead to performance issues, slowing down browsers or websites as they perform additional processing on pages.

Analysis of NewsBlur

Overall verdict

  • Overall, NewsBlur is considered a good choice for users seeking a flexible and robust RSS reader. It provides a powerful set of features for avid news readers and those who wish to manage a high volume of information feeds efficiently.

Why this product is good

  • NewsBlur is a web-based RSS reader that allows users to follow updates from their favorite websites, blogs, and news sources in one place. It offers features such as real-time updates, a simple and intuitive interface, customizable views, and the ability to train the reader to show more of what you like and less of what you don't. The platform is praised for its speed and reliability, as well as its intelligent mode for filtering content based on user preferences.

Recommended for

    NewsBlur is recommended for tech-savvy users, journalists, bloggers, and information enthusiasts who appreciate having control over their content consumption. It's particularly beneficial to users who prefer a customizable and tailored reading experience and those who are comfortable with spending a little time setting up feeds and filters to suit their specific preferences.

NewsBlur videos

Newsblur - an online open-source RSS reader

More videos:

  • Review - Anleitung zum RSS-Feed-Reader Newsblur
  • Tutorial - Newsblur and RSS: A Quick Tutorial

Userscripts videos

5 Recommended Tampermonkey Userscripts in 2022

More videos:

  • Review - Creating TamperMonkey Userscripts | Augmented Browsing

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to NewsBlur and Userscripts)
RSS
100 100%
0% 0
Browser Extensions
0 0%
100% 100
RSS Reader
100 100%
0% 0
Dark Mode
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare NewsBlur and Userscripts

NewsBlur Reviews

19 Best Feedly Alternatives To Track Insights Across The Web
NewsBlur NewsBlur is a web-based RSS reader that provides a simple and fast way to keep up with your favorite websites. It offers features such as filtering, text-to-speech, and the ability to share stories on social media. Web, iOS, Android
17 Best RSS Feed Reader And News Aggregation Apps
NewsBlur also has intelligent content filters that you can use to scrutinize the content in your feed. These content discovery filters can actually learn the pattern of your searches and you can teach them too. This way you can see customized stories. Even if a source is publishing articles in bulk, it will show you only those of your interest.
The Best RSS Feed Readers for Streamlining the Internet
One thing that sets Newsblur apart is that it's open source. You can see the code on Github, and if you're comfortable with the command line you can even set up your own self-hosted version of Newsblur on your own server.
Source: www.wired.com
Hello, RSS
I looked at what RSS readers were popular by checking out my website analytics. Iโ€™ve always seen Feedly and Newsblur in there as referrers, but have also started to see Inoreader as well. Feedly has a robust offering, and it was a product I used a bit many years ago. It has a higher price point than some other services but in the end I just didnโ€™t like the design. It felt...
Top 6 Free Online RSS Readers
NewsBlur is another popular RSS reader that aims to bring your articles from your favorite sites while maintaining the style of the original site. Easily organize your stories with categories and tags, hide stories you don't like and highlight stories you do like. You can also take a look at some of the third-party apps NewsBlur can be integrated with for even more versatility.

Userscripts Reviews

We have no reviews of Userscripts yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, NewsBlur should be more popular than Userscripts. It has been mentiond 22 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

NewsBlur mentions (22)

  • I Stopped Reading Newsletters. Here's What I Use Instead.
    RSS didn't die, though. Feedly picked up 8 million new users in the weeks after Reader shut down. Inoreader, Miniflux, FreshRSS, NewsBlur, and dozens of others filled the gap. Feedly alone now has over 15 million registered users. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Apple courier may have stolen 2 MacBooks, () Apple is not going to help
    As someone who has been on and off the Degoogle train (I ran full LineageOS without Google Play at one point) and is now pretty deep in iOS territory, I'd say the main thing for me has been email. I've used https://www.fastmail.com for a great deal of years now, which is also home to my calendar as well so there's nothing much of value tied to my Google account. YouTube subscriptions would be annoying to lose but... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • After more than 20 years, I published my first dirty project
    I also use it for its Popular Bookmarks - I subscribed to its RSS feed in NewsBlur and always have something interesting to read when my other feeds are Empty (they rarely are). - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Killed by Google
    There's a bunch of replacements. I like https://newsblur.com but there are 4-6 large-ish similar sites. That said, partially what people miss is the relative cultural hegemony of Google Reader. It was RSS front-and-center, prominently featured on websites, supported by the biggest company in tech, with all the users there and able to take advantage of the (sparse) social features. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit
    Https://newsblur.com/ I think this might be pretty close to what you're looking for. It's an RSS feed reader with a platform for discussions. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
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Userscripts mentions (14)

  • Jeffgeerling.com has been Migrated to Hugo
    The looking icon is the Userscripts extensions. https://github.com/quoid/userscripts. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Show HN: My first programming project โ€“ userscripts to change forum UIs
    Hi, I'm Will. I'm 24, autistic, and have OCD tendencies. I'm learning to code and this is my first public project. Iโ€™d really appreciate your feedback and encouragement! This project lets me solve some of my OCD problems online. There are a couple of parts of the forums that I visit โ€“ Space Battles, Sufficient Velocity, and Questionable Questing โ€“ that I want to remove. Specifically, I hate seeing indicators of... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Show HN: HNRelevant โ€“ Explore Related Discussions on HN in an Integrated Sidebar
    You can use userscripts [1] which is a safari extension which allows you to add userscripts, and the author of this work have an userscript [2] that you can use with safari (or any other browser) [1] https://github.com/quoid/userscripts. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Apple and Safari playing catch-up?
    That Safari also supports UserScripts and Extensions also somewhat mutes some of Arc's benefits, so it will be interesting to see how/if Arc responds. Source: about 3 years ago
  • HN: Thank you for being fast, ad-free and text only
    }` In Safari, using Userscripts extension: https://github.com/quoid/userscripts#userscripts-safari. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing NewsBlur and Userscripts, you can also consider the following products

Feedly - The content you need to accelerate your research, marketing, and sales.

Violentmonkey - Violentmonkey is a userscript manager to support running userscripts in web pages.

Inoreader - Dive into your favorite content. The content reader for power users who want to save time.

Greasemonkey - Customize the way a web page displays or behaves, by using small bits of JavaScript.

Tiny Tiny RSS - Web-based news feed aggregator, designed to allow you to read news from any location, while feeling...

Tampermonkey - Greasemonkey compatible script manager.